Word: balkanize
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...Europe, Russia had climbed down a little way. It realized at last that the Western powers held a potent threat: they could refuse to sign peace treaties with puppet governments in Eastern Europe. For a fortnight the Russian press raged against Anglo-American interference with internal affairs of sovereign Balkan nations. London denied the charge of Balkan intrigue. Once the U.S. and Britain had taken a firm stand, direct intervention was not necessary to encourage democratic elements in eastern Europe which looked to the West for both economic aid and political sympathy...
Surprise & Understanding. The Hong Kong episode came before the dust had settled from Foreign Secretary Bevin's first forthright venture into the field of foreign policy (TIME, Aug. 27). His denunciation of Soviet-backed Balkan Governments and refusal to countenance intervention in Spain shocked left-wingers who looked for sweeping changes. Editorialized the Communist Daily Worker: "This is not yet the lead which millions of service and home voters . . . are waiting for." More sober and more traditional was the sizing-up of the Manchester Guardian: "British foreign policy, as Mr. Bevin expounded it, is not a matter of party...
Harry Truman obviously had more on his mind than the minor complaints of British newsmen. The same day, Secretary of State James F. Byrnes made it plain. Said Byrnes, eyeing the blacked-out Balkans: he would rather have free reporters watch the coming Balkan elections than any number of "official observers...
Winston Churchill was pointing up the differences of political procedure in Britain and in the newly liberated Balkans: "They take their politics very seriously in those countries. A friend of mine, an officer who was there when the results of the late general election came in, told me that a [Balkan] lady said to him: 'Poor Mr. Churchill. I suppose now he will be shot.' My friend was able to reassure her by saying that the sentence might be mitigated to various forms of hard labor...
Songs & Stories. When they were not too busy the U.S. staff gathered in the evening to hear Balkan Specialist Cavendish Cannon play the piano. He and James W. Riddleberger, the department's German specialist, and Charles Eustis Bohlen, Russian-speaking specialist on the U.S.S.R., had the most work to do. Their boss, Assistant Secretary of State James C. Dunn, looked cheerful although he had not been in favor of a hard peace for Germany. U.S. delegates who knew no Russian learned two words from daily dealing with the Russian Security guards who stood by every Potsdam door. The words...