Walter Lippmann and the American Century — 32 Realpolitik

1. 1. Lippmann rejected Wilsonian idealism and grounded his postwar policy in national interest and great-power alliances, not world law or international parliaments.
2. 2. Lippmann proposed that Eastern Europe be neutralized, with Russia respecting and supporting that neutrality, as a viable postwar settlement.
3. 3. Lippmann defined a workable foreign policy as bringing into balance the nation's commitments and its power, with a comfortable surplus in reserve.
4. 4. Lippmann warned against missionary interventionism, arguing that the primary aim of American responsibility should be the Atlantic basin and Pacific islands, with no permanent military commitments outside these regions.
5. 5. By 1944, Lippmann accepted a Soviet sphere in Eastern Europe, reversing his earlier call for neutrality, and proposed orbits for great powers to prevent a new war.
6. 6. Lippmann criticized the Dumbarton Oaks conference for making an issue out of voting procedure, arguing that no great power would submit to a majority vote on a vital issue.
7. 7. Lippmann opposed Dewey's injection of the Polish issue into the 1944 campaign, accusing him of encouraging irreconcilable Poles to reject a compromise with Russia.
8. 8. Lippmann defended Churchill's spheres-of-influence deal with Stalin, deriding those who measured the sacrifice of American soldiers by abstract principles from the Atlantic Charter.
9. 9. Lippmann argued that Poland had to come to terms with Russia, making Russia the principal guarantor of its western boundary, and that right-wing Poles encouraged by London and Washington were living in a fantasy.
10. 10. Lippmann initially hailed Yalta as a great triumph, but later recognized that the accords merely recognized a fait accompli: the West paid the political price for failing to deter Hitler in the 1930s.