FOR THE SPECIAL STUDY GROUP
[signature withheld for publication]
30 SEPTEMBER, 1966
INTRODUCTION
The Report which follows summarizes the results of a two-and-a-half-year
study of the broad problems to be anticipated in the event of general trans-
formation of American society to a condition lacking its most critical current
characteristics: its capability and readiness to make war when doing so is
judged necessary or desirable by its political leadership.
Our work has been predicated on the belief that some kind of general peace may
soon be negotiable. The de facto admission of Communist China into the United
Nations now appears to be only a few years away at most. It has become
increasingly manifest that conflicts of American national interest with those of
China and the Soviet Union are susceptible of political solution, despite the
superficial contraindications of the current Vietnam war, of the threats of an
attack on China, and of the necessarily hostile tenor of day-to-day foreign
policy statements. It is also obvious that differences involving other nations can
be readily resolved by the three great powers whenever they arrive at a stable
peace among themselves. It is not necessary, for the purposes of our study, to
assume that a general detente of this sort will come about---and we make no
such argument--but only that it may.
It is surely no exaggeration to say that a condition of general world peace would
lead to changes in the social structures of the nations of the world of
unparalleled and revolutionary magnitude. The economic impact of general
disarmament, to name only the most obvious consequence of peace, would
revise the production and distribution patterns of the globe to a degree that
would make changes of the past fifty years seem insignificant. Political,
sociological, cultural, and ecological changes would be equally far-reaching.
What has motivated our study of these contingencies has been the growing
sense of thoughtful men in and out of government that the world is totally
unprepared to meet the demands of such a situation.
We had originally planned, when our study was initiated, to address ourselves
to these two broad questions and their components: What can be expected if
peace comes? What should we be prepared to do about it? But as our
investigation proceeded, it became apparent that certain other questions had to
[signature withheld for publication]
30 SEPTEMBER, 1966
INTRODUCTION
The Report which follows summarizes the results of a two-and-a-half-year
study of the broad problems to be anticipated in the event of general trans-
formation of American society to a condition lacking its most critical current
characteristics: its capability and readiness to make war when doing so is
judged necessary or desirable by its political leadership.
Our work has been predicated on the belief that some kind of general peace may
soon be negotiable. The de facto admission of Communist China into the United
Nations now appears to be only a few years away at most. It has become
increasingly manifest that conflicts of American national interest with those of
China and the Soviet Union are susceptible of political solution, despite the
superficial contraindications of the current Vietnam war, of the threats of an
attack on China, and of the necessarily hostile tenor of day-to-day foreign
policy statements. It is also obvious that differences involving other nations can
be readily resolved by the three great powers whenever they arrive at a stable
peace among themselves. It is not necessary, for the purposes of our study, to
assume that a general detente of this sort will come about---and we make no
such argument--but only that it may.
It is surely no exaggeration to say that a condition of general world peace would
lead to changes in the social structures of the nations of the world of
unparalleled and revolutionary magnitude. The economic impact of general
disarmament, to name only the most obvious consequence of peace, would
revise the production and distribution patterns of the globe to a degree that
would make changes of the past fifty years seem insignificant. Political,
sociological, cultural, and ecological changes would be equally far-reaching.
What has motivated our study of these contingencies has been the growing
sense of thoughtful men in and out of government that the world is totally
unprepared to meet the demands of such a situation.
We had originally planned, when our study was initiated, to address ourselves
to these two broad questions and their components: What can be expected if
peace comes? What should we be prepared to do about it? But as our
investigation proceeded, it became apparent that certain other questions had to
