The Meaning of the Cold War

[p009] THE MEANING OF THE COLD WAR Some supporters of the present policy point to the might of America as evidence of the invincibility of capitalism, and lean upon it for that reason, regardless of the reac- tionary consequences. It would be foolish to underesti- mate the strength of the United States, but the extreme concentration of resources and excessive centralization of power in this one country is in itself a symptom of the decline and a source of grave weakness for international capitalism. America’s monopoly makes Europe and England weak, and their weakness in turn rebounds upon America. The United States is today the sole support of capitalism on a world basis. It has had to move into one country after another to keep capitalism from total collapse or save its rulers from the wrath of the people. As China proves, — these efforts are not always successful. Since the Cold War began, the United States has taken over Greece; has had to prop up French, Italian and British capitalism with loans and grants; dispatch arms to the French in Indo-China; and cap all this by direct ‘armed intervention in Korea. America has become not — only the banker and the boss, but the military policeman of world capitalism. These political conditions and considerations have shaped the main lines of U.S. foreign policy since the end of the Second World War. They have been responsible 6

[p010] for the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Japanese Peace Pact, the Bonn Agreement, Korea and other measures of the Cold War. What is still worse, they are paving the way - for the Third World War SO breezily hailed by Defence Minister Alexander.