868
PARTISAN REVIEW
the two competitors, and preserve itself as the independent and peaceful
home of true cultural values.
Just how this objective is to be accomplished is left vague by neu–
tralists. Some of them say, by disarmament and a passive attitude; some,
by strength and rearmament to a point which would permit Europe
to constitute itself a third major power center.
The American cousin of this point of view varies a little in outward
form, but is identical in substance: (1) The present power conflict is
between the irreconcilable faction in the Politburo and Wall Street.
(2) Wall Street reaction and the extreme wing of Russian totalitarianism
are equally alien to "true democracy." (3) Therefore, we and "all men
of good will" must be a Third Force, refuse to identify ourselves with
either side, etc. (We are "against dictatorship, whether of the Left or
of the Right," as the standard slogan puts .it.)
I shall direct my remarks specifically at the European form of the
argument.
Let me, first, accept for a moment the premise which holds that
the present conflict is a struggle between the United States and Russia.
Assuming this to be so, what possible sense can there be in the neutralist
argument? Can any man in his right mind imagine that either antagonist
will
give up all hope of gaining the resources of Europe for his own
purposes, or at least inhibiting their use by his competitor, merely because
certain writers of
Frankfurter Zeitung, Le Mande,
and the Italian
neo-socialist parties will consider such behavior barbarous? A neutral
position by Europe would be the altogether certain road to Europe's
enslavement and destruction. Such a Europe could not defend itself, and
would have no claim whatsoever on the aid or loyalty or gratitude of
either
opponent.
What, however, is the meaning of this equation between "American
materialism" and "Soviet totalitarianism"? The deficiencies of American
life and culture are, I think, as vividly felt by me as by most Europeans,
and I have never, in my public writing, veiled my criticism of these
deficiencies. But one must preserve a minimum sense of proportion.
Coca-Cola may be a dreadful drink, but it is not
quite
in the same class
with Kolyma. I will grant all the horror of American comics and radio
programs, but I
will
still choose them as against the MVD. The Amer–
ican
Negroes
rightly
demand from Washington a far fuller measure of
justice, but they are not sent to slave camps for stating their demands,
nor have they reason to exchange their lot for that of the Chechen–
Ingush or the Crimean Tartars. No doubt the Marshall Plan is a plot
of American imperialism. An imperialism which ships into Western
