Calculated Risk

One smoldering ember of the new U.S. foreign policy was fanned into brisk flame last week. New York's roaring Representative John Taber discovered--after others had pointed it out to him--that the U.S. had shipped $113 million worth of exports to unfriendly Russia in the first nine months of 1947. Cried he: "A constant and deliberate violation of the law. . . . We are providing with our own funds the things with which Russia can destroy us."

To bolster his charge, Congressman Taber produced an impressive list of valuable exports: machine tools, railway stock, electric generators, mining and industrial machinery. It was impressive enough to touch off a House committee hearing this week. But John Taber, as usual, was overstating his case. Shipments to Russia this year were a drop in the U.S. export bucket: 1.1% of the total. He also seemed to have his laws and figures crossed.

Of the $113 million, only $16 million was for Lend-Lease supplies (to which Russia had taken title before the congressional deadline last January). Another $32 million was in supplies turned over to UNRRA before U.S. contributions were stopped for Europe in March. By midsummer, both Lend-Lease and UNRRA exports had all but stopped. The bulk of Russia's purchases had been made in the free American market;* in return, the U.S. had got such needed imports as manganese and chrome, such luxuries as sables and Persian lamb.

The issue which Congressman Taber raised was typical of the new headaches and responsibilities the U.S. had accepted along with the job of trying to bring peace and order into the world. It was true that everything the U.S. shipped to Russia--from electric locomotives to a can of tushonka (stew meat)--was potential grist for the Red Army. It was also true that the U.S., whether it was ready to go as far as economic sanctions or not, was counting on goods from Eastern Europe as a basic part of the Marshall Plan. The chance of sending goods to Russia for the sake of eventually bolstering Western Europe was the kind of calculated risk that, in its new world role, the U.S. had to face.

* Though certain critical items can be blocked by export licenses such goods as machinery and automobiles are free of export controls.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.