The Real Choice

Through the bewildering confusions of 13 postwar months the U.S. people had watched the progress of their onetime ally, Russia, and they had come to a conclusion. From a zenith of popularity just after V-E day, Russia had dropped to a point where most U.S. citizens had decided that she was no longer a friend but an antagonist.

Now Henry Wallace had brought the country to a new pass. Before the Wallace speech and his dismissal from the Government, many a U.S. citizen had felt that Russia was on the international make and that she should be watched--and dealt with by U.S. diplomats. Now the situation called for further decision: on the specific action that the U.S. should take. Firmness and patience had been the generalization of policy. But there were other steps still to be taken; Winston Churchill's speech advocating a European federation (see INTERNATIONAL) was one possibility.

Followers of Henry Wallace, including presumably those who think that Soviet Russia's aims are democratic and without any menace to the peace of the world, had now had their battle lines drawn for them. Anyone who disagreed with them, i.e., anyone who opposed the appeasement of Russia, was a warmonger. Presumably the majority of Americans knew the answer to that one. No one in the U.S. wants war--not even Wallace & Co.

When it came to a showdown, the majority of U.S. citizens was not likely to be fooled, and they knew that the answers to U.S. problems abroad had to be solved at home. Democracy must be made a positive force abroad; but firmness and patience was a way to behave, not a program of action. The U.S. still had to put its domestic economy in order, produce goods, live the way of peace, make its democracy a shining reality.

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