Turn of the Kaleidoscope

When. Charles de Gaulle abruptly vetoed Britain’s Common Market membership and simultaneously refused to drop plans for an independent nuclear weapons system, he catalyzed a major crisis in Europe and NATO. It becomes gradually clear that the crisis is much wider than NATO and that de Gaulle’s act was only one of a set of triggering events that stretches back to April 1961. It is the world equilibrium, not just the Atlantic community, that has been thrown into critical instability.

Among the more striking of these events that may now be seen to fit with de Gaulle’s moves into a single pattern were: the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion (April 1961), confirmed by the U.S. failure to carry through the October 1962 action to a conclusion; the Indian invasion of Goa (Dec. 1961); the emergence of the Sino-Soviet dispute into the open through recall of Soviet diplomats from Albania (also Dec. 1961); Indonesia’s conquest of West New Guinea (certified in August 1962) and the start of her campaign for northern Borneo; the Egyptian-backed revolt in Yemen (Sept. 1962), now being followed up in Iraq; Afro-Asian assumption of control of the UN’s Congo operation (demonstrated by the rejection of the State Department’s moderate proposals in Nov. 1962).

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James Burnham

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When. Charles de Gaulle abruptly vetoed Britain’s Common Market membership and simultaneously refused to drop plans for an independent nuclear weapons system, he catalyzed a major crisis in Europe and NATO. It becomes gradually clear that the crisis is much wider than NATO and that de Gaulle’s act was only one of a set of triggering events that stretches back to April 1961. It is the world equilibrium, not just the Atlantic community, that has been thrown into critical instability.

Among the more striking of these events that may now be seen to fit with de Gaulle’s moves into a single pattern were: the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion (April 1961), confirmed by the U.S. failure to carry through the October 1962 action to a conclusion; the Indian invasion of Goa (Dec. 1961); the emergence of the Sino-Soviet dispute into the open through recall of Soviet diplomats from Albania (also Dec. 1961); Indonesia’s conquest of West New Guinea (certified in August 1962) and the start of her campaign for northern Borneo; the Egyptian-backed revolt in Yemen (Sept. 1962), now being followed up in Iraq; Afro-Asian assumption of control of the UN’s Congo operation (demonstrated by the rejection of the State Department’s moderate proposals in Nov. 1962).