Ideologies in this war have to be very practical things. It's about time we abandoned such cliches as "battle of the free peoples of the world" and "war against the leaders of our enemies not the people." These may be very good rallying cries, but as guides to a practical policy they don't add up, Look at the Russian situation for instance.

Right now it looks as if our victory in Europe is in the hands of the Red armies. what possible, basis are we going to have for setling the central European mess if we keep insisting that this is a battle of the free peoples? Do we propose to send missionaries of democracy first to Russia and then to all the now conquered countries, and when they have done their work set about making the peace? This is a fantastic course. It would mean either anarchy or more probably complete hostility of all Europe headed by the Russians to the United States and England.

What these people want is not the imposition of our principles and beliefs, but the right to their own. They don't want and they won't take our blueprint of the future. It's foolish of us to think we're going to force it down their throats. Practically speaking the only basis for a settlement in Central Europe is a code of international morality which guarantees the rights of these countries to whatever government they choose--Russia to communism, Poland to despotism, Czechoslovakia to democracy. We'll get a lot further in working out this code if we don't confuse ourselves with any illusion about a world of free people. It isn't and it shouldn't be, what we are fighting for.

Likewise in dealing with our conquered enemies, if we operate on the principle that with their leaders gone they'll become peace loving and democratic, we're in for a shock. You don't go fight an all out war, get defeated, and cheerfully say, "Oh, yes, we were wrong." Take Germany for example. It's not going to be any easier bringing her back into the fold this time than it was in 1919 an if we start off on the principle that we just cast her loose we'll end up where we are now again. To fit Germany into the pattern of the future requires both a complete internal reeducation and an external policy of conciliation. We can't set up a ring of tariff barriers around her and expect to keep her at peace for instance.

What we are fighting for is a very practical hard headed basis of world organization. It's got to be founded on the facts of the situation not empty platitudes that we'd like to believe. Let's start now before it's too late to educate ourselves to this sort of international morality.