2010-02-14

The Crazy Nitze, NSC-68 continued


The assault on free institutions is world-wide now, and in the context of the present polarization of power a defeat of free institutions anywhere is a defeat everywhere.


     Really, Paul?  Really?  Our loss in Viet Nam meant freedom was defeated everywhere?  When the Soviets ended the Hungarian 1956 revolution freedom was defeated everywhere?  Where do they get these people?

NSC 68 by Paul Nitze, an important Cold War Document

     Somewhere into it I found this quote and instantly Glenn Beck jumped to mind, principally because he is amazingly irresponsible (as are many of his fans) but also because I wondered what he'd think of it, especially if you got someone to say it was from a bad source before he heard it:

The free society values the individual as an end in himself, requiring of him only that measure of self-discipline and self-restraint which make the rights of each individual compatible with the rights of every other individual. The freedom of the individual has as its counterpart, therefore, the negative responsibility of the individual not to exercise his freedom in ways inconsistent with the freedom of other individuals and the positive responsibility to make constructive use of his freedom in the building of a just society.


     Also, I find it odd that this paragraph, which I like, is in a national security document.  Nitze could have just said we are free and they are a tyranny, but he goes on here to define free.  I certainly wasn't expecting to find anything I'd like here, and I am finding quite a few sentences which are unbalanced (grave threats are mentioned, but so far none of our abilities to counter them are addressed, entirely one sided).
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