Evening star., 1947-12-22
For Our Own Freedom and Peace

For Our Own Freedom ond Peace
Whatever may be the argument over
details no thinking American can deny
the imperative nature and soundness OF
the historic program President Truman mas
recommended to Congress for the recovery
OF Europe. Nor can any thinking American
deny that unless the substance OF that
program is put into effect with vigor and
vision, the prosperity, security and peace
Of the free world-including our own land
will be the subject of perilous gamble.
The program itself is we'll known. 1t has
been discussed at length ever since Secre-
tary Marshall first proposed it at Harvard
last June, its basic feature being the oner
of long-term American aid to all European
nations agreeing to help themselves by
working individually and collectively for
their common recovery. Sixteen inde-
pendent countries are now joined together
to that end But Russia, though invited to
participate, has done much worse than
merely decline 1t has forbidden its satel-
ntes-such as Czechoslovakia and Poland
to take part, and 1t has revived the
Communist international in frank and
grimly militant effort to wreck the entire
enterprise.
Why have the men of the Kremlin done
this? They have done 1t because the
projected European Recovery Program
threatens to upset all their dark designs.
They want the continent to be weak, con-
fused, dispirited and chaotic as long as
possible. They want to keep it politically
and economically upended for the sole
purpose of promoting the kind of dis
integration and collapse that could place
the whole of it-clear to the English Chan
nel-under their totalitarian dominance.
In brief, they want to do away with
Europes free Western civilization as a
prelude to imposing their police-state
tyranny on Asia as well-a development
that would completely transform the
global balance OF power and leave the
United States so alone in predominantly
Communist and hostile world that our own
liberties would wither away as we con-
verted ourselves into an armed camp Tor
the sake of survival.
This towering menace is clearly inherent
h the present two-world situation, and 1t
can emerge rapidly, as Secretary Marshall
has urgently warned, unless bold and ade-
quate action is taken now to head it of.
That Is why the President has called upon
Congress to authorize $4,000, 900 four
year program of aid to the sixteen partici-
pating nations with $6,8O0,000,000 to be
appropriated by next April l to cover the
first fifteen months of the fateful enter
prise. 1t would be administered by
special agency and co-ordinated by
special American representative abroad.
Designed "to make genuine recovery pos
sible within definite period of time," it
would be carefully conditioned to insure
maximum effectiveness The recipient
countries, for example, would each have
bilateral agreement with us to do such
things as stabilize currencies or supply us
with strategic materials for our stockpiles.
Further, there would be an overall under
standing to make the best possible use of
Western Germanys productive capacity
for the common good.
All this may seem to some to be lavish,
but we can carry 1t out, as the President
has said, without serious impact on our
own domestic economy. The truth is, in
fact, that unless we do carry 1t out that
economy is likely to suffer violent
wrenches. Beyond that, and far more
important than any dollars-and- d-cents
consideration, there is this fundamental
reality before us: We can fail our friends
abroad only at the risk of seeing them
disintegrate and lose their freedom; we
can fail them, In other words, only at the
risk OF gravely endangering ourselves.
What the President has advocated
involves q projected outlay adding up to
only per cent of what we spent fighting
the Axis. 1t is a relatively minor invest
ment designed to prevent another war
and establish decent and enduring peace.
We cannot be niggardly in this matter and
be safe. Our own economic well-being, our
own national security, all our own vital
interests demand that we do what needs
to be done without delay. To be too little
or too late about it would be simply to
give the green light to the waiting Kremlin.
Everglades Mystery