Evening star., 1944-04-03
American Policy

American roliCy
1t is wholly possible that future
events will disclose serious mistakes
or wrong judgment in the State
Departments present attitude to-
ward General De Gaulle's Com
mittee of National Liberation, the
Badoglio Government in Italy and
similar complex problems in the
knotty international political situa-
ton. But it is one thing to say
this, and another thing to say that
the United States lacks a foreign
policy and that Secretary Hull and
his aides are wandering aimlessly
in fog without any idea of where
they are going or why.
In the first place, as far as policy
is concerned, it is well to remember
that the prime objective of this
country at this particular period is
to win the actual shooting war with
the utmost speed and at the least
possible cost in blood. To this end,
the United States followed a
frankly expedient course in dealing
with Admiral Darlan at the time
of the invasion of North Africa. To
this end, too, along with Britain
and Russia as well, it has accom-
modated itself to the present Italian
regime, and it will very probably re-
sort to similar on-the-spot i'm
provisations and temporary political
arrangements as the European
struggle moves toward a decisive
climax with the opening Of new
fronts by our Allied forces.
In the long view of history, such
a policy Of improvisation and stop
gap expediency, designed to help us
attain the overriding objective of
military victory, may prove to have
been unwise, but that does not
make it any the less policy. More
precisely, perhaps, it may be
described as policy within policy
"a policy of doing first things
first or of postponing those things
which may better be done later,
while making every effort to make
sure that this temporary procedure
does not undermine the Nations
broader, long-term policy in any of
its fundamentals. In this sense, the
State Departments present course
may not be nearly so directionless
as some critics say; instead, when
all the facts are in, when it is no
longer necessary for security reasons
to keep certain developments behind
a veil, we may find, conceivably,
that it has all been more or less
like a man in sailboat who tacks
against the wind, not because he
wants to follow crooked line, con-
fusing and irritating to the specta-
tors on shore, but because he knows
that that is the best and only way
t0 get to his destination.
9 In any CASE It seens a bit on The
extreme side for the State Depart
ment's critics to assert dogmatically
that the, department. does not know
where it is going The critics, after.
all, are the spectators on shore, and
although they argue plausibly
enough, they appear at times to
base their charge of a lack of policy
on no more solid ground than the
fact that their advice has so far
been rejected. It may be, of course,
that the future will prove them
right; meanwhile, though, it is a
reasonable assumption that Mr.. Hull
and the President are possibly some
what more informed than they on
the French, Italian, Finnish and
every other political problem of
Europe. In the circumstances, for
the time being at least, there is
good reason for the general public
to reserve judgment on whether the
sailboat is following the best course.