The Strength of Coalition

In the lexicon of political cliches none is more grimily thumbed than "the weakness of coalitions." And that is odd. considering how many of the great actions of history, from Themistocles to Marlborough to Eisenhower, were won by coalitions.

Perhaps coalitions have something beyond mere weight of numbers to balance their obvious disadvantages. A single nation can act and fight in the name of its immediate interest; with coalitions the common purpose tends to be more sublimated and often to partake of concern (real or assumed) for justice. An alliance is not as weak as its weakest link; sometimes the whole becomes much stronger than the sum of the parts because the members reach toward each other through their best aspects.

Britain of late has been playing the international game with a great show of practicality. The present national temper --or at least the mood of press and politicians--deplores the expression of principle in politics. When last week's conference between President Eisenhower and Prime Minister Eden produced the Washington Declaration (see next page), politically sophisticated Britons assumed that the text was the work of moralizing Americans. A British Foreign Office official read it. and explained that the declaration was addressed to Asians and Africans: "A simple reminder for simple-minded people." Journalist Randolph Churchill called it "pompous."

In actual fact, the idea of the Washington Declaration was Eden's. He brought the basic draft with him. and the final document must be credited much more to him than to any U.S. source. Although a man of principle, he cannot speak that language in the House of Commons. It is not done. But Britain is a nation of political principle as well as practicality.

The Washington Declaration gave Eden and Britain a chance to break through the inhibitions of the antimoralists and speak with their own voice. The U.S. is honored to be the signatory of a document, drafted by an ally, that expresses the U.S. attitude toward the moral issue raised by Communism perhaps more clearly and forcefully than any American ever expressed it.

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