REASON FOR OPTIMISM AMID GLOOM OUTLOOK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP67-00318R000100780092-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 17, 2013
• Sequence Number: 92
• Publication Date: April 28, 1961
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

&PR 2 8 Mt
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/05/17 : CIA-RDP67-00318R000100780092-2
_ _
TUPELO, MISS.
JOURNAL
Li. 15,380
, .
I_
APR 281%! {
!Reason For Optimism Amid Gloom Outlook
For ,
......
, For two full days this week we listened to the
' top officials ortiur?? go?vernment, from President
f
, Kennedy on down through the cabinet level to the
t heads of such olganizations as the National Space
I'
i
gency, der1. t]; Intelligence-and the Joint Chiefs
f Staff, explain the background of today's very
serious world crisis. .
i In what might' be calledl&teen-lor joint
i intepiew ,they w? even further and gave i fOrth-
garding America's course in 'a f uM'd iiiture.
right answers toi fdreds of pointidsiestions. re-
, And out of all these answers e have reached
.
the following concl
., wOich (nay be c;f' interest
?
to our read
1. America has. ma
example being tht C
2. It will make m
fact, and some of A
3. Under .Presid
more frequently be
action, as has b
4. For at lea
are re-developing
the Communists ,
I in', Africa and Asia:
will not be the I
5. Latin, Arneric
sian threat and s&tAptjofl of Cuba is safer
frons communism vtfitn irany time in recent I
years.
6. To meet the expeptutl inroads in Asia and I
Africa and continued,0,047unist efforts to infil- 1
trate Latin Americo, th. Valid States military es-
tablishment will in part be revamped to fight wars
as they exist rather, than training only for wars ;
that may never come. ,
mistakes, the No: 1 recent
? iasco., .
e-mistakeiLmany more, in
'big- ones.
crt
nnedy these rigstakes will
Sakes of ',action 'than of in-
se in the pilot.-
L. year or two while we
art of guerilla warfare,
e further serious gains
r words, Cuba and Laos
eulligh,,to fall to the Reds.
last awake to the Rut-
7. President Kennedy will not take defeat lying
down and will not be satisfied until he has dis-
covered a way not merely to stop Communist expan-
sion but to retake some territory previous]
t y lost to
he Reds.
8. If the public wilt go along with him, the
i Prelident will substitute American brains and
'
brawn to a considerable degree for American mon-
ey in trying to win friends and influence people.
! For example, instead of repeating the $300 mil-
r
Ilion dollars President Eisenhower poured into Laos
in a futile effort to keep the country from the Reds,
a couple of thousand American guerrilla fights may
' some day show up in a distant Asiatic country
, to do the job money failed to accomplish.
9. The Kennedy administration will do every-
thing feasible to get other nations to go along with
us in trying to stop communism's spread.
But when a, showdown comes, we will act
alone?and alien in opposition to our neighbors?
if they refuse to accept their responsibility to resist
the' Reds.
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Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/05/17: CIA-RDP67-00318R000100780092-2
PPR 2 8 1961
10. The practice of international blackmail by
which some small countries have deliberately play-
ed footsie with communism and then run to us
with a threat of turning to Khrushchev unless we
come through ?with aid in nearing the end of its
I rope.
. .
A more positive approach, with aid going chief-
ly to countries which help 'themselves rather than
...to those Which. get Ati`dirsepes- t trouble, seems to
' lie ahead.
,
. 1. It is not beyond 1 tri of possibility that
;the year 1961 could see.. eginning?of the Third
World War everyone lias, sp4reatly dreaded. And
!the 'starting point--it- it*Omes,1-Will no doubt be
Berlin.
12. Even if Allied forces in Europe Can hold
' back the Russian orpgAniy 1 two .r three weeks
as scirrie contend,. that will be lol enough. For h
will give the Reds time to decide whether they
? . _ _
want nuclear war. And nuclear war is what Eur-
ope will see if the Russtansimarch.
13. The stock of nuClear bombs possessed by
both the Communists and the West is now so big
that both sides are literally swamped and may
soon, cut back production if they have not already
done so).
..,
14e*The real threat td. the world will dome
t -
when China gets the hydrOlen hOmX?without Rus-
sia's help. This is likely Wile iiielllier than 1962
nor, later than 1964.
? --These conclusions?reasonably well justified,
we believe?seern,?kisically gloomy.
Yet we are leXs.,yessimistic than we were a
year or two ago. .4',
For we bellevettikat for the first time in fiV
teen , years AmeriesrAu. 14g. cto . receive a efill..
lc* under PresiaiitNiNNY to- admit the seri-;
ouhness of our pirglit4rici. de 'something about ? it
_i,
through a ."blood, 'aweat rand tears" approach' as
well as through use,:af.,11+ey:
At first the America people are not going to
like' this approach. ?i-cv?i,: ' '''? ',:), ?
We have been led to' helleye. that the was of
gie future will be si-i.pp sithutton, affair, conducted
in relative comfort anitialith si.,-minimum--of sasri-
lice though possibly Willyi total effectiveness.
But that isn't the4 typeAf Ai-i*$ the' Atissians
are fighting. Nor.is itihe _type.-WAL which Khrush-
, .
chev has swam to wipe us off thtinap. ?
We are convinced that while we need the nu-
clear deterrent we now have, the wars of the im-
mediate future will revert to the Indian fighting
tactics of George Washington's days.
And it is because we believe President Kenne-
dy is already shaking up the American military in
a way which will prepare us for such guerilla war-
fare wherever it mor occur in areas affecting our
security that we are less pessimistic than the above
gloomy outlook seems to indicate.
In other words, ive feel that though the world
crisis will almost ttainlyoeget worse before it
gets better, we and our allies can meet any chal-
lenge the Reds offer if we quit expecting to escape
trouble and start organizing ourselves ?to oyercome
it even though victory requires greater effort and ,
greater sacrifice than we. have been called upon
to make in recent years.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/05/17: CIA-RDP67-00318Ronni nn7sInnao