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Show mm srrpgj t?nfc Mfxt Definite Foreign Policy " f't. . Essential to America -; j 4 f. The Issue: Shall Nation Adopt Policy of Participation in World Affairs or Shall 4 j We Aim at Nationalistic Goal? " VCS ' By BAUKIIAGE AVtea Analyst and Commentator. VN'U Service, Union Trust Building Washington, D. C, Today America faces its first real problem as a world power. Italy lies before us. General Eisenhower, Eis-enhower, as commander of the Allied Al-lied forces of invasion, suddenly becomes be-comes a statesman. He is a soldier. He can win battles. Now, he is the man ultimately responsible for directing di-recting American world policy. What is American world policy? Eisenhower is firm in his decisions, deci-sions, certain in his own procedure, because he is responsible only to his Commander-in-Chief. But who is his Commander-in-Chief? Roosevelt. A man who may suddenly leave the scene in the midst of battle, if the American public pub-lic so decrees. And then? Has America any firm foreign policy, u'iettered by partisan parti-san political restriction, a clear-marked clear-marked path that a fighting man or any other man can follow? In a few short weeks from now, a group of busy, hard-pressed men are going to sit down on Mackinac island is-land and try to write what American Ameri-can foreign policy they think ought to be sponsor! by the Republican party. These men riave to face the question ques-tion of comriitting the Republican party to a definite foreign policy. And paradoxically, by committing their parry to a definite foreign policy, poli-cy, they day free both political parties par-ties of all commitment on foreign policy. For if the Democrats frame similar resolutions, they can save America from a vicious split one which, if it is not avoided, will crash party lines and can destroy the two-party two-party system, the rock of our democracy. de-mocracy. The issue which America faces is simple: shall we, as a nation, underwrite under-write a policy which will implement our participation in world affairs or shall we retire unto ourselves and pursue the nationalistic policy which says in effect: let the rest of the world stew in its own juice? Until we took the Philippines, America was able'to leave the great and vital problems which should have no political tinge, outside partisan par-tisan politics. We have had other problems which have remained essentially es-sentially non-partisan. The Problems lake labor. A vital question. Eut has labor ever voted solidly for one ticket or the other? No. The AFL will cast it3 traditional Republican votes in the coming election as it always al-ways has. Some of the CIO members mem-bers will vote to support the administration. admin-istration. Other3 will vote as they darn please. Slavery really a labor question. That did nearly wTeck the republic because it was made a partisan isue when It was not an issue at all! Many of the influential southerners southern-ers were just as ready to free their slaves a3 the rabid abolitionists, heated with emotional fervor, failing to grasp the economic significance, were to force them to. Again, jnless a cold, calm discussion discus-sion and understanding of the question ques-tion of foreign policy takes place, we mav face another snlit which. although it need not mean civil war, may mean a horrid dislocation of our whole political system. When we went into World Var II after Pearl Harbor, the word "isolationism" "iso-lationism" was forgotten. Today It has come back into our vocabularies vocabula-ries and is being batted about, like other political footballs, by people who really don't understand Its implications im-plications and are woefully ignorant of vhat dissension It may cause. Politicians want to overlook It. They can't. This group of Republicans, Repub-licans, headed by Deneen Watson, and a whole flying squadron of Democrats, Dem-ocrats, too, are insistent that they be allowed to "let the people know." They are going to speak their pieces. And the only hope of lifting this discussion out of partisan politics poli-tics Is a "settlement out of court," an agreement by both parties on a single foreign policy. Let's get back to that hot and perspiring per-spiring day in Washington late Inst month when Deneen Watson and his colleagues from this self-appoint-d Republican organization, the Republican Re-publican "foreign policy association," associa-tion," walked across quiet Lafayette park opposite the White House and presented themselves to Chairman Spangler of the Republican national committee. Results of Session It was some time before the results re-sults of this meeting between Watson Wat-son and his colleagues and Chairman Chair-man Spangler of the Republican national na-tional committee leaked out. Those with an anti-Republican slant, wove the words dropped into a threatened threat-ened split in the Republican party, a drive to nominate Wendell Willkie for president. To the person who tried to be ob- jective, it was neither. Mr. Spangler has one job to keep the party together, to eschew an. favoritism for any policy or any person. per-son. Naturally, these persistent persons per-sons who called upon him were pri- senting a problem. I believe it wa that fact rather than what his critics said that indicated there was a leaning lean-ing toward the "status quo" attitude, atti-tude, the desire to remain a purveyor pur-veyor of platitudes and follow tl A tide rather than to face it. This issue full participation in world affairs versus a return to n; tionalism or isolationism, if you will is, according to our most earnest non-partisans, the most important issue which has faced the public anJ should not be a political football. Briefly, what the men with their sleeves roiled up at Mackinac irf" September have to face is this: shall we, good Republicans, come out frankly for world-co-operation or dodge the issue? What the Watson association demands de-mands is more than that and som thing the Republican national com-. , mittee must face: will the party ofli-cially ofli-cially get behind a nation-wide campaign cam-paign to "educate" the people on the international issue? Unfortunately, personalities do get mixed up in these things and Wendell Wen-dell Willkie has become the symbol of the international view. That is hy it is essential, if the party is to take the issue out of partisan politics and disassociate it from any of the individuals aspiring for the Republican candidacy, that they must go on record. The Monroe Doctrine Walter LIppmann has written a book called "American Foreign Pol-icy" Pol-icy" and the point he makcj is tins, until 1900. politics did stop at the water's edge. We had a foreign policy (or thought we did) whicl was the Monroe Doctrine. Accor 1 ing to Lippmann, we wore living under a delusion. Namely, that we had under the Monroe Doctrine clared our whole policy America for Americans (period) which Im- i plied, of course, that the rest of the world could do what It pleased so long as it kept off our grass. We believed that we could en- i force that policy ourselves. That was not correct. We were really depending on the British fleet to enforce en-force it. It happened to be to I!r.j( ish advantage to agree, so there was no trouble. Then we mixed In world ofTair'wi found we had to fi:fht our own battles, bat-tles, and did it took over Hawaii the Philippines. But we didn't provide pro-vide the means to hold thern. An I so, disagreeing on the various ste; f necessary to carry out our foreign policy, we failed to provide tl. means to do so Britain was biir.'n elsewhere, and one morning we losf the Philippines and came within o eyelash of losing Hawaii. And so we now face the necessity of framing a new foreign polic.a, which must Include the willirignes to provide security for our own shores and those other contiguoi.0 chores (South America and Canada which might be used by an enemy ' against us. Or we have to takj part In prophylactic measures to I stop the danger to our security In advance. H That Issue once clarified by t!a two political parties will leave free for a good, old-fashioned free' for-all political campaign, and If th best man wins, or the worst m:i wins, his policies can't affect the International welfare of the nntion" Failure of both parties to clearlf set forth their views on foreign poli cy may vell create a third party movement which could wreck the two-party system, the rock on whicW our Republic Is founded. |
