We must realize that the captive _peoples_ are our friends and potential allies--not their rulers. A truly offensive-minded strategy would recognize that the captive peoples are our strongest weapon in the war against Communism, and would encourage them to overthrow their captors. A policy of strengthening their captors can only postpone that upheaval within the Communist Empire that is our best hope of defeating Communism without resorting to nuclear war. TOWARD VICTORY By measuring each aspect of our foreign policy against the standard--Is it helpful in defeating the enemy?--we can understand why the past fourteen years have been marked by frustration and failure. We have not gotten ahead because we have been travelling the wrong road. It is less easy to stake out the right road. For in terms of our own experience it is a new road we seek, and one therefore that will hold challenges and perils that are different (though hardly graver) from those with which we are now familiar. Actually, the “new” road is as old as human history: it is the one that successful political and military leaders, having arrived at a dispassionate “estimate of the situation,” always follow when they are in a war they mean to win. From our own estimate of the situation, we know the _direction_ we must take; and our standard--Is it helpful in defeating Communism?--will provide guideposts all along the way. There are some that can be observed even now: 1. The key guidepost is the Objective, and we must never lose sight of it. It is not to wage a struggle against Communism, but to win it. OUR GOAL MUST BE VICTORY 2. Our strategy must be primarily offensive in nature. Given the dynamic, revolutionary character of the enemy’s challenge, we cannot win merely by trying to hold our own. In addition to parrying his blows, we must strike our own. In addition to guarding our frontiers, we must try to puncture his. In addition to keeping the free world free, we must try to make the Communist world free. To these ends, we must always try to engage the enemy at times and places, and with weapons, of our own choosing. 3. We must strive to achieve and maintain military superiority. Mere parity will not do. Since we can never match the Communists in manpower, our equipment and weapons must more than offset his advantage in numbers. We must also develop a limited war capacity. For this latter purpose, we should make every effort to achieve decisive superiority in small, clean nuclear weapons. 4. We must make America economically strong. We have already seen why economic energy must be released from government strangulation if individual freedom is to survive. Economic emancipation is equally imperative if the nation is to survive. America’s maximum economic power will be forged, not under bureaucratic direction, but in freedom.