Nation: A SAVAGE CHALLENGE TO DETENTE

(5 of 5)

The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. are the sole members of the superpowers' club in which the chief rule is survival.

If the two giants can continue to reach specific accommodations, it will not prove that either is turning soft. Each respects the other's power. Each knows the price and the risks of an endless arms race and repeated confrontations. Thus each concedes to the other, however bitterly, a degree of latitude within its own sphere. The system is not ideal, and it is certainly not moral, but it has one unassailable virtue: so far, it has worked. Also, it can buy time for men like Alexander Dubcek, and others inside and outside the Communist domain, to continue striving, in some form, for freedom.