The Great Confrontation
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY
PERSPECTIVES The Great Confrontation By William Henry Chamberlin On October 22 President Kennedy rose to a challenge even graver than that of the blockade of Berlin in 1948 or the...
...Soviet shipments of offensive arms to Cuba ceased...
...But when U.S...
...second, offering the people of West Berlin the chance freely to choose either the existing situation, Khrushchev's "free demilitarized city," or absorption in the Federal Republic, with Bundeswehr units, along with U.S., British and French, taking part in the city's defense...
...And some of the first results were extremely favorable...
...The ultimate test of the effectiveness of the President's hour of decision on October 22 will be the thorough, peaceful dismantling of the Cuban bases, without any blackmailing deals affecting Turkey, West Berlin or any other disputed point in the great confrontation between the U.S...
...How wonderful to have the Soviet Government worrying about what we might do, and not the other way around...
...acted as a great power is supposed to act when its vital interests are threatened...
...Surely, it would be outrageous to buy off aggression by giving the aggressor something that was not even under discussion when his operation was undertaken...
...What he had to deal with was nothing less than a dagger aimed at the heart of the United States, forged with stealth, cunning and deceit-and with alarming technical speed...
...Thus, October 22 may be remembered in history as one of the all too few occasions when the U.S...
...When aerial photography gave the He to the Soviet Union's assurances that its military aid to Cuba was purely "defensive," the President had three choices: He could have done nothing, which would have been a violation of his oath of office and a grave dereliction of duty...
...warships were at their battle stations, Latin American endorsement was unanimous...
...Nikita Khrushchev, making liars of his representatives in this country, consented, in his own euphemistic words, "to remove those means which you regard as offensive means from Cuba...
...This dagger was the construction in Cuba of an offensive Soviet base capable of launching nuclear missiles against the U.S...
...After a week of tension, of verbal clashes in the United Nations, of Soviet bluff and bluster about America's "naval piracy," the policy of seizing the diplomatic initiative seemed to pay off...
...It might be a good idea to extend this initiative to Berlin...
...He chose the third, middle course: a limited naval blockade, a public denunciation of Soviet aggression and treachery, and a clear warning that more drastic measures would be applied if the bases were not quickly dismantled...
...and most of the other states in the Western Hemisphere...
...There is little likelihood that these powers, if asked in advance, would have approved the quarantine...
...Two steps in this direction suggest themselves: First, a solemn declaration by the three Western powers that West Berlin will be defended against attack just as surely as Washington, London and Paris...
...PERSPECTIVES The Great Confrontation By William Henry Chamberlin On October 22 President Kennedy rose to a challenge even graver than that of the blockade of Berlin in 1948 or the invasion of South Korea in 1950...
...The course of events since October 22 shows how foolish is the sigh that always goes up in appeasement and defeatist quarters when the United States acts strongly against some flagrant act of Soviet aggression: "We should have left it to the United Nations...
...He could have struck fast and hard to eliminate the bases, either through an all-out invasion of Cuba or through pinpoint bombing, with due warning for the evacuation of the missile areas...
...The international atmosphere during the week following October 22 may have been chillier, but it was also cleaner and fresher...
...And he made this pledge unilateral when the Administration promptly and properly refused to accept any deal involving the withdrawal of NATO missiles from Turkey...
...For years Washington had pleaded and reasoned with the Latin American powers to form a common front against Castro's Cuba, the first Soviet satellite regime in this Hemisphere...
...and the USSR...
...Can anyone with the slightest knowledge of the composition and psychology of the UN believe that this organization, even if furnished with unanswerable proof of Soviet missile bases in Cuba, would have authorized a naval quarantine, much less stronger measures...
...Successes were small and grudging...
...President Kennedy adopted the view that the business of a leader is to lead...
Vol. 45 • November 1962 • No. 23
