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August 20, 1957

# I. THE CHALLENGE OF CRISIS

## The Goals of the Democratic Process

There can be no discussion of democratic processes without an effort to define aims. It is a central problem for any society to formulate, communicate and give substance to its purposes and aspirations. And it is especially necessary for a democratic society to be clear about the goals which condition its processes, even though it may believe those goals are self-evident. Only as a political society can meet this problem can it deal with major matters of national interest and purpose. A democratic society must meet its challenges in ways that are consonant with the dignity of the individual, the preservation and widening of human freedom, and the achievement of those moral and material goals, aspirations, and values that make life worth living.

The basic conviction and goal in our democratic process is the concept of the unique, God-given inviolability of the individual human being. Our society in all its aspects is the sum of the separate and unique individuals who live together for the sake of mutual enrichment of people -- not people made incarnate as a state, but people in their only democratic validity: as individuals.

This understanding is the first ingredient of a statement of objectives. It provides the common values of our civilization that underlie our acts and beliefs. It does not avoid the ultimate question of man's relation to the

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universe and thus to other men in asking: What is good and evil for a nation
and for mankind? Our society in seeking answers to this question conceives
man as a creature of a divine purpose, who wins true freedom and strength
through understanding that purpose as far as human prayer and wisdom can
lead him.

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The Emerging Challenge

The goals of our society are challenged today as much in its spiritual
foundations as in its physical integrity. The challenge is fortified by an
opponent commanding an enormous organization of material power and a moral
fanaticism. The challenge we face puts sharply the question whether our
society can continue to rely on our hitherto time-tested methods of national
decision. And it may well be here that the single greatest challenge to our
democratic society lies: to demonstrate that we can survive and achieve
in the face of mortal threat while preserving the essentials of our democracy.

Precipitated by the technological revolution and intensified by the
rising power of the communist bloc is the brooding thought that man has
achieved dimensions of physical power which allows him to wreck himself and
the whole world. We are caught up in a phase of history which has irrevocably
thrust us out onto the world scene; and our national survival demands that
we sustain leadership of a global coalition in an environment of rapid change,
full of dangers and potentialities for the American interest. We live, and
will continue to live in the most revolutionary period the world has yet seen.
Upon our shoulders rests a major burden of responsibility. Our actions or lack
of response will determine what kind of world and what kind of values and
freedom crystallizes from these times of chaos.

Our first challenge comes from the unparalleled revolutions taking
place in our world environment including the emergence of communism as a
world power, the discovery of nuclear energy and the rising tide of expectation

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of the underprivileged peoples of the world.

Our second is the challenge on the home scene of the first truly mass
democracy in the world's history where we must deal with better distribution
of our national wealth, the trend away from farms, the growing tendency of
our great cities to become slum areas, social security, public health and a
better quality of education for our people.

The third challenge area is the challenge to our system of spiritual
and moral values. Among these can be listed, our predeliction for the status
quo, our yearning for times without crises, the need for a more adequate
philosophy of the role of force in today's world, and a sense of spiritual
purpose that will keep us from drowning in materialism.

The Communist Bid

The most immediate and pressing challenge to the democratic process
comes from the existence today of the alternate and antithetical set of forces
and values represented by communism. This threat all the more urgent because
it operates simultaneously on three levels: military, industrial, ideological.

We are opposed in every dimension by a communist bloc dangerous
but changing, whose great strength we must frustrate while we do what we
can to accelerate a hopeful but precarious sequence of international alterations
favorable to our interests and to those of the men and women who live within
the bloc. Related to and heightened in its challenge by the Cold War we
face a world in revolution, where something like a billion human beings in

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Free Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America are transforming their lives and status in the global arena of power. We confront a Europe on whom we must to a degree continue to depend, facing the choice of decline or a radically new orientation to the world. One can perceive an endless flow of American responsibilities as we seek to maintain a favorable environment for our society in a rapidly evolving and shrinking world community.

Along with the military challenge from the world's second super-power, the Soviet Union, the United States is challenged by the rising industrial might of the Kremlin. Russian industrial production -- from armaments and scientists to machinery and industrial plants for export -- is rising rapidly. Each year finds the communists with more disposable capital goods available for use to undermine non-communist governments and thus to pave the way for communist seizures of power. There is a rising tide of demand by less privileged peoples that we help make it possible for them -- quickly -- to enjoy many of the same benefits we have achieved for ourselves. But they often do not understand the connections between our material wealth and democratic values. The communist system promises quick benefits at what they argue is the small cost of political and individual freedom. Since many of the underprivileged peoples do not know and have not enjoyed such freedom, the sacrifice often does not seem excessive. This is the third aspect of the communist challenge: to many millions of determined men and women, its philosophy seems to offer an alternate organization of a society based on a

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dynamic whose power has been illustrated by the rapid rise of the communist
strength. To such people, communism is no second-best idea: it seems
the most valid idea for organizing and conducting a system in this period of
the world.

All of these challenges must be dealt with the continued threat of protracted or all-out war. This creates a difficult environment for our democracy; it is natural for free people to wish to evade even the contemplation of such appallingly unpleasant possibilities.

If one looks back over the experience of the nation in military and
foreign affairs over the past fifty years a simple fact stands out: the United
States has, on the whole failed to identify the major dangers it confronted in
time to organize a policy which prevented major crises from coming about.
This is true of all the nation's major military engagements from the First World
War to the Korean War; and it is true also of a good many of its non-military
crises, from the rejection of the League of Nations in 1920 to Suez in 1956.
Certain of the causes for the convulsive pattern of our national performance
lie in the character of American institutions of leadership and are subject
to remedy by institutional modification. It is essential, however, to acknow-
ledge that some of the basic factors which have determined the result lie
outside institutions, and that they will only yield to changes in men's
minds -- in ways of looking at ourselves in relation to the world.

Here the novel problems we face are indeed complex.

[Y]

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A striking example of this problem exists in the area of arms and disarmament where we must balance massive preparation for adequate military strength with sincere efforts to create a world atmosphere conducive to eventual peace. Unless we reduce our own fears and tensions and work for similar changes abroad, we increase the danger of war. Yet, over-emphasis on the prospects of peace in our time can leave our people unprepared morally or materially to fight if need be. And the very preservation of peace itself may depend on a military posture adequate to deter or defeat a possible aggressor not only in the horrible event of all-out war, but at the more probable level of limited war.

Peripheral and ambiguous military attack now presents a far greater danger to democracy than the possibility of more Pearl Harbors. This is a particularly difficult area for democratic action. We are accustomed to react convulsively to flagrant challenges with all-out responses. The concept of unlimited application of all available force leading to "victory" will not serve us here as in the past. The objective is no longer the destruction of the enemy's capacity to fight, but the weakening of his will to fight. Diplomacy and propaganda will be wedded to military operations with special intimacy, for the power brought to bear on the enemy's will to fight includes temptation as well as suffering, offers as well as the language of battle.

## Problems At Home

There is another challenge -- less dramatic than that of the communist onslaught, but none the less vital. This is the constant challenge of adapting