The Fifteen Weeks (February 21 - June 5, 1947) by Joseph M. Jones

Author:Joseph M. Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781789125337
Publisher: Arcole Publishing
Published: 2019-05-30T00:00:00+00:00

3—THE PUBLIC DEBATE

THE public discussion on United States foreign policy that followed President Truman’s message to Congress was the most mature and fruitful in the history of the nation, and it continues to this day. In the intervening years the rising tide of public comprehension has supported responsible American action on the world stage that would have been unthinkable before.

The President’s message posed the problem in such a way that American responsibility in the world had to be accepted or rejected. In our previous sheltered existence we had strongly disliked what we considered power politics. We now realized that positions that were being evacuated by a friendly power would not remain power vacuums but would be taken over by another power that was the avowed enemy of our way of life. There was no place to hide. The historic shield of sturdy kindred nations in Western Europe was broken.

Not only were the broad concepts of power reality debated and clarified during the Fifteen Weeks, but the mundane necessities of world housekeeping as well: political grants and loans for political purposes, military aid in peacetime for political purposes, intervention (its morality, aims, and limitations), American supervision of American aid, aid to governments of which we did not wholly approve, the calculated risk of war, the necessary choice between unpleasant alternatives. The immersion in reality was thorough, and from it the nation emerged sobered, instructed, and equipped as never before to play a responsible role in world affairs.

Practically all press, radio, and congressional observers immediately recognized President Truman’s message as a landmark in American history. Commentators searched their histories for suitable comparisons and their lexicons for weighty words with which to describe the new policy. The most obvious comparison, one that was immediately and widely made, was to the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. A few typical excerpts from the press of the day demonstrate the importance that was immediately attached to the President’s declaration:

This is no issue for partisan division. This is no little problem to be dismissed with easy phrases about meddling in the affairs of Europe or pulling British chestnuts from the fire. This is a question as grave as any that has ever confronted the American people, and the answer to it may, for better or worse, decide our own ultimate destiny as a free people. (Scripps-Howard Newspapers, March 13, 1947.)

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