Evening star., 1946-11-03

Inc Danger OF an immediate SnOOt1ng
war in Europe is considered today as
being extremely remote.
Officials in responsible positions whose
job 1t is to follow and analyze trends
and preparations of fully armed ma
tions, expressed confidentially and some-
times publicly their fear last summer
that Russia might decide to cut the
Gordian knot this year and, arms in
hand, challenge the opposition of the
western powers to her expansionist pro-
gram. -...s .... .....
These same men now believe that
the season is far too advanced for
any major warlike operations and the
danger of clash between the east and
west has greatly diminished.
War of Nerves.
Since vi day the Soviet has been
engaged in an open political, economic
and diplomatic warfare. This is i'm
portant She hoped to win the hegem-
ony she intends to establish through
out the world by war of nerves. by
the threat that her armies were so well
prepared and their battle order SO well
established that they could move for
ward as soon as the signal came from
Moscow.
Things are likely to be different in the
months and years to come. Despite
ourselves and in spite of the fact that
the prestige of the United States has
suffered greatly since the end of the
shooting war, we have become the spear
head OF resistance against Russia's anibi-
tions for domination.
So long as the policy of this country
appeared to be one of appeasement at
any price, the stock of the U. S. S. r.
throughout the world went up.
In the interval between the Pots
dam Conference and the second meet
ing of the Foreign Ministers OF the
Big -Four at Paris last summer we not
only attempted to appease the q. S. S. r.
in every conceivable way, but we also
proceeded with thorough demobillza-
ton of our armed forces. Today they
represent only skeleton of what a
year ago was the most formidable force
in the world.
The precipitate redeployment of the
American Army and air forces, while
the Russians were perfecting theirs
created a deep impression on Europe,
where the conviction still prevails that
right and justice are on the side OF
the nation having the largest number
of bayonets and cannon.
The brcadcasts from Moscow and the
Moscow controlled countries told the
world of the unhappy conditions in
the United States. They featured our
domestic troubles extensively in order to
prove that America, the last stronghold
of the rotten capitalism, was in tur-
mol. Strikes were shown as irreparably
disrupting Americas domestic structure
Radio Propaganda.
Fellow traveller radio commentators
were quoted extensively in the Russian
broadcasts in all languages known to
the world as representing the popular
feeling in the United States which, they
said, was opposed to the "old order
that is to say, the old American demo-
cratic ideals A handful of members
of Congress who also had espoused the
Soviet cause was equally quoted by the
Russian government controlled press.
They were described as the representa-
tives of the true American sentiment
which still smoldered in wave Of cap
italistic domination.
Communist newspapers and maga-
zines. together with few other fellow
traveller dailies and weeklies, were used
as an example of American thinking.
while the. old well-established publica-
tions were smeared by the Soviet prop
agandists as representing the last yes
tiges of a dying "imperiahstic capital
isrn." Political organizations which have
sprung up as a result of impulses from
Moscow were described as the true
representatives of the new American
political thought.
All this was done not SO much to
influence the Americans but to show to
the people living on the fringe of the
Russian-controlled areas of Europe that
they should give up all hope of being
assisted by the United States, since the
trends in this country were following
those in the U. S. S. r. Our diplomatic
representatives, our military men and
private citizens were frequently slapped
down not so much because they were
considered unwelcome by the Russian
authorities but to show the world that
America was too weak to react to in
suits. This weakness, 1t was explained,
sprang from two sources-America' in
ability to oppose the formidable national