The New Europe and the Cold War

Abstract

The recent challenges by Mao of Kremlin leadership in the Soviet bloc and by De Gaulle of American leadership in the Western bloc have made the foundations of the Cold War unstable. China defied all the rules of the nuclear club, until she could get into it; France accepted the new principle that national sovereignty now resides in oblitera tive capacity and that prestige depends upon it. De Gaulle's design for Europe calls for forbidding all peace-making until the Americans no longer need their land bases in Europe and leave and until the new Europe is strong enough to deal with a Soviet Union which, eventually weakened by conflict with China, will have no choice but to join the great Gaullist Euro pean family. The prospect of a European power independent of the United States and unchecked by Great Britain drew protest from Moscow. In view of these circumstances, making peace in co-operation with Russia is not out of the question. The United States and the Soviet Union, the two great powers, have been drifting toward a common ground. Peace with Russia has gained in credibility, but peace with China has not in the public mind, although the requirements for the continua tion of civilized life may demand it. In the interest of survival, the game of playing power politics as if the nuclear missile had not been invented must be discontinued by all. National security which rests on the stock-piling of ultimate weapons is an illusion. Mutual trust is the only adequate basis for true and solid peace among nations.—Ed.