Good News From the Fronts

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There was nothing but good news from the war fronts.

¶ In Europe, U.S. armies cut the Wehrmacht to gobbets, plowed within 150 miles of Berlin.

¶ In the Pacific, with the landings on Okinawa, the U.S. juggernaut moved within 400 miles of the Jap mainland.

Scanning the racing headlines, listening to the racing newscasters, U.S. civilians needed little more than the picture of four jubilant generals (see cut) to enforce their own exultant mood. Once again, across the land, bets were made on when the war in Europe would end.

But in the nation's capital there was a damper on this mood of hope. Three sudden events—the make-up of the Russian delegation to San Francisco, the disclosure of the secret Yalta voting agreement, and the inter-Allied row over the Lublin Poles (see INTERNATIONAL)—had thrown official Washington into a slough of despond. In the State Department, there was open talk of postponing the San Francisco Conference. This mood would probably unkink itself, but San Francisco no longer seemed a foregone happy conclusion. The war was unmistakably being won. But what of the peace?