Evening star., 1947-12-21
The Central Reality

Although couched in automatically re-
strained and prosaic language, Secretary
MarShalps report on the failure of the
Big Four London Conference makes the
cause of that failure unmstakably clear.
More important still, and again without
rhetorical f1ourishes, it leaves no room for
doubt that the Soviet Union, far from
wanting to cooperate, is pursuing policy
deliberately calculated to promote the
collapse of the free western world in
order to spread the Kremlins dominance
everywhere.
That is the central fact of our time It
Is what Is at the root of Russian obstruc-
tionism in every major endeavor of the
United Nations. 1t is what animates
Moscow's worldwide campaign of vilifying
propaganda against the western powers,
particularly the United States 1t is what
accounts for Foreign Minister Molotov's
maddening opposition at London to any
move on which the Anglo French American
delegations we're agreed. Had there been
genuine Soviet desire to cooperate,
the conference could have succeeded in
drafting an Austrian peace treaty and
laying the essential groundwork for
unified Germany and a German settle
ment But there was no such desire, and
there will be none, as Secretary Marshall
has plainly suggested, unless and until
the men of the Kremlin are shown that
they cannot win the dangerous game they
are playing.
This assessment of the situation is so
convincing on its face that free nations
everywhere-not least of all our own
ought to feel an overwhelming sense of
compulsion to work together for their
common welfare and safety. AS Secretary
Marshall has said, what Russia is banking
on is the assumption that they will fail
to do what they must do to regain their
footing and remain independent. What
1t is banking on is the belief that con-
fusion and ar-chaos-promoted by the
Communist fifth column-will continue to
agitate the power vacuum of war
ravaged Europe to such an extent that
our western system will fall apart there
and leave the whole continent wide open
to the Kremlin's iron-fsted dominance.
1t is for this reason that the Soviet
Union obstructs instead of co-operates.
1t is for this reason that the Stain dicta-
torship and its Communist International
have frankly set out to do everything
possible to wreck the long-range European
Recovery Program. They have set out to
do this, in Secretary Marshalls words,
because the success of that program would
necessarily mean the establishment of
balance in which the sixteen western
nations, who have bound their hopes and
efforts together, would be rehabilitated,
strong in forms of government which
guarantee true freedom, opportunity to
the individual and protection against the
terror of governmental tyranny" The men
of the Kremlin cannot tolerate the de-
velopment of such prospect. They must
resist it, or all their vaulting ambitions
will come to nothing.
The free western world cannot afford
to ms his challenge with anything less
than an all-out effort The coming months
as Secretary Marshall has warned, will be
decisive ones. If we and our friends
abroad fail to act vigorously during that
time, what the Soviet Union is waiting
for-and expects to happen-may well
happen. The whole of Europe may fall
into it's hands, and after that the pickings
In Asia would be relatively easy.
AS for ourselves, if events should be
allowed to turn out that way, we would
be grimly isolated and our own liberties,
economic well-being and military safety
would be directly menaced. This is the
fundamental reality that should dwarf all
other considerations as Congress and the
Nation at large now move toward deci-
sion on long range European aid.