Dead Dove

Like all Communist functionaries who fail the party, Moscow's seductive Dove of Peace was liquidated last week, or at the very least transferred to an obscure post. His place in the forefront of Communist world politics was taken by a frankly swooping bird of prey.

In the carefully planned wave of rioting that swept Paris, in the threat of a new Battle for Berlin, in the bloody clash of police and students armed with nail-studded clubs, spears, rocks and sulphuric-acid bombs that marked Memorial Day in Tokyo, there was no sly attempt to seduce the susceptible. Moscow had trusted its dove's sweet song to lull the free West into continued indecision. The song had bamboozled many, but it had not deterred the Western governments.

The signing of a separate peace with West Germany and the formulation of a new defensive alliance in Europe were final notice that Western indecision had given way to Western resolution. For once it was a case of the West acting and the Communists reacting. The dove's epitaph had been written in a directive from Moscow published last month in an obscure French party organ, but only last week belatedly recognized for what it was. "Explanations and propaganda for peace," ran the new party line, "are not enough. It is now necessary for a resolute orientation towards action. Action is not improvised by itself." In other words, the day of the hard, disciplined minority and rioting in the streets was back.

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