AMERICA NEEDS A REVOLUTIONARY STRATEGY
Swomley, John Jr.
AMERICA NEEDS A revolutionary STRATEGY by JOHN SWOMLEY, JR. S INCE THE END of World War I, the world has been caught up in a period of revolution and upheaval. One of these revolutions...
...Communism, on the other hand, in order to meet its own dynamic goal of winning the world has to depend on penetration and taking over non-Communist revolutionary situations and movements...
...It is even instructive to note that the germ warfare charges against the United States in Korea were intended as psychological warfare to prevent the use of the atom bomb by the United States in Korea and elsewhere in Asia...
...They must change or be replaced...
...Today in Asia and Africa there is a growing body of evidence that the basic revolution is one in which racial equality, national freedom, and economic opportunity are the goals...
...American policy since World War I, with a few exceptions, has been one of ignoring or suppressing these revoJOHN SWOMLEY, JR., is executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation...
...The development of nuclear weapons has given us the means to back up this threat of destruction...
...Another is the Communist revolution with all that this has implied in the way of power struggle between East and West...
...The combination of a lack of strategy for dealing with revolution, a willingness to destroy civilization if necessary, and the ability to do so have been gathered up in one concept If we are largely or totally destroyed our retaliation will have lost its meaning in strategic terms, for as Kissinger has pointed out, we shall be pursuing a strategy after the political and social basis for it has already disappeared...
...It would also require large scale study and planning for economic change to a peace economy...
...Was Communism enjoying its opportunities and building its power as a result of the revolution of the underprivileged...
...Hugh Gaitskell, the leader of the British Labor Party...
...Fifth, in seeking by political and economic means to deal with the problems of totalitarianism and aggression, the power of world public opinion must be used to bolster agreements and frustrate invasion or conquest...
...They can be dealt with only by a superior revolutionary strategy, and that strategy must seek genuinely to meet the needs of those driven to revolution...
...Third, we should use our economic power to create internal stability for resistance to subversion and as a weapon of social change in Asia and Africa...
...Or were the "poor" nations revolting only because they were inspired and aided by the Communists...
...This would require serious negotiations in an effort to translate the Khrushchev proposal into reality...
...In the final analysis all policy must be based on two assumptions: f If we are interested either in national or human survival we dare not use the weapons we have created and stockpiled...
...They are irrational because we have never made either a realistic attempt to assess the meaning of the revolutions confronting the world or a serious attempt to deal with revolution and its underlying situation...
...This lack of understanding about what is happening and our lack of strategy in turn have led to a blind determination to stop the spread of Communism even if we have to destroy civilization to do it...
...This is based on at least three assumptions: f We accept the Communist dogma that theirs is the final revolution and conclude that there is no way of ending Communism short of destroying an entire people and an entire civilization...
...For example, George Kennan in his book, Russia, the Atom and the West, has suggested the unilateral disarmament of Western Europe and the building of European social and economic strength as a bulwark against Communism...
...and George F. Kennan, who formerly served as head of the policy planning division in the State Department...
...Since World War II we have continued in a state of war and military preparedness in order to deal with other threats, most of them from Communist countries...
...f There are other ways than deterrence for dealing with revolution, aggression, or Communist expansion...
...Fourth, we must not underestimate the power of attraction which a nation-state would have if it became the symbol to the peoples of Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe of their hopes for freedom, equality, plenty...
...Is it not possible therefore that the Communist revolution is simply riding piggy-back on the revolution of the poor and dispossessed...
...This idea has already been endorsed in principle by Premier Khrushchev...
...In this context, we must not overlook the effectiveness of the Communist peace offensive...
...If, on the other hand, we should consider the alternative policy of no nuclear retaliation we would probably accept another set of assumptions: f We will not gain anything, once destroyed, if we destroy the rest of the race...
...A policy of nuclear retaliation with the probability of civilization being destroyed and the human race genetically distorted has been justified by the slogan: "Better no world than a Communist world...
...The internal stability of these two nations was so strong that no significant Communist movement could develop...
...The "peace" policy of the Thirties and the "war" policy of the Fifties are in reality irrational responses to the same problem of revolution...
...All systems require constant change to meet changing needs...
...The revulsion of world public opinion against the United States would have created intolerable pressures...
...Without such a movement and other evidence of dissatisfaction with their own government, it would have been extremely difficult to incorporate Finland and Austria into the Communist world as satellites...
...Other creative proposals have been made...
...For our part mere propaganda would not suffice...
...We would have to plan acts of great political and economic significance if we intended to mobilize world public opinion...
...A second approach would involve intensive negotiation for disengagement of troops and military installations from Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East, followed by neutralization of these areas, as in Austria, where the problem of guarantees against aggression was turned over to the United Nations...
...Adam Rapacki, the Polish foreign minister...
...The United States could similarly separate the non-Communist world from the Communist and divide the peoples of the Communist world from their leaders if we were to stop backing the status-quo and by our actions become the symbol of hope to the common people of the world...
...In the late Thirties we shifted our emphasis toward preparation for, and then actively fighting, a war to preserve the status quo which Germany, Italy, and Japan threatened...
...f If we want to compete successfully with Communism or any other ideology, we must recognize that economic and social revolutions cannot be deterred or contained by military power...
...Those who guide these revolutions turn to Communism only as a last resort against an adamant West...
...AMERICA NEEDS A revolutionary STRATEGY by JOHN SWOMLEY, JR...
...In that decade the labor movement in many Western countries was so ready to give the Soviet Union a chance to make good that it would not prepare for or support a war against the Soviet Union...
...In the event of invasion he would advocate violent underground resistance...
...We have even permitted ourselves to drift into an attitude of frightened and frantic response to crisis after crisis instead of having an over-all philosophy and strategy for revolution...
...One of these revolutions erupted from the growing determination of the poor and underprivileged all over the world to better their lot...
...For many years the United States was unable to decide which revolution was more basic...
...This period has often been characterized as one of neutralism or isolationism on our part...
...The United States was so placed on the defensive by these charges that it could not easily have used equally horrible atomic weapons if it had been planning to do so...
...f Neither Communism nor any other system will last forever...
...We should recall the attraction power of the newly-formed Soviet Union to the labor movement in Europe and America in the 1920's when the Soviet Union had practically no other power with which to defend herself except the promise of social change and a more abundant life...
...f We have our backs to the wall and have lost confidence in our ability to discover and put into effect any policy other than the one of mutual annihilation...
...In the Twenties and early Thirties our emphasis was on seeking a world of law free from entanglements and free from war...
...Sir Stephen King-Hall of England, a former Royal Navy commander, in his book, Defense in the Nuclear Age, advocates unilateral disarmament and reliance on non-violent resistance...
...It is significant that Finland and a large part of Austria were conquered and occupied by Russian troops in 1945...
...f We accept the nihilistic philosophy of Hitler, namely that if we do not survive in all our glory we shall pull the rest of the race down to destruction with us...
...If the United States were to recognize the military policy it is now pursuing is a dead end and decide to abandon it, there would be a number of alternatives or complementary policies it could pursue...
...The first and obvious one is to announce our commitment to total universal disarmament along the lines already proposed by Premier Khrushchev to the United Nations...
Vol. 24 • January 1960 • No. 1
