Editing 76-13-B5 (section)

= Strategy I =

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=== Transcript ===
Some months ago American Cause, a bipartisan, tax-exempt , political education
organization directed by former Senator George Murphy, sent out a warning authored
by a former editor with FORTUNE magazine, C.J.V. Murphy, and James Angelton, former
chief of counterintelligence for the C.I.A.

Their warning is even more timely today and we should be grateful to American
Cause for making it available. They asked these questions: QUOTE -- "Do Soviet
bloc aims and use of power imperil American security and, if so, what is the
nature of the threat? If the danger is real, what should our defense posture be?
Can we accept military inferiority? Shall we settle for parity or superiority?
Are alliances essential? Are we prepared to demonstrate that the American
leadership can be counted upon in a crisis? If the danger is real and must be met
with allies, what new direction and stimulus should be imparted to our strategic
policies to restore our deterrence to aggression?"-- UNQUOTE.

These questions aren't new. They were first faced by President Harry Truman in
1950. In August of 1949, our monopoly on nuclear weapons had ended. The Soviet
Union had the bomb. In April of 1950, the President was handed a very timely
National Security Council paper to be called NSC 68. Only five years had passed
since World War II and Stalin had gathered in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania and
implanted dictatorships over the countries of Eastern Europe. In two months, he
would send the North Koreans against Americans and South Korea and launch a new
and bloody war.

NSC 68 said, -- QUOTE -- "The Soviet Union, animated by a new, fanatic faith
antithetical to our own, seeks to impose its authority over the rest of the world.
It calls for the complete subversion or forcible destruction of the machinery of
government and the structure of society of non-communist nations by means, both
violent and non-violent, and by infiltration and intimidation." -- UNQUOTE.

Declaring that even then the Soviet Union had armed forces far in excess of those
needed for defense, the paper called for the United States to have overwhelming
atomic capability and conventional forces sufficient to make us not altogether
dependent on nuclear weapons. NSG 68 said, QUOTE -- "No moral restraints, only
calculations of practicality, would govern the Kremlin's decision whether to
resort to a surprise attack -- including nuclear." -- UNQUOTE.

Then these points were made, -- QUOTE -- "The Kremlin recognizes us as the only
threat to its aims of world domination. We must realize the cold war (which
rewriters of history today would have us believe was only imaginary) is a real
war and the survival of the free world is at stake. With sacrifice and discipline
we and our allies would have to achieve a rapid, sustained build up of economic
policy and military strength. Without superior strength, a policy of containment
is no more than a bluff." -- UNQUOTE. And finally, this statement, -- QUOTE--
"We stand in greater danger of defeat from lack of will than from any mistakes
likely to flow from a show of purp9se. No nation ever saved its freedom by disarming
in the hopes of placating an enemy." -- UNQUOTE. Those were the findings and
recommendations given to Harry Truman 27 years ago. I'll carry on with this tomorrow. 

This is Ronald Reagan.

Thanks for listening.

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=== Details ===
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<TR><TD WIDTH="150">Batch Number</TD><TD WIDTH="150">{{PAGENAME}}</TD></TR>
<TD>Production Date</TD><TD>05/04/[[Radio1977|1977]]</TD></TR>
<TD>Book/Page</TD><TD>[[Radio_Commentary_Books#Reagan:_In_His_Own_Hand|RihoH-110]]</TD></TR>
<TD>Audio</TD><TD></TD></TR>
<TD>Youtube?</TD><TD>No</TD></TR>
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===Added Notes===

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