Enduring Message
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One World
Enduring Message
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The publication on April 8, 1943, of One World, which recounted Willkie’s 1942 trip around the world as FDR’s special envoy, was a much anticipated event. The publisher greatly underestimated public demand, however, and the first press run sold out so quickly that Simon and Schuster apologized for the shortage in ads that ran in 50 newspapers. By the end of April, One World was already in its seventh printing, and it topped the New York Times Book Review bestseller list from May to September. Eventually, 3 million copies of One World would be sold, making it the second most popular book of 1943. The book was translated into every major foreign language, and copies of it were smuggled into occupied Europe.
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To help him write the book, Willkie asked his traveling companions, Joseph Barnes and Gardner Cowles, to write detailed memos describing their experiences of the trip. Willkie used these notes and his own to construct an engaging travelogue of the trip, which was written in a relaxed, conversational manner. As one reviewer put it, the book reads as if Willkie were sitting on a front porch back home in Indiana and telling you the story of his grand adventure. But the book's ultimate significance, both then and now, lies in Willkie's analyses of the world leaders and ordinary people he met on the trip. Throughout the book, Willkie follows his descriptions of the regions he visited with the moral conclusions he drew from them. His general thesis is that the differences existing between people are but minor details that can temporarily obscure, but do not destroy, the common needs all human beings have for material comfort, self-determination and individual freedom. And America, he asserts, has a moral obligation to help people in other nations to secure these rights. As such, the text is essentially Willkie's manifesto for a post-war America.
 Cover of One World [ EXCERPTS ] |
A major reason for the book's popularity was the timing of its release: just as World War II was transforming America from an isolationist nation into a global superpower. Another reason the book was a best-seller: Only the wealthy could afford to travel abroad in the 1930s and 1940s, so for most Americans reading the book marked the first time they had given much thought to the peoples and cultures of Asia, the Middle East and (to a lesser extent) Europe.
The final chapters of One World focus on the broader issues of the future role the Allies must take in the post-war world. It is in these chapters that Willkie makes his strongest arguments against the continuation of the colonial system then in place in China, India, Asia and the Middle East. These strong anti-colonialism statements strained the amicable relationship between Willkie and Winston Churchill, who responded to Willkie's remarks by saying: "I did not become His Majesty's first minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire."
The best summation of the book's primary message is perhaps its most oft-quoted passage, which appears in "Our Imperialisms at Home," the book's second-to-last chapter: "Freedom is an indivisible word. If we want to enjoy it, we must be prepared to extend it to everyone, whether they are rich or poor, whether they agree with us or not, no matter what their race or the color of their skin. We cannot, with good conscience, expect the British to set up an orderly schedule for the liberation of India before we have decided for ourselves to make all who live in America free."
The book's popularity upset the Republican Old Guard, however, who circulated rumors that a professional writer had been hired to write it under Willkie's name. This allegation is easily disproved by the many handwritten drafts of the manuscript that can be found among Willkie's papers, and anyone familiar with Willkie's writing style will recognize that the words are his own. Willkie denied the rumors, of course, while candidly stating that he received editorial assistance from Irita Van Doren, an editor at the New York Herald Tribune. This revelation was personally very risky for Willkie, as there had been persistent rumors, started during the 1940 campaign, that he and Van Doren were having an affair. In any case, the rumors that One World was "ghosted" and the rumors of a Willkie-Van Doren affair were part of a growing "Stop Willkie" campaign launched by Willkie's enemies to deny him the 1944 GOP nomination. (See the next chapter for more on the "Stop Willkie" movement.)
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A contemporary reading of One World, fifty years after its publication, reveals that Willkie's analysis of world affairs was extraordinarily astute. The aftermath of the crumbling colonial system affected world affairs for decades after the end of World War II. And Willkie was also right when he wrote that the war had given the people in the Middle East and elsewhere a taste of freedom, and that that taste had given them an unquenchable desire for complete self-determination.
Willkie was also correct when he predicted that the United States and the Soviet Union would emerge from the war as the world's major superpowers. On his 1942 trip there, Willkie saw that the USSR controlled a tremendous amount of natural resources -- and he saw that the communist government was intent upon using them. Willkie, a dedicated capitalist, also saw the inefficiencies and the disincentives in the socialist system then in place in the USSR, but he also saw that it had given the peasants hope. He wrote that the average Soviet peasant had very little compared even to the poorest American, but he also points out that prior to socialist revolution, peasants had nothing at all. Thus, the Soviet Union, too, represented a people awakening to a realization of their tremendous potential. Willkie urged a policy of cooperation with the Soviets, despite our leaders' misgivings about the socialist system.
Fifty years after its publication, One World also seems somewhat simplistic, perhaps a little naive about foreign affairs and overly optimistic about the intentions of world leaders. But the book should be viewed as a vision of what the world ought to become, what the world has the potential to become. With rare exception, reviewers praised the book for its ability to cut through the rhetorical baggage that typically accompanies discussions of nationality, language, ethnicity, race, patriotism, history and regional politics. Instead, Willkie focused on what unites the human race, not what divides it. As such, One World stands out as one of the most important humanist works ever produced. Willkie made a great deal of money with the book ($350,000 in royalties by October 1943), and in the spirit of the book's message, he donated his earnings to a trust fund supporting humanist organizations and charities.
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Willkie's pleas for international cooperation as outlined in One World had some effect on history. Although the end of World War II saw the beginning of the Cold War, and colonial powers continued to use force to prop up their fading empires, the book contributed significantly to ending America's hundred-year history of isolationism. One World sparked the imagination of the American public and got them thinking about their country as a leader in world affairs. The public enthusiasm for the ideas expressed in the book did not go unnoticed by top political leaders. Even Willkie's opponents at the 1940 convention, Senators Taft and Vandenberg, once staunch isolationists, came out publicly in favor of a post-war organization of international cooperation to be modeled after the League of Nations. Several resolutions proposing a world organization were introduced into Congress during the second half of 1943, and they received the support of many previously isolationist senators and representatives. Even Winston Churchill was moved to state that the Allies should begin discussions on a future world organization, which was a dramatic statement from someone so staunchly pro-colonialist.
A Gallup Poll showed that 74 percent of the American public supported the idea of some type of a post-war "international police force." Clearly the American public was of a different mindset than it was following World War I when President Wilson fought a losing battle to get the country to support the League of Nations. Willkie thought that the collapse of the League was a major failure of American foreign policy, and he was determined not to see history repeat itself. His speeches and articles throughout 1943 repeatedly made this point, which further galvanized public opinion in favor of an international organization. In a well-received Fourth of July radio address, Willkie called for "a 'Declaration of Interdependence' among the nations of this one world." In an earlier speech, he said "We will have no United Nations after the war unless we make the United Nations now a fact and not a mere euphonious phrase." (During World War II, the phrase "United Nations" was synonymous with the Allied powers of the United States, Britain and the USSR.)
In large part due to Willkie's tireless promotion of the ideas contained in One World, the notion of a permanent United Nations organization was gaining momentum. Even the Republican Old Guard reluctantly organized a national committee to made recommendations on the peacetime role of America. But the most dramatic outcome of this rising tide of internationalism was when both houses of Congress passed resolutions calling for an international peace-keeping organization. Willkie remarked at the time that he viewed the congressional resolutions as one of his greatest political accomplishments. Now Willkie turned his attention to his personal political future. The battle for the 1944 GOP nomination would now begin in earnest for him, and he was anxious to see if he could turn his current high level of public approval into votes.
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Timothy D. Walker Your comments are appreciated
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