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Overview
"In the mid 1930s, with war clouds already on the European horizon, George Orwell surveyed the conditions and noted 'The first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious.' That same condition exists and the same conclusion is warranted. It is obvious that the West has lost a sense of ideological purpose. It is obvious that we do not use our strength-our tradition-as the bulwark of policy. It is obvious that we have lost the moral high ground in international politics. It is obvious that internal political fissures make it very difficult to establish a bipartisan foreign policy. It is obvious that the enemies of 'peace' have preempted the word for their own malevolent or naive purposes. It is obvious that we do not exploit Soviet weaknesses. And it is especially obvious that the consensus needed for building a firm Western Alliance is not evident. There is no easy statement to redress the obvious. But I am confident that the assertion of a commonly held principle derived from our tradition can help articulate policy and build the consensus needed for our relationship with the Soviet Union. It is on the unalloyed rock of freedom that this policy recommendation rests and for which there will be no apologies."óHerbert I. London from the text Co-published with the Hudson Institute.