POLITICS OF 1970
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this state of affairs is irritating and embarrassing not only to liberals
like Mr. Stevenson, but also to the State Department; and indeed it
must be painful to the inheritors of a republican tradition to have to
make do with King Saud, while Colonel Nasser betakes himself to Mos–
cow; or to be stuck with General Franco and President Trujillo, while
their democratic opponents drift into neutralism or outright despair.
Within limits this process can doubtless be reversed. It should not be
impossible to develop a settled policy of supporting democratic, left-of–
center forces in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia, to
the exclusion of Communists and reactionaries alike. But it had better
be recognized that such forces are weak or even nonexistent in some
important areas of political conflict. And even where they possess ade–
quate strength they cannot, in the nature of the case, promise the kind
of sweeping solution which goes with the totalitarian reconstruction of
society. One may hazard the guess (supported by recent events in
Poland, Hungary and Yugoslavia) that
after
this reconstruction has
been attempted (and partly failed), democracy will once more appear
a worthwhile cause to disillusioned revolutionaries, always provided it
has not in the meantime been discredited by being identified with what
is comically known as "free enterprise." There are probably more
liberals in present day Poland than there ever were before in the history
of that country. But Poland partakes of the Western tradition. It is by
no means certain that the average Soviet citizen yearns for liberal de–
mocracy, and one may be sure that in China they hardly know what
the term signifies. It is not even,
horribile dictu,
altogether probable
that liberal institutions would work in these countries if tried. Perhaps
we shall all have to become a little less doctrinaire in prescribing solu–
tions for all sorts of trouble spots.
In conclusion I feel some tribute should be paid to Mr. George
Kennan's fundamental insight by someone who, unlike him, is not a
new-fangled conservative but an old-fashioned radical. One may disagree
with Mr. Kennan on a good many points, but one must surely sub–
scribe to what I take to be his basic conviction: that we ought not to
crusade against a phantom called "Communism" (where indeed would
that leave Mr. Gomulka?), but rather concentrate on defending West–
ern society against
all
the dangers that threaten it, including the danger
of being dragged into a thermo-nuclear war by panicky statesmen and
trigger-happy rear generals.
If
this threat can be averted, the politics
of 1970 will still present a sufficiency of difficult, perhaps even insoluble,
problems; but at least we shall not have to expect catastrophe every
morning.
If
our opponents wish to conduct ideological crusades, that
