HUNGARY RECONSIDERED

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

The authors of a letter published on November 10th suppose 1) that we could intervene in Hungary 10th suppose 1) that we could intervene in Hungary without precipitating World War III, and 2) that the peoples of Eastern Europe would welcome the United States as a liberator. Both suppositions are unwarranted.

An invasion of Hungary is World War III. To suppose that the West could chip away at Russia without fighting a World War is as absurd as believing that the United States would allow Russia to invade New England without resisting by an all out war effort.

It is worse folly to presume that we can risk a World War because we can win one. No coalition of nations still has the power to win a victory without annihilation.

An invasion of Eastern Europe could not even accomplish the liberation of Hungary. We have little reason to believe that the peoples of Eastern Europe want to be liberated by foreign invaders. Their grievences are severe, but even Poland and Yugoslavia show no inclination to overthrow communism or break with Russia. We must not let the tragic course of events in Hungary deceive us. Bloodshed has its own momentum, and forces the participants to extreme positions. The Hungarian rebellion did not begin as an effort to overthrow Communist and Soviet domination, and we cannot suppose that such intensity of feeling exists elsewhere in Eastern Europe.

Nationalism is running high in Eastern Europe. Now it is anti-Soviet. An invasion could turn it anti-American. War poignantly illustrates the distinction between insiders and outsiders. A Western invasion would revive fears of Germany, cause the people to submerge their grievences, and solidify in the Russian camp. Geographical proximity, the economic and defensive power of Russia will tie these peoples to the past--not to the alien west. Invasion will only force the peoples of Eastern Europe to realize that their governments speak their language. They will unite to defend the motherland against foreign invasion as they have so often done before.

We are tragically condemned to watch the rebellion in Hungary flare and thousands die. We have power, not for liberation, but only for annihilation. This does not condemn us, however, to either defeatism and isolation or to reckless war. Russian expansion can still be blocked. Our outraged sympathies must seek their outlet in rebuilding the fortunes of both freedom and peace. Ira M. Lapidus '58