SHALL WE EVER KNOW PEACE AGAIN?
Howard, Harry Paxton
Shall We Ever Know Peace Again? By HARRY PAXTON HOWARD EDITOR'S NOTE: Mr. Hoivard's article is especially timely in view of the current demand for a "long armistice" which would enable the...
...Both Wallace and Nelson, en route to China, stopped off in the Soviet Union—¦ presumably to coordinate their activity with Moscow's...
...Typical of the current demand was a column by Samuel Grafton last week calling for a plan under which the "war would continue in the form of an armistice" long after hostilities have ended...
...The Chinese Government headed by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek has been fighting the Japanese for more than seven years...
...But it established the peace terms, and ended military hostilities against the Government of Italy...
...In June, the Administration formally severed American diplomatic relations with Finland...
...Congress, in response to the President's message, declared war on Italy in December 1941...
...It is the most perilous situation that has faced these United States since their establishment 155 years ago...
...By 1940, it was clear that the Communists were using the situation to establish their own power in ever wider areas of northern and eastern China, and the Chiang Kai-shek regime decided to check their further expansion...
...If, for instance, Moscow asserts—this month, or next month, or next year—that the Turks were "acting as -nemies," or the seven-million Swedes were launching a "war of aggression" against the "peace-loving" Soviet Union, Moscow will act, and her partners have only the choice of active assistance to their ally, or remaining neutral while Moscow "resists aggression" by its own forces...
...We shall be in a state of perpetual war— of enduring war, officially described as "enduring peace," with our foreign policies decided by the President in secret collusion with foreign Powers—Powers whose American agents actively and aggressively participate in American political activities on behalf of their foreign principals...
...As a result of Stalin's continued pressure during the past year, however, we are now giving active military assistance and support to Stalin's man Tito, whose Communist-led, Moscow-advised, American-supplied forces are now invading Serbia and attacking Mikhail-ovitch's forces, while Stalin's "official" Red Army with American supplies is invading Serbia and attacking Mikhailovitch from the rear...
...But the conference at Dumbarton Oaks is preparing a plan for the permanent maintenance of the new and secret status quo...
...Under our constitutional system, we have had a certain safeguard in the requirement that Congress declare war, and the Senate give its "advice and consent" in the conclusion of treaties...
...If, therefore, the Soviet Government denounces Sweden as an aggressor, and the American President desires to collaborate actively against this "aggressor," it is constitutionally necessary to ask Congress for a declaration of war...
...Officially, we are still at war with Italy...
...The United States Government never formally declared war upon Finland...
...It was as allies of Poland that the British and French declared war on Germany five years ago, when Stalin was virtually Hitler's partner...
...Mikhailovitch, who started fighting the German invaders in the Spring of 1941—as an "ally" of Britain, and with warm British encouragement and some support...
...But the United States supplied the Soviet Government with warplanes, trucks, fuel, and enormous quantities of other military equipment, finally giving Moscow a crushing predominance over the little Baltic Republic...
...A formal alliance already exists between the British and Soviet Governments...
...So long as we are "officially" at war, the President and Commander-in-Chief is in a position of extraordinary power...
...But Congress has never declared for military hostilities against the Polish Government and its courageous underground...
...The Chinese Government has made public a scholarly document on proposed international organization, which among other things precisely defines "aggression...
...There is no doubt that Britain's Moscow allies are fully in agreement with London on this particular point...
...The secret conferences at Dumbarton Oaks are officially declared to be for the purpose of forming a "world organization" for "security...
...But the Soviet Union has remained neutral with Ja...
...The Polish republican underground, coming to greet the "liberators," are disarmed and "interned"—-i.e., imprisoned—on Polish territory...
...The President will make—as he has already been making—his own private peace agreements and his own undeclared wars...
...From what has been officially given out of the conferences, it appears that the delegates are quite agreed that the organization should be dominated wholly by their powerful governments...
...Many of the American forces in Europe will be kept there at least for months...
...The Chief Executive at Washington, by including these secret agreements under the term "armistice," has successfully by-passed the Senate, which under the Constitution of the United States must give its "advice and consent" to foreign treaties...
...It may never have the chance...
...We do not yet know the terms of the secret agreement with Italy —concluded a year ago...
...It was called an "armistice...
...But China is not represented at the Dumbarton Oaks conference, and the three Powers conferring there have no desire whatever to define aggression...
...And if any member of the "Unholy Alliance" accuses them of "aggression," and sends forces against them, they are isolated and helpless...
...American colony or group of colonies...
...pan—in fact, supplied the Japanese with fuel oil, fish, and other vital necessities while the Chinese were fighting them...
...The Polish Government is called upon by Stalin and his Polish agents for what is in effect unconditional surrender, and we are giving active and effective support to Stalin's forces...
...From 1927 to 1936 it had been fighting the Chinese Communist forces, but the Chiang-Mao pact of December 1936 prepared the way for a temporary alliance against Japan...
...But he can, thanks to the declaration of war, resume hostilities against that government at any time he sees fit, without asking Congress for any new declaration...
...War In The Name Of Peace The recent announcements from the War and Navy Departments show the long, long war that is envisaged...
...Dewey was quite correct in saying that four-power domination of the world would involve "the rankest form of imperialism" to coerce the smaller nations...
...They may change their objectives, new secret agreements will be made, new "allies" and "enemies" will be found...
...At present, Stalin is by-passing the Polish Government and setting up his own Polish agents and stooges, turning administration over to them in areas conquered by the Red Army...
...The Polish Government was the first unitedly to resist Hitler's armed aggression...
...The Chinese, the Austrians, the Ethiopians, the Spaniards, the Czechs and Slovaks, the Poles, the Finns, the Danes, the Norwegians, the Dutch, the Estonians, the Belgians...
...William Bullitt's recent significant article in Life, pointing to the rapid development of armed conflict in Europe between the Western Powers and Stalin's forces, is by no means overdrawn...
...It is possible that before the war is over, our forces will be fighting Moscow's...
...When Stalin's official press suggested that the "International Organ of Safety" should be under the joint control of Great Powers "which possess real strength for it . . . the Great Powers should sign agreements among themselves to prevent counter-aggression . . . ," Washington noted in this "a suggestion that the United States should join the Anglo-Soviet 20-year mutual assistance agreement...
...Huey Long once said that the United States is likely to go Fascist in the guise of a war against Fascism...
...To date, the Senate has neither been asked for its ad-vicep nor given its consent, to the agreements which established peace with Italy and concluded an effective alliance with the Italian Government...
...No dictator in the world has greater power than this...
...The three Powers there represented—the American, British, and Soviet Governments—appear to be agreed on the "principle" of an international body to "resist aggression...
...Our peace treaties are being made not with the "advice and consent" of the Senate, but secretly with the "advice and consent" of Messrs...
...Conscription is to continue, whether American soldiers on foreign shores are described as "making war," "helping our friends," or "enforcing peace...
...If there is any organization to stop and prevent aggression, these weak, peace-loving peoples must be the leading element in such an organization...
...The expression, however, of the aim of an association of "absolutely sovereign" states, means that the proposed organization will be an alliance...
...Congress declared war upon Italy, but the President and his foreign allies have since concluded an "undeclared peace" and evidently an alliance with the Italian Government...
...What it will mean to us is the permanent militarization of the United States, and the permanent exclusion of the American people and of all its elected representatives excepting the President of any voice or influence in our foreign affairs...
...Our Undeclared Wars Technically, the President cannot make war against any people without a formal declaration by Congress...
...But suppose the present state of war is continued, and the President and Commander-in-Chief retains his present war power to aid actively his friends against those whom they denounce as their enemies...
...An "aggressor," in the Three-Power Alliance (alias "world organization") will be anyone whom Stalin or his partners denounce as an aggressor...
...The Chinese Communists, in international affairs, follow the directives of Moscow...
...We are already seeing the ominous formula of establishing a state of permanent war under the guise of "outlawing" war and establishing "permanent peace...
...What Is An Aggressor...
...Congress may never have to declare war again...
...The Kuomin-tang Government had not been fighting the Japanese in order to enable the Communists to seize power in China...
...If we get off on the wrong foot of cynical power politics," he declared, "we will have lost the war before we have won it...
...The same is true of our relations with the Yugoslav forces under Gen...
...Against whom, then, are they going to "resist aggression...
...It is most important that we realize that the establishment of a solid Power-alliance to continue permanent, even after the defeat and disarming of Germany and Japan, can be directed ONLY against smaller nations, which are excluded from any voice or appeal...
...Our military activities are determined not by war declarations by Congress at the instance of the President, but by secret orders from the President and Commander-in-Chief at the instance of foreign Powers...
...Some of them will be transferred to the Far East, for further service there...
...Dewey—to remain in supreme command of foreign relations, ignore Congress, and retain, wartime controls into the period of "undeclared peace...
...It is the smaller and weaker nations which have greatest need of preventing aggression...
...American forces and American supplies have actively aided certain Powers against other nations against which Congress has never declared war...
...There is no open and formal alliance between the American and any other Government...
...The American Government has repeatedly declared that victory over Germany and Japan would mean the demilitarization of these Powers...
...The 'Dumbarton Hoax' President Roosevelt has in the course of this year sent two distinguished personal envoys to China, Vice President Henry Wallace and WPB Chairman Donald Nelson, to urge the Chinese Government to have a demilitarized border and most friendly relations with the Soviet Union, and to renew and strengthen the previous agreement with the Chinese Communists—in fact, to form a "coalition government," admitting the Communists to the Kuomintang Government itself...
...He has actually concluded agreements resulting in peace and even alliance with an "enemy" government...
...So, also, are the terms of what is in effect an alliance...
...Stalin and Churchill...
...This will leave only three Great Powers in existence, presumably with1 some agreement for the joint or divided domination of Europe, and another agreement (with China's signature) for the domination of Asia...
...The British Government, somewhat franker than the others, has in fact declared that it does not wish to define aggression precisely, or to guarantee fully anyone's "territorial integrity...
...If the pattern of Italy and eastern Europe is continued in Germany and elsewhere, and the "long cooling-off period" is put over, we will remain officially on a war basis, and Congress need never again be called upon for a declaration of war...
...We may remember that in 1917 also we started out to fight Germany, and wound up fighting Moscow...
...And Franklin D. Roosevelt was a high official in the Administration then...
...Whatever the purpose of this—and there is no doubt that the purposes were Stalin's—it must be emphasized that Congress was not asked or consulted about the matter, in any way...
...Roosevelt or Mr...
...The American Government's relations with the Italian Government, with the Soviet Government, and with other Governments are now "war secrets...
...But the set-up of the proposed "new order" excludes them completely from effective power...
...Some of the smaller nations may be admitted to a larger council, but without any real power to veto decisions made by the Powers...
...As we have seen during the past year, the President is able to act on his own in foreign affairs...
...The terms of what was in effect a treaty of peace are still secret...
...We are asked to give a new blank check to the Chief Executive for secret activities in collusion with his foreign allies...
...That Government, in fact, has not merely become "neutral," but in effect an ally, with its forces actively cooperating against the German forces with which we are still at war...
...If the Roosevelt "diplomacy" succeeds, the Chinese reward for seven years of war in which upwards of 20 million persons have perished (mostly in famine) is to be turned over to the tender mercies of Stalin and his Chinese Communists—the forces which Chiang Kaishek fought for nine years, and for the past four years has had determinedly to resist...
...Hoivard's article is especially timely in view of the current demand for a "long armistice" which would enable the President—whether Mr...
...It was not called a "treaty...
...From present indications, this peace will mean the reduction of Europe to the position of a Russo-Anglo...
...But we are asked not to wait...
...But the techniques of "undeclared war" enable him to evade this...
...ONE YEAR AGO the American Government, together with the British and Soviet Governments, signed a document formally establishing peace with the Italian Government...
Vol. 8 • September 1944 • No. 38
