Editorial: New Yorker of New Yorkers
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Editorial: The Nibelung New Year
Adolf Hitler showed a good judgment of news values yesterday when he made “the Bolshevist danger” the main theme of his New Year’s diatribe. The Russian advance, now resumed at a great pace west and southwest of Kiev and in the Dnieper bend, is the outstanding military event of the year, just as the surrender of Italy was the outstanding political event.
A year ago, the army of Marshal Paulus was still holding a precarious position in front of Stalingrad. That army no longer exists. Between Stalingrad and the peak of yesterday’s Russian march lie more than 700 miles. In their retreat, the Germans have equaled Napoleon’s mileage and their losses have been more than Napoleonic. The Ukraine is strewn with the human and mechanical wreckage of their strength. It is the grave of Nazi hopes – and Hitler’s words prove that he is well aware of the fact.
The grave was dug by the Russian Army and people, with as much help as Britain and the United States could furnish. We have sent, for example, down to Oct. 31, 7,000 planes, 3,500 tanks, 130,000 submachine guns, 150,000 trucks, 25,000 jeeps, besides metals, chemicals, machine tools, food and seeds. The air offensive over Western Europe, the land attacks in North Africa, Sicily and Italy and the growing threat of a new front across the Channel have diverted German strength from the Russian lines, but the Russians, under superb generalship, with civilian workers producing beyond all pre-war expectations, have bought back their soil with Russian sweat and blood. The land of masses and of mass armies has also revealed an extraordinary individual performance.
From the very beginning, Hitler’s one chance of realizing his dream of world domination lay in dividing the Western nations from Russia and in crushing them separately. He attempted to achieve this objective first by propaganda, and when that failed, by war. He had some victories in each field, but he lost the propaganda campaign entirely and now he is losing the military campaign. Yesterday he was repeating familiar and futile words. They must have rung unconvincingly, even in German ears.
For the truth is that the historic choice, fully recorded at Tehran, was made long ago. The Western nations have welcomed Russia as a partner in the war and post-war world. Russia has abandoned her policy of isolationism. It is too late for Hitler to break up this union. Its forces are closing in on him. He cannot withstand the Russians as they thrust toward Poland and Romania. What does he think he can do when Gen. Eisenhower pulls his great bow to its utmost tension and lets the new arrow fly?
The little half-gods, the Nazi Nibelungs, must hear behind the voices of Hitler, Göring, Goebbels and the rest the song of coming doom.
McCormick: A grown-up America faces the year of decision
By Anne O’Hare McCormick
The year 1944 will be a year of decision and a year of test. Gen. Eisenhower predicts that it will see the end of the European war, and this means that Britain, Russia and the United States will have won from Hitler the power he aspired to when he threw down the gantlet in 1939. They will have won the power and the responsibility to reorganize Europe.
The European nations were already weak, weary and torn with internal strife when the Nazi drive began. Hitler’s plan of conquest was based on the assumption, largely justified, that all of Europe was as divided as Germany was when he took over. He thought he could ride to continental power over the same divisions, frustrations and hates he had exploited to achieve mastery in the Reich. He was the first to realize a truth that Stalin has now accepted: he saw that the old force of nationalism, harnessed to the new force of socialism would make a formidable team out of the two strongest impulses in the modern world.
Conquered never submitted
But he ignored the fact that the sense of nationhood is as intense in the smallest states as it is in Germany. Fortunately for the three great powers that slowly combined to defeat the Nazi dream of empire, this stubborn spirit of resistance of the lesser peoples held the fort until the big guns were ready to breach the walls. It is hardly too much to say that the fragmentations, the excessive nationalisms, which make it impossible for Europe to live in a world of larger units also make it impossible for Europe to die. If Hitler had been able to conquer Europe, if he had succeeded in convincing Poland or France, Yugoslavia or Holland that German hegemony was tolerable, the war would have been lost in 1940. If Europe had stood with Germany, neither Russian nor Anglo-American force could have taken the fortress.
The decisive factor in this war is not the four-power alliance, omnipotent as that combination of strength will be in the peace. The decisive factor is the crowd presently pushed into the background – the loose, amorphous federation called the United Nations.
The force of nationalism
This came together before the great powers merged. The truth is that not a single European people, and this goes for the satellites as well as the prisoners of war, accepted Hitler’s claims. Like it or not, our first line of defense was the force of European nationalism. This is a fundamental reality the victors will have to face. Stalin has faced it for Russia. He dissolved the Comintern because in twenty-five years it did not win a single nation. He has dropped “The Internationale” because he has learned that it will never have the appeal of a national anthem. This reality will have to be taken into account in the reorganization of the continent. The primary problem of victory will be to reconcile the force of nationalism – the force that won the war – with the compromises among nations and the concessions of sovereignty that will be necessary to maintain the international equilibrium that spells peace. For if it is clear that order cannot be maintained without force, it is equally clear that it can never be maintained by force alone. Except for a breathing spell, nations cannot be kept quiet unless they have an independent status and a conscious stake in the general security.
Many hardships ahead
For the United States, 1944 will be a hard year. This country will have to pour out blood, resources and energy as never before to ensure the victory Gen. Eisenhower expects. His appointment in itself signifies how large our share must be in the desperate struggle ahead. Victory, moreover, will bring burdens as onerous as the sacrifices of war. We shall have to assume a major responsibility for the future of Europe at a time when our minds and hands will not be free to concentrate on European problems. We shall be fighting with all our strength in the Pacific. We shall be distracted by a political campaign at home.
When Tobruk fell, the position of Churchill seemed much more precarious than the President’s. The Prime Minister in Washington during that crisis was strongly incline to agree with Roosevelt’s arguments that a fixed tenure of office for the Executive was safer and sounder than a system in which the government could be voted out of office any time. But as the President’s term nears an end, the advantages are all with the system that can put off a general election as long as necessary. Of the Big Three, Roosevelt is the only one who must face election in the decisive year of the conflict.
It is up to us
This decision is added to the others weighing upon the American democracy during the coming year. The judgments we are forced to make in our own affairs and the affairs of the world are new in our experience, new in the effect they will have on the course of history. The terrible burdens of maturity descend upon us while we are still hesitant and unprepared. But nations never go out to meet destiny. It always catches up with them at an unexpected turn of the road. On this grave and portentous New Year’s Day, it is well that Americans have to realize that they have passed the point where they can blame other powers for the mistakes of war or the failures of peace. The end of war is the beginning of the struggle for peace and of our inescapable responsibility for the world born in 1944.
Board to survey security program
Proposed extension to include small businessman to be studied this year
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Women fix aims on post-war jobs
Miss Anderson says many will need to keep working during reconstruction
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DRASTIC CUTBACKS BEGUN IN ALUMINUM
Two plants are shut down in Queens and two in Jersey – act here to save goal
Output 12 million pounds; major curtailments are still to come – plants owned by DFC, run by Alcoa
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Hanley takes oath of office as 57th Lieutenant Governor
Governor Dewey, Senators, members of family and Spanish War veterans attend – Senate Majority post to be filled Tuesday
By Warren Moscow
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1943 stock trading biggest in 5 years
278,741,765 shares traded on exchange here – bond volume a record since 1936
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OWI HEAD ASSAILS PRESSURE GROUPS
He voices doubt that ‘home front’s is keeping pace with its fighting forces
War crisis called near; he warns against optimism on rise in civilian supplies – hits three newspapers
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Early revelry on New Year’s Eve proves drain on liquor stocks
Festivities in neighborhood bars begin at 8:00 a.m. – war workers rush to celebrate – taverns ‘run dry’
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Soldiers flee camp to join revels here
Military police comb roads to city in search
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Mayor La Guardia will greet Italy
‘Victory message’ today to be broadcast also from London
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U.S. Navy Department (January 1, 1944)
Communiqué No. 493
In the early morning of November 29, 1943, the U.S. destroyer PERKINS (DD-377) was sunk as the result of a collision, off the southeast coast of New Guinea.
During the morning of December 17, 1943, the coastal transport APc-21 was sunk by enemy aircraft, oft the southern coast of New Britain Island.
The next of kin of the casualties in the PERKINS have been notified. The next of kin of the casualties in the APc‑21 will be notified as soon as possible.
CINCPAC Press Release No. 216
For Immediate Release
January 1, 1944
Army heavy bombers of the 7th Army Air Force raided Kwajalein on December 30 (West Longitude Date). No enemy interception was encountered.
Army light bombers, escorted by Airacobra fighters, made an attack on Mille on the afternoon of December 30. There was no fighter interception. All our planes returned.
Army medium bombers raided Jabor, in the Jaluit Atoll, on December 30, bombing and strafing ground installations. None of our planes was damaged.
U.S. State Department (January 2, 1944)
Prime Minister Churchill to President Roosevelt
London, 2 January 1944
Secret
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Prime Minister to President Roosevelt. Personal.
Hull tells Eden that you have no recollection of any remarks by UJ about unconditional surrender. I certainly heard, with great interest, him saying something to the effect that he thought it might be well to consider telling the Germans at some stage what unconditional surrender would involve, or perhaps what it would not involve. After that we began talking about the 50,000 and your compromise and my high falutin, and I finished up by no means certain that the Germans would be reassured if they were told what he had in mind.
Find also Anthony telegraphed to the Foreign Office on November 30 as follows:
Last night (November 29) Marshal Stalin spoke to the President about unconditional surrender. Marshal Stalin said he considered this bad tactics vis-à-vis Germany and his suggestion was that we should together work out terms and let them be made known generally to the people of Germany.
Perhaps this may give you a cue to what Anthony and I had in our memories and you may feel inclined to join with us in asking UJ whether he would care to develop his theme to us. If however, you prefer we can of course leave things where they are for the time being.
The Pittsburgh Press (January 2, 1944)
64,000 sorties flown by Yanks
55,000 tons of bombs dropped on Nazis
By Walter Cronkite, United Press staff writer
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U.S. artillery shells Cassino
3 more hills over valley route to Rome taken
By C. R. Cunningham, United Press staff writer
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Germans say –
U.S. massing to attack Japs
Air-sea force reported ready in Aleutians
By the United Press
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Roosevelt urges pledge to establish lasting peace
President favors international organization to maintain security in generations to come
Washington (UP) – (Jan. 1)
President Roosevelt, in a New Year’s Day statement issued from his bed where he is confined with a mild case of grippe, today called upon Americans to pledge themselves to final victory on the battlefield and to establishment of an international organization “to maintain peace and security in generations to come.”
The President’s temperature was normal today but he remained in bed on the advice of Adm. Ross T. McIntire, his personal physician.
The President’s New Year’s statement:
Many of us in the United States are observing this first day of the New Year as a day of prayer and reflection and are considering the deeper issues which affect us as part of the family of nations at a crucial moment in history. It is fitting on this day that we direct our thoughts to the concept of the United Nations which came into being on another and infinitely bleaker New Year’s Day two years ago.
It was but three weeks after Pearl Harbor that the Declaration by United Nations was promulgated at Washington. Twenty-six nations subscribed immediately, eight more have adhered subsequently, all pledging themselves to stand together in the struggle against common enemies.
Two years ago, the United Nations were on the defensive in every part of the world. Today we are on the offensive. The walls are closing in remorselessly on our enemies. Our armed forces are gathering for new and greater assaults which will bring about the downfall of the Axis aggressors.
The United Nations are giving attention also to the different kind of struggle which must follow the military phase, the struggle against disease, malnutrition, unemployment, and many other forms of economic and social distress.
To make all of us secure against future aggression and to open the way for enhanced wellbeing of nations and individuals everywhere, we must maintain in the peace to come the mutually beneficial cooperation we have achieved in war. On the threshold of the New Year, as we look toward the tremendous tasks ahead, let us pledge ourselves that this cooperation shall continue both for winning the final victory on the battlefield and for establishing an international organization of all peace-loving nations to maintain peace and security in generations to come.
High sources say –
Threat of strike gives Hitler lift to prolong war
Result will be ultimate casualties totaling hundreds of thousands; railroad situation cited
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