After the Visit: Something Ventured, Nothing Gained
NIEBUHR, RHEINHOLD
SOMETHING VENTURED, NOTHING GAINED By Reinhold Niebuhr THE DEBATE about possible benefits which accrued either to us or to world peace by the visit of the garrulous. resourceful and shrewd...
...The word "democracy" was never applied to us...
...Many people will dispute the point, but a system represented by a man whom a British journalist has termed "a politician in the great mold of Churchill and Roosevelt," is not exactly the same system which Stalin ruled by terror...
...for Communism was presented by a master politician and not by a coldblooded terrorist of the Stalin mold...
...Even without these manifest errors on our part, the Communist boss was either too governed by dogmatic Communist presuppositions to learn much about the character of our life, or too good a politician to admit that he had learned anything...
...There are prospects that he will receive so warm a welcome as to discredit much of the Communist propaganda against us and prove it ineffective...
...resourceful and shrewd Communist boss continues unabated...
...For the politician must be adept in balancing interest against interest and in beguiling and harnessing individual capacities or frustrating individual ambitions...
...Khurshchev's political skill does not imply a democratic framework, but perhaps a framework comparable to the one in which Walpole operated in England at the beginning of the 18th century...
...It originated in blood, cruelty and Utopian dreams...
...His proposal for world disarmament before the United Nations was a shrewd move to impress the uncommitted world of Asia and Africa...
...Khrushchev was undoubtedly Stalin's "hatchet man" in the Ukraine, and some of the blood of the Stalin era still sticks to him...
...We are dealing with a new dynamic civilization...
...Two other developments since Khrushchev's visit reinforce the impression that we are dealing with a dynamic and self–confident movement, with which we must learn to live if we are to prevent disaster for the whole world...
...Furthermore, we have improved our knowledge of Russia even if our nation has not improved Russia's knowledge of us...
...It also suggests potential differences of interest between Russia and China, which we ought to exploit...
...The fool who thought it wise to show him a rehearsal of the movie Can–Can, with its lecherous dance, certainly did not contribute much to his education...
...as for "world peace" and the "relaxation of tensions," a minimum amount was gained...
...He also was bold enough to present the Hungarian Revolution in the old Communist stereotype, as merely a revolution of Fascists and reactionaries from which the Russians mercifully rescued the Peoples Government of Hungary...
...The ultimate disarmament he proposed was strictly Utopian...
...If there was a relaxation of tensions, it was chiefly due to the fact that the two hegemonic nations were for the first time in history in personal contact with each other...
...For one thing, we do not know how much President Eisenhower's visit to Russia will contribute to understanding...
...They may not have the technical skill in industry which we have developed...
...No Communist position was altered, and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was able to pose with some success as the proponent of the abolition of the cold war...
...Obviously we did not gain too much...
...We do not know how successful he will be with the Chinese...
...But it is nevertheless an immensely successful and self– confident form of organization in which implicit consent has supplanted the old terror...
...Not too much seems to have been Changed, Nor can we hope that Khrushchev learned too much about the virtues of American life...
...The various oligarchies and scientific sub–oligarchies have become too powerful and too important for the old terror to be an effective instrument of government...
...But their superiority over us in rocketry suggests that we had better revise our opinions about incentives in their system and cease thinking of Russia as a backward country...
...The other development is Khrushchev's restraining hand in China...
...The way of rapprochement may lead in that direction...
...The contact was to our disadvantage...
...One is the launching of another moon rocket, which indicates, according to our experts, that Russia has a solid lead over us in guided missiles...
...But the difference in his temper and in theirs indicates both a great difference between a revolution leavened by pragmatism and a revolution in which "old believers" are still dominant...
...His final television address was, in fact, a rigorous exposition of the Communist dogma that Communism will supplant capitalism...
...and his proposed immediate steps, which were to lead to that ultimate goal, contained all the old proposals for disarming us in Europe...
...Nevertheless, the world and the nation were probably right in approving the trip, after, as well as before, the visit...
...He may be another Stalin on the make, but the indications are that the dynamic and technically efficient civilization over which he presides would not tolerate another Stalin...
Vol. 42 • October 1959 • No. 38
