Editorial: Dewey’s foreign policy
Mr. Dewey on the eve of the three-power conference in Washington voices his fear of the trend toward international power politics. He states the issue of imperialist control versus the rights of small nations. As a presidential candidate, it is not only his privilege but his duty to speak out on this subject, which is so close to the hearts of most Americans.
But he would have been more effective, in our judgment, if he had given Secretary of State Hull full credit for leading the fight for a genuine international security organization.
It was Cordell Hull who wrote the rights of small nations into the Moscow Pact, a pledge for a democratic international organization later incorporated into the Connally Resolution by the Senate. American policy was reasserted in the Hull Easter declaration:
Nor do I suggest that any conclusions of these four nations can or should be without the participation of the other United Nations. A proposal is worse than useless if it is not acceptable to those who must share with us the responsibility of its execution.
Again, in his Pan-American Day address, the Secretary of State insisted that the big powers were pledged to these traditional American principles:
They were stated in the Atlantic Charter, the United Nations Declaration, and the declarations made at Moscow. Specifically, it was agreed at Moscow that membership in the world security organization must be on the basis of the sovereign equality of all nations, weak as well as strong, and the right of every nation to a government of its own choice.
But these British pledges and Hull statements did not prevent Prime Minister Churchill from reporting to Commons his proposal for “a world-controlling council… comprising the greatest states,” and “a world assembly whose relations to the world executive or controlling power for the purpose of peace I am in no position to define.” Mr. Churchill not only defends British imperialism but Russia’s ambitions in Eastern Europe.
Even more significant than words are acts. On the record up to now the small nations have been shut out of all major political conferences and decisions. On the record Russia is trying to control Eastern Europe as a sphere of influence, and Britain is trying to speak for Western Europe.
So long as this continues, Mr. Dewey and every American should be alarmed by the trend. The fact that Secretary Hull has fought so valiantly so long, and that he now hopes all the United Nations can be included in a later conference for international organization this fall, does not dispose of those fears.
President Roosevelt has never given the American public a full report on his understanding with Messrs. Churchill and Stalin at Tehran and since. Circumstantial stories have appeared indicating that the President gave his blessing, at least with the consent of silence, to the Churchill-Stalin sphere-of-influence deal. We cannot believe that the President would have been so foolish, but such widespread suspicions are the price he pays for his love of secret diplomacy.
We wish the President were as frank and vigorous in defense of American interests and policies as the Prime Minister is on behalf of Britain and as the Marshal is for Russia. Unquestionably Mr. Roosevelt in his own way is making the same fight as his colleague Cordell Hull, but he has less to show for it. His good intentions are not enough. In this field of post-war international relations, he has not proved himself – far from it!