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Are the American people ready to accept the role of world leadership to which destiny calls them? There are increasing signs that they are at least aware of the challenge. They — or better, we — now see that we can never return to our comfortable, carefree past. The days of our happygo-lucky, irresponsible youth are definitely ended. As a nation we have grown up, and slow though many of us have been to accept the fact, we can no longer escape the responsibilities that go with national maturity. We must henceforth play the grown-up part which our age and position as a world power demand of us.
We realize all this, and yet we remain divided and confused concerning the specific things required of us. On the necessity of participation in some kind of international organization at least two out of three are fully agreed. (The Fortune survey of March, 1944, puts the figure at 68 per cent.) But faced with the necessity of choosing a particular kind of organization, as sooner or later we shall be faced, we are more prone to disagree than [ p. 188 ] to agree. And on the specific question of the powers to be entrusted to the international organization, there are even fewer prospects of agreement. Nevertheless, it is just such specific problems that must be solved before we can effectively put our full weight on the side of permanent peace.
When this war ends, we shall not be able to return to our former complacent isolation, for we shall be confronted by great and serious tasks. The immediate problems of peace will have to do with feeding the hungry and relieving the distressed throughout all the war-ravaged lands of the world. Later will come the practical and hardheaded development of natural resources and the reconstruction of the shattered social structures of the nations. It will be by earnest co-operation between all peoples in this gigantic task of reconstruction that peace and prosperity will be achieved. Then, and only then, will it be possible to inaugurate a workable plan for lasting peace. But we need not wait until that day arrives to start formulating our plans.
Love of country and fear of defeat may spur us on to victory. But faith and vision are required of us if we are to achieve a worth-while and lasting peace. It will be fatal to wait for the end of hostilities before giving serious thought to the things we must all do to make the peace permanent. Millions [ p. 188 ] of war-worn, demobilized soldiers and their war-weary home folks are all too likely to throw up their hands and beg for a speedy “return to normalcy.” We must have our peace plans well on the way to completion before that time arrives.
To that end we must start right now to study the political and economic mistakes of the blundering peace which preceded the present war. The time is here when we should each begin to think of the part we must play, individually and collectively, in the formulation and maintenance of the peace. We are faced with a greater challenge than any people ever faced before, and we have everything to gain by meeting that challenge fearlessly and intelligently.
We have a great many things to do in the short time remaining before the coming of the peace. First of all, we must start at once to develop a unity of purpose transcending all differences of race, nationality, and party. This includes overcoming our schizoid tendency to wobble between isolation and full involvement in world affairs. It also includes mastering our antipathies toward Great Britain, Russia, and our other allies. Racial and nationalistic prejudices are luxuries in which we can no longer afford to indulge.
We must study how to avoid the partisan mistakes which defeated the last peace. All available evidence supports the belief that a large majority [ p. 190 ] of Americans were ready to join an international peace organization after the first World War, but were prevented from getting their way by the selfish machinations of a small but willful minority in the senate. This time the people must make their wishes known in unmistakable terms that our politicians will not dare to ignore. As a safeguard to this end, appropriate actions should be started now to revoke the power possessed by a small handful of senators to nullify the democratic will of our whole nation.
We must learn to resist the temptation to relax into soft pacifism and wishful thinking after the war. Both our childish aversion to accepting grown-up responsibilities and our unwillingness to make the sacrifices demanded of us for the sake of peace must be put aside in favor of a firm resolve to live up to the requirements of our world position. Most of all, we must look into our hearts and endeavor to weed out all the dark thoughts, passions, and longings which add together to produce the occasions for war. In the final analysis, wars begin in the minds and hearts of men — not merely evil men, but of men whose avowed purposes may be good even when their methods are wicked. Each of us must seek at all costs to replace evil with good, ignorance with understanding, and violence with reason. Nothing less than that is demanded if we are to prove ourselves worthy of a lasting peace.
[ p. 191 ] of Ameri
When this war ends, millions of Americans will be scattered throughout the world — occupied in promoting the arts of civilization, guaranteeing liberty, and paving the economic and political way for the realization of the brotherhood of man. There will be little unemployment. The world is to be reorganized on a new plan ; the age of peace and liberty is dawning, and we are to play the leading role in this new era of economic and spiritual liberation of mankind. But we will never gain these ends by the methods of 1919 or by the old techniques of economics, politics, and foreign relations which have characterized the past forty years. The whole world is due for a global “square deal.”
We have taken a square look at what life on this planet would be like under Hitler. We discern our fate if isolated in such a totalitarian world. Let us now try to envision another kind of world, one dominated by the spirit of the American way of life. We know how Hitler and his partners intended to enslave the world. When it devolves upon us to help maintain law and order, what kind of policemen are we going to be? How are we going to treat the people of this earth when we and our allies have achieved the military hegemony of all nations?
One thing we must recognize — we are not going to fight this long and bloody war just to restore the [ p. 192 ] world to what it was before. We will not be so foolish as to repeat the mistakes of the first World War. We do not want Hitler’s “new order” nor Tojo’s; we must create a new and better world.
Let me make clear what I call the American way of life. Democracy is in some ways a misnomer; ours is a representative form of government. We Americans believe in:
Win or lose, we are going to face a big job. Lose, and we face a return to the Dark Ages; win, and we can enjoy a new order of life and liberty if we wisely plan for the peace well in advance. And [ p. 193 ] whatever this peace is to be, one thing is certain — America will at first have a large part in underwriting it and in supplying the police power to put it into effect.
We are going to have to pay heavily for this war. We are not going to get reparations, neither are we going to get back much from lend-lease. The only hope of any return is to go through with the peace, and then, if we can contribute to the saving of civilization and extend the sphere of the American way of life, there is a sporting chance we may get some gratifying returns on our investment.
Our adventure in world peace will call forth the very best that resides in American ingenuity, experience, and idealism. It means abandoning forever the idea that we can go on in national seclusion from the rest of the world as a sort of political and economic island, trying to exist as a self-sufficient and egocentric nation.
Fortunately, Russia has always been friendly to us. She willingly sold us Alaska. She was grateful to Theodore Roosevelt for the Portsmouth Treaty. She has all the land she wants.
Men sometimes act, do things, because they are lured into action and sometimes because they are driven into it. And there are also times when the hope of profit and the fear of loss so intertwine in [ p. 194 ] a situation that man is doubly sure to act. The present world crisis confronting our nation appears to follow the latter pattern. Consider the following:
By now it should have become fairly apparent to most thinking Americans that wars of the magnitude of the present conflict (and its predecessor, World War I) are entirely too costly to be permitted. If the American people think clearly, they -ought certainly to do whatever is necessary by way of international co-operation to prevent the recurrence of such disasters. Reason and wisdom commend such action; material safety and economic security command it; even idealism concurs. But will these considerations insure that America will act — will accept her destiny as a nation among nations and fulfill her obligations to the family of nations? If these were the only reasons for American acceptance of destiny, the issue would hang in doubt.
But look again at the world situation. Is this all — this pull towards destiny? Is there not also a coercive push towards destiny? Is the world wholly dependent on America for the achievement of a happier state of human affairs? Can America, with impunity, refuse to accept the challenge of international service and responsibility? Or is it possible that the rest of the world could carry on without America, if necessary? And in this situation, what would likely be the consequences to America should she decline to accept international responsibilities?
[ p. 195 ] of Ameri
There is an alternative to American leadership in world affairs. That alternative is Russia. England and China can move in either direction; and as America chooses, so will they move; and as they move, so is American destiny either bright or dark.
Consider England : By institutions, language, and commercial affiliation, even by tradition, England would probably prefer America as a parmer in world affairs. The intertwining of English and American military activities is a tangible earnest of such partnership. But England has not forgotten the Amerian performance after World War I — the clamor for normalcy and the espousal of isolationism. Neither will England forget that awful abyss of national oblivion, on the brink of which she stood during the terrible months following Dunkirk, when her very existence hung by the slender thread of a German tactical miscalculation.
With such memories, England dare not gamble solely on the volume of enlightened wisdom in the United States of America! And accordingly she has underwritten the American attitude by an alliance with Russia, No American repudiation of world responsibilities will leave England in the lurch, but such unwisdom on our part will surely drive England into the arms of Russia. Remember, it was England and Russia who brought down Napoleon over 125 years ago. Together they can dominate Europe today; and with China, the world.
[ p. 196 ]
Now consider China: Like England, she seems to favor partnership with America. Chinese- American relationships have been generally cordial; American policy in relation to China, if not always wise, has at least been basically friendly. Many of the leaders of China are Christians, and many have been educated in the United States. But China also fights for life. Like England — but for a longer time — she has stood on the brink and looked into the abyss of national destruction. And what would she do if America withdrew from world affairs? She, too, would turn to Russia.
This, then, is the situation which confronts America: Either the United States accepts the responsibilities of a mature and powerful nation in world affairs and so exercises such responsibilities as to remain attractive as a partner of England, China, and Russia, or else Russia will come to occupy that dominant position in the world left vacant by American withdrawal. And Russia, functioning in close partnership with England and China, could easily wield overwhelming preponderance of power in the affairs of nations.
If Destiny has really drafted Uncle Sam, who is to say that Destiny has not provided for an alternate rendezvous with Uncle Ivan? And should American stupidity drive Destiny to that second rendezvous, what then becomes the inevitable destiny of Uncle Sam?
[ p. 197 ] of Ameri
It really appears that the Pearl Harbor “shock treatment” and the experience that Uncle Sam has passed through during the last two years have served to bring about a tremendous change of attitude regarding international affairs. When the United States Senate passed a resolution committing this country to participation in an international government, we could be sure that isolationism no longer dominates American foreign policy. Nothing has happened in twenty-five years which more clearly indicates that America is growing up, and that the “schizoid trends” of isolationism are passing, than this action on the part of the United States Senate.
Our first duty in Asia, aside from defeating Japan, is to help China achieve the hegemony of the Orient. And then comes the gigantic task of assisting in her reconstruction. Ten years from now thousands of American citizens will be operating in China, as well as in India and South America. Billions of dollars of American capital will be invested.
In our fight with Japan the all important thing is the full co-operation of China. We should therefore establish a mutual understanding with China that will be both effective and enduring.
We have thought to effect the peaceful conquest of Asia by culture, religion, and commerce. But now something more is needed — power. We must first [ p. 198 ] destroy the Japanese power state. And we do this not alone for the love of Asia ; we also do it to save American liberty, for we just cannot remain free with such barbarous power states in control of both Europe and Asia.
But we cannot transplant the American plan of government, as such, to China or India. The spirit and general idea can be made to work, but it must be reconstituted to fit actual conditions existing in the Orient. Our peace program must be practical. Now is the time for every thoughtful American citizen to begin the study of actual conditions throughout Asia. We should get acquainted with what these people really want and learn how we can best help them attain their ambitions while we introduce them to the American way of life and to our ideals of democracy.
No nation ever had such an opportunity to liberate such a vast host of human beings as now confronts America in the battle of the Pacific, the war to liberate all Asia — through China to set all Asia free for a hundred years, even as, with the co-operation of England and Russia, we vow to set all Europe free for the next century.
That Uncle Sam is challenged to assume a position of high and powerful moral leadership in world affairs will become more and more apparent to the [ p. 199 ] reflective American who will sincerely try to answer the following eight questions :
We have science, culture, religion, and language — civilization. We must begin to export all of them.
It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of the entire world rests upon the American people in this crisis. To us more than to any other people belong the opportunity and the responsibility of leading the world along the pathway of peace. Millions of Americans have the courage and the will to accept the challenge of leadership. Millions more are needed to make that leadership effective.
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America has shown herself to be “a land of promise” in countless ways. May she now reveal herself as the promise of lasting peace.
Are the American people ready to accept the role of world leadership to which destiny calls them? Uncle Sam has at last grown up.
The majority of Americans are agreed that mankind must have a government, but we are not in agreement as to the character and extent of that government.
Love of country and fear of defeat may spur us on to victory. But faith and vision are required of us if we are to achieve a worth-while and lasting peace.
We must find out why the peace plans of the past have always failed. We must first achieve unity among ourselves and then extend it to the United Nations.
At the end of the war millions of Americans will be scattered throughout the world. What will be their contribution to permanent peace?
•We know what the world would be like under Hitler. What will it prove to be under the United Nations with American hegemony?
The American way of life embraces freedom of the individual along with freedom of speech, press, and worship. It assures “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
[ p. 201 ]
Lose this war, and we return to the Dark Ages. Win it, and we must shoulder the responsibility of leadership in pacifying the disordered nations and establishing Mankind Government.
Our adventure in world peace will call forth all the very best that resides in American ingenuity, experience, and idealism.
Russia has always been friendly with America. She is world-minded and will go along with the plans for permanent peace.
If America refuses to accept the leadership of world peace, Russia will undoubtedly assume this role. If Uncle Sam does not lead the way, Uncle Ivan will.
Can Uncle Sam afford to decline the opportunity for leadership in the establishment of Mankind Government and the achievement of permanent peace?
England has a twenty-year treaty with Russia as insurance against American desertion of the cause of international peace — as occurred at the end of World War I.
China depends upon America to lead the way to international government and permanent peace. And many other peoples also look to us for this leadership.
Under the leadership of China, America has a mighty contribution to make toward the education and liberation of many backward and underprivileged Asiatic peoples.
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We cannot transplant the American form of government to Asia, but we can carry to them something of the American way of life.
There are many things connected with American history and with her social, economic, and political development which endow her with those powers and qualities essential to world leadership.
It appears that the fate of the entire world rests .upon the American people in this crisis.
America has shown herself to be “a land of promise” in countless ways. May she now reveal herself as the promise of lasting peace !