The Kremlin, Germany and the Bomb

The Kremlin, Germany and the Bomb

The Kremlin’s actions are impelled not by an ideology but by an objective: to extend the area of its control and to maximize the degree to which it can manipulate and disintegrate those parts of the world not yet under its control. To a totalitarian regime anything not yet “coordinated” is of necessity threatening, the outer world is evil because uncontrolled, hence only total dominion can give ultimate reassurance.

But ultimate objectives do not necessarily govern political moves at any point in time. Hence it is senseless to deduce from the Russian urge toward world control that one cannot negotiate with the Kremlin about any particular, immediate problem. The Russian policy makers, knowing that there is no chance at the present time to achieve a monopoly of world power, are quite willing to settle for a duopoly. They are ready to come to terms with the only other world power, the United States, for a partition of the world into agreed-upon zones of influence. In fact, the approximate balance of atomic power between the Big Two has led in the last few years to just such a duopoly of power. But, and this fact must be underlined, this state of affairs is rapidly coming to an end. That is why, or so I b...