NATO Leads to War (Why NATO? by Harold Davies M.P.)

'Why NATO?' the latest Victory for Socialism pamphlet by Harold Davies, is an extremely valuable and informative document for socialists. Davies shows how: 'American big business naturally has a vested interest in an economy which spends astronomical sums on arms, and gives them power in the munitions lobby greater than that of the Ballot Box.'

Last year, Eisenhower asked Congress for 3,929,995,000 dollars for foreign aid and 62 per cent. of that was for military aid. Eisenhower added: 'Over two-thirds of this sum will be used for Turkey, Vietnam, Taiwan and Korea.' The bodies of the 160 dead students in Seoul testify how useful Syngman Rhee has found his share of military aid from the USA.

The so-called Military Security Programme and NATO are designed, as Davies explains, 'to draw the under-privileged areas into the orbit of the Cold War' resulting in 'a world-wide network of subsidised clients and reactionary regimes.'

American military aid has resulted in bigger and better profits for American business. Since MSP was established it has financed 'purchases for over 7 billion dollars of surplus agriculture products.' Eighty cents out of every dollar spent under the MSP is spent in the United States.

In Asia, one of the chief 'beneficiaries' of Military Security, the gap between the 'Haves and Have-nots' is wider now than pre-war. Rice output in 'Free Asia' is up 18 per cent., population has, however, grown by 27 per cent.

Davies quotes the chairman of the American House of Representatives, Clarence Canon, who said: 'We wouldn't have to spend near the money we do if it were not for the lobbyists and munition makers. They thrive on wars and the threat of wars. If we declared peace, they would go broke.'

The war drive of American imperialism produces, as Davies shows, the most fantastic and lunatic policies: 'Professor Frederick Edmondson, of Cornell University, has planned out a city of 9,000 chosen people, whose lives with that of their children would be lived underground to perhaps the fifth generation.

'This is to be built beneath the limestone and granite of New York's Schoraie County. The chosen ones are to be the survivors of the nuclear war. They are to live that way, war or no war.'

Presumably all the 9,000 will have good bank deposits, lots of patience and suitably moronic temperaments.

The Methodist Recorder sees a glow of light for Christians in the Fylingdales Moor warning project. Not only will Fylingdales 'mean more employment for local people', but, says the Recorder, it will mean 'larger congregations at the Methodist churches' and 'a general strengthening of Methodist life in the area.'

As Davies explains: 'German industry and German militarists are now more closely associated with the German government than at any time except under Hitler.'

Davies correctly emphasizes the 'questionable methods' employed at the Labour Party conference in 1954 to force the conference to accept German rearmament. This resulted in a strengthening of Adenauer and his reactionary regime and a weakening of the German Social Democratic Party. This policy will make German capitalism 'the most powerful military force in NATO by 1962'.

For Britain, nuclear policy and NATO will mean absolute destruction. The Army League set up a study group to consider the future role and needs of the British army. Number 9 of its conclusions reads: 'Today, if continental West Europe were over-run the hope of salvaging the United Kingdom from the ruins would be almost negligible.' As NATO Comamnder 1951-52, Eisenhower said: 'We are not going to fight a ground war in Europe.'

The weakness of Harold Davies' pamphlet lies in its conclusions. Whilst recognizing NATO as an agency of American imperialism he fails to recognize the similar role of the United Nations Organization. This faith in UNO is contradicted by the military intervention in Korea and its 'statesmanlike' policy of non-interference and neutralism in Guatemala and British Guiana.

What follows from this exposure of imperialism, so ably done by Davies, is the need to strengthen the fight against both the Tories and the Right-wing Labour leaders. This means Labour's Left-wing joining forces with the industrial working class in Britain and the colonial revolution, because these are the only forces that can destroy Toryism and its war pacts.