Victory at Berlin

The U.S. went into the Berlin conference without any reason to hope for important agreement with the Communists. During the sessions (see FOREIGN NEWS), no invitation to hope appeared. Yet the conference achieved a major advance in international politics.

The Chinese say: "The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names." Inevitably, under pressure of Soviet threat and promise, Europeans tend to call appeasement "neutralism." Even among the U.S. people and their leaders, there are those who snap at Soviet bait or become confused about Soviet intentions.

Berlin offered no such bait. Molotov was forced to define the Communist position in terms most repugnant to European neutralists and American wish-thinkers.

He not only called for an abandonment of EDC (the European Army), but even insisted on the dismemberment of NATO and the total departure of U.S. military support from Europe--a step which French neutralists recognize as prostrating Western Europe before the Red army. On Germany and on Austria. Molotov was compelled to disclose the true Soviet position: the U.S.S.R. will yield not an inch of ground held by military occupation for the sake of European reconstruction or national independence or the hope of peace.

What compelled him to this air-clearing candor? Why did he have to erase the effects of months of Soviet propaganda?

John Foster Dulles, in one of the great diplomatic performances of the generation, defined the anti-Communist position in terms so clear, so acceptable to Britons, Frenchmen and Germans that Molotov's room for propaganda maneuver was taken away. He was boxed into frankness by Dulles' skillful mixture of concession, firmness and lawyerlike analysis.

The first effect was in the relations be tween the Western allies. For several years, Britain, France and the U.S. have been drifting apart. One of Molotov's obvious goals was to widen the gaps. At Berlin, the Western Three closed ranks. Dulles. Eden and Bidault worked decisively together in a unity long dangerously absent.

Confronted with this united front, Molotov made another of his occasional contributions to the political education of the free world. Seen whole, the Communists' present world strategy as disclosed at Berlin is this:

P:They intend to hold a military line in Europe.

P:Meanwhile, they will exploit their greater opportunities in weaker Asia. P:Their threat to Europe will be used to stave off any Western attempt to thwart their designs in the East.

Anti-Communists who have a hard time understanding the full sweep of Soviet plans and the relation of one threatened part of the world with another should find this helpful. Dulles. Eden and Bidault have succeeded in making the witness for Communism tell the truth. No greater victory was possible at Berlin.

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