Evening star., 1948-02-28
America and Europe

With Czechoslovakia now caught up in
the same way, Stalin's "New Order" has
reached point where it must be de-
cisively checked If the Communist
world is to save itself from being engulfed,
in piecemeal fashion, by the Red tide.
The danger is clearer now than at any
time since the end of the war. One by one,
virtually all the nations of Eastern and
Central Europe have been forcibly pulled
into the expansionist, terroristically con-
trolled Soviet power system. This system
a system of servile satellite lands bound
tightly to Moscow by network of political,
economic and military alliances-has
wrecked the traditional balance Of the
continent in such way as to tempt the
Kremlin to extend its dominance clear to
the English Channel.
What this means is that western Euro
pean civilization, as we know 1t, Is threat
ened with extinction. It means that inde-
pendent France and Italy are directly in
the path of an advancing force that would
like nothing better than to subvert them
as Czechoslovakia has just been subverted.
It means that the whole Of free Europe
including Britain-is faced with the urgent
problem of devising specific measures to
insure itself against becoming an enslaved
province of the Soviet Union. Finally,
because the development Of such a prov
ince would leave us isolated in pre-
dominantly hostile world, it means that
the United States is inextricably involved
in the situation and hence endangered
by it.
OF course. the menace is not imminent
in the sense that Red totalitariapism is
likely to overwhelm all of us overnight.
But it is nonetheless pressing. 1t is press
ing because slowly but surely, bit by bit,
the non-C Communist world will fall to the
men of the Kremlin unless it coalesces as
much as possible, without delay, and
undertakes jointly to protect itself. What
is needed is a real movement of Western
Europe toward union. Needed, too, is
prompt end to congressional footdragging
in adopting the Marshall Plan. Above
everything, the time has come for a
security pact with teeth in it-a pact
establishing strict guarantees of mutual
defense and embracing not only Britain,
France and other key European countries
still outside the iron curtain, but the
United States as well.
Such a commitment would be historic
and far-reaching new departure for the
American people, and probably many
among us would oppose it to the bitter
end. Yet, given the kind of world we
have and the kind of tyranny now march
ing in it, there is compelling logic to
support the view that the highest interests
of our Nation-our economic well-being,
our security and our freedom-demand
that we join with independent Europe in
a specific, concerted, reaty-tight program
to hold back the Red tide and make sure
that what is left of the free way of life
will not be wiped out by it.
A pact to that end, If it is to be genu-
inely effective, must have the signature
of America as well as of like-minded Euro
pean lands. What it would amount to
would be coalition whose collective po-
litical, economic, industrial and military
strength would far outweigh the Soviet
Ill tllG lIlISludtlUlldl DdldIlCc VI
power. Taken together with such measures
as the Marshall Plan and steps toward the
union of Western Europe. nothing could
be more helpful to the free world in stay
ing the aggressive hand of the Kremlin
and eventually persuading the Russians to
try being cooperative.
The alternative to concerted action of
this kind would be to take the risk of
letting independent Europe fall piece by
piece to Soviet dominance It would be to
take the risk, too, of inviting the day when
America would be so alone in the world
that 1t would have to convert itself into
an armed camp poisonous to our most
cherished liberties We ought not to
underestimate the danger we are up
against If we do not do what needs to
be done. the chances are that we shall
live to regret our failure most bitterly not
many years from now.
The great price drop has yet to make