An American Policy Toward Russia

F there is one conclusion upon which it would seem that all groups of opinion about Russia must agree, it is that the United States has had no consistent policy toward the Soviet Union, and that such a policy is desirable. Our diplomatic attitude of nonrecognition is not in fact compatible with the economic recognition extended in commerce and industry. Nor are the embargoes and threats of further political interference with commerce harmonious with the effort to trade. If the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics is to be effectually outlawed, the antiSoviet propagandists are quite correct that it must be outlawed economically as well as politically and culturally. If it is not to be outlawed, then the only sensible course is vigorously to seek adjustment of the political difficulties, at least in so far as they hamper normal commercial intercourse. So far, our various conflicting actions with regard to Russia have appeared to be built on trivial, prejudiced, misinformed, or partial grounds rather than upon any broad and rational policy. In discussing a subject concerning which magnificent flights of the imagination are prevalent, it is important first to get the prosaic facts straight with regard to commerce. Is it, or is it not, to the economic advantage of the people of the United States to trade with the Soviet Union? Is it to our advantage that Soviet Russia should be allowed to trade with the rest of the world? If these questions were settled in the affirmative, we might conceivably decide that she should be outlawed even at a sacrifice to ourselves; but the economic and the political arguments are usually so confusingly intertwined that it is well to take them one at a time

Political science · Russia and Soviet political economy