The Evening Star (January 14, 1946)
ON THE RECORD —
G.I. demonstrations extremely dangerous
By Dorothy Thompson
The right to gripe is the privilege of Americans, and to gripe en masse in public demonstrations an ancient habit. The American people are hardly panic stricken about the vociferous G.I. demonstrations occurring wherever there are occupation armies, nor would they support punishment of soldiers exercising the right of “free speech” and “free assembly.” The Army chieftains, in immediately deciding against punishment, are doubtless acting wisely.
Nevertheless, the demonstrations are extremely serious, not only for what they reveal to us, but for what they suggest to others. This is a world in which great powers are out for themselves, and in which spheres of power are being extended and consolidated. Since all power is relative, every extension of the power of one is at the cost of the power position of others. It is a world in which smaller states are falling into power-complexes of the larger, voluntarily or by coercion.
Every action taken by great powers is taken on calculation of risks.
Observing the behavior of our armies, from Manila to Frankfurt to Paris, no power will be discouraged against greater boldness, and the weaker states will begin to count the United States as completely out of the picture.
There is, for instance, Soviet pressure on Turkey. Russia might restrain herself there and elsewhere if unilateral action seemed in any way dangerous, but when large bodies of American soldiers are jeering publicly and unreproved at their officers, Russia, and the rest of the world, will consider us a negligible element.
Our diplomacy, which has staged little but a series of defeats, is still trying to secure some measure of independence for the Eastern European states, exert influence in Latin America, frame a policy toward Spain, and persuade Great Britain to modify certain imperial policies. But neither Communists, Fascists, nor Imperialists need be responsive to American suggestions or pressures, under present conditions.
The disintegration of Western individualistic societies fits into Fascist and Soviet theory and policy. Communist calculations have always been that war in “capitalist-imperialist” nations hastens the disintegration of their social systems, and international Comintern agents are standing ready to fan any sparks of discontent that show themselves. The American Communist line that “the Yanks aren’t coming,” which continued until the attack on the Soviet Union, is now “the Yanks aren’t staying.”
The conception that the Soviets are opposed to American isolationism – now that participation is no longer a necessity of Soviet defense – is most naive. There is nothing they wish more warmly than our withdrawal from the Far East and from Europe. The idea that they insisted on the United States as the seat of UNO in order that American interest in world organization should be sustained can only be entertained by those who have not been closely watching Soviet and Comintern moves. The Soviets want UNO as far removed from Eurasia as possible, for in Eurasia they are steadily building their own United Nations system, which, as Mr. Molotov candidly said, is the only form of multinational state or federation that will work.
Meanwhile, UNO has no power whatsoever over Soviet policy, either to influence or restrain it, in Hyde Park or anywhere else sufficiently remote from the places where real actions are occurring. So let the United States as host keep open house to all who come and go with diplomatic passports.
The rumbling among G.I.’s is the inevitable result of creating a class army, in which thousands of young men were commissioned out of universities over experienced veterans; in which political education has been all but nonexistent; in which the peace program is, from an American view, unintelligible as either realism or idealism; in which cushy jobs in UNRRA, OWI, WPB, and many other agencies won all the privileges of an officer with none of the dangers; in which discipline and decorum once the war was over were hardly better maintained by officers than by men, as the grab for villas, girls, champagne, cameras, sifted downward into open black market operations – all within the concept that conquerors who owe nothing to any enemy people, owe nothing either to their own honor.
Add to these confusions and inausterities the immediate cause of the demonstrations: This country has undertaken commitments which will require for many years the maintenance of larger armed forces than any previous army of peacetime, and although this has been known for years, and although the war has been over for months, no one has yet any notion of how the government intends to raise those forces. The G.I. fears, therefore, that he is stuck for years, if not for life.
Universal military training, it is safe to predict, has been shelved. Certainly G.I. reactions abroad will not aid it now. And if the government does not quickly propose the recruitment of occupation forces from volunteers, under a program offering equality of opportunity to men of all social origins, as well as education, good pay, and regular furloughs, even that will be difficult. For when the uniform of a country ceases to be a high distinction, few wish to wear it.