Replies to a Loud Whisper

On the subject about which most Americans are whispering most loudly--the danger of war between Russia and the western Allies--two authorities spoke reassuringly last week.

Said a diplomat just assigned to Washington from Eastern Europe, a man who knows Russia more intimately than almost any other person in the U.S.: U.S.Soviet relations are a very hard and very ugly problem. The pessimism in so many minds ("Has collaboration with Russia proved impossible?" and "When are we going to war with Russia?") is the result of disillusionment after false hopes.

Russia has a dual personality consisting of: 1) great eagerness to learn about the U.S., mixed with self-consciousness about the Soviet Union's own lack of material progress; 2) hostility toward the Western world, as personified by the secret police and the party bureaucracy (whose ill will is so violent that it is hard to believe that they are sincere. The suspicion is inevitable that their hostility serves some ulterior purposes). But the aggressiveness of the anti-U.S. elements (in Russia) will not lead automatically to war because the Russians believe that at the moment the U.S. is superior economically, politically, and militarily. U.S. policy should be to keep Russia in that state of mind. There is no use arguing principles with Soviet leaders.

Said a U.S. naval expert recently returned from Europe: amid Europe's gloom "there were signs of increasing hope because of our stiffening policy toward Russia--but that was before the Wallace speech.... I am convinced we are in for a long occupation of Germany and the Trieste area. It is an occupation against Russia more than anything else, but it is necessary. Unless we keep something propped up against the Iron Curtain, the curtain will start blowing our way." He added that there was no danger of immediate war in Europe ("immediate" meaning one year). "However, we have a lot of little fires burning all over the world, and one can get out of hand overnight!"

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