The Wilmington morning star., 1943-08-16
FOREIGN POLICY
REQUIRES CARE

kEQUlkES LAKE
Continued From Page One)
about with the formation under
their aegis Of post war govern.
ments in Europe. They all stem
med from the same general idea
that as the dispensers of lend-lease
the world was waiting to hear our
pleasure.
But in fact, though 1end-lease
continues to be an essential. as
well as an admirably used, instru-
ment of war, it has ceased to be
the controlling factor in our for.
eign relations. After Stalingrad
and the offensive which followed,
the Russians were invincible. After
Ell Alamein the British power,
which had been so perilously
shaken, was restored. After the
North African landing we were no
longer lending and leasing; we
were fighting. After Guadalcanal
we knew and all the world knew
that in order to defeat Japan with
out terrible losses and in a toIer-
ably short time, we needed the
help of our Allies fully as much
as they needed our help.
In other words, the lend-lease
phase of United States foreip
policy had been temporary and
was ending. In so far as the Presi-
dent and the State Department
carried over into the next phase
the basic ideas formed in the lend
lease period, they were bound to
run into trouble. For they were
then misjudging the actual balance
Of power {
They did misjudge it and they
have run into trouble. They made
a gross miscalculation of our own
permanent influence in eastern
Europe when they interviewed last
spring to prevent a full settlement
in the Anglo-Soviet treaty. Their
lend-leaSe power, to use a short
name for it. was still great enough
to prevent what they believed, per.
haps rightly, would have been q
violation Of the Atlantic Charter.
But their power was not great
enough to bring about better set.
tlement, and therefore the net re.
suit of their intervention bevond
their power is that there is no
settlement. This is surely one Of
the principal reasons why they
have ever since found themselves
frustrated in reaching general
agreement among the Allies.
They made grave rniscalcula.
ton in regard to France because
they imagined, falsely, that since
France needed us for its liberation,
France would accept our guidance
and tutelage. The unseemly feud
with Charles de Gaulle is due to
the fact that our embassy in Vichy
failed to estimate correctly the
invincibly French character of the
French National resistance, and
encouraged the President and Mr..
Hull to believe that they could
lend-lease French affairs until the
French were endowed with the
right to lead themselves.
They made the same miscalcu-
lation when they proposed a relief
organization in which none of the
occupied countries was represented
on the governing board. This
precipitated the extraordinary
spectacle of the smaller nations
promptly recognizing the French
National Committee without wait
ing to consult the State Depart
ment. They have rallied to De
Gaulle as a gesture in behalf OF
their own sovereign disinclination
to be dealt with after the war as
lend-lease clients.
Our foreign policy is not, it is
sad to say. in a sound and promis.
ing condition. 1t cannot be re.
stored by inducing selected CORE.
spondents to put out stories about
how the critics do not understand
the war. The critics all could be
silenced. The fact would remain
that our foreign policy is running
into trouble because it is animated
by misjudgnent of Mr.. Roose
velt's power in the world.
He is carrying over unaltered
into new period the ideas which
he formed when he was the sole
! dispenser of the military reserves
whom all the world had to WOO
This is bound to lead him into
deeper trouble. For the lend-lease
relationship has given way to
necessary partnership where there
must be a realization that oul
power, though large, is limited. II
that partnership, therefore, we
must be prepared to give and take
not merely to proclaim in ou'
views and then insist upon them
complaining that we have ths
| noblest intentions but are misun
derstood.
| We have, In short, to grow ur
and to learn to live as men in
world where we can, by taking
thought, safeguard our interest:
but cannot preside single-handee
over the human destiny.