52
HANS
J.
MORGENTHAU
limits its power had reached at the end of the Second World War.
Yet the positive goals of the cold war, unification of Germany and
revision of her Eastern frontiers, not only were not achieved, but
they were proven of being incapable of achievement, and our per–
sistent verbal commitment to them threatens to jeopardize either the
peace of the world or the success of our containment policy or both.
On the other cold war front, in the struggle for the minds of
men in Asia, Mrica and Latin America, the position of the United
States is both more complex and, even in the short run, less satis–
factory. The United States must overcome a number of handicaps,
some the result of objective conditions, others of its own making.
First of all, the United States is a Western capitalistic nation.
Both in its civilization and social and economic structure, it belongs
to that complex of nations which until recently were able to hold
Africa, Latin America, and the more advanced areas of Asia in a
condition of colonial or semi-colonial dependency. It has military al–
liances with these nations, and while it has generally shunned and
even opposed outright colonial policies, it has actively and success–
fully participated in the semi-colonial exploitation of backward na–
tions. Thus the resentment against the former colonial powers attaches
also to it, and its policies of foreign aid are frequently suspected as
serving in disguise the traditional ends of colonialism.
Furthermore, the United States, by dint of its pluralistic political
philosophy and social system, cannot bring to the backward nations
of the world a simple message of salvation, supported first by dedi–
cated and disciplined revolutionary minorities and then by totalitarian
control. In the nature of things, the advantage lies here with the
Communist powers. They are, as it were, specialists in exploiting a
revolutionary situation, which is bound to cause us embarrassment.
For while the Communists are able to direct a revolution into the
desired channels through their use of a disciplined minority, we, even
if we are convinced that revolution is inevitable and therefore do
not oppose .it, tend to look with misgivings upon it since we cannot
control the direction it will take.
The Communist powers have still another advantage over the
United States in that their problems and achievements are more
meaningful, at least on the surface, to the underdevelped nations
than are ours. The Soviet Union has achieved, and Communist China
