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have come out. On the other hand, hardly any news comes out of the
United States that we really want to come out. Nothing more contributes to increasing the influence of the USSR and lessening the
influence of the United Btates than this fact. Bellicose statements
by U. S. Congressmen and all kinds of sensational stuff which essen-
tially misrepresents the United States is headline news in these
newspapers and journals. It was a question as to how long we could
stand this contrast with the news emanating from the Soviet Union.
Secretary Dulles confessed that he did not know how to deal effectively with this problem.
When Secretary Dulles had completed his remarks, General
Cutler expressed himself as being comforted by the first two observations which Secretary Dulles had made; but he asked Secretary Dulles
then to speak of the problem of mutual deterrence and the potentially
disruptive forces which the state of mutual deterrence has stimulated
within the Western alliance. What are we going to do about the fear
of our allies that the United States will not use its nuclear retaliatory capability to protect these allies from Soviet aggression?
secretary Dulles said he could not understand what so concerned General Cutler, inasmuch as we proposed, of course, to protect
our allies by invoking our retaliatory capability in the event that
their vital interests are threatened. Furthermore, continued Secretary Dulles, he did not share the view that our allies were losing
faith in our will to make use of our nuclear retaliatory capability
in the event of Soviet attack.
General Cutler ssid that the issue still seemed somewhat
doubtful to him. Secretary Dulles replied that if it did, General
Cutler must be aware that our allies would soon have their own nuclear weapons. Moreover, mutual deterrence would not only apply to
large wars but, to some degree at least, it would also apply to little wars. Did General Cutler object to this situation? What was
wrong with mutual deterrence?
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Did General Cutler advocate war?
General Cutler replied that he was simply suggesting that
once the Russians fully realize the existence of the state of mutual
deterrence, they would nibble their way into the fabric of the Free
World by small aggressions. Secretary Dulles disagreed with General
Cutler's view, and thought the Soviets were no more likely to take
such risks than was the United States. In strong support of Secretary Dulles' view, the President cited our ties to Formosa and the
effect of the so-called Eisenhower Doctrine. General Cutler, however, stuck to his point of view in the argument, and added that of
course we did not have conventional forces available to meet the
conventional forces which the Soviet bloc could use against us in
limited war.
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