The (American) P·eople's Century
Dwight Macdonald
0
N MAY
9
LAST,
Vice-President Wallace delivered a speech
before the Free World Association which is the boldest attempt yet
made by a Democratic leader to set the war in a historical perspec–
tive and to outline positive war aims. Realizing that "Beat Hitler"
and "Survive" are negative slogans which arouse little enthusiasm,
Wallace tries to show that a Democratic victory will usher in a
golden age of worldwide democracy and progress, "the century of
the common man." His speech has been gratefully seized on by
the liberal intellectuals, who have long been pleading with the
authorities for such a statement. It seems to me, however,
precis~ly
because of its ambitious nature (and its unquestionable sincerity),
to expose with special clarity the bankruptcy of the Democratic
war aims from a
positive
point of view. I think an examination of
this speech will show what Gandhi meant when he recently
observed that the Democracies "lack the moral basis for waging
war."
I must first make it clear, however, that I am still of the
opinion expressed by Clement Greenberg and myself in "10 Prop–
ositions on the War'' a year ago, that a Nazi victory in this war
would mean a real break in the continuity of our civilization, and
that fascism, both within and without, is the main enemy in this
period. But it also still seems true to me that the Roosevelt–
Churchill regimes, committed to the defense of the capitalist status
quo, cannot effectively fight fascism. A purelr
military
victory
over the Axis is, of course, possible-though recent events in Libya
seem to confirm the criticisms, in the "10 Propositions," of the
Democratic war effort even in this sphere. But fascism-as against
the present regimes in the Axis powers-is a problem which must
be met not on the military but on the social and political plane.
And here is just where the present Democratic regimes seem to me
unable to provide a positive alternative. "We will not accept a
world, like the post-war world of the 1920's, in which the seeds of
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