Defense and the Defensive

All analysts of the world conflict understand that the United States and its allies—“the West”—are on the strategic defensive. This follows from the reigning policies of the two sides. The objective of the Communist enterprise is expansive: to extend Communist power over more persons and wider areas, ultimately over the whole world. The objective of the West, as conceived up to now by its governing elite, is to block the Communist advance, and to hold on to persons and areas inherited from the past. Actually, the Western objective is still more modest: to hold the metropolitan areas. Some while ago, the Western elite reconciled itself to the loss, or semi-loss, of the vast regions that had been in dependent or colonial relation to the Western metropolitan centers.

The adoption of an offensive strategy would presuppose a shift in objective. Instead of a mere holding, the aim would become a decrease in the number of persons and acres under the control of the Communist enterprise, and a reduction of its power to a level from which it could no longer threaten the security of the West and the peace of the world.

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James Burnham

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All analysts of the world conflict understand that the United States and its allies—“the West”—are on the strategic defensive. This follows from the reigning policies of the two sides. The objective of the Communist enterprise is expansive: to extend Communist power over more persons and wider areas, ultimately over the whole world. The objective of the West, as conceived up to now by its governing elite, is to block the Communist advance, and to hold on to persons and areas inherited from the past. Actually, the Western objective is still more modest: to hold the metropolitan areas. Some while ago, the Western elite reconciled itself to the loss, or semi-loss, of the vast regions that had been in dependent or colonial relation to the Western metropolitan centers.

The adoption of an offensive strategy would presuppose a shift in objective. Instead of a mere holding, the aim would become a decrease in the number of persons and acres under the control of the Communist enterprise, and a reduction of its power to a level from which it could no longer threaten the security of the West and the peace of the world.