reluctance of this epicurean generation to face so great an issue, or should
they consider also what future generations of Americans would wish that
these leaders had done? Is it not wiser to resist at once, to carry the war to
the enemy, to fight on foreign soil, to sacrifice, if it need be, a hundred
thousand American lives and perhaps a million noncombatants, but to leave
America free to live its own life in security and freedom? Is not such a
farsighted policy fully in accord with the lessons of history?
The philosopher answers: Yes, and the devastating results will be in
accord with history, except that they will be multiplied in proportion to the
increased number and mobility of the engaged forces, and the unparalleled
destructiveness of the weapons used. There is something greater than
history. Somewhere, sometime, in the name of humanity, we must
challenge a thousand evil precedents, and dare to apply the Golden Rule to
nations, as the Buddhist King Ashoka [Ashoka, King of Magadha (r. 273-
232 B.C.)] did (262 B.C.),
or at least do what Augustus did when he
bade Tiberius desist from further invasion of Germany (A.D. 9).
Let us
refuse, at whatever cost to ourselves, to make a hundred Hiroshimas in
China. “Magnanimity in politics,” said Edmund Burke, “is not seldom the
truest wisdom, and a great empire and little minds go ill together.”
Imagine an American President saying to the leaders of China and Russia:
“If we should follow the usual course of history we should make war
upon you for fear of what you may do a generation hence. Or we should
follow the dismal precedent of the Holy Alliance of 1815, and dedicate our
wealth and our soundest youth to suppressing any revolt against the
existing order anywhere. But we are willing to try a new approach. We
respect your peoples and your civilizations as among the most creative in
history. We shall try to understand your feelings, and your desire to develop
your own institutions without fear of attack. We must not allow our mutual
fears to lead us into war, for the unparalleled murderousness of our
weapons and yours brings into the situation an element unfamiliar to
history. We propose to send representatives to join with yours in a
