When the U.S. Democrats saved Europe from Communism

In 1946, Henry Wallace was the most popular Democratic politician in America. His supporters saw the communists as valuable allies in the struggle for the New Deal, in the struggle against fascism, and in the struggle for civil rights -- as they had been. The Wallace faction believed that liberalism's sole enemy was conservatism at home -- people who opposed the New Deal -- and fascists and imperialists abroad.

In January 1947, at the Willard Hotel, Arthur Schlesinger, Reinhold Niebuhr, Walter Reuther, and Eleanor Roosevelt created Americans for Democratic Action. Their argument was that, in fact, liberalism was something very different. They defined liberalism as a fight not only against the right but also against totalitarianism. In his 1949 book, The Vital Center, Arthur Schlesinger's fundamental argument was that communism, like fascism, was totalitarian. And that liberalism's enemy had to be not only the conservatives, but also totalitarianism -- the notion of a single force that would use the state to take total control over society and the lives of the individual.

That fight ended in 1948 when Harry Truman defeated Henry Wallace's third-party run for the presidency. And it allowed two things to happen. The first was that it created a liberal anti-communism. And that enabled some of the most remarkable things in American history: Truman's aid to Greece and Turkey that prevented those countries from falling to the communists; the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Western Europe at a time when France had four communists in its cabinet, including a communist minister of defense; the formation of NATO to bind America to Europe. It did great things in the world. And most of these things were opposed partially or wholly by the Republican Congress.

Beinart hopes for a re-alignment of the Democratic party along these values. And no, the U.S. did not manage to save all of Europe from communism. But a good part!

(Piece found via dickerixon.com)