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EE —d ee =, Sa gp eg THE TECHNIQUES OF SOVIET PROPAGANDA 45 ‘ideological etruggle” has no relation to a genuine debate of opinions. It is a struggle conducted by the Kremlin with the implacable ex- a tramism of war, utilizing all ¢ nerfidious ruses. shameless decaits and utilizing all the perfidious ruses, shameless deceits and fanaticized rioters in the heavily stocked arsenal of political warfare; means utterly illegitimate with respect to the rules of free and honest competition of ideas. The Kremlin uses for this struggle a colossal, truly monstrous apparatus, unique in the history of man, which spends billions of dollars a year and employs a half million overt and covert agents to infect and hypnotize the world by an all-pervading torrent of propa- ganda, unlimited demagogy, and tentacular infiltration. Thousands of activists are carefully trained in an immense array of special schools in the arts of sabotage, disorganization, hoax, sophistry, and slander. 1 _— reo Wh a haravar Violence is not missing from the picture. Whenever and wherever advantageous, blocd will be shed in street riots, terrorism and tele- guided guerrillas, as communism has amply demonstrated it was pre- ared to do lavishly in the weaker sectors of the free world, in Caracas, in the Andes, and in Vietnam—at the very hour its leaders were clinking champagne glasses with the free world representatives in Moscow. This is what “ideological struggle’ means in Communist practice. It has neither the dimensions nor the standards of those debates of opinion on which representative governments must indeed rely for political decisions, This type of ‘ideological struggle” is no more tolerable than assaults with missiles. Communism prefers political war to hot war because on this front the West remains steadfastly dumb and blind, while the Kremlin enjoys absolute supremacy, served by the colossal machine it has perfected over a 40-year period. To win an armed confrontation, olshevism would need the support of its own people who, knowing it from bitter experience, with old that support. To advance its objectives in the political war, it needs the sympathy of the foreign intelligentsia who, knowing it only by theory, bestow that sympathy. Finally, the Soviets could in no event risk a nuclear war. Not, as is commonly supposed, because they would suffer as much damage as they would inflict, but because their regime would crumble. Resting only on a totalitarian framework of control and coercion, all of whose ligatures would be simultaneously destroyed by a nuclear devastation, the survivors would immediately revolt against the ruling tyranny. This is why Khrushchev never relished the idea of pressing the button to unleash nuclear missiles, as was demonstrated to the world in the Caribbean. This is why, when the West makes generous concessions to prolong a “genial mood” of communism, it pays very dearly for the “renunciation” by the Communists of a line they never intended to pursue, This is also why, finally, a part of the “‘peaceful coexistence” formula could become reality: the “peaceful” part. However, the term ‘“‘coexistence” remains and will ever be a snare, because it is, and will always be, our death that the Communists seek, as they have themselves clearly avowed. But unable to obtain our death quickly by fire, they have chosen to administer it in their own good time, by strangulation. ; For us, the prospective cadavers, the advantage appears indeed thin. * r 4. oe ee ee ny 4 ' . fer we ee ee ee or : . , a