INERTIA AS POLICY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200930016-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 4, 2000
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: March 27, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2000/08/27: CIA-RDP7 9g1 WP00
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
MAR , 7 1964
owe
J. HOWARD WOOD, Publisher
W. D. MAXWELL, Editor
,V +uae v4' a.aauaauoIS naav? .,. ,, a?m ..y.... e
"unthinkable," the Communists keep the
ing and biting at the periphery of freedoi
-silently, like rats at night. In southea
iaries do the dirty work. In Cuba th
have triumphed under false pretenses
allowing the United States to provide t
THE NEWSPAPER is an institution leverage in unseating a right-wing diet
'developed by modern civilization torship and then allowing a left-wing ty
to present the news of the day, anny to supplant R.
In Latin America and Africa the Co
and to furnish that check upon in high places and with fifth columns and
government which no constitution guerrilla formations in reserve until the
has ever been able to provide. hour is right.
Our bemused leaders don't know what to
-THE TRIBUNE CREDO do about it or how to handle the world-
to inform and lead public opinion, subversion, with disguised agents installed'
to foster commerce and industry, munists are operating thru infiltration a
INERTIA AS POLICY
On successive days we have heard the
nondefinition of nonpolicy in foreign affairs
from two of the principal spokesmen of the
administration, President Johnson and Sen.
J. William Fulbright, chairman of the for-
eign relations committee. The contribu-
tions of these gentlemen can be reduced co
the thesis that the world is a mess, there.
,is nothing we can do about it, and we
might as well relax and enjoy it.
Mr. Johnson trotted out the familiar
theme that "war is unthinkable." With
thermonuclear weapons, he said, "general
war is impossible and some alternative's
are essential." The alternative that com-
mended itself to him was "reasoned agree-
ment."
wide threat. They act like men encased
in a large and enveloping burlap sack,
groping aimlessly in the dark for an adver-
sary who always eludes the touch.
So Mr. Johnson falls back, on "reason"
as a means of dealing with an unreason-
able enemy whose end of reducing the'
world to universal despotism is entirely
irrational but whose means of accomplish-
ing that end are completely rational-and
effective.' The President laves himself. in'
rhetoric and talks of Isaiah. Isaiah is not In Viet Nam Sen. Fulbright's ideal 'is,
presiding over the Kremlin. apparently, another, Korea. We are to sup-
Sen. Fulbright's prescription, he admits, j '-port, the .South Vietnamese, who have little
is "distasteful." We must recognize, he
says, that Castro is here ,to stay., Sc. we
must abandon the, pretense, of a trade em-
bargo and start dealing with him. In
Panama, we must renegotiate the treaty
which for 60 years has given the United
States control "as if it were sovereign"
over the canal. We must renegotiate this
instrument to the satisfaction of the
wealthy oligarchy which rules Panama
and pockets the dollars, even tho it js the
dispossessed ' masses, s u .s c e p t i b l e to
communist incitements and manipulation,
which. jeopardize our hold op, the water-
,)
but we are not to extend the war to the
privileged sanctuary of communist North
Viet Nam, for that might stir up trouble..
We spend 50 billion dollars a year on
military power and are, so the President
.says, the most powerful nation on earth,
but we must never move our troops troops or
invoke our power, for somebody might be
killed. Meanwhile, the Communists sweep
piece after piece from the board. It could
be that the United States will go down in
history as a nation which, was defeated
tho its power. was unimpaired, because
never used.
to impotence, when a walk-in communist
conquest could be envisioned. -- __ l
War may be unthinkable to Mr. Johnson:
Is it unthinkable to the Communists? Well
have heard the Peking branch of the con-
spiracy bawling for the incineration of the
west. Apparently, war is not unthinkable
to it. We have seen Khrushchev, with a
pretense of moderation, restraining the im
.patient Chinese comrades with the counsel
of "coexistence."
The lard-headed ."liberals" think that he
is preaching "live and let live." They do
not tumble to the fact that "coexistence"
is war by other means than atomic ex-
change, which, naturally, entails risks.
The "liberals" do not appreciate the fact
that Khrushchev is counting upon them to
reduce the United States without bloodshed
Approved For Release 2000/08/27 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000200930016-4