Evening star., 1943-06-27
Americans Held Overoptimistic
Because of Recent Successes
Long, Difficult Road Declared Facing u. S. Before
Powerful Axis Forces Are Driven to Defeat,
Which Is Expected Ultimately
BY Constantine Brovn

If the American war effort has beer
tagging on the home front in the last
two months, as Undersecretary of War
Patterson stated last week, the fault does
not lie, exclusively, with the people.
Ever since the successful campaign in
Tunisia came to an end, and the de-
fenses of the Pacific prevented the Jap
snese from obtaining further successes,
an atmosphere of superoptimism has
prevailed in the United States This
optimistic wave has been greatly encour-
aged by those high officials whose job is
to keep the public informed about the
actual situation on the battle fronts.
The unofhcial organs of public in
formation have been encouraged to tell
the people OF this country that the
enemy is hopelessly defeated, even
though as yet there has been no head
en- clash between the Allied and Axis
armies.
Relatively minor victories, such as the
occupation of Tunisia and the reoccupa-
ton of Attu--the latter was described by
officials of the Navy Department when
the japanese took possession of it last
year as an inconsequential matter since
all the Japs occupied was rock inhabit-
ed by go or 10 families of seals and four
American lighthouse keepers-were
played up as vital military achievements
which would put us on the road to Toxic
and Berlin.
While an occasional note of caution
was sounded off occasionally from official
quarters in London and Washington,
the tenor of press dispatches and radio
comments in the last two or three
months has been that we have the
enemy on the run.
Enemy Far From Beaten.
The men who have charge of military
operations and consequently must re-
main silent knew only too well that the
bulk of the information impaired to the
people of the United States was exag-
geratedly optimistic. They know that We
are now in position to look to the fu-
ture with much greater confidence than
In the past but they also know that the
enemy is far from being beaten.
These men who are responsible for the
military successes of the Allied forces
feel strongly about the wave of super
optimism deluging the United States
mainly because of the bitter disappoint-
ments likely to follow. Even If the Nazis
were to be knocked out in the more-or-
less near future, We still remain con-
fronted with a powerful and determined
enemy who takes advantage of every
month of delay in starting operations
against him.
The japanese plan to make the ap-
proaches to the empire impregnable by
establishing strong Notifications in all
the islands and territories which form
the nations outer defenses, has not yet
been completed. In a year from now,
however, the European fortress will look
like sand castle compared to the fort
ress of Greater Asia.
The road ahead of us, our most COM
petent military observers say, is long and
hard.
The principal error committed by the
Allied official and unofficial propaganda
services has been to lead the people OF
this country to believe the enemy was
through from the moment we sue
ceeded in occupying Tunisia and the is
land of Pantelleria, where the Italians
surrendered mainly because our aviation
had knocked out the islands sole water
works. For the three or four days which
preceded the surrender of Pantelleria its
defense forces and civilian population
lacked water.
Trace Rumors to Goebbels.
Reports and rumors, which in some
cases could be traced back to the Goeb-
bels propaganda organization, have been
representoing the Reich as on the verge
of collapse Goebbels himself was not
loath to make speeches giving that i'm
preston. Reliable reports from Germany
which is by no means as hermetically
sealed to visitors as Japan-give diff
ferent version. The German people are
suffering certain hardships but they are
said to be as determined as ever to see
the fight through and to have mere than
one political ace up their sleeve as
further means to resist.
Even the italians, who have much
less at stake than the Germans, are not
likely to be the same pushovers as we
like to picture them. No war has ever
been popular with the bulk of the Italian
people. But they demonstrated in the
last war, after the crushing Caporetto
defeat, that they were willing to fight
for their homeland when supported by
IT. he Ia S+ tho arrival
of only a few American, British and
French units enabled the Italians to re-
sist successfully.
The reported addition of new German
divisions to Italian defenses in the last
two weeks is likely to have the same
effect on the Italians in this war. While
most civilians who discuss the situation
in italy take it for granted that the
mere appearance of American and Brit
ish forces on italian shores will in
duce the Italian forces either to sur
render or disburse, the more cautious
and better informed military leaders
take a completely different view. They
believe the. campaign against Italy itself.
If we decide on an invasion this year,
might prove long and costly.
The mere fact that the American and
the British chiefs of staff met in Wash
ington and decided on certain strategies
for this year has given rise to an un-
controlled burst of optimism and the
conviction that we will invade Europe
this year. OF course, we don't know
what the chiefs of staff decided after
two weeks of daily conferences. Neither
do we know the exact strength of our