Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1952-10-07
MoIenkov and Ridqwoy

Judging from Georgi MaIenkov's KEYNOTE
address to the Communist Party Congress in
Moscow, Soviet policy is not going to undergo
even slight change for the better in the fore
seeable future. On the contrary, far from doing
anything to ease international tensions, the men
OF the Kremlin seem very definitely to have
made up their minds to be more poisonous than
ever They have no other objective, apparently,
than to intensity their propaganda of mon
strous, hate-inciting lies in stepped-up cold
war designed to drive wedges between the United
States and its allies and thus break up the free
worlds common defense effort against Red
aggression.
To that end, despite Stalin's recent state
ment minimizing the likelihood of capitalist"
military attack on the U. S. s. R., Malenkov-
one of the Politburos most sinister and most DOW
erful fgures-has made clear that the Russian
dictator has laid down line obligating Com
munistS everywhere to libel and vilify the United
States even more unrestrainedly than hereto
fore. The substance of the line is that our coun-
try's ruling circles" are intent upon dominat-
ing the globe and that they are therefore pre-
pairing to unleash new war on the Soviet
Union-a criminal" program in which they are
rearming West Germany and Japan and forcing
other nations into becoming unwilling members
of alliances like the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization.
While thus employing colossal lies to stir
up as much anti-American distrust and hatred
as possible, the program set forth by Malenkov
slyly suggests to all free European and Asian
countries that the Kremin-"chief opponent of
a new war and the chief pillar of peace"-is
full of good will toward them and sincerely
anxious to cooperate with them in developing
mutually profitable trade. But the villainouS
United States, of course is preventing such trade
and debating" rearmament policies that are
designed to enrich wall Street" and at the
same time lead Britain, France and other lands
to economic ruin Hence, according to the Soviet
thesis, those lands-for their own sake-should
break out of the cruel American embrace, fol-
low an Independent course, drop their defense
burdens and do business with Red Russia, which
is ever so eager to disarm and promote the hap
piness OF peoples everywhere.
This propaganda may seem on it's face to
be too crude and phony to fool any but the most
gullible and stupid kind of mind. But its poten-
tial appeal ought not to be underestimated. AS
far as free Europe is concerned, for example, the
economic strains created by rearmament and by
East-West trade restrictions, together with the
grim remembrance of the last war, can tend to
make the Soviet siren song-if subtly Sung-sound
rather attractive to more than a few people,
Thus things like "Bevanism" in Britain and
AL rAoiiSe' 'iAo"sAA QUILL HAAAioiAVy
movements, conceivably can grow and bring
about the kind of slackening that General
Ridgway has just warned against-a warning
well timed, though by sheer coincidence to coun-
ter Malenkovs Moscow harangue.
Certainly, General Ridgway's words need to
be taken seriously. For it is true that the NATO
forces under his command are still dangerously
inadequate" It is true, too that nothing could
be more reckless than the premise that po-
tential aggressors do not want war, are not
ready for war and will not precipitate war"
Actually, as he has emphasized it is the oppo-
site premise that must be constantly reckoned
with-an ever-present menace in the teeth of
which there can be no excuse for any slacken-
ing of effort" in the allied build-up until the
present power ratio between Soviet capability
for attack and ours for defense" shifts in favor
of the West.