Proletarian nationalism
Since the. Second World War there has been no more Puzzling question for the student of international politics than the nature of 'world Communism'. Is Communism a monolithic — or 'monist' to borrow their own jargon from the Marxists — historic movement, moving inexorably and In co-ordinated fashion from the British Museum to world domination? That was the claim of orthodox Communist Propaganda, and it seemed reasonable for enemies of Communism to take the claim seriously. On the other hand there were those who argued — many of them irreproachable democrats — that this was an innocent view; that Whatever the rulers of the Kremlin maintained, and may have wished to believe, international Marxism was a sham.
Until the war the question was in more than one sense academic: as long as there was only one 'Marxist' state, the Interests of Marxism and of Soviet Russia presented no conflict. Socialist theory, the class struggle, national Communist parties, the Comintern, the Soviet Union, the Politburo, Stalin, were all one. Thus it was that part of a generation in the West made the step from naive idealism to active support of a remote despotism. Even in the 'twenties 'thirties, though, there were signs that this unity of Interests was a facade. 'Socialism in one country' was an ominous phrase suggesting that the Soviet leaders would Put national interests first. So it proved. 'Communist' — in Germany or in Spain — was dictated by a cynical aPpreciation of Russian national interest.
Since 1945 these questions have been far from academic for the rulers of the western democracies. As Soviet Russia emerged from the war as a World Power and established hew satrapies throughout 'liberated' Eastern Europe, the spectre of Communism, of Communism bent on conquest, stalked the world again. But at the moment of Stalin's aPogee the careful observer noticed that there were already cracks in the monolith. Most significantly, it was where Communism triumphed without the rifles and tanks of the Red Army that international Marxist brotherhood was at Its most shaky: the lack of enthusiasm Stalin felt for ComMunist movements which he could not control was soon Shown in his dealings with two genuinely independent Communist leaders, Tito and Mao Tse-tung. Since then the tension between Communist countries has been a critical fact in world affairs, and led to some bizarre turnabouts. Time's whirligig has even brought a rapprochement between two enemies who once seemed eternally irreconcilable, the United States and People's China, united now in their fear of Soviet Russia.
Which brings us to the present. Who would have predicted that 1978 would open with two ferocious wars both fought between ostensibly Marxist states? In the Horn of Africa, Somalia and Ethiopia contend for a vast and useless tract of desert. Each was at one stage armed by the Russians, an act of cynicism so brutal that it seems likely to misfire, not only upsetting Soviet schemes in the Horn but damaging her interests throughout Africa. And in southeast Asia there is an even more striking sight: a bitter border war between Vietnam and Cambodia, the two countries but recently won for Communism. This is not a skirmish or a passing incident. The Phnom Penh radio has called on the Cambodian people — what is left of them — to 'exterminate the Vietnamese aggressor'. Even more significantly, this new South-East Asian war is a microcosm of the great divide within the Communist world: the Cambodian ambassador to Vietnam flies to China, which is arming the Khmer forces, while the Vietnamese lean more and more on their old patron, Russia, who may even be providing commanders as well as materiel for the Vietnamese army.
Ten years ago when the previous, American, war was raging in Vietnam there was a debate in the West between those who believed in the 'domino theory' that one country going Communist would be followed by another, a variation on the old theory of Communist unity; and those who maintained that nationalism, a stronger force than Communism, would disrupt this process. In a sense, both submissions have been proved correct: several more countries have 'gone Communist' but national spirit has proved as strong a force in world affairs as ever. That may be little comfort to the people of Vietnam and Ethiopia, but it may yet offer some hope to the democratic West.
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