ABSTRACT
The revival of anti-Communist sentiment in the last years of the war made life difficult for progressives, but the actions of Soviet Russia were more troublesome still. At first progressives had only to deal with the negative image of Russia built up by decades of anti-Soviet propaganda. The New Republic too was disgusted with the reactionary Polish government-in-exile for using Katyn as a pretext not to discuss boundary questions with Russia. Capitalists liked to distinguish between the Soviet state and the Russian people, giving all credit to the latter. But the “common man, whose century Henry Wallace has announced,” knew that Russian victories were a function of the Soviet state. The Potsdam Agreement raised the New Republic ’s morale higher. The New Republic called for a practical “engineering” approach to peacemaking. The United States had done this in Italy, waiving reparations because Italy could not pay them, making Trieste a free port, and adjusting the Italian-Yugoslavian border.
