THE COLD WAR AND THE WEST
85
anywhere in the world must be abandoned. In time we may learn
to regard neutralism not merely as a lesser evil but as a positive good.
Even a neutralism that is on many issues slanted towards Moscow
or Peiping is not necessarily a disaster. There is bound to be much
that is ugly in the political life of the new nations; what we should
hope for
is
that they retain sufficient political and economic autonomy
and stability to leave open plural possibilities of development, includ–
ing one that may eventually result in a greater concern for demo–
cratic institutions and libertarian values than is possible at the present.
Such an objective precludes direct Russian or Chinese domination
and the imposition of a rigid totalitarian pattern modeled on the Com–
munist dictatorships of the sort that appear to be evolving in Cuba.
Yet we can tolerate even the latter so long as it is confined to small
nations; their experience may indeed have a valuable cautionary
effect on the larger underdeveloped countries. Military alliances with
the new nations have no relevance at all to these objectives except in
areas immediately adjacent to Russia and China, which are likely to
be indefensible anyway. (I still think the Korean war was at the
time necessary, but it cannot be repeated). Nor should we feel on the
defensive if American institutions and values are not widely admired
and emulated so long as genuine national independence and a mod–
icum of flexibility in the political and social structure remain realities.
We should help all underdeveloped countries to achieve the
economic and technical progress they seek, remembering, however,
that lavish benevolence may sometimes be as injurious to the spirit
of peoples as exploitation, indifference and even domination. A trade
policy ensuring more favorable terms to primary producers may
in the long-run help encourage in some areas an economic develop–
ment that proceeds within a stable-or stabilizing-cultural and
institutional context more effectively than the sort of world TVA
directed by the West that attracts so many liberals and radicals. Also,
what the United States
is
has an importance that is sometimes as
great as what it
does,
although hardly as great as
is
claimed by those
on the Left who argue that the achievement of racial equality and
democratic socialism at home will
also
"win" the cold war.
The rise of the underdeveloped continents has coincided with a
new bi-polar balance of power in Europe, or the "Atlantic Com–
munity," in which our antagonist espouses an intolerant secular salva-
