Where the News Ends
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY
WHERE the NEWS ENDS By William Henry Chamberlin In the Shadow Of the Sputniks Few Americans have seen the Soviet space satellites or heard their signals. But the launching of the two sputniks in...
...This will not happen only if the proper conclusions are drawn from the Soviet military technological progress of which the sputniks are only a symbol...
...the launching of the Soviet space satellite was not so alarming as the contrast between American inaction in relation to Hungary and recent Soviet action in relation to Syria...
...Lester Pearson, the former Canadian Foreign Minister, seemed to be on the wrong track when he warned, in a recent speech at Minneapolis, that there could be no easing of cold-war tensions if the West insists on a "rigid unconditional-surrender type of diplomacy...
...Bv 1939, the military odds had shifted against the Western powers...
...This fault was compounded because a soft standard of morals in relation to Hungary was accompanied by a self-righteous application of a harsh standard toward Britain...
...It means a generous, intelligent encouragement of scientific studies from our high schools to our advanced institutes...
...diplomacy in the Hungarian and Suez crises a year ago, and in general, has surely not been that of serving bellicose ultimatums on the Kremlin...
...This means a quick, efficient speed-up in the U.S...
...Far from "attacking" any "legitimate" Soviet interest, Washington may be justly reproached for reacting only with weak and empty words to the brutal destruction, by Soviet military force, of the legitimate government of Hungary, supported by the enthusiastic majority of the Hungarian people...
...By contrast, the Soviet Government, after stage-managing a coup d'etat in Syria which gave Moscow a strategic outlet to the Mediterranean, quickly flooded its new satellite with arms and served blunt notice through Nikita Khrushchev that it would fight if a hair of Syria's head was touched...
...The peoples of the NATO alliance must prepare their nerves for tests like Khrushchev's manufactured war scare about an imaginary incitation by the United States of a Turkish invasion of Syria...
...But the launching of the two sputniks in quick succession has produced the effect of a loud alarm bell...
...Certainly in 1933, and probably as late as 1936, Hitler could have been crushed with little bloodshed...
...Within 24 hours, the Kremlin would proclaim such a country under Soviet protection, and words would be implemented by arms and airborne Soviet troops...
...This effect will be good if it serves as an awakening from lethargy...
...missile program, with inter-service rivalry restricted to the Army-Navy football game...
...A Soviet "first" with a space satellite does not mean the end of the free world...
...If this contrast between United States inaction and Soviet action is to be the shape of things to come, there is a real danger that we will repeat the experience of Britain and France in the Thirties...
...Abroad, it means increased pooling of knowledge with our allies, a tightening of the bonds id the WTO alliance and unmistakable readiness to make tactical atomic weapons available to our allies...
...All that the Soviet leaders could hope to accomplish by letting loose a rocket and hydrogen-bomb war would be something close to mutual suicide...
...aid to Hungary, apart from humanitarian succor to fugitives, was restricted to empty UN resolutions...
...it will be bad if it leads to unreasoning defeatism...
...France and Israel in their conflict with Egypt—a conflict for which Egyptian dictator Nasser had furnished very great provocation to Britain and France and almost overwhelming provocation lo Israel...
...It would seem inexcusable that free countries should twice within a generation commit suicide with open but unseeing eyes...
...To me...
...But the fault of U.S...
...Both Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia in the past have provided proof of this proposition...
...The most serious danger is not that Moscow will loose these weapons of mutual destructive power, but that it may try to exploit its possession of ihem as an instrument of blackmail...
...What no totalitarian state has yet been able to do is to achieve a balanced economy, whether for peace or war...
...When Russia has a legitimate interest in some area or development, we would be foolish to act as if that interest can either be ignored or attacked...
...But U.S...
...Pearson declared: "We should go on seeking, patiently and persistently, a basis for negotiation and agreement...
...Even if one accepts the most pessimistic estimates of Soviet progress with the intercontinental ballistic missile, American capacity to inflict devastating blows on Russia remains unchanged...
...Imagine what the Soviet Government would do if a whole people rose up for Communism against free institutions as the Hungarian people rebelled against satellite Communism...
...It has long been obvious that a totalitarian state, with absolute control over the labor power and natural resources of a country, can achieve spectacular results with individual economic and scientific projects which it has placed on a "crash" basis...
Vol. 40 • November 1957 • No. 47
