292
PARTISAN REVIEW
ican military were even now engineering a war against Russia–
precisely as if we had here a German High Command operating
as a
political force
behind the back of the people. We are not writing this
editorial from Kansas or Texas, where we have only the printed words
of
The Nation
or
The New Republic
before us, but from New York
City, where our frame of reference is also further established by the
conversations in which we occasionally engage these people. In con–
versation certain "liberals" become more open or more unwary (it
is hard to say which), and when pushed to the point of the alter–
native, "You must choose between the United States or Russia," they
will occasionally break down and admit: "Well, then I choose Rus–
sia." Here the Fifth Column confesses itself, but do not expect such
frankness from a "liberal" unless you have pushed
him
to it.
Yet what do "liberals" really stand to gain from their present
frenetic support of Russia except their own political death? A world–
wide victory of Stalin would mean their immediate extinction. On the
other hand they would fall as the first victims of a terror of the
Right as American public opinion becomes solidly mobilized against
Russian aggressions. Such a mass movement in America would be
condemned to £all into reactionary hands by the "liberals" themselves
because they have failed to provide their own leadership. In a situa–
tion of impending or existing hostility between America and Russia,
the Communists will be dealt with for what they are, outright foreign
agents; but reactionaries, never remarkable for niceties of discrimina–
tion, have always beellj a little color-blind to the difference between
pink and red friends of Russia, and the reaction, when it comes, would
thus clamp a tight lid on all political liberties and
perhaps
even bring
a ruthless suppression of civil liberties.
If
certain "liberals" insist on
digging their own graves, that might seem to be their private affair;
but we hope they are not past pleading with that they are dragging
down in their own ruin everyone else who genuinely desires the values
that have been an essential part of traditional liberalism.
Of course, Stalin may go too far, and the "liberals" will be
forced to pull in their horns. At the moment, they are already giving
signs of pulling back: Stalin has already gone so far that they are
hard put for rationalizations to defend him. These days
PM
can
defend Russia only by keeping silent, and switching the spotlight to
the threat from German rearmament due to the evil laxness of ...
the British. But do not be deceived, reader. Stalin has only to pull
back a little, make a few beneficent remarks about peace and the
UN, and his American well-wishers
will
be on the bandwagon again,
