International: Us Poor Europeans

West European publicists have been giving the U.S. a shrewish scolding for headlong and over-energetic moves against Communism. Last week West European opinion swung around 180°; it showed dismay because some prominent Americans suggested that the U.S. reduce its world commitments. Europeans who were warning one day against too close an association with the reckless U.S. next day found themselves appalled by the threat of American "isolationism."

The cry of isolationism rose particularly against Herbert Hoover for suggesting that the U.S. might base its defense of the free world on the Western Hemisphere (see U.S. AFFAIRS). The Manchester Guardian asked: "Where does this leave us poor Europeans?" London's Daily Telegraph lamented: "Such a policy . . . would mean that [Western Europe] was at the mercy of the Red army. [It] would result in America becoming . . . an isolated and ultimately indefensible free society."

Paris' Le Monde angrily observed that Frenchmen were being asked to accept austerity and sacrifice while being placed outside "the strategic periphery." It would be better, said Le Monde in effect, for France to be neutral. Cried Norway's Dagbladet: "Herbert Hoover . . . neo-isolationism . . . means that Russia has got a new weapon in the cold war." The Kremlin evidently thought it had something, indeed. Moscow's Pravda printed the full text of Hoover's statement, though it had not even summarized Harry Truman's national emergency address. The Soviet press was apparently trying to prove that U.S. opinion agreed with the Soviet demand for an American withdrawal from Europe and Asia.

The European reaction to the Hoover speech might have been a handy tool for the U.S. State Department. For instance, it could have called the French government's attention to that part of the speech which suggested (correctly) that the European defenses were not being built fast enough. Instead, Washington's answer to the Hoover speech was to justify the rate of European rearmament, thus further encouraging the "go slow" policy of the North Atlantic alliance.