◆ SpookStack

cee em epee re . i \) THE TECHNIQUES OF SOVIET PROPAGANDA 33 tolerate these frictions, as from them an advanced society can, in normal times, derive forments of progress. But to indulge in them, at the moment when the combined Western forces are barely adequate to prevent the Bear from swallowing them all, reveals our d ence, and recalls the spectacle of Byzantium engrossed in arguments about the Eucharist on the eve of the penetration of its walls by the Turks. PLATING ON IGNORANCE # Under representative governments the masses, and a significant portion of the elite are only casually concerned with politics, not aving realized that their own political philosophy, of subordinating government to the consent of the governed, places their fate at the disposal of politics. The Soviets have comprehended this principle which is why, while they crush freedom of opinion in their own realm, they have thoroughly equipped themselves to circumvent it in the frea world. They practice politics 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, and have accumulated for the regalement of the Sunday politicians of the West, an enormous stockpile of views, counterviews, formulas fallacies, attitudes, and dialectical arguments which are hollow and easily dissected if examined closely, but which impress the uninitiated. They thus enjoy the advantage of the bluff that an unscrupulous specialist can easily impose upon amateurs, Their use of this arsenal of pedantic systems to impress the good people of the West resurrects Moliere’s doctor, pontificating in Latin to a bourgeois. This is a gap- ing hole in the intellectual armor of the free world. Play on folly ; Khrushchev’s visit to the United States, culminating in the hy- erisy of Camp David, will stand as a classic example of the huge ividends accruing to Soviet political warfare from the folly of the West. The Soviet chief was flattered, feasted, and patted on the back, less than 3 years after Budapest. When a king is executed, the aristocrats pursue the regicides with their vengeance for a century. When a people is massacred, the democrats retain their bitterness toward the democides for an entire morning. Play on forbearance Democratic people are forbearing; patient with their adversaries, and considerate of their viewpoints, This amiability is virtuous in dealing with free men, but when we permit the totalitarians the same benefits we become not just dupes, but accomplices. Conferences have dragged on for years, in those parts of the world provided with alaces, at which the West has “discussed” disarmament with the S.S.R. diplomats—more accurately, with tape recordings produced at the Kremlin. Recently the Soviet “nyet” was repea for the 360th time, in answer to the crucial question of control. The West knows full well the Kremlin will never allow inspectors free access to all its territories, going wherever they desire, because in such a case they could not ignore the sad reality of the Communist “paradise.” This is, therefore, a situation in which the Kremlin prolongs the world’s anxiety simply because it is ashamed of itself. t is a unique opportunity to terminate these vain parleys by casting all the blame on the Kremlin. Instead, the West drags along wi the empty convocations, whose only effect is the provision of free ——