ABSTRACT
The world needed a "political equivalent of war" so that necessary changes in the status quo could be achieved peacefully. The key was arms reduction and international arbitration of disputes. The rise of Adolph Hitler, the growing militancy of Japan, and the failure of the league to deal with aggressive fascism shattered his Wilsonian idealism. Waiter Lippmann had no illusions about Hitler's territorial ambitions or his ruthlessness. Lippmann, who knew that the European members of the league were not going to inconvenience themselves seriously over events in Asia, saw another way of putting pressure on Tokyo. Lippmann was not alone in fearing that Hitler would only increase his strident demands if the German people were made pariahs. Lippmann may have been sincere in believing that only a "lack of personal good will" could have led Frankfurter to interpret the column as he did.
