Conditions of East-West Peace

Abstract

Although there is some agreement between Soviet and Western views regarding the nature of peace, particularly on the Soviet side, these are shaped by their attitude toward war. Whereas Western attitudes have, on the whole, been relatively optimistic, the Soviets seem to view peace as a more or less accidental interlude between wars—so long as capitalism exists. Khrushchev's speech to the Twentieth Party Congress modified these views somewhat, but he did not backtrack on the necessity of transforming capitalist society into a socialist one. With nuclear war a potentiality, East and West maintain what Churchill has aptly called "a balance of terror." But so long as both Soviet and Western leaders value their personal sur vival, as well as that of civilization, they will refrain from launching all-out aggression. Eliminating the possibility of direct or indirect nonnuclear military operations by the West against the Communists, the author feels the greatest threat to the West is the Soviet's strategy of piecemeal expansion which relies on a combination of military power and local subvorsive movements, as well as the shrewd manipulation of the universal human desire for peace. In large part the Soviet threat is more political than military, the Soviet pattern being one of military caution accompanied by political boldness. The West can counteract this by helping underdeveloped countries to erad icate conditions under which communism can flourish, but neither foreign assistance nor cultural relations are a panacea. In the long run the winning system will be the one which appears best to satisfy the aspirations of mankind.—Ed.