In the Course of Human Events

One hundred and seventy-one years ago, an American nation started its span of history. Two million Americans issued a call that stirred the political consciousness of mankind.

Last week, 140 million Americans faced the greatest opportunity of their history. Strangely enough, it was of Russia's making, though the U.S. had forced the issue. In Paris, Russia refused to participate in Secretary of State George Marshall's plan for the revival of Europe (see INTERNATIONAL). Russia had withdrawn into a new kind of isolation. The U.S. opportunity was to set Western Europe back on its economic feet, unhampered by Russian participation, bickering, delay and vetoes.

If the U.S. rejected its opportunity, Europe most certainly would founder. That, as Russia had made clear, was what Russia calculatingly waited for.

Great Moment. The nation's moral position was clear. Even as Molotov in Paris raised the familiar cry of U.S. interference, George Marshall flung the charge back. The U.S. had already sent Europe some $9 billion in food and goods since the war's end; the U.S. had demobilized, unbidden, the greatest military power the world had ever seen.

Said Marshall: "No conditions were attached to this withdrawal. . . . No political parties . . . have been left behind in European countries to attempt conquest of governments from within. No American agents have sought to dominate the police establishments of European countries."

The splitting of one world into two worlds was Russia's act, not the U.S.'s. Speaking from the steps of Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson, on Independence Day, Harry Truman branded Russia's action "folly." Said he: "We have learned that nations are interdependent." If there is to be peace, nations must shape their policies "to support a world economy rather than separate nationalistic economies." As the greatest industrial nation of the world, the responsibility for that kind of peace devolved on the U.S.

The next immediate step was up to Britain and France and the nations of Western Europe. But the final step was up to the U.S. people, who would be called upon to underwrite the Marshall Plan. In the course of human events, it had once again become necessary to stir the political consciousness of mankind.

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