One does not have to take the view that a Communist regime will never “evolve” into a non-Communist one (though I tend to it) in order to see that this is practically impossible as long as the Soviet Union possesses the military and political power to prevent it. The Kremlin may, for its own purposes, permit certain “liberalization” tendencies in satellite countries; it may even permit small deviations from the approved Soviet foreign policy line. It will do so sometimes to confuse the West, sometimes as a prudent means of relieving internal pressures. But it will never let things go too far. Hungary proved that. The moment a Communist government threatens to become a non-Communist one, or threatens to align itself with the West against the Soviet Union, the Kremlin will take steps to bring the defecting government into line.
Hungary proved this truth, and Poland has proved that dissident Communists learned it. Western leaders, unfortunately, were much less perceptive. In the Fall of 1956, there appeared to be a breach between Gomulka’s government and the Kremlin. Many Westerners joyfully proclaimed that Poland was pulling away from Communism, and hoping to hasten this movement, our government began to send the Gomulka regime American aid. The succeeding years witnessed two facts: 1. Our money made it easier for Gomulka’s regime to deal with its economic problems; 2. Gomulka moved into an even closer relationship with the Soviet government. Gomulka knew, as American policy-makers ought to have known, that the price of abandoning Communism is a Budapest-type blood bath. This, of course, need not be the case were America prepared to come to the aid of people who want to strike out for freedom. But as long as we give Soviet military forces a free hand in Eastern Europe, it is the height of folly to try to bribe Communist governments into becoming our friends.
We must realize that the captive peoples are our friends and potential allies—not their rulers. A truly offensive-minded strategy would recognize that the captive peoples are our strongest weapon in the war against Communism, and would encourage them to overthrow their captors. A policy of strengthening their captors can only postpone that upheaval within the Communist Empire that is our best hope of defeating Communism without resorting to nuclear war.
Toward Victory
By measuring each aspect of our foreign policy against the standard—Is it helpful in defeating the enemy?—we can understand why the past fourteen years have been marked by frustration and failure. We have not gotten ahead because we have been travelling the wrong road.
It is less easy to stake out the right road. For in terms of our own experience it is a new road we seek, and one therefore that will hold challenges and perils that are different (though hardly graver) from those with which we are now familiar. Actually, the “new” road is as old as human history: it is the one that successful political and military leaders, having arrived at a dispassionate “estimate of the situation,” always follow when they are in a war they mean to win. From our own estimate of the situation, we know the direction we must take; and our standard—Is it helpful in defeating Communism?—will provide guideposts all along the way. There are some that can be observed even now:
1. The key guidepost is the Objective, and we must never lose sight of it. It is not to wage a struggle against Communism, but to win it.
Our Goal Must Be Victory
2. Our strategy must be primarily offensive in nature. Given the dynamic, revolutionary character of the enemy’s challenge, we cannot win merely by trying to hold our own. In addition to parrying his blows, we must strike our own. In addition to guarding our frontiers, we must try to puncture his. In addition to keeping the free world free, we must try to make the Communist world free. To these ends, we must always try to engage the enemy at times and places, and with weapons, of our own choosing.
3. We must strive to achieve and maintain military superiority. Mere parity will not do. Since we can never match the Communists in manpower, our equipment and weapons must more than offset his advantage in numbers. We must also develop a limited war capacity. For this latter purpose, we should make every effort to achieve decisive superiority in small, clean nuclear weapons.
4. We must make America economically strong. We have already seen why economic energy must be released from government strangulation if individual freedom is to survive. Economic emancipation is equally imperative if the nation is to survive. America’s maximum economic power will be forged, not under bureaucratic direction, but in freedom.
5. In all of our dealings with foreign nations, we must behave like a great power. Our national posture must reflect strength and confidence and purpose, as well as good will. We need not be bellicose, but neither should we encourage others to believe that American rights can be violated with impunity. We must protect American nationals and American property and American honor—everywhere. We may not make foreign peoples love us—no nation has ever succeeded in that—but we can make them respect us. And respect is the stuff of which enduring friendships and firm alliances are made.
6. We should adopt a discriminating foreign aid policy. American aid should be furnished only to friendly, anti-Communist nations that are willing to join with us in the struggle for freedom. Moreover, our aid should take the form of loans or technical assistance, not gifts. And we should insist, moreover, that such nations contribute their fair share to the common cause.
7. We should declare the world Communist movement an outlaw in the community of civilized nations. Accordingly, we should withdraw diplomatic recognition from all Communist governments including that of the
