In The Name Of Peace - Part Three

Fulton Missouri 1946

"Today once more we have the horror of totalitarianism on the march and cravenness of the appeasers. Your President Wallace says we must understand Stalin and the communist movement, that they are merely another progressive force for good. Well he is blind to the threat represented by communists' totalitarianism. He is blinded by his own desires to have a progressive world free from war and the threat of war. He says if the democracies show their peaceful intent by disarming, the Communists will follow suit. America and Britain have disarmed, the Soviets have not. While we speak peace and coexistence they proclaim world revolution and the destruction of the non-communist nations.
President Wallace and the appeasers claimed Stalin kept his promise of free elections in Eastern Europe," Churchill paused and he looked at his crowd. "You are free to vote communist or free to go to jail for daring to oppose the will of the people. If it were merely the reimposition of totalitarian dictatorship in Eastern Europe it would be warning enough of the evil intent of communism. Unfortunately it is not. The Soviets have forced the collapse of the non-communist government in Germany to be replaced by a strictly communist one. President Wallace called this a victory for the forces of progressivism. In Italy the new communist government has started arresting opposition political leaders. President Wallace calls this securing a better future for Italy. The free Greek government, that fought beside us against the horror of Nazism, is driven out by communist armies sent on Stalin's orders. President Wallace proclaims another state liberated by the Progressive people's forces. Soviet Armies have forced the Nationalist Chinese to flee to Taiwan and he cheers saying another blow has been struck for world peace. He gives to the Communists the greatest weapon ever developed the atomic bomb. All these things he calls peace. Well I have another word for it, it's called appeasement."

Washington 1946

How dare he endanger world peace and freedom like this, President Wallace thought as he crumpled the newspaper and tossed it into the trashcan. The Soviets were finally seeing the light and realizing we weren't their enemies and that British fool goes and gets them paranoid again.
"You say that the capitalist democracies desire peace and understanding with the progressive states of the world. That we communists are like you in our desire for social and economic justice only achieving it faster than you are. Which is why you should adopt communism now to accelerate your development to the final best stage of humanity," Molotov the Soviet Foreign Minister commented.
"We do desire those things. Have not my actions proven the intent of my words?"
Wallace asked offended, he had gone the extra mile and more for peace.
"It is not you we fear President Wallace, never have the progressive peace loving peoples of the socialist nations had a more understanding and stronger friend in a reactionary capitalist country. Your actions give us hope to see the revolution expand some day to America. But in your country there are capitalist elements looking to take control and turn back the progress we've made. It worries us that your nation will turn against us in a new capitalist war of aggression."
"We will never do that," Wallace assured him not wanting another lesson about the American intervention during the Russian Civil War in 1919. While he opposed the intervention, it was a minor action consisting of less than 20,000 men who left after a few months of merely watching some ports. It could hardly be called an invasion.
"You would never do that, but your general McArthur the military governor of Japan would. He has made several hostile statements about communism and the ominous need to deal with us. He should be replaced by someone more sympathetic to the interest of the peace loving socialists people of the world. Someone to whom peace is not merely a time to ready for the next war. We were thinking of our general Koniev, he would do the job well," Molotov proposed blandly.
"McArthur is a reactionary," Wallace agreed, the man was almost as paranoid as Churchill regarding the alleged threat of communism. "But there are substantial reports of street thuggery by communist party forces in Japan against non-communist parties," he pointed out, actually the reports included assaults and assassinations, but he modified the words so not to offend.
"The communists are merely defending themselves against assaults by fascists parties backed by your general McArthur. If there was a peace loving leader, then they would be secure in the right to exercise their political liberties and the strife would decline. Why merely look at our supervision of Poland or Romania, no crime or social strife once under enlightened Communist rule," Molotov assured him.
"True," Wallace agreed things were more peaceful in Eastern Europe and he doubted Churchill's, the right's and the refugees stories of mass arrests and murder and deportations in the Communist states. Churchill was delusional, the right saw communist conspiracies under every tree, and the refugees were merely mad because they lost their factories and businesses to the collectivization of the communists. The Progressive Press in those countries would have exposed such actions. Plus McArthur probably was being excessive. "But the American People view Japan the way you Soviets view Germany as an enemy needed to be kept under close observation." There would no end to the trouble he'd get from Congress if he let the Soviets run Japanese reconstruction. Many Americans already were upset that the Soviets gained so much in Asia for less than a month of conflict against Japan, while America fought for nearly four years.
"Japan is eight thousand miles away from the United States but only a few hundred from the Soviet Union. We fear you intend to use it as a platform to launch an attack upon the Soviet Union. But those fears would be gone under a progressive socialist peace loving force," Molotov spoke much like a chess player moving pieces.
"Maybe it would," President Wallace agreed nodding. Molotov's words rang true, Japan bordered the Soviet Union while the United States had the whole Pacific Ocean. What are domestic concerns compared to world peace, he told himself. "Plus it will expand the foundations of a peaceful world."
"And that foundation is expanding every day," Molotov spoke as he gave a slight smile.