Let the Air In
Salisbury, Harrison E.
Let the Air In Inside Russia Today, by John Gunther. Harper. 550 pp. $5.95. Revieiued by Harrison E. Salisbury All America is in John Gunther's debt for what is probably the most timely of...
...Our policy should not be to frighten Russia or needlessly irritate it...
...We are likely to be confronted at any time with new Soviet break-throughs in entirely different fields of knowledge...
...In these sections the readers will find an explanation of the system which produced Sputnik and which without a doubt is going to continue to produce outstanding scientific and technological achievements...
...Russia is in this competition to the limit...
...And we should try to take advantage of the new fermentations going on in the U.S.S.R...
...Of that, however, there seems little hope...
...Only the most serious mustering of our resources is going to enable us to meet the threat...
...Would that Gunther's book might be read and pondered by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his subordinates concerned with making and executing American foreign policy vis a vis Russia...
...He is certain that we can break down this concept if we muster our forces and apply them properly...
...He favors our every effort to demonstrate to Russia what America is really like...
...Moreover, he states, Soviet leadership considers that co-existence is a state which favors Russia—that is, they believe they are more effective and skilled competitors than we are...
...We have produced a wealth of studies for the specialist, a rich fare for those whose basic knowledge already encompasses the elementary facts about Russia...
...However, there is every likelihood that Gunther's book will be read by a large segment of the American public...
...Revieiued by Harrison E. Salisbury All America is in John Gunther's debt for what is probably the most timely of all his "Inside" books —the new volume he calls Inside Russia Today...
...We have turned out great stacks of works designed to expose the horribleness of the Communist threat and the crimes of the Soviet rulers...
...Today our attention is focused on the Soviet Union as never before...
...Dulles has demonstrated too often and too forcefully his chronic immunity to fresh ideas or creative thought with respect to the Soviet Union...
...It includes a brief geographical sketch of the Soviet, a one-chapter once-over-lightly on Russian history, a useful compendium of tourist information, chapters on most of the important cities and areas (largely based on an extensive trip Gunther made to Russia 18 months ago), descriptions of the workings of the Soviet system, sketches of the ruling personalities, a succinct summarization of the famous "secret" speech in which Nikita S. Khrushchev denounced Stalin, and a number of chapters on subjects of special interest...
...Delay in realizing the seriousness of Soviet capabilities may well prove disastrous...
...Perhaps even Secretary Dulles will be compelled to listen if enough Americans, stimulated by Gunther's sound and sensible ideas, call for a change in policy—"patient, not so touchy as it is, less committed to the all-out Cold War approach, less dogmatic in our assumption that Communism is bound in time to disappear, more aware of the enlivening changes that are without doubt going on in the Soviet Union, more sensitive and sympathetic to liberalizing developments in the satellites, less heavy-handed in the Middle East, more realistic about China, and, above all, not afraid...
...the United States is still the best single advertisement for the United States...
...He is convinced that our best hope lies in the realm of cultural and intellectual exchange...
...Inside Russia Today conforms to the general pattern of the other "Inside" books...
...Anyone who thinks the United States is going to have an easy time meeting Soviet competition from here on in will be inclined to change his mind after reading these chapters...
...policy with regard to Russia...
...Perhaps the most valuable sections of Gunther's book are those which deal with Soviet education, technology, science, and industry...
...With his characteristic thoroughness Gunther has set about to fill this gap...
...and in particular of the genuine desire for peace held indisputably by the rank and file of the Soviet people...
...It is extraordinary in the light of the vast number of books which are turned out in the United States each year dealing with the Soviet Union that no popular, recent, and comprehensive handbook on the country has been published...
...Gunther is convinced that Russia will not deliberately provoke war with the United States because Soviet rulers realize that for some time, at least, the United States holds a military advantage over them...
...But we are singularly lacking in straightforward, informative accounts of what the Soviet Union is like and what makes it tick...
...The launching of Sputnik last autumn finally blasted into American consciousness the fact that Russia confronts us not only with a threat but with first class competition in all of those fields of technology and science in which we have long boasted so loudly of our superiority...
...Instead of doing our best to keep Russians out of the country," he notes, "we should do our utmost to entice them in...
...The present momentum of Soviet science is enormous...
...Anything that lets air in serves our purpose," he says...
...Gunther reports that Russians are convinced that the United States is their enemy...
...Gunther also wants as many Americans as possible, particularly cultural and scientific representatives, to go to the Soviet Union...
...Gunther is rightfully concerned about the present character of U.S...
...Our own program must be not only deep but wide if we are not to be surprised again and again...
...If Gunther had planned it that way, he could not have brought forth his work at a better moment...
Vol. 22 • May 1958 • No. 5
