ABSTRACT
The Kremlin Lippmann's brutal action rang alarms in the West that bordered on panic. World War III seemed suddenly close at hand. The contest between Russia and the West had turned into a "race for military advantage — for strategical positions, for allies, and for the development of potential into actual military power." The prospect of an independent West Germany containing most of the territory and population of the former Reich, along with the industrial Ruhr, was not a happy one for Moscow. The Russian offer changed the whole equation, Lippmann thought, by offering a chance for a negotiated settlement. Lippmann, although he often disagreed with the Ohio Republican, telephoned to congratulate him, and the next day devoted his column to Senator Robert Taft's criticisms. Lippmann was favored a neutralized, unified Germany because he feared that a rump German state would flirt with Moscow for recapture of the lost territories.
