Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR RUSSELL-HOOK Bertram! Russell elaborates on the destruction of the human race ("World Communism and Nuclear War," NL, May 26) in order to justify his crude assumption that the only...
...Admittedly, since man himself would barely survive third world war fought with nuclear weapons, neither liberty nor justice would be among the survivors...
...Hook's attitudes in debating Russell—as they will be intensified by most Western readers—lead psychologically to an acceptance of the stale policies of Dulles...
...Professor Hook is, mirabile dictu, the superior logician, but Lord Russell a shrewder pragmatist...
...But, looked at from the viewpoint of pragmatism, philosophy to which Hook has contributed so much, Russell seems the cannier fellow...
...If annihilation is a much greater catastrophe than domination, one must still choose submission rather than resistance...
...Does not the solution lie in .persuading the Russians that both sides can continue to exist only if it is recognized that the primary danger to the human race lies in the inherently corrupt nature of human personality rather than the particular form of human society man finds himself in...
...The 4 per cent difference in the probability of annihilation might still be considered more important than the 99 per cent difference in the probability of domination...
...Resistance would arise even in cases like Hungary, where there is no rational expectation of victory for the resisters...
...e., that it will really be submission and not appeasement—we would have to enforce the submission by preventing resistance from arising...
...A 5 per cent probability of annihilation would be considered worse than -a 100 per cent probability of domination...
...The Chinese, not the Russians, conquered China for Communism...
...World government can be reached peacefully only by long and laborious negotiation, if at all...
...Thus, when in 1948 he urged the U. S. to drop the bomb on Russia (logically and morally outrageous), he knew full well that in the existing climate this would never be done...
...I think these can be stated as fairly simple propositions...
...For once it is recognized that the danger of mutual annihilation is at least coequal with that of Communist domination, then one begins—first and foremost—to seek methods for creating the conditions of peace on basis mutually acceptable to the Russians and ourselves...
...What would there be to stop some future Stalin, Khrushchev, or even « minor subordinate, from sending nuclear weapons to annihilate, say, the British people because of their stubborn, belief in human values...
...Security of human survival can now be obtained only by security of world peace, and that is possible only by some sort of world government...
...His 1948 thesis was probably intended to and did have a lesser effect: It helped mobilize liberal and Socialist opinion toward resistance to Soviet power, by compelling many who saw no danger from Stalin to shift their tactical ground from some variation of appeasement to containment...
...5. It is conceivable that the Communists are arming only for defense and would not want to dominate even if they could do so without war...
...there is no doubt that his arguments— examined for their intrinsic truth, without looking at the effects of' their acceptance—are superior...
...Does not Bertrand Russell inevitably imply that the Communist system of political organization is far superior to that of the West in exercising those social controls necessary to prevent the use of nuclear weapons by those having access to them, even in a subordinate capacity...
...7. The decision must therefore rest on one's estimate of the probability of annihilation and on one's judgment of the degree to which annihilation is worse than domination...
...True, it was Russian might in the background which has enabled virile Communist minority parties loyal to Moscow to rule the satellites...
...She allows to exist beside her to-day non-Communist Finland and Austria and heretical Yugoslavia...
...If the revulsion against submission takes place before the free world loses its nuclear power, but the resulting outbreak of conflict can be contained and a "'cold war" reestablished, the probabilities of annihilation would be reduced...
...Congratulations...
...but I suspect that it might be so...
...New York City Norman Thomas The debate between Bertrand Russell and Sidney Hook on the most important issue that has ever faced mankind seems to have been confused by a. number of irrelevant charges and counter-charges...
...If this shift in emphasis seems academic, the case of the resurgence of German power is one of many illustrations that it is not...
...I think it most likely to break through the spread of a brushfire war into a great conflagration or by reason of an accident, blunder or passionate act of an anonymous colonel along the great stretches where armed forces constantly confront each other...
...Sometimes appeasement does not work for long because the appeasee becomes greedier and asks for more and more until the ap-peaser rebels and we have resistance—as with Hitler...
...The decisive objection is that the proposal of submission means in effect not submission but appeasement, and that appeasement does not last but breaks down and increases the danger both of Communist domination and of nuclear war and human annihilation...
...Negotiation through strength does not mean renouncing or evading negotiation in mono-maniacal concentration on the accumulations of the symbols of strength any more than it means initiating the negotiations by throwing away all our bargaining power...
...The only purpose of our mad arms race is deterrence, and that will only be fulfilled if the balance of terror leads to the sanity of universal and controlled disarmament...
...Such policy, or lack of policy, is not much more likely to gain us world peace than the policy of throwing away our poor bone of nuclear stalemate...
...One would still 'have to choose submission if resistance gives a higher probability of annihilation...
...I doubt that it will be begun by a surprise Russian attack on Britain or the U. S. or by ultimatum threatening such attack...
...Pragmatism, as I understand it, judges the truth of a proposition by its effects in the real world...
...It would have to be dressed up as a kind of peaceful coexistence...
...Moscow might be more deterred by the assurance that Britain was preparing to better India in civil disobedience and the French colonists in sabotage and civil war against Communist conqueror than by any nuclear armament she can pile up...
...On the other hand, if one recognizes that nuclear war and Communist autocracy are at least equally horrid, and if one makes a step-by-step campaign for peace the overriding objective, one attempts to contain German and Russian power in an all-European system through the sort of disengagement agreement advocated by George Kennan, Hugh Gaitskell, Willy Brandt and—-Sidney Hook...
...I would like to try to isolate the elements that are strictly relevant to the issue...
...This policy has been tried now for eight years, and Hook—in his present advocacy of disengagement—implicitly acknowledges its futility and cynicism...
...Negotiation by its nature is always "through strength," but it must always be through the strength that we have...
...In any event, the real hope of peace lies in universal controlled disarmament under a strengthened UN, and the vital question is whether the achievement of such universal disarmament will be more aided by agreement from strength on both sides or by a dramatic appeal to the conscience and common sense of mankind by a possible unilateral nuclear disarmament...
...His statements that Communist world would be better than the annihilation of human life are calculated, once again, to shift popular emphasis...
...3. If the policy of resistance to Communist expansion led with certainty to nuclear war and human annihilation, and the policy of submission led to Communist domination instead ot human annihilation, one would have to choose submission rather than resistance...
...6. The choice between resistance and submission is thus a choice between a chance of annihilation and u. certainty of domination...
...I do not know if this would be true in other areas of policy where the West has been intent merely on "cold war'' (the Far East, Middle East, North Africa, disarmament, cultural exchange, foreign bases, etc...
...4. But the choice between resistance and submission must not be identified with the choice between annihilation and domination...
...The dialectic effects are strange...
...Russia has not imposed Communism or her own rule on any country merely by force of arms...
...Neither political system is immune from bribery, blackmail, and irrationality of various types...
...Obviously not...
...The policy of submission is, therefore, most likely to turn out to be rather ^ policy of temporary appeasement...
...when it breaks down, the danger it was intended to remove reappears in more severe form than before...
...In his utterances on world affairs, I submit, Bertrand Russell has been eminently a pragmatist—conscious of the fact that his statements influence a real situation not of his making...
...Sometimes appeasement does not work for long because the appeaser cannot stand his submission any longer and he turns to resistance—as in Hungary...
...If a policy of submission—or non-resistance—were to be undertaken, it would not be agreed to by everybody and would not be adhered to until the submission was completed...
...The difference between submission and appeasement is that submission is for good while appeasement does not work for long...
...It seems to me certain, however, that Communism could be liberalized only by forced coexistence for a very long time with independent free societies and tfiat submission would definitely lead to Communist domination...
...This is because the choice before us is not between resistance and submission but between resistance and appeasement...
...In the present case, Russell sees a preoccupation with "winning the cold war," with stressing in every area anti-Soviet hostility rather than elements which tend to create general stability...
...Abba P. Lerner It is interesting to read the Hook-Russell debate in the light of the philosophical positions of the two men...
...Since the means would continue to exist, even if the Communists ruled over the West, could not these weapons be used against populations to exterminate them...
...2. If one had to choose between certainty of either the one or the other, one would therefore have to choose Communist domination...
...It is also conceivable that submission, by removing their fears of attack, would reform the Communists and turn them into liberals...
...From all this, it does not follow that the policy of submission is so very much worse than a policy of panic at negotiation because of a feeling of diplomatic inferiority, of compulsive accumulation of superfluous bombs and unnecessary tensions, and of the alienation of our friends and the appeasement of tottering tyrannies that claim to be on the fence...
...What is basically wrong with appeasement is that it cannot be carried through...
...Russell elaborates on the destruction of the human race ("World Communism and Nuclear War," NL, May 26) in order to justify his crude assumption that the only other possible alternative is the surrender of the West to Communism...
...Montreal H. L. Harkness...
...For, in terms of pure logic (as it has been developed from the Greeks down to Bertrand Russell), Hook triumphs easily...
...It would give us not a 100 per cent probability of domination (together with a small probability of annihilation in war between Communist states) but 25 per cent probability of domination together with a 75 per cent probability of annihilation—or a 75 per cent probability of domination with » 25 per cent probability of annihilation, or some other such combination, the proportions depending on the probability that the revulsion to the submission comes while the free world is still able to fight...
...If the policy of submission involves the guarantee that the submission will be carried through—i...
...New York City Norbert Muhlen The excellent debate between Bertrand Russell and Sidney Hook prompts me to add certain reflections...
...8. The choice between resistance and submission does not rule out completely the alternative catastrophe...
...Thus if the chances of such containment are 20 per cent (in the hazardous circumstances of the revulsion to submission and the return to resistance on the part of the free world, and shock and panic on the part of the Communists) the adjusted probabilities of annihilation would be 60 per cent and 20 per cent instead of 75 and 25...
...Resistance would lead to nuclear war (which we assume to result in human annihilation) only if the Russians choose annihilation by attacking or if there is an accidental explosion...
...As we have neither the callousness nor the heart needed for this (our sympathies would be with the resisters rather than with the secret police) we would not succeed in policing submission to world Communism...
...These are part of "domination" since they would not mean the annihilation of the human race...
...Resistance would give us, say, a 5 per cent probability of annihilation together with a 1 per cent probability of domination, while submission would give us 100 per cent probability of domination together with .. 1 per cent probability •of annihilation following domination...
...9. If we take this into account, the alternatives appear somewhat more complex...
...Would surrender destroy the means of destruction...
...The decisive objection to the policy of declaring beforehand that the free world would never use nuclear weapons is not that the policy is cowardly or immoral or unwise to publish, or that it is new departure for the proponents, or that modern totalitarianism is worse than past barbarisms or more durable, or that nuclear war may be tamed, or even that domination may be considered worse than annihilation...
...If one believes that "cold war" is the supreme value, one seeks—as have Acheson and Dulles —the addition of German military power to that of America (despite the moral consequences for the rest of Europe, including Russia...
...There is, however, not much point to arguing about either the various probabilities or the relative degrees of horror of the alternative catastrophies...
...This I cannot take seriously...
...Such reflections make me more and more inclined to share Sir Stephen King-Hall's belief that what Britain cannot do and live— namely, defend herself by nuclear weapons— she can do by organized civil resistance, always provided that she will keep the unity and courage which a war would call out...
...The policy of (nuclear) resistance does not rule out the possibility of Communist domination by (relatively) peaceful means...
...while submission does not rule out the possibility of a nuclear war as a result of a conflict between Communist bosses...
...In such situations, men begin to act in desperation and the dangers of nuclear war increase...
...As Communism expanded, revulsion to submission would grow, and resistance would increase...
...Balance of terror will not indefinitely keep peace...
...In any case...
...If the revulsion should come only after the free world has lost its nuclear power, there would be massacres on the Hungarian model, though on a world scale...
...I doubt if Moscow looks primarily to war to spread Communism...
...The very discussion of his premises is a—dialectic—step toward sanity...
...We all know that in politics, when the extreme Right is on the ascendant, leftists and moderates shift right-ward, almost unconsciously, to meet it...
...Avoca, N. Y. Harold Koretz Though I have sometime disagreed with Sidney Hook, I do want to tell you that his reply to Lord Russell ("A Free Man's Choice," NL, May 26) was splendid and a much needed, thoroughly convincing refutation of the neo-pacifists and "fall-out fear mongers" who are to be feared today...
...It is doing too well without it...
...Sooner or later tension will break...
...1. The annihilation of human life would be a much greater catastrophe than Communist domination of the earth...
...On the other hand, Russell's seemingly garish premises—as they will be discounted by most readers—would lead in practice to the policy endorsed by Hook...
...Baltimore, Md...
...But even in Hungary direct force was only used to back a native Communist faction...
...Human values would have perished even if few men might survive...
Vol. 41 • June 1958 • No. 23
