The Firm Touch: The Protracted Conflict

If there is one thing dictators and sundry bullies like in an adversary, it is indecisiveness. Vacillation, weakness are grist to totalitarian mills.

Faced with Neville Chamberlain’s weakness of resolve, Hitler made a quick meal of Czechoslovakia. Faced with the naïve vacillations of Jimmy Carter, Brezhnev gobbled Ethiopia and South Yemen, and bit deep into Afghanistan. Fidel Castro, likewise, set up a mini-satellite of his very own in Grenada, had a nice line in subversion in Jamaica, picked up the spoils in Nicaragua, and stirred the pot in Guatemala and El Salvador.

BC

About the Author

Brian Crozier

If there is one thing dictators and sundry bullies like in an adversary, it is indecisiveness. Vacillation, weakness are grist to totalitarian mills.

Faced with Neville Chamberlain’s weakness of resolve, Hitler made a quick meal of Czechoslovakia. Faced with the naïve vacillations of Jimmy Carter, Brezhnev gobbled Ethiopia and South Yemen, and bit deep into Afghanistan. Fidel Castro, likewise, set up a mini-satellite of his very own in Grenada, had a nice line in subversion in Jamaica, picked up the spoils in Nicaragua, and stirred the pot in Guatemala and El Salvador.