Evening star., 1941-12-03
America First Committees Attitude Called
Hindronce to u S. in japanese Negotiations


But that didn't mean he had
abandoned the war on Russia. It
just meant he had postponed it
as a negotiated peace now be-
tween Japan and China would
mean postponing the cleaning
up process in China while Japan
moved against Russia or south
ward. Hitler's diplomatic tri-
umph-the greatest he has ever
had-Was in the play that divid-
ed Russia from the western pow
ers. That alone made it possible
for Hitler to make war.
Perhaps that same tactics-di-
viding China from her Pacific
allies-Was Japan's only hope of
making war now. We don't
know. But there has not been
another Munich in Washington.
Axis Fourth Hope.
The Axis politicians wanted a
fourth card, and a fourth hope,
and that concerned American
domestic politics. They hoped,
first, that they could bring about
a cleavage between American la
Dor and the American Govern
ment. repeating again the French
experience. What they wanted
was either a labor victory by
strike, or a labor defeat by re-
pressive anti-labor legislation.
Either eventuality would please
them equally, for they are not
interested in one side or the
other; they are only interested
in diSunity.
The President saw this game,
and he avoided it. And Con-
greSs, we trust, will be as wise
as he.
But the Axis politicians had a
fifth hope, and that was the fifth
column, and here, to our eternal
shame, it must be recorded that
they have had diplomatic sue
cess. When the army of Gen.
Won KleiSt let the Axis down be-
fore RoStov, when the army OF
Gen. Rommel failed to rescue the
AXIS in Libya, when the Presl-
dent refused to drive China into
the Japanese trap, when Ameri-
can labor did not stop production
and the American Army did not
march out against American
workers-When even Petain be-
came little coy-then the
America First Committee rushed
to the assistance of the Axis with
a couple of diplomatic panzer
divisions.
I am not happy to say this, be-
cause I still want a negotiated
peace inside America, between
all honest Americans. But what
has the America First Commit
tee done-and done right at this
moment, the most crucial mo-
ment in the enormously impor-
tant negotiations with Japan?
1t has begun blackmailing our
Representatives and Senators
with the threat that they viii not
be reelected unless at this mo-
ment they play the Axis game.
They are threatening the coun-
try with divided Congress,
which would paralyze either leg
islative or executive authority.
lose us the war and lose us the
peace. And. Of course, as we all
have predicted, they are rushing
support to Fascism under an
anti-Fascist sloganl
In the whole diplomatic game,
the America First Committee
has been the only ace in the hole
for the Axis. 1t has come through
bravely for them. And every
thing it is doing-the work of
the Black Mothers" undermin-
ing the morale of the Navy. the
introduction of the 1912 elections
into the diplomatic negotiations
is played by the Axis to
undermine the morale of Petain
and of Chang Kai-shek and
creates in Toxic the false i'm
preston that Japan can risk war
with us. The America Firsters
help therefore to bring Japan
into the war and if they should
succeed, they would help us to
lose the war by the only way we
could lose it-disunity in the
country.