THE COLD WAR AND THE WEST
The contributions that appear here are replies to the fol–
lowing statements and questions.
As
the situation becomes more critical, we
think
it im–
portant to reexamine some of the basic issues of the cold war which
tend to become obscured by day-to-day politics even though they are
expressed by them.
We feel that
if
these questions and their implications are not
faced, we may find ourselves drifting from one position to another,
always on the edge of nuclear destruction, reduced to a rhetoric of
good will and indignation or to action taken blindly and without an
adequate sense of history.
We would like you to participate in a symposium on these issues.
The following questions are intended only as a guide, to provide a
context for the discussion. You are of course free to answer or ignore
any of the questions or to discuss the problem in any way you choose.
1. What is your opinion of the position of the West in the cold
war? Has the West been winning, losing or holding its own?
If
you
think it has been losing, or is likely to lose in the future, to what do
you attribute this? Which features of the social and economic system
prevailing in the West generally, and in the U.S. in particular, ac–
count for failures in coping with Soviet Communism?
2. To what degree is it desirable and possible for the U.S. so to
re-orient its policies as to identify with the movements and leaders of
change throughout the world, instead of supporting the opponents of
radical social reform, as the U.S. has tended to do in the past? Do
you think the present administration is making any decisive change
in American policy in this respect?
