After Victory

From World War I the U.S. emerged with precisely what its Commander in Chief had pledged its people: Peace without Victory. World War II is now being fought for the victory which in 1920 the U.S. did not know it had to have. This week FORTUNE publishes with its May issue a pamphlet (first of a series titled The U.S. in a New World) on the question: What kind of victory do we want?

The feeling expressed in public-opinion surveys the country over (TIME, April 6) is that, when the U.S. has won the war, it must this time enforce the victory. But patriotism has not yet been able to close one fissure between honest men: between those who believe that men must win the war before they think of the kind of peace they will get; and those who insist that, if the peace is not thought out now, once again there will be no peace.

As one attempt to close this gap, the first FORTUNE pamphlet (subject: Relations with Britain) was prepared by a committee headed by Raymond Leslie Buell, presiding officer of FORTUNE'S round tables, onetime president of the Foreign Policy Association, author (among other studies on international affairs) of Isolated America. The committee not only represented the editors of FORTUNE but, with collaboration from various editors of TIME and LIFE, obtained over a period of several months unofficial advice and criticism from diplomats of the United Nations, U.S. officials, many an expert on world affairs, internationalist and ex-isolationist alike. Purpose: to explore the problems of post-war economic, political and social existence and arrive at thoughtful (if still debatable) conclusions.

Relations with Britain starts with three frank assumptions: i) that the United Nations will win the war; 2) that in the post-war world the center of gravity of all military and economic power will rest in the U.S.; 3) that a peaceful world cannot be attained without "profound collaboration" between the U.S. and Britain.

From these assumptions, the committee reached the conviction: i) that the free-enterprise system must be made safe against any assaults of collectivism; 2) that a "free-market area" must be established between the U.S. and the United Kingdom, aimed toward universal free trade as the ultimate goal of a peaceful world. One conclusion: world reconstruction will succeed faster on the basis of joint policies than constitutional federations such as Union Now.

No imperialists, Editor Buell's committee set forth this belief: "The time for an American or a British Empire in the old sense of the word has passed; but the U.S. can and should work out with Britain and the Dominions a program of leadership, outmoding past imperialism, while working toward eventual world unity."

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