THE EDITOR RESERVES THE LAST COLUMN
The Editor Reserves . . . The Last Column PRESIDENT TRUMAN'S radio defense of the Potsdam Pact—the Big 3 agreement which traded off territories and peoples in wanton disregard of our pious...
...But "for this success, the President paid something...
...Mowrer, who isn't much concerned about the partition of Germany as a factor in promoting future conflict, feels that Mr...
...We mention this because so much of the master-minding on the radio and in the press these days is tossed off by pill peddlers with phony accents whose background for interpreting world affairs for a free people is just about nil...
...We must openly approve and blindly obey, out of the dilemma: Go on to disasters by the present route, or risk other disasters by opposition or withdrawal...
...We lead the world in unleashing frightful new forces of destruction...
...Truman got his way on Germany...
...DOROTHY THOMPSON'S attack on the Potsdam Pact is more direct and forthright than Mowrer's, but she, too, is shocked by our glorification of secret diplomacy, our yielding to the imperial^ demands of our Allies, and our present practice of refusing to call things by their right names...
...Without public debate, or discussion, as the result of secret meetings to whose deliberation the American press and public have been completely barred, without even an attempt to justify its decision in reason...
...We are told that we stand on the threshhold of solving the riddle of the cosmos...
...And indeed we shall...
...with the exclusion of the nations most concerned— those of Europe—we have been committed to a policy which we shall now have to enforce...
...It was probably the best we could get," croaked the ex-crusaders for the Four-Freedoms, their consciences drowsing and their critical faculties still in hock for the duration plus 6 months...
...One of these days, nobody may know the difference...
...Commentators and columnists generally fell in with President Truman's mood...
...He fell in with the practice of secret diplomacy...
...Mowrer's basic theme is that Mr...
...A few London leaks did develop between Teheran and Yalta, and President Roosevelt "came to realize that the little that did leak concerning the British and Soviet areas was making many Americans feel sick...
...The Editor Reserves . . . The Last Column PRESIDENT TRUMAN'S radio defense of the Potsdam Pact—the Big 3 agreement which traded off territories and peoples in wanton disregard of our pious pledges—was unconvincing and lamely apologetic...
...This "sit tight, everything's all right" attitude was by no means unanimous...
...Truman's frequent references to the Yalta agreements, made by his predecessor, the late President Roosevelt, showed how completely he regards himself a prisoner of the past and how unwilling or unable he is to break away from the secret commitments he inherited when he took office 4 months ago...
...Roosevelt's interventionist,foreign policies...
...And then Miss Thompson goes on to hammer home a point which ought to be pondered by every American who likes to think of himself as a liberal or progressive: "Our public life has become so subject to political coup d'etats, supported by post-propaganda, that we are becoming afraid to utter an honest word...
...MOWRER'S criticism of the Potsdam decisions was captioned, ironically, "In Defense of President Truman...
...But what will it gain us if, in the process, we lose our own souls ? M.H.R...
...There were 2 or 3 conspicuous exceptions, among them Edgar Answel Mowrer and Dorothy Thompson, both trained foreign correspondents with many years of experience in Europe...
...Iron-clad secrecy was invoked by the Big 3 to conceal their violations of the Atlantic Charter, Mowrer tells us now...
...So the President issued a rebuke to the British...
...Mowrer gives us this astounding reason: "Had the Soviet demands been made known to the American people, they might indeed have wrecked the conference...
...Truman was stuck with the worst features of Roosevelt diplomacy, and thus must not be blamed for the bad results at Potsdam...
...Conversely, Mowrer explains, "the Soviets concentrated on obtaining his approval for their own very concrete notions of how to make the world safe for the Soviet Union...
...It is time to stop calling deals justice, suppressions reform, grabs of power atonement, dictatorship democracy...
...And why...
...Thus, though many think the Potsdam communique appalling, the attitude is: 'The best deal we could make.' Then why present it as the Sermon on the Mount...
...Then we shall be sunk...
...The syndicated columnist makes a point which has long been emphasized in The Progressive—that "President Roosevelt drove no bargain with any of our Allies at the time our help was a matter of life and death to them...
...The whole sordid story of secret diplomacy, under which "the Americans got the international organization and the Soviets the concrete advantages they wanted," turns up in the column of this correspondent who is a fervent internationalist and was long a frontline defender of Mr...
Vol. 9 • August 1945 • No. 34
