The Cuban Crisis in Retrospect
NIEBUHR, REINHOLD
PERSPECTIVES The Cuban Crisis in Retrospect By Reinhold Niebuhr There is probably no occasion for congratulations about anything that happens in an age in which the "balance of terror"...
...We should be content with the measure of freedom and decision which human beings are able to exert in history...
...True, we have survived only one crisis, and it is naive to believe that there will not be many more...
...We ought to be satisfied with these gains and let history take its course...
...Romantic racism cannot compete with pseudouniversalism...
...Perhaps they were trying our mettle...
...Nothing in history is absolutely inevitable...
...For though the balance of terror provides an unsteady peace, it does not prevent the East and West from engaging in the usual tests of strength in the economic, political and strategic realms...
...We cannot control or anticipate the course of human history...
...It is not a mad aberration, but a frightful simplification of the Messianic dreams which have haunted Western civilization for ages, sometimes with beneficent results, but sometimes with the frightful results of the Jacobin terror in 18th century France and 20th century Communist Russia...
...His handling of the November 20 press conference, during which he announced Russia had agreed to follow the withdrawal of its missiles with the removal of its IL-28 bombers from Cuba, was particularly impressive...
...These criticisms ignore the fact that the USSR, like the U.S., is prepared to defend what it regards as its vital interests, but is not prepared to engage in a nuclear war for the sake of defending a hazardous venture...
...A variety of crises under the cover of the present curious peace may be necessary to convince both sides that even a very unpeaceful coexistence is preferable to mutual annihilation...
...The alarmists who think that there is a "mathematical probability" of a nuclear catastrophe may be rightthat is, as long as they say "probability" rather than "inevitability...
...But our policies have already won the unanimous support of the Latin American nations, and have reduced Castro's prestige in South America to insignificant proportions...
...In a game of such enormous stakes, firmness and moderation are the only possible instruments of ultimate success...
...And we have never confronted the problem of this kind of peace and war before...
...The Utopian basis of the Communist ideology is what gives it its appeal to the deprived peoples of the world...
...But we must acquire that virtue...
...PERSPECTIVES The Cuban Crisis in Retrospect By Reinhold Niebuhr There is probably no occasion for congratulations about anything that happens in an age in which the "balance of terror" assures us of only a precarious and dangerous peace...
...The fact that both are dictatorships obscures an important difference between them...
...What is demanded is both the defense of a civilization and the avoidance of a catastrophe...
...and there were many wild men who were dizzy to the point of hysteria...
...Of course, all danger has not yet passed...
...He had obviously been in touch with Khrushchev through personal correspondence, but he did not give the exact details of the correspondence...
...Everything was in a low key, devoid of histrionics...
...The Nazi theory of the "Master Race" is but a puny ideology by comparison...
...That may be a strategic loss...
...The stakes of a nuclear age are very great...
...He refused to speculate on the Chinese-Indian situation...
...Why not increase the pressure and force them to retreat still further...
...We cannot permit the triumph of Communism over our civilization...
...If we are tempted by success to play the role of omnipotence, and if we think that a modified success against a tough adversary gives us reason to hope for a complete triumph in this year or decade, we shall perish through our heedlessness...
...We do not know to what extent Nikita Khrushchev thus risked his leadership, especially since the intransigent Chinese were barking at his heels...
...Out of the fever and furor of the Cuban crisis, the President has emerged as a strong, judicious leader...
...Russia still has China to worry about...
...We may speculate why the Russians took the hazardous step of attempting to install nuclear missiles in Cuba, which would have upset the delicate balance of terror and given them a clear advantage over us...
...Fortunately, the President met the crisis with that combination of firmness and moderation which is the criterion of true statesmanship in all ages, but particularly in a nuclear age...
...We ought to be prompted not only to congratulate ourselves on our statesmanship, but to be grateful for evidence of what was, until now, only a surmise: namely, that Russia really does not want a nuclear war...
...nor can we endure a nuclear holocaust...
...We have survived the first test, however...
...The United States may have to be subjected to many lessons before it leams that the slogan, "No substitute for victory," is dangerous...
...In these times, we must be grateful for small favors...
...But the Cuban crisis might well prompt us to congratulate ourselves on having at least survived one of the many extreme situations which are almost inevitable in the nuclear era...
...What we must learn from the Cuban crisis, then, is that firmness, tempered by moderation, is the only way of safely sailing through the perilous tumults of a nuclear age...
...For all we know nuclear terror may give us a sufficient, though precarious, peace and enable us to make the adjustments in world power relations that are vital to the establishment of a permanent, stable peace...
...He proved, however, that while the Communists are dangerous and tough opponents, they are also calculating and shrewd, and quite different from the impetuous madness of a Hitler...
...Yet it is certainly significant that, when faced with firmness and moderation, the Russians pulled back...
...Indeed, any close analogy between Nazism and Communism is really misleading...
...It is drawn from the limited experience of a nation which has never known defeat but which is also, for the first time, presiding over the destiny of a non-Communist world that wants to escape catastrophe as well as subjection to tyranny and an absurd political Utopianism...
...Of the two, Communism is infinitely more dangerous...
...In any case, the crisis certainly made us realize that there is no way of wrestling with a tough opponent on the edge of an abyss without risking falling in...
...And we can only manage it within limits...
...Such patience is not an easy virtue for a young and strong nation, new to the torturous processes of global politics...
...We must, therefore, be prepared to live for a long time with the Communist menace, hoping that time and the realities will gradually rob Communism of its virulent fanaticism...
...This usually makes for dizziness...
...We do not know what a desperate Fidel Castro may do, and what use Russia will make of his desperation...
...We are living on the edge of an awful abyss, and the Cuban crisis represented the first time we were forced to peer into its depths...
...Should some final agreement be reached for on-the-spot inspection in Cuba, we will have engaged ourselves not to use force to dislodge Castro...
...We do not know how much good or evil for the democratic world may come out of this increasing conflict within the "Socialist camp...
...Some of President Kennedy's critics, spoiled of their original criticism of his Cuban policy, now argue that this is the time to put additional pressure on Cuba and the Soviet Union...
...The Russians, the President's critics say, have shown that firmness prompts them to retreat...
Vol. 45 • December 1962 • No. 25
