Russia with Love?

President Donald Trump has caused anger by  suggesting that the USA should have a friendly relationship with Russia. We Oldies  know one important reason why.

We remember 1952. By that year, a mere few years after what we thought was the end of World War Two, the USA , Britain, France and allies had made a plan for Germany:

It was to  re-finance Germany whom they just defeated , re- arm it and make it  into  the financially and militarily strongest nation in a new European Union . As quickly as possible - "No time to lose", said Winston Churchill. And this new Germany would be the strongest unit in the heart of a European bulwark against Russia.  It  would be paid for by, among others, the USA paying "aid", for example Marshall Aid,  and Germans paying  reparations which would take many years  to pay off.

This  plan of the Allies was conceived  only months after  a disastrous war - perhaps even during it -  in which Russia had been  described by Churchill as "our gallant ally " and millions of their people had been killed and made homeless  winning it.  Most people in Europe  were trying to survive day by day and there was little public concern  about  the  Allies' plan in 1952.  

Before,  and perhaps during, the war  Adolf Hitler wanted a treaty with England. He made his intentions clear in his autobiography Mein Kampf, not a treaty with Italy, certainly not  one with France but with England.  Russia was his greatest international  enemy and such a treaty would be a help.   The  Russian communist system made Russia a  target for many other  interests  in  the world as well . After Hitler tried in vain to get a treaty with London or to defeat Russia  the Allies opened their  'second Front' ;  Russian troops drove westwards  and the Allies stopped them  from getting too far west.

The plan to re-finance and re-arm Germany took shape. By the early 1950s it was in good shape  but instead of a shooting war there was a Cold War against Russia. From that time until now Russia has been treated  by  "Western" governments  as an enemy  even when communism ceased to be  a power in their land.

NATO was set up "to defend the free world" ,  spending on nuclear and other arms  races increased . Although this planning for what led eventually to our European Union was not clear to  our troubled world at the time when we  believed we had more important things to think about, some people did notice and did think and did write about it. One was Stephen King-Hall, one time commander in the British Navy, sometime Labour or Independent Labour MP, commentator on international affairs, writer of plays and children's books.

We Oldies remember him well, not personally of course but through his writing and broadcasting. In the January 10th 1952 edition of his  National Newsletter, while the  post WW2 planning and plotting was going  on he wrote about what had  happened after the war "ended"  :  

" The months went by and the Western politicians had finally to admit that Western rearmament without Germany was almost a  joke. The  American General Staff had emphasised this from an early date.  Chancellor Adenauer, both on moral and political grounds decided to throw in Germany's lot with the West and to some extent overcame the ohne mich ( 'count me out ') mentality in Germany. Pleven and Schuman in France, opposed by the communists and de Gaullists, cooked up the idea of a European Army as a device to make it easier for French public opinion to swallow the spectacle of Germans in uniform. . ..... Mr Churchill called for this Army in a passionate speech at Strasbourg...."

The European Army did not materialise. What we  got instead though was integration of European armies through training, similar weaponry and other devices. And of course a European Union. And of course a strong Germany leading some bits of the Union to power and wealth.

Difficulties  therefore arise from  Mr Trump's present attitude to Russia . Without Russia as an enemy NATO is in  danger of reduction or disappearance; the arms industries which  play so large a part in the USA and other economies  could be seriously  reduced and the foreign policies of the USA and other countries  could become a shambles. Without an enemy economies like these tend to  collapse.

However,not to worry,  in the meantime new enemies are being  found, Middle East countries,  China, Mexico.......   President Obama's  cultivation of The Middle East as Enemy doctrine proved  disastrous though and  may have to be discarded.

There is of course the building up , by Mr Trump and others, of a literally deadly fear of Islam.  Is that   Mr Trump's  substitute  for Russia as a stimulus to good government?  Is  all that  post WW2 planning  and manipulation   going to go to waste then ?  If so,  it is no wonder the European Union is also annoyed at Mr Trump's  nice attitude to Russia.