Threat To Europe

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31658, 19 April 1968, Page 12

Threat To Europe

Sir, —When I initiated this correspondence I did not envisage naive pseudointellectuals leading it away. From the main point, which is that an American general “warned Europe” about the Communist danger. I strove to show how relatively harmless in the military sense the Communist movement in Europe has become. There are welcome signs from men like Robert Kennedy that American opinion is becoming less fearful of the Communist bogy, which, if armed defensive tactics were pur-

sued, could well end in our civilisation going out with a bang rather than the whimper which has been predicted. Political immaturity can pose great dangers where it is reinforced by great military power and it is as well that America has learnt the hard way in Vietnam how stupid it is to try to destroy political ideas by the massive use of armaments. We Europeans certainly will not fall for alarmist suggestions about our own safety from our I noisy young cousins.—Yours, etc., CARACTACUS. April 18, 1968. [This correspondence is now closed.—Ed., “The Press.”)