|
GRUESOME HARVEST The Costly Attempt To Exterminate The People of Germany By Ralph Franklin Keeling A year and a month after the Potsdam Declaration
was published, Secretary of State Byrnes suddenly
left the Paris peace conference and went to
Stuttgart where among the German people he
attempted to justify and defend America's policy
toward the defeated Reich. This willingness to place a value on German
public opinion marked a fundamental and welcome
turning point in our official attitude, for
previously we were carrying out our mission in
Germany with utter disregard for what the Germans
might think of it or us. The change did not arise from any newly
discovered fondness for our defeated subjects. Mr.
Byrnes had put his finger on the real reason when
he said: "It is not in the interest of the German
people or in the interest of world peace that
Germany should become a pawn or a partner in a
military struggle for power between East and
West." That is precisely what had already happened.
Belatedly, we had come to realize that while we
were busily and blindly alienating the German
people by carrying out one of the most brutal and
terrifying peace programs ever inflicted on a
defeated nation, Russia, who had been egging us on,
was quietly preparing to come forward as their
champion and to offer them an avenue of escape from
us through the establishment of a unified, revived,
and Communist Reich to be joined to the Soviet
Union. This had been made clear by Molotov in July
at Paris. Germany is more than a mere pawn in the struggle
for power between world ambitious Communist Russia
and the West, she is the major price. World
Communism has long coveted Germany as the brightest
jewel in its crown. The Kremlin knows and we know
that all Europe would have to fall before the
combined might of a union between Soviet Russia and
a resuscitated Reich. Such an eventuality cannot be tolerated by
Britain who, with a hostile Europe at her back,
would find her very existence threatened. Nor could
we countenance such a threat to England, because
treatment of the British Isles as our first line of
defense in the Atlantic is one of the imperatives
of our present foreign policy. Union between Soviet Russia and a sovietized
Germany would mean war. To prevent war, we must
therefore prevent the fruition of Russia's design.
Hence, it becomes necessary that we attract Germany
to our side and keep her there. The situation demands a thorough review of our
German program, followed by whatever changes are
required to establish a decent peace and prevent
the Germans from feeling compelled by desperation
to go over to the Russians. The time has come for frank admission of past
mistakes and courageous facing of hard facts. It is
necessary for the American people to become
thoroughly acquainted with what has been going on
and to see to it that the proper corrective steps
are taken and taken promptly. This book is offered as a contribution to that
end. It sets forth in plain terms just what has
happened in Germany, because such knowledge is
essential both to apprehend the German point of
view and to become acquainted with the status
quo from which we must proceed with remedial
measures. It outlines the nature of Russia 's
design, together with a description of the mistakes
we have made in falling so deeply into her trap.
And finally it presents some suggestions for a
peace settlement with Germany which would be at
once just and permanent. |