US Presidency
1961

The Communist Bloc, largely self contained and isolated, represents an economic power already by some standards larger than that of Western Europe and gaining to some degree on the United States. But the combined output and purchasing power of the United States and Western Europe is more than twice as great as that of the entire Sino-Soviet Bloc. Though we have only half as much population, and far less than half as much territory, our coordinated economic strength will represent a powerful force for the maintenance and growth of freedom. But will our strength be combined and coordinated or divided and self defeating? Will we work together on problems of trade, payments and monetary reserve or will our mutual strength be splintered by a network of tariff walls, exchange controls, and the pursuit of narrow self interest in unrelated if not outright hostile policies on aid, trade, procurement, interest rates and currency? This is not a debate between deficit nations and surplus nations. It is not speculation over some grand design for the future.