Go What Alone ?
The fear that while the British Government and people were taking a holiday to celebrate the Coronation some other Government might manage to upset the present delicately poised international balance looked like being justified for a day or two at the end of last week. Senatnt Taft, who is recognised as a great force for good or evil within the Repub- lican party of the United States, came down on the side of evil —which in this case is identical with an almost incredible foolishness—by making a speech based on the assumption that the United States could " go it alone " in the Far East. That phrase helps nobody. Like so many of the popular expressions that from time to time creep into American political affairs its looseness of wording covers a corresponding looseness of thought. If ever Senator Taft had stopped to ask himself just what the expression " go it alone " meant, he would have seen that there was no precise reality corresponding to it. The United States, as President Eisenhower pointed out, needs allies everywhere, and she certainly cannot dismiss them in the Far East and retain them in the Atlantic theatre. Whether the United States dismisses or retains her allies anywhere does not depend upon the attitudes of Senator Taft, however powerful he may be in the Republican party. He can fall back on isola- tionism, and does fall back on it from time to time. That fact. in itself does not shift the world balance. But it is not enough for the rest of the world to recognise that what, Senator Taft says is rather different from what the United States Government does. It is not enough either for President Eisenhower to disagree publicly with the Senator's views. From time to time events pile up to such an extent that the barrier of the Presi- dent's caution must give way. He must make statements and adopt policies which demonstrate to all the world that he is not the prisoner of the isolationists in the Republican party. The Taft outburst has made it even plainer than it was before that the Bermuda Conference would provide a good opportunity for a new expression of Western solidarity.
Previous page
