September 24, 1969

Doves Benefit From Historical Turning Point

The way things are going, 1969 may go down in history as the year of the Dove.

Peace is not in sight, but concrete steps have been taken to end the fighting.

President Richard Nixon has begun withdrawing troops from Vietnam.

Russia and China decide to cool their border incidents.

Gamal Abdel Nasser, leader of Egypt, suddenly is faced with palace revolts against his blustering Middle East policies.

Behind it all is a pulling back of world communism to strictly Russian interests.  The Marxist facade of international social action crumbled for good with the invasion of Czechoslovakia.

The Russia-Firsters are out in the open after more than 50 years of double talk that fooled nobody but the malcontents.  It is a welcome and healthy development for world stability.

The wonder of it is that it took half the world over half a century to call Russia's bluff.  Until then, the Russians very nearly put together an empire of slaves.

Former U.S. President Harry S.  Truman was the first to see through the sham and stand up to the Communist tide.  He drew a line in Greece and Korea and put American military resources behind it.  Russia's advance was stopped, and those already behind the Iron Curtain were encouraged to resist silently.  Red erosion has been slow but steady ever since.

Russia's role in Vietnam is the most difficult to assess because the Bear and the Eagle are playing their cards so close to their vests.

The best surmise, from the meager facts publicly known, is that Russia has faced up to the realities of Asia.  Most Asian countries are so far behind the Twentieth Century that a modern power would quickly go bankrupt trying to update the economies.

It is probable that a subtle signal to this effect has been flashed to Nixon.  For him to begin unilateral withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam - without some reason to believe the enemy will let up - would be appeasement and surrender.  Such a move would be a betrayal of the 40,000 American lives sacrificed for South Vietnam freedom.

Something is in the wind too nebulous for Nixon to publicize, but a Russian pull back is consistent with a nationalistic entrenchment.  Both Russia and the United States are over-extended, and much more favorable gain-to-cost ratios exist in the homeland and adjacent nations.

The same reasoning undoubtedly exists in the minds of Russian leaders regarding Red China.  Unfortunately, from the Soviet view, the Chinese communists desperately need farm land with which to grow food for the hungry masses.  Russian Siberia - productive for the type of crops flourishing in the Alaskan-type climate - has long been tempting to China.

A series of border provocations, and movement of troops to China's northern provinces, has made Russia edgy.  The communists have roundly insulted each other during the last year, indicating a profound reassessment of old-line policies.  It is too early to say whether the communist quarrel will take any heat off the free nations, but change is underway that offers opportunity for a new balance of power in Asia.

In Egypt, Russia seems ready to write off Nasser.  The Arab ruler has been unable to stand up to little Israel, losing all his expensive, Russian military equipment in the twinkling of a six-day war two years ago.

Many millions of rubles and Russian man-hours have been poured into the Egyptian economy without noticeable result.  The mammoth Aswan Dam - object of so much Russian money - is vulnerable to a single Israeli torpedo.  Only an Israeli self-imposed restraint has spared the dam so far.  Next time, look out!

The Arab masses have shown less ideological resolve than the Asians.  Even if perfectly organized and controlled, their deep poverty and lack of industrial technology will be a severe drain on any sponsor nation for generations.

You may be sure that the facts of life are apparent to Russians, and equally sure that the Soviet Union - unlike the U.S. - is not bothered by any "bourgeois" humanitarianism.

We are now going through one of the truly significant turning points of history.  Suddenly many conditions for great change have occurred within a short space of time.

The North Vietnamese leader, Ho Chi Minh is dead.  Red China's hard-liner, Mao Tse-tung is so ill as to be but a figurehead.  The people of Czechoslovakia have discovered how to thumb their noses at communism and stay alive.  Arab nationalism has been fragmented.  The new power of Israel dominates the Mid-East.

Air power, space power and giant sea ships have made canals and other geographic bottlenecks meaningless.  Humanism and individual liberty is on the march once again.

Things will never be the same again.  And who cares?

Author: Lindsey Williams