Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

Current Events
By Prof. William H. RusseU, Ph.D.
EXPLOSIVE DOCUMENTS
Our State Department's publication of the long-secret
Yalta papers has touched off a political storm both at home
and abroad. Democrats claim that there was no reason for
releasing the documents at this time, except to try to dis
credit Franklin Roosevelt and the Democratic party. They
also charge that it will make other nations less free in
their future negotiations with us. The Republicans will dig
diligently for material which they can use in next year's
campaign, but they do not seem likely to find much. We
would respectfully suggest that whatever his faults, Frank
lin D. Roosevelt died ten years ago and the Republicans may
as well stop running against him.
The British Foreign Office disapproves of the publica
tion while Churchill and other participants are still living.
Churchill himself was displeased, though the documents
show that his judgment was often better than Roosevelt's.
The British may publish their own version. Our State De
partment also has papers of the Potsdam and Teheran con
ferences, but is not likely to publish them until the present
controversy dies down.
REVISITING YALTA
The Yalta papers reveal nothing new about the basic
decisions made at the conference, but it is interesting to
learn of the thinking and bargaining which determined some
of those decisions. Neither Churchill nor Roosevelt wanted
to hold the conference in Russia, but Stalin insisted. Stalin
and Churchill were the main antagonists; Roosevelt showed
little vigor and often acted as mediator between the two.
Our disastrous concessions to Russia in the Far East were
based on the belief that even with Russian aid and the
atomic bomb, it would take eighteen months after the fall
of Germany to conquer Japan. U. S. and British representa
tives assumed that Russian help was essential and that the
wartime coalition must be kept together to make peace.
There was little controversy
over the Far Eastern conces
sions, but Roosevelt promised to secure the "concurrence" of
Chiang Kai-shek. The newly-released papers show that Rus
sia asked for quite a bit more than she got at Yalta, such as
concessions in Turkey and Iran, and more reparations from
Germany.
The Yalta agreements would not have been so bad if
carried out in good faith, but we obtained no guarantees
from the Russians. They promised free elections in Poland,
for example, but never held them. Another mistake of Eng
land and America was the failure to coordinate their aims
beforehand and maintain a unified policy during the nego
tiations. The final step
which turned Yalta into a disaster
was the one-sided disarmament of the West after the war.
Since 1947 our government has been in the process of cor
recting these errors.
DOLLARS FOR ASIA
Harold Stassen, Foreign Operations Administrator, has
spent the past year working out the Administration program
of economic aid to Asia. This has involved many compromis
es, for the Treasury Department wants to balance the
budget while the State Department advocates a big economic
buildup to strengthen our position in the Orient. The final
recommendation, which President Eisenhower will present
to Congress, is for an appropriation of $915 million in tech
nical and economic aid for the countries of "free Asia." This
is about $200 million more than was appropriated for this
year, and the request will face rough going in Congress.
DISARMAMENT CHIEF
On June 30 the Foreign Operations Administration will
expire, and the State Department will take over its work..
Harold Stassen will step into a new position as special assis
tant to President Eisenhower on disarmament. This post
will have cabinet rank, and other nations may
now create
similar officials to consult with Stassen. However, the pros
pects in this field are not bright. In February a U. N. Dis
armament Commission held meetings in London, but made
no progress. The Russians insisted on the complete pro
hibition of atomic weapons, which would leave them superior
in conventional armaments. They also refused to permit any
workable plan of inspection to enforce the atomic ban.
SUPREME BENCH FILLED
The Senate has confirmed the nomination of
John
Marshall Harlan as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court,
to fill the vacancy created last October by the death of Rob
ert H. Jackson. Harlan's approval was held up for several
weeks by a few bitter opponents in the Senate Judiciary
Committee. They charged that Harlan was in favor of world
government and might make decisions which would weaken
American sovereignty. Harlan satisfied most of the Sena
tors on this point, but quite properly refused to say how he
might decide on future cases. Some Southerners helped
delay his confirmation in order to put off the Supreme Court
hearings on the means of implementing school desegregation.
Nine Southern Democrats and two Republicans voted against
Harlan.
TAXES AND POLITICS
One of the bitterest political fights in this session of
Congress seems due to end in an Administration victory.
(Continued on page 202)
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Remo I. Robb. D.D.
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