In the present inadequacy of international law and sentiment a nation must
be ready at any moment to defend itself; and when its essential interests are
involved it must be allowed to use any means it considers necessary to its
survival. The Ten Commandments must be silent when self-preservation is
at stake.
It is clear (continues the general) that the United States must assume
today the task that Great Britain performed so well in the nineteenth
century–the protection of Western civilization from external danger.
Communist governments, armed with old birth rates and new weapons,
have repeatedly proclaimed their resolve to destroy the economy and
independence of non-Communist states. Young nations, longing for an
Industrial Revolution to give them economic wealth and military power, are
impressed by the rapid industrialization of Russia under governmental
management; Western capitalism might be more productive in the end, but
it seems slower in development; the new governors, eager to control the
resources and manhood of their states, are a likely prey to Communist
propaganda, infiltration, and subversion. Unless this spreading process is
halted it is only a matter of time before nearly all Asia, Africa, and South
America will be under Communist leadership, and Australia, New Zealand,
North America, and Western Europe will be surrounded by enemies on
every side. Imagine the effect of such a condition upon Japan, the
Philippines, and India, and upon the powerful Communist Party of Italy;
imagine the effect of a Communist victory in Italy upon the Communist
movement in France. Great Britain, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, and West
Germany would be left at the mercy of an overwhelmingly Communist
Continent. Should North America, now at the height of its power, accept
such a future as inevitable, withdraw within its frontiers, and let itself be
encircled by hostile states controlling its access to materials and markets,
and compelling it, like any besieged people, to imitate its enemies and
establish governmental dictatorship over every phase of its once free and
stimulating life? Should the leaders of America consider only the
