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PARTISAN REVIEW
technical skill combined with a high level of scientific research more
promising than raw materials, we may very well be on the way to
creating
in
the midst of Europe a gigantic powder-keg whose explosive
capacity will surprise tomorrow's statesmen as much as the rise of
defeated Germany surprised the statesmen of yesterday.
The Morgenthau plan, finally, seems to offer a definitive solution.
But this plan can hardly be relied on to convert Germany into a nation
of small farmers-because no power would undertake to exterminate
the thirty or so million Germans too many. Any serious attempt to
do so would
in
all probability bring about that "revolutionary situa–
tion" which those who want restoration fear more than anything
else.
Restoration thus promises nothing.
If
it succeeded the process
of the past thirty years might commence over again, this time at a
greatly accelerated tempo. For restoration must begin precisely with
the restoration of the "German problem"
!
The vicious circle in which
all discussions of the "German problem" move shows clearly the
utopian character of "realism" and power-politics in their application
to the real issues of our time. The only alternative to these antiquated
methods which could not even preserve peace, let alone guarantee
freedom, is the course taken by the European Resistance.
