Cold War, 75 Years Later

The economic aid which is required could not be a matter of pure generosity. Nations as nations are incapable of such generosity.

“The people of Munich were informed by proclamation of the city administration that the requisition of private homes for army housing was to be carried through, and to a greater extent than had been hitherto feared.”

From 1945 to 1947 as the United States and Soviet Union moved toward the Cold War, Christian realists writing for Reinhold Niebuhr’s journal, Christianity and Crisis, responded to global dilemmas. Here are five impressions of those articles, along with lessons for today.

At the end of Reinhold Niebuhr’s travels across Western Europe in 1947, he spent a week at the Ecumenical Institute, a facility near Geneva. He was hopeful of how this project would bless the church life of the world, and he offered observations about discussions there about communism, church-state relations, Christian political parties, and more.

Now what is here symbolized has been the most fundamental idea in our American democracy. Ours is a government by discussion.

In this episode the editors discuss Rebeccah Heinrichs’ article about John Kirby’s emotional statement about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Mark Tooley’s editorial about Poland and Ukraine as martyr nations, and Christian realist articles from 1947 debating whether the Chinese communists could exist and thrive in a democracy.

George Marshall’s attempt to create peace between the Chinese nationalists and communists failed. Christian realists in 1947 considered why.

This week the editors discussed a Providence event where Yoram Hazony talked about his forthcoming new book “Conservatism: A Rediscovery,” how Christian realists disagreed over US foreign policy as the Cold War began, Mark Tooley’s article about democracy and decadence, and J. Daryl Charles’ article about deterring nuclear blackmail.

“Unless we accept the Russian view of the nature of man, we cannot work with the USSR to a common end for human society.”