Khrushchev's Pincer Movement

...for though de Gaulle himself has proved in sub-Saharan Africa that he is anything but a narrow, old-fashioned colonialist—as is attested at this very session of the UN by a dozen new-African voices speaking in French —he has proved tragically hamstrung by the pride and prejudice of the French Army on the crucial Algerian question...

...Only if the leading Western powers pursue such a policy will they act in the true spirit of the United Nations, conceived as a forum in which the pressure of world opinion on the competing great powers can make itself felt effectively: and only then will they be right in branding the demagogic Soviet attacks on Dag Hammarskjold and the machinery of the United Nations Secretariat as attacks on the United Nations as an institution...

...It is equally impossible for the Anglo-Saxons to commit themselves “in principle” to Nkrumah’s anti-colonial formula, not only because the Ghanaian leader’s own applications of his formula can sometimes be ludicrously wrong (as in his support for the “legitimate government” of Lumumba in the Congo, which is motivated by his own fear of secessionist movements), but because even where he represents the real cause of the future—as on Algeria—the Western powers have to balance their sympathy and understanding for that cause against the short-term risk of pushing a major European ally too hard...

...While this is obvious nonsense, as British, Dutch and also French recent experience has shown, the dilemma is nevertheless real and not capable of solution by a simple, general formula...

...At the same time, continued pressure on Berlin, and on other points along the vast geographical periphery of the Soviet bloc in Europe and Asia, demonstrates that the Western defensive alliance is still needed if its members are not to be helpless in the face of Soviet military-diplomatic blackmail...

...In their extreme form, these proposals may be crude propaganda, aimed not so much at the uncommitted heads RICHARD LOWENTHAL often writes on Soviet affairs in these pages...

...That strategy now takes the form of an all-embracing political pincer movement...

...Khrushchev is confident that the dilemma is insoluble, because he still holds to the Leninist dogma that the interest of the “imperialists” in colonial possessions is literally vital —that they will either defend them to the last, or, if forced to abandon them, will no longer care to defend their non-Communist system at all...

...they have developed advanced techniques for using their military power as a political “position of strength...

...But it is vital that they should make a real and sustained effort to meet the new nations’ reasonable demands— both in the field of emancipation from colonialism and in reduction of military risks—in order to convince them that it is worth remaining uncommitted...

...A general abolition of foreign bases, as habitually proposed by the Soviets, is not acceptable at the present stage of missile technique from the point of view of the vital defense interests of the West— though it might become acceptable with the growing importance of mobile, sea-based missiles in the comparatively near future...

...But a proposal to keep foreign military bases out of Africa is clearly just as acceptable to President Eisenhower as to Nkrumah...

...In the no less vital question of arms limitation, it is perhaps a little easier for the West to devise a general formula for keeping its indispensable strength without antagonizing the uncommitted, ex-colonial nations...

...It is...

...Both Soviet moves—the propaganda offensive in New York and the quiet physical pressure in Berlin—have to be seen together in order to form a comprehensive picture of the present phases of Soviet strategy...

...in fact, the contrast between the policy proposals voiced by de Gaulle and those made at the UN by, say, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, which presents the dilemma of the West in its most acute form...

...of government as at public opinion in their countries: There can be scarcely an African leader, for instance, who does not understand by now that a sudden and general ending of “colonialism” everywhere, without proper preparation, would produce nothing but a crop of bigger and better Congo crises which might set back the cause of African development many years...

...This article is published by agreement with the London Observer, for which he is a roving correspondent...

...Above all, an Anglo-American vote on Algeria interpreted by France as an infringement of French sovereign rights would greatly exacerbate the existing disputes with the leading country of continental Western Europe—the geographical hub of NATO’s ground organization...

...Their decision to press for withdrawal of Belgian forces from the Congo led the Belgian Government to talk about a reduction in its NATO commitment...

...But in their political effect, these extreme and absurd demands only serve to strengthen the more realistic demands of the ex-colonial leaders themselves—demands for a UN-supervised plebiscite in Algeria, for a withdrawal of Southwest Africa from the control of the Union of South Africa, for a radical change in the nature of Portuguese colonial policy...

...and while the Soviet leaders are presumably wary of risking another Korean War in the thermonuclear age...

...At the same time...

...According to de Gaulle, the Western alliance should be extended beyond Europe to develop a common policy of defending the interests of its members in other continents, even where this leads to conflict with a majority of the United Nations...

...That formula might be to proceed by geographic stages...

...Yet the United States and Britain cannot meet any of these demands without hurting the real or supposed interests of some of their allies...

...that by staying so they can obtain understanding and support for their major interests from the Western side and thus gain successes which would not be open to them by Soviet support alone...

...If you look at President de Gaulle’s policies from New York, he is a major source of political embarrassment and weakness to the West: if you look at him from Berlin, he is a pillar of Western strength...

...At the UN the West has to answer Khrushchev s demands for immediate abolition of all military bases on foreign territory and the immediate ending of “the colonial system...

...It is in this field that Western policy should find it most easy to identify itself with the desires of the new nations to be spared the risks arising from the global conflict...

...Britain could hardly vote to take Southwest Africa away from the Union without severing what is left of the latter’s Commonwealth tie...

...It would be suicidal for the U.S...

...can go at any given moment in disavowing it...

...In fact, it is not necessary for the Western powers to meet every demand voiced by the new nations, as if the struggle for the world was a cheap daily popularity contest...

...This is not an argument for defending and supporting the continuation of France’s colonial war in Algeria...

...Soviet-directed pressure against Western rights in Berlin has been resumed with a maximum of skill and a minimum of noise...

...It is aimed to make the West, and the United States as the leading Western power, face the fundamental dilemma of either weakening and ultimately dismantling its defensive alliances, or losing the confidence of the uncommitted countries and thus being fatally isolated...

...Pressure on Portugal might affect its cooperation with NATO even more drastically...

...By Richard Lowenthal Khrushchev’s Pincer Movement Soviet propaganda in the UN and physical pressure on Berlin are the latest tactics AT NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV’S bidding, the 15th General Assembly of the United Nations has turned into a grand confrontation of East and West before an unprecedented audience of leaders of uncommitted nations from all parts of the globe...

...The West is under pressure to meet at least these genuine demands of the new nations if it does not wish to drive them into the arms of the Soviets...

...but it is an argument for weighing carefully just how far Britain and the U.S...

...According to Nkrumah, the leading powers of the Western alliance should earn the trust of the uncommitted new nations by exerting pressure on those of their allies who still cling to old-style colonial policies...

...and similar agreements might prove possible for other regions where the East-West contest is not yet complicated by military pressures arising from the geographical proximity of Soviet territory...

...Since NATO was founded in 1949, the relative military power of the Soviet bloc has increased, not diminished...

...and Britain to adopt the de Gaulle formula and commit themselves “in principle” to maintaining “Western Unity” on colonial questions...