Editorial: Britain worries about Willkie
London reports that the British are concerned over Wendell Willkie’s withdrawal and its effect on the presidential election. So far, however, their officials have observed the ban against comments which could be interpreted here as foreign interference in American affairs.
Nevertheless, as long as there is no British effort to fish in our political waters, their interest is as legitimate as it is inevitable. Their future and ours are closely interrelated in war and peace. They are watching the Willkie development for the same reason we are observing reports that Anthony Eden will or will not resign as Foreign Minister, and that he is being groomed as Prime Minister Churchill’s successor.
In the Willkie case, however, the British apparently are not only interested but worried. That is unnecessary. It is based on a misunderstanding. Oversimplification, confusion of old labels with present realities, and propaganda have given the British the absurd notion that American cooperation in world affairs depends on the election of either Mr. Roosevelt or Mr. Willkie.
If they wish to read future American foreign policy in terms of personalities, a rather superficial pastime, they should get the personal record straight. Four years ago, Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Willkie, as candidates, and Mr. Dewey and Mr. Taft, as aspirants for the nomination, all publicly favored keeping the United States out of war if possible. Since Pearl Harbor, all have favored all-out war for total victory.
On post-war policy, all favored the Senate resolution of last November, which incorporated the Moscow four-power pact for:
…establishing at the earliest practicable date a general international organization, based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all peace-loving states, and open to all such states, large and small, for the maintenance of international peace and security.
But the British overestimate the power of a President to dictate American foreign policy. The man in the White House, whatever his personality or platform or party, cannot move beyond Congressional and public opinion – as Woodrow Wilson and others have learned to their sorrow.
America’s world policy, and relations with Britain, during the next four years will be determined by American public opinion on the basis of the success or the failure of present American efforts to achieve the international organization and democratic peace pledged by the Atlantic Charter and Moscow Pact. The overwhelming passage of the Fulbright and Connally resolutions proves that both parties and the American public are committed to that policy.