The Big If

France's Robert Schuman will arrive in the U.S. next week to attend the Foreign Ministers' conference in New York. He will bring with him a special problem requiring special U.S. attention. Schuman is a sincere anti-Communist who would like to strengthen France's defenses against Communist attack; but he is also a member of a shaky French cabinet which is afraid to take vigorous anti-Communist action. It is reliably reported that Schuman hopes the U.S. will twist his arm a bit and force his government to get cracking on rearmament. Without such a display of U.S. pressure, the present French government would not dare to ask for essential defense measures.

France is the weakest link in the West's European defense line. The Korean war has made no difference whatever in the French attitude. Despite a lot of talk about defense,* France is virtually defenseless--both against Russian attack from the outside and against the solidly organized core of Communist fifth columnists on the inside.

The Marshall Plan has succeeded in its economic objective: helping, the French economy to its feet. But it has failed in its political objective: destroying or reducing Communist power. At the root of this failure is a fuzzy fallacy which holds that Communism appeals only to the ill-fed. According to this theory, all that is necessary to defeat the Communists is to raise a country's standard of living; then, in the sun of prosperity, Communism will melt away.

Hiding behind this theory, time-serving French politicians refuse to face any measure (e.g., increased defense expenditures) that might lower the French living standard.

France's living standard today is measurably higher than at the start of ECAid. But Communism in France is as strong as it was two years ago. The U.S. State Department has simply failed to tell France's timorous middle-of-the-road politicians bluntly that, in the present crisis, the Western world cannot afford France's politics-as-usual nor her sloppy tolerance of Communism.

U.S. military men estimate that Western Europe could be strong enough by 1952 at least to delay a Russian offensive long enough for U.S. aid to arrive. But in this calculation, France is the big if. If the U.S. continues to be relaxed with the relaxed French, Western Europe's resistance to possible Russian attack will be even more ineffectual than its stand against the Nazi blitz.

*Including Premier Rene Pleven's statement last week that French universal military service will be extended from one year to 18 months.

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