Were The Soviet Union To Sink Tomorrow

A Guest Of One's Time And Not A Member Of The Household.

It Is Clear That The Main Element Of Any United States Policy Toward The Soviet Union Must Be That Of Long-term, Patient But Firm And Vigilant Containment Of Russian Expansive Tendencies.

The United States Cannot Reshape Other Countries In Its Own Image And That, With A Few Exceptions, Its Efforts To Police The World Are Neither In Its Interests Nor Within The Scope Of Its Resources. This Whole Tendency To See Ourselves As The Center Of Political Enlightenment And As Teachers To A Great Part Of The Rest Of The World Strikes Me As Unthought-through, Vainglorious And Undesirable.

Not Only The Studying And Writing Of History But Also The Honoring Of It Both Represent Affirmations Of A Certain Defiant Faith - A Desperate, Unreasoning Faith, If You Will - But Faith Nevertheless In The Endurance Of This Threatened World - Faith In The Total Essentiality Of Historical Continuity.

...there Is An Optimal Balance, Depending On The Manner Of Man's Life, Between The Density Of Human Population And The Tolerances Of Nature. This Balance, In The Case Of The United States Would Seem To Me To Have Been Surpassed When The American Population Reached, At A Very Maximum, Two Hundred Million People, And Perhaps A Good Deal Less.