Promise of Joy (54 page)

“This may be the bleak reality that confronts the President, though all responsible citizens in this fear-haunted city hope not.…”

And Frankly Unctuous, just back from Jawbone’s press conference, spoke from the House Radio-TV Gallery in the same vein:

“Here on Capitol Hill, where only yesterday President Knox called his country to a vigilant neutrality in the steadily re-escalating conflict between Russia and China, there is already evident today an erosion of the firm and united purpose he sought, prompted by a startling, and at first blush ridiculous, statement from the head of the National Anti-War Activities Congress.

“Former Senator Fred Van Ackerman called upon the President last night to intervene on the side of Russia. He said the President should do so because ‘America must save the civilization of the West from the Godless yellow hordes of Asia.’ He further said that ‘the heathen, pagan society of the Chinese mainland is inimical to all the ancient values of European culture and tradition which have come down to us in this country.’ He also said that ‘unless China is stopped, she may conquer Russia and then pour across the land mass of Eurasia and eventually into the ultimate reaches of the Pacific Basin, not excluding our own shores.’ He also said, ‘The time to stop her is now. The nation that is attempting to do so is Russia. The nation that must help Russia save civilization as we know it is the United States.’

“He did not quite dare say, ‘The nation that must help Russia save
white
civilization as we know it is the United States,’ but that was the clear import of his statement.

“Overnight Senator Van Ackerman has revived ‘the Yellow Peril.’ And it is typical of this dreadful moment that his words should be running like lightning through the country and here on Capitol Hill.

“Intervention in the terrible conflict in Asia would be almost suicidal for the United States, something to be undertaken only for the most dire and compelling of reasons. ‘Yellow Peril’ is not such a reason. Yet already many members of Congress have received telegrams and phone calls endorsing Mr. Van Ackerman’s position. And already the matter has become a living issue in the pre-session press conferences of the Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader of the United States Senate.

“Sometimes issues come alive not because of what men say, but because of what they refuse to say.

“Representative J. B. Swarthman and Senator Arly Richardson are honorable men, men who accompanied President Knox on his gallant but failed effort to bring peace to the world. Yet today both refused to denounce unequivocally and categorically former Senator Van Ackerman’s statement. Both were pressed to do so by the media. In identical language both said that Congress ‘must refrain from judgment and await developments.’ Both clearly and deliberately passed up the chance to reject Senator Van Ackerman’s action and condemn his sentiments.

“Evasion of issues, history shows, does not stop them. More often, it encourages them. Many here are fearful today that in encouraging the revival of ‘the Yellow Peril,’ some leaders of Congress may be helping to open a Pandora’s box.”

As he finished reading and listening to these expressions of opinion, as he quickly scanned the news-ticker reports on Jawbone’s and Arly’s comments, the President still did not feel unduly alarmed. Supermedia and all the little media were still behind him at the moment, and while Arly and Jawbone had indeed been somewhat equivocal, still they were in a position where they had to work with all sides, consider all shades of opinion, be careful not to antagonize any of their colleagues unduly—

Or—he brought himself up short—did they?

Wasn’t he falling back into the easy thinking of the Hill when that, too, had been destroyed forever by the awful realities of the atomic exchange? Wasn’t he letting himself be persuaded, as the Hill always could be persuaded, that compromising with wrong part way was always better than rejecting it outright—which might really make enemies and upset the whole comfortable pattern of getting along together?

Wasn’t it all much grimmer and much more stark than that?

He had told them so just yesterday, and he had believed it. He believed it still. Then why should he consider for even a second forgiving the rationale of those who might be wobbling in their support of him now?

It was all very typical of the evil genius of Fred Van Ackerman, he thought. Fred was indeed a little Hitler, one of those fortunately rare types who know exactly how to appeal to all the lowest instincts of their fellow beings. And of course, as Walter had so accurately observed, the reason Fred was able to achieve such successes of evil was because they were hidden there waiting for him, needing only to be called out with the right words and the right timing. His appeal could succeed, as Walter said, only because it synthesized what many were secretly thinking.

That was the honest fact of it.

Damn mankind, the President thought with a sudden savagery, which could be held to the paths of principle such a tiny, tiny time before it wandered off again down the paths of prejudice, self-interest, cupidity and weakening of will.

Already his secretaries were reporting a tide of telegrams and telephone calls to the White House, running overwhelmingly in favor of Fred’s position. Already Bob Leffingwell had called from State to report that he was receiving very delicate but nonetheless pointed intimations from a number of diplomatic contacts that possibly, just possibly, the West might have to consider going to Russia’s assistance if the tide should really turn against her—“Nothing definite, you understand,” Bob said with a savagery of his own. “Just a hint here and a whisper there. But they’re wavering, Mr. President. They’re beginning to shift.”

In hours now, probably, NAWAC would be back in the streets demonstrating for aid to Russia. And before you knew it, there would be a “National Committee to Save Western Culture,” or some such fancy title, its solemn rationale presented in a full-page ad in
The
New York Times,
its letterhead brimming over with the names of distinguished liberals and conservatives alike, all united at last in one great common cause of saving the West from Fred’s “Godless yellow hordes of Asia.”

Overnight, thanks to one shrewd political gambler who still knew how to be as troublesome outside the Senate as he had been in it, the mood and climate had changed. But again, the President admitted with a grim honesty—only because men wanted it to change. Fred could never have done it alone.

So he cursed again, knowing even as he did so that accursed or no, mankind was still his burden, and particularly that segment of it that had grouped itself together more than two centuries ago under the working label “United States of America.”

His anger, impatience and frustration would pass, as they were doing already even as he expressed them to himself in language vivid and violent.

The burden would remain.

And how to carry it now, if the drive to force his hand gained momentum, as of course it would if Chinese successes grew?

Suddenly he was not at all as calm as he had been a few moments ago at the end of his talk with Bill Abbott. Suddenly a great urgency filled his mind and heart. His instinct was as good as Bill’s and Walter’s and Frankly’s and it told him the same thing as theirs told them. His half-joking comment to Bill about Speech One came to mind: “Come on, gang, hold the line!”

Already—such was the pell-mell headlong rush of these dread days in which everything was compressed and crowded into little—it was time for Speech One.

He called in the press secretary and told him to schedule it for 9 p.m.

Meanwhile the tempo of debate at home accelerated. So, too, did events abroad.

“Mr. Speaker,” cried young Bronson Bernard of New York, fiery and consumed with the significance of the moment and himself, “I well know that it is considered not quite right for a member so young as I to join so actively in debate after being here so short a time. But, Mr. Speaker, I submit that it is exactly my youth which gives me the right to speak. For I am of that generation which stands to lose most if the culture of the West goes down.

“Oh, yes, Mr. Speaker,” he cried, as there was some murmuring among his elders on the floor and among the media in their omniscient galleries above, “let us make no mistake about it! We who have always abhorred and forsworn war can feel it in our bones: now war is coming rapidly closer to all that we hold dear. It may take weeks, it may take months or years—it may, so fast is the world spinning, take hours. But sooner or later, if it is allowed to run unchecked, the challenge will be here. The last line of Western defenses will be gone, and we will remain to face the dread onslaught alone.

“So, then, Mr. Speaker, I ask you, is it beyond sensibility to take counsel now—to take
action
now—to prevent the arrival of that fearful hour?

“The President of the United States of America spoke to us just twenty-four hours ago in this very chamber and called upon us to go it alone. He urged a new isolationism, a new withdrawal into Fortress America. Given any other set of circumstances, that might be the right, the honorable and the safe course. But look at the circumstances now—and look at the consequences if we do as he suggests.

“There is a chance that the conflict now resuming and apparently heading toward new heights of fury will burn itself out, leaving both participants too exhausted to ever resume again. The world thought that moment had been reached two weeks ago. It was not. And it is entirely possible that it may not be reached now, particularly if one side or the other speedily wins dominance. Particularly will it not be reached if that side which is alien to all the culture and traditions we of the Western world have so patiently built up over so many centuries is the one that emerges triumphant.

“Then, Mr. Speaker, we would indeed face the situation described so vividly by the chairman of the National Anti-War Activities Congress in his statement last night: a situation in which China would swarm across Russia and into Europe, toppling all our friends like dominoes as she goes, a situation in which she could then be expected to move swiftly into the Pacific Basin and before long even to our own shores.

“This, I submit, Mr. Speaker, we cannot permit. We cannot afford to let a way of life and a political philosophy hostile to our own dominate a third of the earth’s surface and eventually encircle us. We must take preventive action and take it while we still have an ally who can assist. We must not wait until Russia surrenders and then find that we
really
have to go it alone.

“To do so would be to betray all the principles of freedom and stability that we have always cherished and defended. We must be courageous now and defend them again, while there is still time and while our decisive assistance can swiftly tip the balance the other way and bring a speedy and relatively harmless end to the conflict. We owe it to ourselves and to that Western cultural tradition that is being defended now at great cost in blood and treasure by the United States of Russia. Let us help her, Mr. Speaker! Let us give her the aid she needs to finish the job, before it is too late!”

And he gave his head a sudden emphatic shake and sat down, to the mingled applause and boos of his colleagues and the galleries.

Shrewd and experienced observers in both places thought the applause was somewhat greater than the boos. The ensuing silence was more than a little challenging as the ex-President of the United States arose slowly, looked thoughtfully about the crowded chamber and began to speak.

“Mr. Speaker,” he said, “I have listened with amazement to the address of the new member from New York. He is, as he says, young, and he professes to speak for the young and, I take it, the liberal young.

“How ironic it is then, to hear all the arguments of the conservative position
vis-à-vis
the Soviet Union in past years coming back to us out of the mouth of the liberal young gentleman from New York! How ironic and how laughable, were it not so tragically mistaken, it is to hear him repeat, in defense of Russia, the same old clichés about the civilization of the West, the defense of freedom, the domino theory, the alien culture that may overwhelm our friends and creep upon our borders!

“One might laugh indeed. Except that it would be very sad laughter.

“The President of the United States of America certainly did urge yesterday a new isolationism in which America would stay out, preserve that Western culture the gentleman is worried about, and hold herself ready to step in and bind up the wounds after it is all over. No other power now possesses the resources and the strength to do this. If the war in Asia escalates further and ends in the complete exhaustion that seems likely, someone will have to do it. If we get directly involved, we will be exhausted too. Also we will very likely suffer some of the same atomic devastation that has already hit Russia and China, and may very soon hit them again.

“It seems to me, Mr. Speaker, that to intervene on one side or the other would be insanity. Our only role, our only salvation perhaps, is not to get drawn in. It is to stay out, stay strong and await events patiently and firmly, without fear or hysteria or taking sides in any way.

“The gentleman from New York, and those who agree with him, who no doubt will also speak here this afternoon, takes a moral stance and talks nobly of Western culture. No such nicety hampered the head of NAWAC when he issued his statement last night. He sought, apparently with some success, to revive the myth of ‘the Yellow Peril’—to put it on a racial basis, to arouse old hidden fears of Orientals, to call up the old bitterness of race against race. Oh, I know, Mr. Speaker,” he said calmly as Bronson Bernard half rose from his seat in protest, “I know these are not the words of the gentleman from New York. He does not possess the crude arrogance which we who know the former Senator from Wyoming have come to recognize as his trademark. Representative Bernard is not that blatant, nor does he relish quite that cruelly the game of forcing people to face their lowest impulses in the mirror. That is the game, and in its own twisted way quite possibly the genius, of the former Senator from Wyoming.