Dear Editor

...James, whose book on Cuba is an intellectual monstrosity, should now seek to justify and defend the overthrow of one of the few unquestionably democratic governments in Latin America...

...That Professor Shulman's conclusions do not follow from his premises is manifest to anyone with any sophistication about the nature of international Communism...

...Their view of Bosch as the purest of democratic St...

...The Figueres-Betancourt viewpoint, it should be stressed, is held also by certain U.S...

...Defeat was preceded nearly always by a slow erosion of the will to resist aggression from without, followed by a weakening of its own people's sense of common purpose...

...So much for Bosch's much-vaunted democracy...

...If indeed we should ever lose our superiority (let alone parity) in weapons, there is no reason to believe that war—or the threat of annihilation through superior weapons—would not be considered by the Soviets as an effective means for accomplishing their purpose...

...Both came away, reported Figueres, extremely worried about Bosch's ability to rule effectively or stay in power long, largely because of his stubbornness and refusal to take advice...

...If so, he is right...

...They are: 1) that the Soviet shift to "peaceful coexistence" has been "deepening into a policy...

...The split began at the party's nominating convention, which named Buenaventura Sanchez as its Vice Presidential candidate, but was then forced to dump him at Bosch's insistence when the latter threatened not to run for President if Sanchez was on the ticket...

...Nevertheless, we are obliged to learn as a society to have the degree of maturity which can distinguish between situations in which our interests conflict with those of the Soviet Union and those in which some overlapping of interest does exist...

...3. There is a substantial amount of "interreaction" between Soviet policy and our own —"and the condition which has most favored the evolution of Soviet policy in the direction of 'moderation' has been a firm resistance to Soviet probes, etc...

...Certainly, it is possible to have superiority in weapons and yet be faced with erosion of power and influence—and, indeed, that is the case today, as witness the erosion of U. S. prestige in Latin America and the increasing Communist penetration of Venezuela, Brazil, and Bolivia, due to our failure in Cuba, which now operates as a headquarters for subversion of Latin America...

...Figueres told me that he and President Romulo Betancourt of Venezuela, probably the foremost practitioner of Latin liberalism today, had conversations with Bosch during the inauguration about the problems that the Dominican leader would face, particularly the Communist problem...

...As I understand his principal objection, he believes that toughness is the best policy, and he fears that I may be trying to beguile us into accepting a softer policy, under the illusion that the "peaceful coexistence" slogan indicates that the basic conflict between Soviet purposes and our own has diminished...

...Thus, Professor Marshall Shulman's testimony before the Foreign Relations Committee (adapted in The New Leader under the title "Artificial Tensions and the Test Ban...

...If this constitutes a mutuality of interest, then Cosa Nostra and the police have a mutual interest in refraining from blowing each other up with bombs—but would Professor Shulman recommend that we accept overtures toward peaceful coexistence with Cosa Nostra (or Hitler) as a consistent policy...

...2) that this is a favorable development from the point of view of the U. S., and 3) whether this will lead the Soviet system into a "benign" direction "will depend upon the effectiveness of our own adaptation...

...But it does not mean that the Communists will ever relax their pressures on the West, nor do they harbor any illusions about the fundamental antagonism of their system and ours...

...Washington, DC...

...Continued on next page The New Leader welcomes comment and criticism on any of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words...

...It should be possible, for instance, for us to be clear and firm about our resistance to Soviet encroachments on Berlin, and at the same time to recognize that both the Soviets and we have an interest in introducing some restraints into the military side of our confrontation...

...Professor Shulman is using it as synonymous with the Soviet desire to avoid a direct, decisive encounter with the West...

...That the Soviets may for the time being forego nuclear war against the United States does not mean that they will relinquish the goal of destroying us...

...Georges, fighting an uneven battle against the most ferocious of oligarchical dragons, simply violates reality and truth...

...It is highly pertinent, in the light of events since, to know why Bosch went to the extreme of rejecting his party's Vice Presidential nominee...

...Leighton's efforts to simplify my meaning result in a serious distortion of my argument...

...Washington, D. C. Daniel James Theodore Draper replies: It does not surprise me that Mr...

...If an old "Latin America hand" and New Leader alumnus may be permitted a concluding word of advice, let the newcomers to the Latin American scene, whose arrival is late but nonetheless welcome, try very hard to make the heart and the mind work in tandem and not allow sentiment to become a substitute for facts...

...Leighton's letter is whether the "tough versus soft" simplification is an adequate way of thinking about our relations with the Soviet Union...

...And they were particularly worried over Bosch's already ambiguous attitude toward the Communists...

...POLICY Writers in the academic world have developed such an extraordinary technique of double-speak that it requires considerable acumen on part of the non-Ph.D...

...In short, the Soviets would be delighted if we could be destroyed without any danger to themselves...

...I had hoped that he would turn out to be the democratic champion that the Caribbean needs so badly...

...that kind of coexistence the Soviets want because it enables them to lull the free world into a false sense of security...

...Leighton correctly, he is arguing that we should use our military superiority to force the Soviet Union to retreat at a number of points...

...It is to our advantage to force Khrushchev back at every point of Communist thrust precisely because there are risks he will not take...

...I wish to make it clear that I favored Bosch in the December election, and am on record accordingly...

...Now what conclusions does Professor Shulman draw from the above propositions...

...Particularly lacking in the Roche and Draper pieces, which purport to give an authoritative review of the workings of Dominican politics, is any mention of the split inside the PRD over Bosch's leadership...

...DEAR EDITOR DOMINICAN DEBACLE I sympathize with the concern that John Roche and Theodore Draper exhibit over the unfortunate (and, we hope, temporary) end of the democratic experiment in the Dominican Republic, but an air of unreality pervades their pieces ("The Return of the Syndicate" and "Bosch and Communism," NL, October 14) which all but reduces their concern to mawkish sentimentality over the role of deposed President Juan Bosch...

...It might be added, parenthetically, that they do not share Draper's groundless sympathy for Bosch's eminence gris, Sacha Volman, who for some years has been an element of discord in the Latin American liberal community...

...But the correct conclusion to draw from Professor Shulman's premises is that an overwhelming margin of strategic superiority which supports vigorous political action and the seizure of tactical initiative by the West is necessary to resist the Soviet ambition of world domination "Peaceful coexistence" has not "deepened into a policy" of the Soviets in the sense that Prof...

...Especially since Sanchez was an old friend who had stuck with Bosch throughout the long exile (and had materially aided him), belonged to the original leadership of the PRD, and enjoyed considerable popularity within the party and among the Dominican peasantry (he is credited with winning the southern provinces for Bosch...

...If I understand Mr...

...This is essentially a deterrence conception, of course, but it now requires a fairly high level of expenditure to cover the various kinds of military capabilities required, and to provide the research and development to protect us against technological change that may upset this bal ance...

...2. Security has many dimensions—it is quite possible for us to have superiority in weapons and yet be faced with erosion of power and influence in the world...

...As Professor Robert Strausz-Hupé points out: "Only rarely has a great nation been destroyed by one dramatic blow...

...Certainly there is a "mutual interest" in avoiding a general war, and this can work to our advantage, but not in the way Professor Shulman thinks...

...Of course, one can make words mean anything one wants...

...Certainly their view of Bosch is not shared by Latin American liberal leaders—the very "democratic Left" whose spirit they invoke— who had few illusions about that mercurial character, having known him well during his long years in exile...

...Had Bosch let the PRD majority view reign, Sanchez, as Vice President, might well have become an effective rallying point for Dominican democrats after the coup, and perhaps even constitutional successor...

...I am not sure whether he is saying that we should force Khrushchev back from any further adventures along the lines of the Cuban episode— in which case I would agree—or whether he is saying that we should bring about a Soviet withdrawl from its present position in Eastern Europe by threatening war—in which case I would think his counsel cavalier...

...reader to dig out the message from the mountain of learned prose...

...and there is a latent ambiguity in the word "coexistence...

...liberals who have worked closely with both men, and by a substantial part of Bosch's own Dominican Revolutionary party...

...Shulman intends...

...Even so, Sanchez, at latest report, heads up a growing wing of the PRD which has adopted the "realistic policy" (his phrase) of seeking an accommodation with the junta...

...by our "adaptation to the new environment" of peaceful coexistence and the assurance we give to the Soviets that we are not engaged in "total conflict" we will encourage the Soviet Union to move towards measures for the reduction of tension, and we can strengthen the confidence of our Allies in America's capacity to lead the free world in the cold war...

...I shall take the liberty of disclosing here the gist of a conversation with a charter member of the Latin American democratic Left, ex-President Jose Figueres of Costa Rica, as we were both flying back from Bosch's inauguration last February, which should prove revealing...

...Significantly, the Roche-Draper case is not so much pro-Bosch as anti-Trujillo—a virtually dead issue in the Dominican Republic...

...The answer, which Sanchez himself gave the writer when I put that question last February, is that he took an unequivocal anti-Communist position and wanted the party to take one, whereas Bosch did not...

...As a sop, Bosch later made Sanchez his Minister of Education...

...What is at issue here is, perhaps, a difference in our conception of the function of our military capabilities...

...One who is not afraid of plain English would say that a tough policy is the only barrier to the Soviet's chewing up the rest of the free world...

...Apart from my feeling that a fair reading of the article itself does not justify this interpretation of it, I think the basic issue raised by Mr...

...it simply means that they will resort to other methods for burying us...

...I can appreciate his concern that the political realities in our country make it difficult for us to sign a partial test-ban agreement and at the same time maintain the political resistance to Soviet pressures and the level of military capabilities required...

...First, for the narcotic, which is stated in such general terms as to win ready assent: 1. There is a mutual interest in avoiding a general war...

...It may be extremely difficult in practice to distinguish between sufficiency and superiority, but I take it that the object of our military capabilities is to insure that the Soviet decision-makers can see no advantage in making use of military means at any point...

...But, unfortunately, he proved to be a dud, and to plead his case is impossible without straying from truth and reality...

...Translate the last phrase into meaningful (operational) terms and the message comes out: The quest for military superiority over the Soviet Union is not the way to achieve optimum security...

...U.S...

...Whether this level is high or low, and whether qualitatively it rests upon a confrontation of systems that are stable and resistant to crises, accident, miscalculations, etc., or are highly explosive—these are the questions which can be and should be explored, without any illusions that this exploration implies a mutuality of goals between the Soviet Union and ourselves...

...David S. Leighton Marshall D. Shulman replies: Mr...

...Bosch, continued Sanchez, preferred to impose his own will on the party majority, and pick a totally obscure young physician with no known views on the question, to a tried exponent of the Betancourt - Figueres brand of Latin American liberalism...

...The use of the word "mutual"1 is deliberately misleading, carrying as it does the implication of mutuality of goals as well as means—i.e., that the Soviets and the free world have a basically common purpose...

...The phrase "in the direction of moderation" is a euphemism that could have been dreamed up only by a professor of international relations...

...September 16) exhibits consummate skill at concealing the main thrust of his argument beneath some bland observations which serve as a narcotic to win over the innocent...

...By so doing, he and his likeminded Cuban friends have committed moral suicide...