The Wilmington morning star., 1946-03-23
We Asked For It
BY WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLAIN


BY WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLAIN
Looking back to the feverish years before
Pearl Harbor, one recalls how often the argu-
ment was used that we must get into World
War H. even if we were not directly attacked,
because it would be morally and psychology
cally impossible to live in world OF con-
tinual threats, alarms, wars OF nerves and
acts of aggression It was assumed that tne
undesirable regimes in Germany, Italy. and
japan were solely responsible for all the trou-
bled state of the universe and that all peoples
would live in a state Of peace and harmony
as soon as these regimes were destroyed.
Well. the Second World War destroyed these
regimes. along with tens OF millions OF hu-
man lives. most Of the elementary conditions
of civilized life in the continent OF Europe
and in East Asia and good deal OF the nor
NAL sense of humanity and decency even IN
the victorious countries which We're least al
fected by the totalitarian or brutalitarlan, pol
son Of our time But somehow the promised
golden age of peace and freedom and justice
Is not with us.
Indeed the least reflective mind can scarce
ly fail to be impressed by the ironical paral-
lels between the late thirties and the late
forties. Stain has taken over exactly where
the Axis dictators LETT off and is bringing IN to
play every weapon in the arsenal OF totahta-
rian power politics: Broken promises, buster
ing threats, blowing hot and cold with DEM
onstrations Of military force, calculated war
OF nerves.
Politically, if not militarily, the Soviet oicta-
or is IN better position to achieve his
aims OF unlimited aggressive expansion than
Adolf Hitler was at the height Of his power
and for two reasons. The terrific destruction
Of the war, followed by the crimes and blund
ers of the peace that is no peace, has vastly
a fhn al ay,I IN
which would formerly have stood in the way
Of the victorious march Of communism in Eu-
rope and Asia.
And America is far more deeply divided in
ternally in the face Of the Communist chal-
lenge than it was in the face of the Nazi
challenge. Stalin's conscious and unconscious
fifth column In this country is far stronger
than Hitler's ever was. The 'Nazi fifth col
unn" was largely Pigment of the over ex-
cited imagination Of excited publicists and
purveyors of cheap fiction. Searching official
and unofficial investigation has not revealed
that any American Of great prominence or in
fluence was associated with it. The Nazi Par
ty members in this country were largely
composed of moonstruck German gardeners
walters, unemployed who thought they were
taking out insurance which might be useful to
them i they would ever return to the Reich.
At the height Of Hitler's power and pres
tige a pro-Naz viewpoint could not have been
advanced in any widely read American maya
zine or newspaper. Very different is the present
situation as regards the prevalence and in
fuence o. pro-Communist or at least pro-
Soviet views It would require an almost OBJ
fuse blindness not to notice the infiltration of
Stalnite sympathizers into government agen-
cies, magazines newspapers, trade-unions,
opinion-forming organizations The resultant
effect on American public opinion is confus-
ing and divisive to the last degree,
Now it Is rather pointless to pour out walls
OF righteous wrath on Stain. He is acting pre-
cisely as any person Of normal intelligence
would expect totalitarian dictator to act when
every check and balance on his vast power in
two huge continents had been removed or
weakened. OF all the reactions to recent Soviet
actions In Iran and Manchuria shocked surprise
is the mos! naive and the least intelligent
Take the matter Of international good faith,
for instance. It has been suggested that the
Soviet failure to withdraw its troops from Iran
on March was the first instance when the
Soviet regime had broken a promise or a
treaty. But this is simply nonsensical ignor-
ance. Bad faith has been the rule, not the
exception, in Soviet dealings with other coun-
tries.
Without attempting to be technical, or to
double and redouble when two or three treaties
of the same general nature were concluded
with single country, it is easy to point out a
dozen specific breaches of voluntarily assum-
ed international obligations. To begin with,
there were six treaties Of non-aggresson and
neutrality, concluded with Poland Finland,
Latvia, Lithuania and Estona. There are the
Yalta promises about free and unfettered
elections" in Poland and assisting 'the people
liberated from the domination of Nazi Ger
many and the peoples of the former Axis
satellite states of Europe to solve by demo-
cratic means their pressing political and eco
nonic problems (My italics).
There are the Atlantic Charter and the Kel-
logg Pact outlawing war. The latter was most
crudely violated by the Soviet unprovoked at
tack on Finland in 1899. Annexation of ter
rltorles inhabited by some twenty-five million
people and the establishment of virtual pro-
tectorate over more than a hundred million
people in Eastern Europe and Manchuria is
scarcely compatible with the Atlantic Charter
pledge: 'These countries seek no aggrandiZe-
ment territorial or other" Finally there is
the recent failure to observe two withdrawal
dates. February LIST in Manchuria, March End
in Iran.
In all his actions on the international arena
Stain has been running true to form. 1t in
dignation is in order it is rather against those
American statesmen and leaders of public
opinion who persistently deceived themselves
and deceived the American people about the
underlying character and philosophy OF the
Soviet regime, who carried out and justified
the monstrous betrayals OF Yalta, who bear
the heavy responsibility for waglng the Kind
t. tho ind ut nN1 oAt