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As the decade of the 1970s expires .
..
the
prolonged anxiety of the past 1Oyears gives
way to a feeling of pervasive dread.
...
of the German military buildup in 1936.
Ironically, many of the same arguments
used to brush aside Mr. Churchill's
warning~
about Nazi Germany in the 1930s were
heard in the 1970s about warnings of the
Soviet military buildup.
Mr. Churchill's critics said that the
Nazis only wanted "parity," not superiori–
ty, much the way that many in the
1970s claimed that the Soviet Union
only wanted to be "equal ," not supe-
rior to the Uni ted States. (Tbe Soviet
Union, however, has long since at–
tained superiority over the United
States in terms of the actual sum total
of military equipment.)
Critics also said that Mr. Church–
ill ignored Germany's need for a
"two front army," much the same
way that many in the
1970s explained away the Soviet's
military buildup by saying that tbe
Soviet Union needs to protect itself
from both China on the one
side and NATO on the other.
There were also claims that
Churchill imputed aggressive motives
to the Nazis where none really
existed. For example in 1935, a fellow
member of Parliament criticized
him " for having permeated this entire
speecb with the
atmosphere that Ger–
many is armingfor war."
Likewise, in the
1970s many leaders in charge of
foreign policy in the Western nations,
despite Soviet support of revolutionary
movements all over the globe, continued to
insist that the Soviet leaders were a "cautious"
and "unadventuristic" group.
The !970s also saw its own counterparts to
Winston Churchill, including, interestingly, bis own
grandson who also used his seat in
Parliament to warn of an enemy arms buildup.
Others, such as Eugene Rostow, Paul Nitze, former
SALT negotiator, Daniel O. Graham, former head of
Defense Intelligence, Gen. Keegan, and in Britain, Lord
Chalfont, a former high official in a Labour government, and
current Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, all warned
of the enormous increase in Soviet arms. And like the response to Mr.
Churchill in the 1930s, Western governments were slow to act. (An
excellent discussion of the
many
parallels tbat exist between Winston
Churchill's warnings in the !930s and those of the 1970s may be found in Edward
Luttwak's article, "Churchill and Us," in the June, 1977, issue of
Commentary.)
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