Climax

Europe was still in danger, and would be for years. Last week, however, Europe had gone through a major showdown with Communism and emerged greatly strengthened. Two years of developing U.S. policy came to a climax in the best week for the West since the open contest with Russia began.

The good tidings came in an unattractive package--a month of ill will in talk between the nations, of riot and strike and continuing hunger. Nonetheless, if the good news continued, riot and strike and hunger, along with the danger of war, would decline in the months ahead.

Picture of History. The danger of war lay in Russia's becoming as strong, or almost as strong, as the U.S. and its friends. Russia might make a tremendous leap toward that position by controlling either Europe or China. The U.S. Marshall Plan gave Europe a solid chance to recover. World Communism, therefore, had to try to wreck the Marshall Plan. Last week Communist attempts in France and Italy (see FOREIGN NEWS) had been sharply checked. The photograph on this page tells as well as several volumes of history what happened. It shows Communist-led rioters in Nice giving way to a force that is just entering the corner of the picture. The force consists of soldiers; but it stands for more than military might. It represents the right and duty of a civilization to protect itself against violence and conspiracy.

The force in the corner of the picture is French, but it was able to act because U.S. initiative gave Europe the hope of self-defense and recovery. The French troops are not merely "preserving order"; they are re-establishing a state of life in which Europe may rebuild itself on a basis other than slavery to a police state.

Even the breakup of the Foreign Ministers' conference this week, sad as that was by ideal standards of international relations, had its good angles. Molotov in London was trying to do by propaganda what Thorez in France and Togliatti in Italy were trying to do by strikes and violence. He was trying to smother European recovery and hope, in the confusion on which Communism thrives. Marshall could not make Molotov agree to a German treaty, but he could--and did--end the confusion which prevented Britain, France and the U.S. from letting western Germany work for the recovery of Europe.

Exception to a Policy. As for China, U.S. postwar policy had scarcely begun. A high U.S. official, reviewing the world situation, last week wryly said: "When the people criticize America for not having a policy in this place or that, they are wrong. Even where it is just 'do nothing at present,' we have a policy. China is the exception to this rule."

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