243


NATIONAL S;ECURITY POLICY-


externally, is therefore a last resort for a free society. The act is per-
missible only when one individual or groups of individuals within it
threaten the basic rights of other individuals or when another society
seeks to impose its will upon it. The free society cherishes. and protects
as fundamental the rights of the minority against the will of a
majority, because these rights are the inalienable rights of each and
every individual.
   The; re'sort to force, to compulsion, to the imposition of its will is
therefore A difficult and dangerous act for a free society, which is
warranted only in the face of even greater dangers. The necessity
of the act must be clear and compelling; the act must commend itself
to-the overwhelming majority as an inescapable exception to the basic
idea of freedom; or the regenerative capacity of free men after the
act has been performed will be, endangered.
   The Kremlin is able to select whatever means are expedient in
 seeking to carry-out its fundamental design. Thus it can make the best
 of several possible worlds, conducting the struggle on those levels
 where it considers it profitable and enjoying the benefits of a; pseudo-
 peace on those levels where it is not ready for a contest. At the ideo-
 logical or psyehological level, in the struggle for men's minds, the
 conflict is-worId-'wide. 'At the ,political and economic level, within
 states and in the relations between states, the struggle for power is
 being intensified And at the military level, the Kremlin has thus far
 been careful not to commit a technical breach of thepeace, although
 using its vast forces to intimidate its neighbors, and to support an
 aggressive foreign policy, and not hestitating through. its agents to
 resort to arms in favorable circumstances. The attempt to carry out
 its fundamental design is being pressed, therefore, with all means
 which are believed expedient in the present situation, and the Kremlin
 has inextricably engaged us in the conflict between its design mnd our
 purpose,
   We have no such freedom of choice, and least of all in the, use of
 force. Resort to war is not only a last resort for a free society, but
 it is also an act which cannot definitively .end the fundamental conflict
 in the realm of ideas. The idea, of slavery can only be overcome by
 the timely and persistent demonstration.of the superiority of the idea
 .th e .    . ....ya d .p o .. . . . . .. .. .. ... ... ..
 of freedom. Military Victory alone would only partially and perhaps
 only temporarily affect the fundamental conflict, for although the
 ability of -the, Kremlin to threaten our security might be for a time
 destroyed, the resurgence of totalitarian forces and the re-estabish-
 ment of the Soviet system ,or its equivalent would not be long delayed
 unless great progress were made-in the fundamental conflict.