A Communist offensive broke out last week in Western Europe. The riots in France and Italy (see below) were obviously part of a plan, but the plan probably was not intended to result in immediate Communist seizure of Western European governments.
What, then, did Moscow hope to gain? In a word—time. Time in which to wreck the Marshall Plan on the shoals of disorder in Europe, on the rocks of the great U.S. depression which Moscow believes imminent. Moscow is by no means ready for full-fledged international war, but neither does it want peace. In the phrase of a top British diplomat, it wants a “twilight zone” between peace and war. Quite satisfactory twilights have been produced in Greece and China. It is time, in Moscow’s eyes, for twilight to roll westward, along the course of the sun.
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