Missing the Point

tion would seem to be a strong one in comparison to what occurred earlier. The Kennedy reaction to the resumption of nuclear tests was to stress the fall-out danger. This was not the reaction of the strong nor the courageous. His reaction to the political pressures placed on Finland was studied silence. Strength should be made of sterner stuff. The President’s reaction to Marshal Malinovsky’s charge at the 22d Party Congress that the U.S. is preparing a nuclear attack on the USSR has not been noted.

This series of reactions does not, by any means, equal cowardice. It does equal an inability to read the lessons which Speier and Gallois (and, tangentially, Kecskemeti) stress. There are no moot points to the Communists. Any accommodation to Communist demands simply opens the field for further demands. The continuation of such accommodation leads not only to the strengthening of the Communist position but also to the weakening of the Western. In a severely weakened Western position who is to say that the cowards in our midst would not dominate those of courage?

WM

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William Oliver Martin

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tion would seem to be a strong one in comparison to what occurred earlier. The Kennedy reaction to the resumption of nuclear tests was to stress the fall-out danger. This was not the reaction of the strong nor the courageous. His reaction to the political pressures placed on Finland was studied silence. Strength should be made of sterner stuff. The President’s reaction to Marshal Malinovsky’s charge at the 22d Party Congress that the U.S. is preparing a nuclear attack on the USSR has not been noted.

This series of reactions does not, by any means, equal cowardice. It does equal an inability to read the lessons which Speier and Gallois (and, tangentially, Kecskemeti) stress. There are no moot points to the Communists. Any accommodation to Communist demands simply opens the field for further demands. The continuation of such accommodation leads not only to the strengthening of the Communist position but also to the weakening of the Western. In a severely weakened Western position who is to say that the cowards in our midst would not dominate those of courage?