\ X, -118— which might prove necessary again in a war in which the main production centers were undergoing destruction. It is also true that we showed ourselves more reluctant than the Russians to accept great losses of mena fact easily explained, however, by our ability to spend the costs and time necessary to substitute machines for men. While it is obviously impossible to predict what punishment we could take or what our fighting power would be after our major cities had been wipedoff the map, one thing remains certain: there could be no more serious threat to our policy of determent than if we were to create the impression that we "could not take it," The consequences of Hitler's failure to understand what the British could take are still fresh in our memory. Nothing in the last war sug-= gests that the American people would shrink from “anysacrifices which were necessary to achieve victory. One thing this eotntry apparently "could not take" is the idea of accepting ultimate defeat, If anything needs to be emphasized for the sake of peace, it is this. Assuming that neither country could expect to defeat the other by means of an atomic blitz campaign and the spectacular methods of surprise attack and sabotage which might accompany it, the chances of winning a protracted war with this country migkt decide what course the Soviet leaders would pursue. It seems hardly doubtful that the advantages which the Soviet Union was found to possess would lose much of their weight in a long war and that one advantage on our side might at least balance them. position of this country. It consists in the more favorable geographical When it comes to warding off invasion or to invading enemy territory, the insular position of this country would its old defensive glory. reassert itself in The Soviet Union would be severely handicapped if she attempted to breach the defenses of this country and sought to penetrate into American territory. Airborne invasion-—-possibly across the polar regions-—or amphibious operations across the oceans are under no circumstances an easy enterprise, With her cities and production centers suffering atomic bombardment, 128