The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1951-01-18
Comment On
World Events

After the unexpected turn the
Korean war has taken in these last
days, the whole world is watching
with baited breath for further de-
velopments. At Lake Success Unit
ed Nations are doing their best to
avert the threatening major con-
flagration in Asia. Most vocifer-
Gus on behalf of freedom is the
USSR and its camp. However,
Soviet ideas Of war and peace are
not ours.
"The Soviet Union is the coun-
try of constructive creative work
Attempts at seizing foreign lands
and subjugating other peoples are
foreign to it. In it there are no,
and there can be no, partisans of
aggressive war" (Krasnaya Zvez-
da, the official newspaper of the
USSR Ministry of War, Sept. 20,
1950).
Just two days after Krasnaya
Zvezda editorialized in this manner
about the peacefulness of Soviet
intentions, it was preaching the
Soviet version Of a "just" war,
which turns out to be nothing less
than a cloak for aggression. The
newspaper in the second editorial
branded as incorrect any view of
the Communists as pacifists and
indicated a willingness to fight in
what it defined as "just" war:
"War, Comrade Stain shows, is
of two kinds: a. just war, not for
territory, liberational, having as
its goal either the defense Of a
people from external invasion and
attempts at enslavement, or the
liberation of people from the
slavery of capitalism, or finally the
liberation of colonies and depend
ent countries from the oppression
of imperialists, and b. unjust war,
for territory, having as its goal the
seizure and enslavement of foreign
countries, foreign peoples"
:. :. :.
AS an example of "just" war
Krasnaya Zvezda cites the "Great
Fatherland War Of the Soviet peo-
pie against the fascist aggressors,"
which it calls "the most just of all
just wars" but which it fails to
note was a war fought also by the
United Nations, a war from whcih
the Soviet Union profited by initial
ly abstaining and by annexing ter
ritories such as the Baltic States,
part of Poland, Moldavia. AS an
unjust" war, Krasnaya Zvezda Of
fers the EARNED intervention of the
American imperialists in Korea,
in spite of the contrary findings of
the UN.
The Soviet definition of "just"
war provides a splendid basis for
aggressive war. A war for "the lib
Grafton of a people from the slav-
cry of capitalism" can readily be a
war initiated by the Soviet Union
without UN approval and against
the majority of people in the coun-l
try affected. 1t could ignore thel
legally constituted government of
a country recognized by the USSR.
Even without territorial annexa-
tion such a war would permit thel
USSR to extend the kind Of hegem-
eny that it exercises over 100000
900 people in Eastern Europe.
Even more ambiguous is the de-
finition Of war for "the liberation
of colonies and dependent countries
from the oppression of imperial-l
lists" 1t is a fragrant violation of
the Kremlin's professed concern for
the sovereignty of all countries bigI
and small and leaves Stain free
to determine which small country
is dependent on another country.
In fact, the Soviet leaders possess a
formula for almost anyI
kind of war they are likely to un-
dertake.
At several peace congresses So
Wet speakers have said that peacel
does not come as present, it must
be fought for. We shall not here
discuss the meaning they put into
these words. However, these words
are also applicable to the West: all
Of US who want peace must fight
for it, fight with arms and on bat
,lefields, not only in Korea or
China but striking at the arch
enemy and the root of evil. Peacel
,an come only when the evil is era
A new Munich, towards
which the West is drifting in someI
observers opinion, will only pro-
ong the agony, postpone the final
for a very short while
md allow the enemy to grow onlylI
N ora formidable Nnucl lattorI iii