AS EUROPE SEES US
Durnad, Lionel
As Europe Sees Us By LIONEL DURAND Pan's WHEN I first wrote a survey of European opinion for The Progressive a year ago, the prevailing mood on this side of the Atlantic seemed to be puzzlement...
...In an article published in Brussels, Spaak writes: "An American army in Europe, ready to play its part in the first emergency, would be a political and military revolution...
...With the shadow of threatening events clouding the skies of the continent, the man in the street in Paris, London, and Rome has been thinking that not only do the Americans make big mistakes, but they get more and more stubborn about continuing mistaken policies...
...The second way would be to explain that American policy is not based on the premise that a Russo-American war is inevitable but that, on the contrary, on the assumption that it is still possible to maintain peace...
...Durand was that paper's correspondent in Washington and New York for several years...
...When the UN forces had reached the 38th Parallel, there had been widespread feeling in Europe LIONEL DURAND, foreign editor of Paris Presse, roams Europe constantly for the second largest daily in the French capital...
...That would mean that Russia agrees to losing the war without fighting a battle...
...Indeed, when the American people give themselves time to reflect, they can hardly help seeing that the arguments both of interest and of honor are compelling...
...Let all Englishmen therefore resolve," writes Nicholson, "during the year 1951, never to utter, or even to harbor, the thought, 'The Americans have let us in...
...However, the time for a mutual admiration society between Europe and America appears to be far remote because no good can ever come out of a blind refusal to air all possible subjects of misunderstanding...
...Nicholson tells of a "Visitor" who asked him to refrain, whatever the temptation, from ever doubting the sagacity, unselfishness, foresight, moderation or affection of the American people in Congress assembled...
...And Albert Mousset, editorialist for the French middle-of-the-road Ce Matin, comments: "The Americans accuse us of being much too cautious just when the Russians are saying that we are taking part in an aggressive adventure against them...
...The signs of dissatisfaction and anxiety which Americans rightly detect, both in Britain and on the Continent, do not spring from deep anti-American prejudice...
...there is no reason to believe that the American people do not intend to stand by their pledged word...
...The situation began to deteriorate with the MacArthur "bring-the-boys-home-for-Christmas" offensive in Korea...
...that negotiation was the clear course to follow...
...On the score of interest, it is obvious that they must try to avoid being left alone in the world with a tyrant who dominates Europe, Asia, and Africa...
...The situation for France is entirely different and the risk would mean occupation now and devastating liberation later...
...One way is suggested by the Belgian political leader and former President of the UN Assembly, Paul-Henri Spaak...
...For the London Observer, "war with China must be avoided even at the cost of a temporary humiliation, for it is in Europe that lies the last frontier of Western security...
...The task is to face these facts...
...Let all Americans abjure the words, 'The British have let us down...
...Robert Taft...
...It appeared for a while to the European newspaper reader that confusion and hysterical war-mon-gering had taken over in Washington...
...Some vital questions, it is fell here, have been left unanswered by Washington, one of them, as the Swiss Tribune de Geneve puts it, being whether Western Europe will be another Korea...
...policy as subversive or treacherous...
...But this view was brushed aside in MacArthur's ill-fated rush northward—to disaster...
...The obligations of honor seem, for the moment, to have been forgotten...
...it is curious that, in the 51 extracts from newspaper editorials on Mr...
...Reports that the American people do not feel they can count on Europe have caused great distress among the French and British...
...This is our time for plain speech...
...One would be to explain courageously the principles on which the American action in Korea has been based and the numerous causes of military misfortune...
...The Gazetta Del Popolo, published in Torino, recently emphasized the feeling of despondency now prevailing throughout Western Europe where political leaders dare not ask the people to take great chances with rearmament and de-fense programs because they are not sure of American backing in critical moments...
...Honesty and our national security require it...
...Unfortunately, however, several non-Communist newspapers in Europe have been saying almost the same thing, expressing a concern which Pravda does not genuinely share...
...An absolute priority must be granted Europe over all other military commitments...
...Also in the lovers' quarrel vein, Harold Nicholson, in his "Marginal Comment" for the London Spectator, set forth a list of New Year resolutions for both the British and the Americans...
...The time for plain speech" is now, The New Statesman and Nation thinks...
...Andre Fontaine, writing in the French conservative and neutralist Le Monde, puts it this way: "The turnabout in Korea, whatever its consequences, apparently demonstrates the failure of what Americans call the 'calculated risk' policy...
...They are the sentiments of sincere and sensible people who fear that their fate is being decided over their heads...
...The Economist notes that the reason why this particular expression by Hoover of familiar views has roused so much comment is that it corresponds to thoughts that are passing through minds that are wholly innocent of any form of isolationism...
...How can thev take heart...
...Today, it is quite obvious that the temper of Europe has grown more hostile, and if I interpret the dispatches from America correctly, it can be said that Europe and the United States are mad at each other...
...Shortly after the Chinese intervention in Korea, I took part in a forum discussion over the French broadcasting network, in which four of my colleagues, none of them Communist or even ultra-leftist, vehemently denounced MacArthur...
...Truman," the Swiss daily writes, "could answer that question in two different manners...
...Military mistakes have been made, action has been taken that has restricted the scope of diplomatic endeavor, and many Europeans are wondering what America is up to...
...The United States can afford the risk, with oceans protecting American shores from invasion...
...Now that the steam is off, we can be friends again: this would about sum up the present feeling...
...Nor if war should come, would their conscience be clear...
...The insistence with which America has been pressing France to accept German rearmament despite the obvious fear not of German action but of Russian reaction against France, is given as one more example of the misunderstanding between Washington and Europe...
...Some U.S...
...II Now that the military situation in Korea has deteriorated to a point where the worst can be feared, what are the conclusions drawn by European observers...
...The extremists in the U. S., who have managed to secure a growing grip on American policy, do not mince their words...
...commentators now measure foreign countries and politicians in terms of their 'loyalty,' not to democratic principles, the United Nations, or even collective security, but to the United States...
...The cool-headed London Economist calls for a thoughtful appraisal of the situation without undue emphasis on "the Hoovers on the other side of the Atlantic with their policy of desertion, or those on this side who miss no opportunity of derision...
...This country, to say nothing of Europe, would be a house divided against itself if it should enter a devastating conflict with the uneasy thought that peace had been allowed to go by default...
...There is genuine astonishment and annoyance in this American reaction, which attributes criticism to a variety of motives, from base ingratitude to secret sympathy with Communism...
...They do not believe that war is either actual or inevitable...
...It was, of course, to be expected that Pravda would write that "America has atomic mania and there is no chance that Truman will listen to any wise advice...
...III No wonder that newspapers on this side have been interpreting with sinister comment the implications of speeches delivered by former President Herbert Hoover, former Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, and Sen...
...The obstinate refusal by Washington to let the representatives of the real China enter UN, the taking over of Formosa, the presence of GI's at the Manchurian border, had created a psychosis of encirclement which could not be alleviated by the added threat of bombing attacks on Chinese territory...
...This, in brief, is what many Europeans are thinking as America engages in her "Great Debate...
...Jean Fabi-ani, writing in moderate Combat, has this to say: "It would be foolish to suppose tliat Soviet Russia will allow the creation of a powerful German force on the Elbe...
...It was the New York Times diplomatic correspondent, James Reston, who bluntly wrote that the question raised was: "Are we trying to prevent a war with Russia or planning to survive one...
...It would in any case be the most likely thing to deter aggression and give some courage to the people of Europe, so they may do what they can and must do for their own defense...
...To the West we seem lukewarm and to the East we appear as warmongers...
...As Europe Sees Us By LIONEL DURAND Pan's WHEN I first wrote a survey of European opinion for The Progressive a year ago, the prevailing mood on this side of the Atlantic seemed to be puzzlement over the uncertain course of American policy in world affairs...
...One cannot ignore Moscow's possible military reaction...
...And Le Monde recently printed a series of articles on the United States called "Let's be fair, even to the Americans...
...The influential British weekly writes: "The resurgence of isolationism in the United States, touched off by Hoover's speech, has to be taken seriously but not tragically...
...Such a presence in peacetime would alone have prevented the war in 1914 and 1939...
...Hoover's speech printed in the New York Times, there is only one mention of the North Atlantic Treaty and none at all of the Charter of United Nations, although the Hoover policy clearly implies the dishonoring of both these duly ratified American signatures...
...A feeling which can be safely attributed to the majority of European opinion is that America must take the lead in restoring confidence in Europe...
...People here believe they are helpless even to delay an invasion...
...As it is often characteristic of European trends, where a crisis usually carries the seeds of its own solution, severe criticism of America has produced in its wake a sincere desire for better understanding...
...But this can only be momentary forgetful-ness...
...Many here realize that the United States is not yet completely convinced that this would be a wise investment...
...Mr...
...Many Americans have never fully understood these principles and the Truman Administra-tion seems to minimize the meaning of the military failures...
...In 1951, it can still be a decisive factor in the maintenance of peace...
...The British weekly expressed a feeling shared by most Europeans: "The immediate result of a lack of frankness between Allies is to leave in the lurch millions of Americans who share our doubts about American world policy and to foster the growing American habit of regarding foreign criticism of U.S...
Vol. 15 • February 1951 • No. 2
