EUROPE: Warning for the West

The French and Italian elections produced a somber warning for the West: democratic forces have, at best, contained the Communists’ popular strength in the two countries, have not substantially reduced it. Despite all the West’s efforts, there were 10 million people in France and Italy who—though not all of them were die-hard Communists—were still willing to say, at the polls, that in Communism rather than in democracy lies their hope for peace and plenty.