Evening star., 1947-06-11
Whot About Mr.. Wallace?

1t is time to stop thinking about Henry
Wallace as sincere but misguided fellow
who is not doing any one any harm. For
Mr. Wallace is doing great deal of harm
with the technique Of half-truth and
innuendo that he has been using in recent
speeches
News reports of his speech at Newark,
N. j., attribute to Mr.. Wallace the con-
tention that the United States has become
the center of world reaction" And the
suggestion was left with his audience that
proof of this is to be found in our aid
to a reactionary government In Greece.
There are witnesses on the other side
men like Paul Porter who indorses the
Greek program, and Mark Ethridge, who
says that the Communist minority would
have taken over in Greece had not the
United Nations stepped in. These men
are not reactionaries, and they have been
in Greece and they know what they are
talking about. Still, If Mr.. Wallace wants
to brush their opinions aside, he can do SO.
But he cannot with honesty, brush facts
aside. When he calls the United States
the center of world reaction because, for
one thing, it aids Greece, why does he fail
to mention the aid given to a socialist
regime in Britain, to left-of-center regimes
in France and Italy, and even to the Soviet
Union itself?
Mr.. Wallace condones the Communist
coup in Hungary as being no worse than
what we did in Greece. In Greece we went
to the aid of duly elected government
threatened with forcible overthrow by
revolutionary units receiving outside sup
port. In Hungary government elected
by ST per cent of the voters has been driven
could poll only II per cent of the votes
in free election And this coup was made
possible only by the presence of Soviet
troops in Hungary. Can Mr.. Wallace
really feel that there is no difference
between the two, that the one is no worse
than the other? 1t is very hard to believe
that he Is not well aware of the difference.
In demagogic attack on the proposal
for universal military tfaining in this
country, he said that this would be the
entering wedge of military big business
dictatorship and would consolidate the
world against us. Can this be honest
criticism, when he neglects to mention that
the other big nations, and especially the
Soviet Union, have compulsory training
programs far more comprehensive and far
more militaristic than that proposed by the
Presidents commission?
Mr.. Wallace Is quoted as saying that
the common man more and more looks
to Russia for ideas, help and inspiration"
What about the millions now being worked
to death in Russian slave-labor camps?
What about the bloody purges? What
about the secret police who would snatch
Mr.. Wallace away in the night If he were
Russian and dared to talk about the
Soviet government as he talks about his
own government in this center of world
reaction? Are these the sort of ideas and
inspiration which Mr.. Wallace believes the
common man to be seeking in Russia?>
Finally, what about Mr.. Wallace? Is he
really liberal minded man who Is simply
exercising the right that he enjoys as an
American to criticize the policies of his
Government? Or Is he abusing that right,
for reasons of his own in the hope that
his misstatements and distortions will con-
fuse the people and hamper the Govern
ment in its attempt to carry out its
foreign policies?