![]() ![]() In essence, this has been the strategy of the Russian and Chinese Communists. The strategy of protracted conflict aims to enable the revolutionary side to wear the enemy down while building up its own strength and to postpone a decisive showdown until the balance of power has shifted overwhelmingly to its side. Revolutionary movements, by their very nature, start from a position of physical inferiority vis-à-vis the defender of the status quo. It accompanies all periods of epochal change. A more accurate description for this struggle might be the “protracted conflict.” Protracted conflict is a recognizable historical phenomenon. The contest between our way of life and that represented by Communist totalitarianism has been called the cold war. The question that now faces mankind is this: Will the new world be free or will it be slave? The future will be decided by the free or will it be slave? The future will be decided by the outcome of the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, or, more broadly, between the free world and the Communist bloc. Nationalism, population pressure, and the “revolution of rising expectations” are the chief agents of this revolutionary upheaval. Since World War I our world has undergone continuous revolutionary change. Yet, the survival of civilization itself has been put in jeopardy. We are confronted by an unprecedented paradox: virtually unlimited resources and higher standards of living are within our reach. The first step toward the development of an effective free world counteraction is a clear understanding of the nature of the enemy who is determined to overwhelm us, ad of the strategy he employs toward this end. Our generation, the great democratic illusion notwithstanding, faces the prospect of a prolonged contest with international Communism. ![]() It will not - and it cannot - terminate the cold war, for Communism and conflict are synonyms. At best, such a settlement will be a truce at worst, if could so weaken the Western democracies’ will to resist that it would be tantamount to a decisive victory for Communism. They gamble on the assumption - a plausible one in the light of history - that the democracies will, sooner or later, content themselves with a settlement that promises them “peace in our time” and will not look too closely at the real terms of the compact that relieves them of their fears. The Communists know that the democratic peoples are weary of the cold war.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |