Word: western
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Everybody knew that real Western Union would require some sacrifice of national sovereignty. So far, no nation has been willing to make this sacrifice; the French plan does not call for it either. Nevertheless, the French believe that their assembly would at least be a step in the right direction. The British believe that this is self-deception. They claim that (like U.N.) the assembly would raise extravagant hopes of unity where conditions for unity are not yet ripe...
...tariff barriers would come down. That might mean, under a free economy, that some inefficient Lancashire textile plant would close down while production would be expanded in a Lyon factory, better situated for general European trade. In a planned economy (which Britain's Socialist government considers indispensable to Western Union), the Lancashire-Lyon shift would be the subject of a formal government decision. It would come up for discussion in the kind of assembly the French want (say the British), and it would stir up nationalist resentment in Lancashire, which would make agreement harder...
British fear of French "instability" is not confined to economics. Many British officials suspect that France's desire for Western Union is merely an outgrowth of the "Third Force" movement. Edouard Herriot and Leon Blum, the leaders of France's drive for a European parliament, are also prophets of the Third Force-the middle man. The British fear that men like Herriot and Blum would try to turn Western Union from a militant anti-Communist federation into a bloc which would pursue the illusion of neutrality between Russia and the West...
Communist prestige was at low ebb in Western Germany. Yet in Düsseldorf last week a grinning, pinch-faced Stalinist with silver-grey hair was carried like a hero on the shoulders of a cheering, surging mob. He was Max Reimann, Communist boss of Western Germany...
...victory made a major change in the political and strategic world picture on the western shore of the Pacific. From Bering Strait to the Gulf of Tonkin Communism was now the major force. The western world merely held sentinel positions in Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia. Indo-China, Malaya and Burma -all three in turmoil-lay beneath the Communist threat...