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Show Tear of Decision' Arrives for U.S. A America Alone in Struggle To Save Western Ideologies By BAUKIIAGE Ntn's Analyst and Commentator. WASHINGTON. Cartoonists and others have titled 1948 "the year of decision." It is a pretty good title. The only trouble trou-ble is that America's most important decision has already been made, and nobody seems to realize it. We know that the British empire has broken up, but, aside from the fact that there is some grumbling about loaning money to the British, it doesn't seem to concern us very much. In the current issue of the United Nations World magazine, the British historian and author, D. VV. Brogan, has an article entitled "The British Shed No Tears for Their Lost Empire." In It, he says: ". . . in the nineteenth century, the progress of English prosperity was In close as- ! sociation with the spread of a general gen-eral political and economic religion of all sensible men. The Bank of England, free trade, parliamentary parliamen-tary government all increased their range of influence in-fluence together. And the English looked on what was lareely their " Temporarily, at least that much of the carefully-planned Soviet program pro-gram failed. But new steps are being be-ing planned. A part of the pattern of communization is Communist alliance alli-ance with the left-wing non-Communists. The Reds cooperate with the non-Reds, help them bring about their objectives, then slowly dominate domi-nate and absorb them. One method used by Reds to get rid of non-Communist left-wing resistance is to help a reactionary government Into power. Such a reactionary government govern-ment suppresses the non-Communist left-wingers, and pushes those surviving deeper into Communist toils. That Is where the Wallace third party fits Into the Kremlin design. The Reds hope it will split and weaken the liberals In ' this country, Increase the friction fric-tion between them and the conservatives con-servatives as much as possible, aid the conservatives to get into power. Then when the reaction sets In, the conservatives will be thrown out, and the well-organ Ized Communists can take over easily. Greece is a testing point in the Russian-American struggle. The only way In which the Communist internal aggression there could be checked was for Britain and the United States to step in and actually direct the Greek government. That was done. Much as any country dislikes dis-likes having a stronger one run its , . work and their Baukhage Wr0fltand tound it good. They were satisfied with what they had accomplished. "It is natural enough, today, when this world situation has changed to take pretty calmly the decline in the favored historical position of England. Eng-land. If the spread of English ideas, practices and profits has ceased, why worry unless you are English." Eng-lish." "Unless you are English." And yet the people who ought to be doing the worrying are the Americans. We are taking over where Britain left off. and the job is a bigger one than England faced. But, the average aver-age person in this country will say In horror: "You talk like a Communist! Commu-nist! America's whole tradition is non-intervention. Of course we had a uilH nprioH in Smith America, and anairs, tne united States, as a choice of evils, is the less unwelcome unwel-come to the Greeks, especially when we come bearing gifts without which the government knows it cannot resist re-sist the Communist organization. When one talks with the "exiles," the refugees from the Red terror, one is appalled by their attitude. Recently I spoke at length with a former foreign minister of one of the countries now firmly in the jaws of the Soviets. He assured me that today, if there were a free election in his country, not 1 per cent of the people would vote to support a Red regime. He said these "satellites" are not satellites at all, they are as much a part of the Soviet Union as the Ukraine or Outer Mongolia. The secret police paralyzes all independent independ-ent action. There Is a desperation about the attitude of these men who fought the losing battle against the Kremlin. They say there is absolutely no hope for Europe unless the Russians are driven back to their old borders, and the Balkan states, Poland and Finland are freed of Russian domination. They say there is only one thing that will have effect: ef-fect: A threat by the United States to use force. When the quotation of the London official which I mentioned, stating that the United States and Britain were committed to "measures short of war" came over the wires, I was reminded of the conversation with the former foreign minister. He had said to me: "If the United States threatens to use force now, the Russians will pull out of Eastern Europe. They cannot afford war now. They fear the United States. But in a few years, mere threats will not suffice. The Russians then will be ready to fight." And this force moving against Uie "political and economic religion of all sensible men" is moving not only in Europe. All along Russia's periphery, pe-riphery, the red tide is rising against its frontiers, In the Middle East, in India whose gates Russia has threatened for centuries, in China, Korea, in the islands adjacent adja-cent to Japan. In our salad days as a nation, we somehow acquired what we called Texas although the Mexicans, at the time, thought it was a part of Mexico, Mex-ico, and then, there's Hawaii. But those day are over. See how promptly and politely we returned the Philippines to themselves, and took our marines out of the banana plantations where they didn't belong, be-long, and the other day even abandoned aban-doned our bases in Panama. Don't tell me we're going to establish a second British empire! We aren't. The spirit of live and let live is just as strong as it ever was in this country. Unfortunately, however, what Brogan calls "th2 spread of a general political and economic religion of all sensible men" suddenly encountered a force ' that threatened to destroy it when the Germans marched into Poland and the Japs bombed Pearl Harbor. It took all America could afford, af-ford, and more than Britain could afford, to stop that force. And today, another and stronger force is gaining power, and there Is nobody to stop it but the United States. When a British official in London said "every means short of war" would be used "by the British and American governments to keep Greece within their own strategic and ideological orbit," it didn't make much of a ripple outside of Washington. But it was a statement of tremendous import, for it means that the Truman doctrine was not just a phrase, that its implementation implementa-tion is now certain. It means that the people responsible for the destiny des-tiny of the United States know that the year of decision is here, the decision de-cision having been made not in Washington, but in the Kremlin, just as the decision to fight Japan was made, not in Washington, but in the office of one squat little man now awaiting a death sentence in Tokyo, one Hideki Tojo, former premier of Japan. Partisans Succeeded In Soviet Sphere Today it is fashionable to make funny cartoons about the "third party" announced in December by Henry Wallace. Yet that third party fits neatly into a plan to wreck our way of life, the plan, another part of which was the careful coaching by the Kremlin of the "partisan" fighters in World War II. The partisans parti-sans were formed, first to help beat down one of the Soviet's enemies, but they also were groomed to destroy de-stroy representative government in their respective countries. The partisans were most successful success-ful in the countries nearest Russia, in territory where the Red army, in the guise of allies fighting a common enemy, gained a foothold which they kept when peace came, and which was used to put their trained stooges into power. In Italy and France, they were unable un-able to capture completely the partisan parti-san or resistance movements But they did get a grip on both countries which neither France nor Italy dared throw off until the United States made a tacit condition of aid. The expulsion of the Communist parties from both governments. |