Ib8
PARTISAN REVIEW
fective defenses "against all possible aggressors." Then, the Frenchman
who cares for such pieces of information could read a few days after
General Bradley's interview, an article in
Le M onde
explaining that,
in order to have an efficient modern army France should be spending a
sum to the order of 8,000 billion francs each year. At present France is
spending 800 billion francs (over one billion dollars) for her armed
forces, and the burden is generally considered ruinous. The dilemma
seems to be: either America pays the difference between 1 and 23, or
France will have an inefficient army at a ruinous cost. The second al–
ternative is by far the more probable. So, where is force? In America,
no doubt, but Stalin (thanks not only to Hitler, but also to American
statesmanship) is in Europe. And to the vital (at least for the inhabitants
of the Atlantic beachhead) question whether America, in case of at–
tack, would rush to the defense of European soil, General Bradley in
the same interview gave the scaringly cagey answer that "Europeans
must progressively realize that the defense of the United States is essen–
tial to the defense of Europe." At this point "defeatism" becomes a mat–
ter of horse sense.
It
is hard indeed for a whole country and half a
continent to let itself be considered a kind of advance post that might
or might not be sacrificed, a mere locus of catastrophe.
These are the big questions, and today laymen simply have no
way of forming a founded opinion on the big questions. They can just
have hunches, misgivings, suspicions, fears. Which is another reason for
defeatism. But there are also the details, the little newspaper items.
There was for example, an AP report a few days ago of the speech de–
livered to a Greek audience by the American representative there. The
speech contained a clause in which the Greek poeple were invited to
reconstruct their country and to look for inspiration, at "the example
of American pioneers," their self reliance, their free enterprising spirit,
etc. I don't know what the Greeks thought of the speech but the re–
mark of a Parisian friend of mine was, that there must be less insulting
ways of telling destitute people that the charity fund is running out.
Another item I picked up at random ii contained in a chapter of
General Bedell Smith's account of his ambassadorship to Moscow which
Le Figaro
is now publishing. The chapter is devoted to religion in the
USSR.
It
relates, among other things, how General Bedell Smith went
to an Easter service in Moscow and was greatly impressed with its
solemnity and fervor. Then comes a comment (I am translating from
the French, so I apologize for betraying the original style): "What I
saw during that Easter night may be of no practical significance at the
present moment, but it constitutes the symptom of an eventual danger
