A Global View

John Cowles, president of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, recently returned from a two-month survey of Europe and the Middle East. In a notable report to his papers, Cowles, a careful weigher of facts and forces, summed up his impressions of "The U.S. and the World Today." Highlights of his global view:

Disagreeable Facts. We must get two facts, disagreeable as they are, etched on our minds.

First of all, we are actually in a war . . . It's a halfway war, a cold war, but nevertheless a war . . .

Second, we . . . will probably never again be able to relax in what we used to call "normalcy"--to lead our lives in conditions of genuine peace. The threat of Russian barbarism sweeping over the free world will cast its ominous shadow over us for many, many years . . .

This does not mean that hot war with Russia is inevitable . . . But we must realize that this halfway war is serious business. The Russians are playing for keeps. If we should lose . . . the ultimate consequences would be the same as losing a hot war . . .

The cold war has many faces . . .

Europe's Face. Britain's basic problem is that the government is spending more for welfare services . . . than the country can currently afford . . . In France the fundamental problems are political, social and psychological, rather than economic . . . Its political setup encourages weak governments, splinter parties, selfish factionalism . . . Whether France would fight unitedly against Russia if a hot war should come is doubtful . . . Italy is desperately poor . . .

The German problem . . . is the vital factor . . . The Russians are building a German Communist army . . . To date the Western allies have not permitted the Germans in their areas to possess more than police forces . . . Perhaps before long a military federation including the United States, Britain and Western Europe will be set up . . . In such an international army, possibly the Germans of the allied occupation areas could safely be permitted to have substantial units. . .

Nothing is actually being done to establish a real economic union of Western European nations . . . The present British Labor Government has not the slightest desire to join in any European economic federation. Socialism in England is nationalistic. In an economic sense it is isolationist . . .

Asia's Face. If we hope to save much of Southeast Asia from Russia, as we have . . . saved Greece and Turkey, we have no time to lose . . . The cost for economic aid and for weapons, for both South and East Asia, has been estimated at three or four hundred million dollars a year . . . Much more than that amount . . . could be saved without serious risk and possibly with affirmative benefit through trimming our proposed ECA Marshall Plan appropriations for Western Europe for the coming year . . .

One highly important aspect of our cold war with Russia is that the Communists know how to exploit legitimate popular aspirations throughout the world and pervert them to the Kremlin's ends . . . We must make it clear that the United States is not simply the tail to the French kite in Indo-China, nor to the British or French or other European nations in either Asia or Africa . . . If we are going to save Southeast Asia for the free world and prevent it from passing to Moscow's control, the United States must make it crystal clear that we genuinely believe in independence and self-government for the Asiatics . . .

It is naive for Americans . . . to assume that all of the rest of the world should or can pattern its economic setup on lines precisely identical with ours.

The American economic system, clearly the most productive as well as the freest in the world, is based on the foundation stones of scores of millions of educated, responsible, self-reliant individuals . . . In most areas of the globe there are a few rich people on top, almost no so-called middle class, and great masses of illiterates living in poverty . . .

Without spending excessive amounts of our American taxpayers' money, we can win one phase of our cold war with Russia through helping develop backward areas. That will mean higher standards of living for those peoples and greater political stability . . .

Decisive Area. Will the United States win the cold war? . . . Vitally important as our actions abroad are . . . the decisive part of the answer lies in what we do here at home, in three different areas:

First, we must keep our defense forces strong, with liberal appropriations for scientific research and development of new weapons . . .

Second, we must follow policies that will keep the United States financially solvent and will stimulate a steady expansion of our overall productivity . . .

Third, we must intensify our efforts to translate all our idealistic phrases about equality of opportunity in America into living reality . . .

If we will just be wise enough to keep our incentive system unimpaired, and at the same time speed our progress toward our goal of equality of opportunity for all citizens, we and not Russia will be the magnet that attracts the areas of the world which are now in the twilight zone . .

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