Evening star., 1939-09-13

VStViy 1Oi uuIAISt ulSIo NV
Military Menace to
United Stutes
To the Editor Of The Star:
Mr.. Frederic William Wile's column Of
September is typical Of one Of the ar
guments now being marshaled by collec-
tive internationalists, publicists, agita-
tors and editors of one kind or another
to make more plausible another holy
crusade into either Europe or Asia.
Mr.. Vile contends in his column of
September 8 that it is wishful thinking
on Senator Vandenberg's part to proclaim
in a speech on September g.: THAT this Is
not our war. 1t should not be-" And he
fervently hopes that Senator Vanden-
berg, because he is Mr.. Wile's choice for
the Republican presidential nomination,
will soon come around to saner line of
thought-to that line Of thought which
Is Mr.. Wile's when he says few lines
later: 1T Is not our war today and may
not be tomorrow or next week or even
next year. But whose war will it have
been If the improbable comes to pass and
Hitler wins it? Where will the United
States be then? The answer is that our
turn will be next on the Nazi list
And further on in his column, hoping
to kill two birds with one stone, Mr.. Vile
pleads with Senator Borah to likewise re-
turn to the fold like a good Republican
and think along the lines Of his speech
in tho Cpno 70 >,
he declared: Whatever the cause was in
the beginning, we have now arrived at
point where 1t is distinctly conflict be-
tween two systems of government, be-
tween two peoples and nations and that
one or the other will have to go down."
Fortunately, many people do not have
to be reminded, after realistic study of
the forces that have shaped and nodded
European and Asiatic history of the fu-
tility OF the United States participation
In any foreign war, but 1t seems that Mr..
Vile and the world imaginists must be
constantly reminded of the fact.
I should like now to remind Mr.. Vile
that he makes three rather dubious and
perhaps insurmountable assumptions,
when he asks us so pointedly what will
happen IF the improbable comes to pass
and Hitler wins?"
Mr.. Wlle's first assumption is presented
by himself-'if Hitler wins" should
like here to remind Mr. Vile that to even
consider the possibilities of Hitlerian
victory or defeat brings into focus SO
many undeterminable and hidden forces
that uyico
utterly impossible. Does Mr.. Vile think
himself capable of knowing the answers
to these questions, which 1 submit, and
innumerable others which must be an
sWered before final verdict on German
aggression can be determined? Does
Mr.. Vile know how many economic pri-
vations the German people are willing to
stand before discomfort becomes ramp
ant? Does he pretend to know the
amount Of war and domestic materials
that the German government possesses?
Does he know whether or not German
victory will necessarily involve continu-
alton OF the Hitler regime? If it does is
Mr.. Vile Informed whether or not Hit
lers foreign policy will change? Will
his domestic policy change? Does Mr..
Vile know the details and schemes be-
hind the RussianNazi trade treaty and
their pact OF non-aggression? Until Mr..
Vile does know the answers to some of
these pertinent questions of the future.
1t might be well for him to refrain even
from specializing
Now that Mr. Vile has made his first
assumption, he completely forgets that
there may be others, and jumps to the
conclusion that the omnipotent and ubi-
quitous Herr Hitler, after neatly dispos-
ing of England and France, will now be
on his way to the United States. But
we must again remind him that he is
assuming, although he fails to put it
down in black and white that GERMANY
after long war of economic and military
attritlon would be in a position to at
tack a formidable power 5000 miles
away; that Germany would be able to
consolidate and rule adequately her ad-
dltlonal territories; that European his
tory, which has been written in the blood
OF rebelllons, purges, wars and in the
ink OF treaties, pacts, alliances secret
understandings and under the strain of
economic. political and cultural malad-
Justments, will change just because we
are entering the latter part of the "en-
hghtened' goth century. All this is un-
likely; Germany, If it should win the
war, would have more than its hands
full at home.
Mr.. Wile's third assumption, although
ne again fails to write it down, is that
Germany, after defeating its enemies,
after recovering from the effects of its
second costly war in Is years, could wage
another effective war along our Atlantic
Coast which is well protected both geo.
graphically and militarily. Naval and
military strategists of the Sims school
will verify the impossibility of success
ful attack that would make possible a
partial subsection of territory in the
United States.
England and France, Mr.. Vile might
remember, are not primarily fighting for
principle" or to save Europe and civili-
zation, as Alvin Nevins would likewise
have us to believe, from the type of state,
society and so-called culture that Nazi
leaders have set up in its midst" but
they are fighting, willingly or unwillingly,
to preserve their dominance in the peren-
nial European game of power politics; to
protect their trade privileges in the Bal