Basic HTML Version
Now
Emerging
ANEW
Balance of Power
A new world is taking shape. President Nixon's
Peking and Moscow talks ref1ect Washington's
new global strategy. lts success could prolong
the world's insecure peace. Failure would
surely lead to a nuclear nightmare.
S
UDOENLY
it's a changed world,
filled with uncertainties. The post–
World-War-II era is ovcr. Thc
bipolar relationship between the U. S.
and the Soviet Union is altered. A
new, more complex scheme of things
is taking shape.
How Did It Happen?
For a quarter century the whole
world revolved around two champions
with their impassioned and opposing
ideologies. Now there are five power
centers vyiog for attention and in–
Ruence in the modero worlcl.
To
be
sure, only the original two
actors on the post-war scene can be
classified as being "superpowers" in
the fullest definition of the term -
economically, politically and militarily.
But the other three - China, Japan
and Western Europe - are coming up
fast. They are receiving increased and
concerned attention by the former Big
Two.
The U. S. made the first move. The
Bamboo 01rtain was officially breached
when Richard M. Nixon opened up
United States relations with mainland
China. Ended were
22
years of virtual
silence.
2
by
Gene H. Hogberg
But even beforc that the U. S.
actively pursued arms agreement talks
with the Soviets and sought to achieve
a world monetary realignment.
Mainland China, despite her new–
found prestige, disavows superpower
intentions. Or so claimed Premier
Chou En-lai in his part of the final
communiqué at the conclusion of his
unprecedented talks with Mr. Nixon.
Terminology notwithstanding, Chioa's
proud nation, holding high the banner
of Mao Tse-tung thought, shows no
signs of limiting its impact in the
world, especially when it comes to
supporting "revolutionary struggles"
within the developing "Third World"
nations.
Peking's largely dcfensive nuclear
capacity - directed primarily at feared
arch-enemy Russia - continues to
grow, somewhat to the amazement of
Westero scientists. Who among them
would originally have thought the
largely agracian Chinese society was
capable of such sophisticated techno–
logical achievement?
It
was very much in the interest of
the Chinese leadership
in
Peking,
meantime, to open up a new "diplo–
matic front" with the U. S. to counter-
balance pressure from Moscow. Somc
lcaders in the Kremlin have openly
hinted at a nuclear "first-strike" at
China's nuclear weapons facilities.
China's Other Fear
Across the East China Sea an eco·
nomic phoenix has risen out of the
ashes of defeat in World War Il to be–
come the second largest economic giant
in the free world. Japan - history's
only victim of atomic attack - could,
if it so desired, develop nuclear weap–
ons of its own in two years. Scientists
cal! the phenomenon "N minus
2."
And within a decade Tokyo could
possess a first-rate nuclear weapons ar–
senal. Red China cannot overlook this
possibility.
Clear across the world, the nations
of Western Europe continue their
march toward unity, despite the ob–
stacles of history and age-old animos–
ities. When the six aations of thc
Common Market become ten on
January
l,
1973, the new bloc will
control an awesome
40%
of the
world's trade. Leading statesmcn of
Western Europe continually picad for
common European political and mili–
tary policies to protect their hard·
PlAIN TRUTH Moy 1972