A TIME FOR FRANKNESS

...Was it fair to attach a condition to doing the right thing by our gallant Muscovite ally...

...Don't disturb the Bear," we are told, "lest worse happen...

...Besides which the Russians are petitioners for our financial aid, both for relief and for her industrial reconstruction...

...There has been no hostility whatever on the part of England and the United States...

...You let him annex the Baltic States, take a big slice of Poland, establish a military base only eight miles from the Finnish capital and he is in nowise satisfied...

...Hull were certain that their ace card was the Pacific fleet—the show of might...

...Roosevelt and Mr...

...He plays his favorites in Bulgaria and Rumania so that they are really vassal states...

...1, and a similar note has been sent forward by the British with the exception that it does not set any fixed date...

...We can perfectly well, make the right terms for these donations...

...So it is today with Stalin...

...Let us try another tactic and begin by inviting Russia again to sit in with us as she wishes to db in the solution of our- Japanese and other Asiatic problems and telling her exactly what we have in mind, how far we are going to go, and that we are not taking the bases in the Pacific we are now so foolishly holding in order to be prepared against her...

...They were not concentrated on finding some other way out than force...

...In addition, we must be willing to take the Russians into our councils as to our policies in Asia, telling them exactly what we mean to do and what our final objectives are...

...When the Iranian Government attempted to send troops to quell the uprising, Red Army forces halted near Tabriz, the Iranian constabulary which is under the general direction of an American officer, Col...

...FINALLY, I repeat, that the most dangerous policy now is to refuse to be absolutely candid, thoroughly outspoken and frank, with a readiness to put every card in the pack upon the table, exactly as we have done in the case of Iran, and then to rouse public opinion in the world behind a democratic, anti-imperialist program...

...Here, then, is a very grave situation due simply and solely to the fact that Russia is not living up to clear-cut, straightforward pledges solemnly given both in writing and verbally...

...President Cleveland and others proved that we can and should prove it anew —just when we are so happily demobilizing our Army and Navy millions...

...Moscow's hostile action is the less comprehensible because Iran was eager to cooperate with the United Nations and cheerfully opened up its country to the occupying forces, turned over its railroad to the Americans in the South and the Russians in the North, and became so vital a line of supply for Russia that Moscow ought to be willing to do any favor that Persia might ask...

...After all, it is said, "Uncle Joe" is only seeking security for his frontiers, and that safety he has earned by his dreadful losses and his truly magnificent achievements in World War II...

...I think there is another way...

...What is at stake is the freedom and independence of a neutral country...

...The Pearl Harbor inquiry has already got on far enough to show that Mr...

...No clearer illustration of why it is that Russia is being looked upon with suspicion and doubt could be cited...

...24 demanded of the Russians that they join with England and the United States in evacuating Iran by Jan...

...Byrnes also protested against this Russian interference—with the Anglo-Soviet-Persian treaty of 1942, or the Teheran Declaration of 1943, which said that "the Governments of the United States, the U.S.S.R., and the United Kingdom are at one with the Government of Iran in their desire for the maintenance of the independent sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Iran...

...No more important test of the good faith of Stalin could possibly be devised...

...So the question presents itself: Is there no other course open to us...

...Nor is the insecurity mentioned in which the British, French, Dutch, Belgians, Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, Iranians and numerous others will live hereafter on the borders of the new, all-powerful Russia...

...We must stop avoiding the issues and we must stop keeping quiet on everything, for that not only renders the Russians suspicious, but gives the impression of American weakness and a lack of straightforwardness on the part of the chief Allies...

...If countries are not left alone to their constitutions the world is being-swept toward a third World War...

...The Russians know perfectly well that we are not in accord with them on a number of points...

...If this is asking a good deal of our program-l?ss Administration in Washington it is exactly what the situation calls for, and would be even if the Russians were not involved...

...It calls, however, for complete frankness and candor and fairplay on our side, and for the ending-of the appeasement business...

...He has given his solemn word to Iran to restore her independence, and then foments a revolution in Azerbaijan...

...And bad as an impasse would be, it is infinitely better than By OSWALD GARRISON VILLARD submitting to the infliction of a great wrong and having it lead to similar infractions of human liberty and the right of self-government in other quarters of the globe...

...We see wrong going on in a number of nations, and yet we are told we must keep our mouths shut, however that may do violence to our historic traditions in accord with which we have never failed to denounce injustice wherever it 'exists, to give aid and comfort to the oppressed and injured, the suffering and the starving...

...Must we keep silent lest Russia attack us...

...They were convinced, as Mr...

...A council of Azerbaijans living in Teheran asserts that the "peasants and herdsmen" to whom the revolt is attributed by Moscow, are really foreign immigrants, "foreign adventurers," who are making their headquarters at Tabriz, and that is the position taken by the Teheran Government, and apparently by our own American representatives there...

...The net result is that we Americans find ourselves in the worst of ethical entanglements...

...He occupies by our permission the vital half of Korea, treats it and robs it like an enemy country, separates it from the American forces, refuses to treat or cooperate with them, and settles down as if permanently...

...This is sharp and straightforward action of exactly the right kind...

...They are bound to distrust us unless we state our case in forceful language and submit clear-cut proposals as to what we are ready to do...

...These Persian events have already created grave reactions in Turkey where a leading Istanbul newspaper correctly declares that "after a barrel of powder has been set afire nobody knows where the disaster will stop...

...The dispatches to our press make it perfectly clear that both the American officials in Iran and the Iranians believe that the revolt has been directly instigated by the Russians—in accordance with the well-known fascist policy of fomenting unrest and then using that as an excuse for a separatist movement or annexation or invasion...

...He swore that if you would only let him have Czechoslovakia he would never trouble anybody again—and then at once laid his plans to destroy Poland...

...And certainly no sane American wants any more international bloodshed...

...All of which is almost equivalent to saying to him: "Go ahead...

...TO take a concrete example, there is Iran where a revolt has broken out in the province of Azerbaijan in the territory occupied by Russia...

...An international impasse we may well arrive at, but not a war unless England and the United States wish to fight again...

...Yet we are told that we must not eriticize him under any circumstances, but must appease, because any other course will lead us to war and that is unthinkable...

...But we must have "peace in our time," and that is fortunately the be-all and end-all of every diplomatic move at present...

...Even before that Anthony Eden declared in the House of Commons that it was impossible to reconcile the Russian action in preventing the Iran Government from reestablishing order—Mr...

...Norman Schwarzkopf, formerly in charge of the New Jersey State Police...

...THE trouble is that, as our recent experiences which led to our participation in World War II show, the statesmen always have war in the back of their minds...

...PLAINLY Stalin's appetite grows with eating...

...Britain and America have a great responsibility toward the situation...

...Hull testified, that the wicked Japanese mind could only be impressed by the number of battleships and destroyers...

...Secretary Byrnes in his note of Nov...

...Help yourself...

...A Time For Frankness WHEN it comes to appeasement, the outstanding fact is that it takes one to appease and another to be appeased, and that after you have appeased you have no guarantee whatever that the other fellow will stay put...

...Then he demands territory from Turkey, the Dodocanese Islands, an Italian colony, and insists upon a voice in all Mediterranean affairs, including the restoration of international government at Tangier opposite Gibraltar at the exit from the Mediterranean...

...Unfortunately, however, nothing is said about the price the Poles, Baits, Finns, Turks, Bulgars, Rumanians, Czechs, and Germans will pay, or are paying, for this Russian "security...

...Even when Prime Minister Attlee offered the atomic bomb to Russia upon the condition that Stalin take the rest of the United Nations into his confidence, there were some protests...

...We won't bother you...

...We must point out to Russia that if it does not keep its word with Iran its good faith will be doubted at every one of the many points of contract, and that the public opinion of the world will have to be roused against Moscow, as against any violator of solemn pledges...

...As a result, the Shah has sent to Moscow a delegation of officials to talk over the situation which Tass, the official Soviet news agency, declares to be a demand "for genuine self-administration for the population of Northern Iran...

...That was well demonstrated by Hitler...

...This should be done fearlessly because it is distinctly a case where, as Wendell Phillips once said of his attitude to American slavery, when he was told that he and his associates were endangering the peace of the United States, that he could only "entrench myself upon the principle of human liberty and leave the working out of the details to Almighty God...

...BOTH the United States and England have now taken a vigorous and proper stand...

...The United States has always had tremendous moral influence even from the beginning of its existence, in all the years when it had no fleet and no army beyond a corporal's guard of 25,000 men...

...In this case Moscow attributes the outbreak to "reactionary landowners," who oppose meetings and elections sponsored by "democratic elements" in the province...