DANCER FROM THE EAST,

By Richard E.Lauterbach '35. Harper Brothers, 1947, 430p. $3.75.

As a result of the author's trip to China, Korea and Japan in 1945-46 and a year of intensive study at Harvard as a Nieman Fellow, Danger from the East is a combination of reportage, history and analysis. There are running accounts of meetings with Chiang Kaishek, Communist leader Chou En-lai, General Marshall, "from God to man" Emperor Hirohito, "from man to God" General MacArthur, Chinese intellectuals, American Gl's, Korean politicians, Japanese peasants, and representatives of almost every shade of Far Eastern society. There are also intimate stories of truce teams in Manchuria and elections in Japan.

Mr. Lauterbach's observations led him to the conclusion that there is grave danger from the East, not in the form of the Yellow Peril, but in the total defeat of American objectives. In Japan, he found the labor movement strong and women taking an active part in political life for the first time. But in his opinion these accomplishments are far outweighed by the failure to achieve significant reforms in Japanese education and to liquidate the money cliques and landed estates completely in favor of the common masses. What is worse, the Emperor is retained, his "divinity striptease" being purely superficial. In Korea, the author says, General Hodge's lack of wisdom and expert help has resulted in blundering in elections and in cooperation with rightists. He found the Chinese government corrupt and inefficient, and such gestures as inclusion of a few liberals in the cabinet and the thrift movement nothing but window showing.

The most tragic aspect o£ the situation, according to Mr. Lauterbach, is that the United States is pursuing the policy of supporting undemocratic regimes in Japan, Korea and China, not on the basis of diplomacy or democracy but primarily on the basis of military consideration, as the best way to fight Communism. But to Mr. Lauterbach the danger from the East is not Communism. He sees no danger even in a Chinese coalition government dominated-by Communists. The danger is that the American policy of supporting reactionaries will turn Asia s millions against the United States and force them to choose the Soviet way instead of the American way. Mr. Lauterbach's solution would be to abandon the present policy and export TVA's instead.

"vVe have nothing to fear by spending our money for a higher standard of living throughout the world," he concludes. "We have everything to fear from using it to buy arms for reactionaries."