The Wilmington morning star., 1940-05-19
Editorial Comments
From Other Angles
WHAT REAL PREPAREDNESS MEANS
New York Herald Tribune


WHAT REAL PREPAREDNESS MEANS
New York Herald. Tribune
How the great battle of the Low Countries
may finally end it is much too early still to
say. The Allies are certainly not beaten yet.
But they may be. Already this vast enornlity
in Holland and Belgium has blasted two ire
mendous facts into the American consciousness
with a vivldness and immediacy not achieved by
all the ghastliness of the last months and years.
The first is that Nazi Germany may win
this war. It is no longer a theoretical hypoth-
esis but a living possibility that before the
summer is out France may be ruled by a Hitler
proconsul, the British Empire may lie in frag-
ments and the United States may be left con-
fronting alone a world utterly unlike anything
it has known in it's whole history as a nation.
The second great fact is that the German
war-making machine is a thing as powerful
as it is hideous; it strikes with a blow of
smashing effectiveness - before, and through
organized spies and agents, behind the lines
that cannot be turned by preachments, by
diplomatic correctness by wishful thinking
about economic or financial factors. by play
ing at preparedness, playing at soldiers or
play at war. If opposed at all, it can be op-
posed only by force-and by a force having
every ounce of national energy, unity and
resolve behind it.
AhN1 CIV s'S w - w SiiSi SiS
from every billow of smoke rolling across the
devastated Dutch-Belgian plain. The United
States cannot for another moment afford to
shut it's eyes to them. We have enjoyed the
luxury Of idle optimism, OF divided counsels
and debaters' tricks, of half measures and half
purposes long enough. We have been out
Misunderstanding Mr.. Chamberlain far too long.
We have initiated every error of the European
democracies too often and too slavishly already.
We must face the future and prepare for it now.
AS yet we have hardly even got a glimmer
through the national consciousness of what
real preparedness must really mean. 1t does
not mean simply voting a few more deficit
billions for ornaments and then going about
our business, hoping for the best. That is the
way Lord Baldwin and Mr.. Chamberlain pre-
pared Great Britain. Somewhere We must
find the unity and foresight to analyze our
situation, choose the line we shall defend, and
then create the ornaments, organization, mill
tary an Industrial stats, economic and fnan-
cial instruments necessary to defend it against
the kind of power the German war-making
machine has revealed itself to be.
One can hardly begin such an analysis with.
out realizing that it is quite probable that the
least costly solution, in both life and welfare,
would be to declare war on Germany at once
to help defend, in other words, the line which
the Allies are now holding at such sacrifice.
That would have a tremendous moral effect
on both sides of the front and perhaps a deci.
sive effect on Italy. (No more words, nothing
less than moral effect whatever.) Our actual
contribution for many months could be only
in the gift of a%irplanes and goods-that is
about all we now have to contribute. If we
could tip the scales with that much, and so
save European culture and world economy
from the appalling diseaster and chaos of a
Hitler victory, it would be many times worth
it. If not, if Hitler wins anyway in a few months,
we would be little worse off than we are now.
Such help is, however, only an initial pos
sibility. It obviously might not at this late
date succeed. Therefore our whole thinking
and preparation must start with the assurnp-
ton of a Hitler victory. We are entitled to
hope that it will come to pass, but we are
compelled to assume it as the basis of our
plans. The first problem would then be the
fate Of the outlying fragments of the British,
French, Dutch and Belgian empires. Even if
we tossed them all overheard (along with the
Philippines) and sought only to protect Can
ada and Latin America. we would still be the
one center in the world of resistance to the
Hitler power, the asylum and base of opera
lions for every dissident element within his vast
and uneasy domain, and for that reason alone
perhaps a necessary target for his attentions.
An attack by infltration tactics in South
America, gradually assembling the strength
(somewhat on the Norwegian model) for a
sudden blow at the Panama Canal that, in
conjunction with Japanese action from the
other side, could wreck our whole position,
and would be very difficult for this country,
alone in a totalitarian world, to parry. Pre-
paredness, then, means preparedness to meet
this situation. We cannot meet it by retiring
within the Alaska, Panama, Newfoundland
line; we must have the strength Of purpose and
the naval and air power to dominate the whole
or northern South America, to maintain a pres
llse there superior to that of the Hitler empire
ana sumclent to veto Trojan-horse tactics.
we are nowhere near that point at present.
10 reach 1T, we must divert a vastly greater
SNARE OF the national energies to war; we must
ueVelop a command organization and an in.
eusuial plant adequate to meet the case-not
d series of gentlemanly expedients such as those
INC chamberlain government so long played
wlth' And we must do it now-unless we prefer
.ne only probable alternative, which is to stand
teauy TO how to Hitler and accept his demand
y run the world on his peculiar PRINCIPLES.
Ihls Is the beginning Of what real prepared
. vi the real future in a real world means.
but today.