Air Support to Ground Troops Re: Arguments for ground war

[Carrol Cox]

The Second Front during WW2 -- or rather the demand for it by the CPUSA
-- is a refrain that comes up within communist groups whenever there is
a debate over whether it is useful to make "positive" demands on the
state. The claim is that the coming of the Second Front justified the
effort the CPUSA put into the demand, and that similarly small marxist
groups can demand complex legislative or bureaucratic reforms.

But in the terms needed, the Second Front never came. First came the
invasion of North Africa. Then came the invasion of Sicily. Then came
the invasion of Italy. (I don't remember now for sure, but I think there
was also an invasion of Greece -- having no other purpose but to prepare
for the Cold War in advance. The Second Front came when the U.S. and
British governments were damned good and ready, and all the "demands" of
the CPUSA did nothing whatever to speed it up. The entire effort put
into the demand for the second front was a waste of political energy,
and refusal to recognize this fact has ever since been the basis for
pursuing will-o-the-wisp demands rather than focusing on what small mass
movements can do.

Carrol

P.S. Traditionally, small mass movements become large (or at least
larger) mass movements by taking policy stands that began to make sense
a year or two after they have been put forth. As this war drags on the
only policy recommendation that will make sense from hindsight a year
from now is, "Do Nothing."