Alternative to Powell
Sir: Having just read Mr Powell's essay (14 November) it occurs to me that' though he may be the most enlightened gadfly in the his- tory of the Western world he is the most confused student of American Cold War diplomacy. He is utterly ill-informed about the sequence of American policies dur- ing the post-war period. The American policy of containment was not sequent to John Foster Dulles, but preceded him. The policy (inspired by George Ken- nan's 1947 article in Foreign Affairs, 'The Sources of Soviet Conduct') prefigured the foreign policy of the second Truman ad- ministration.
As for Mr Powell's assertion that America has lost in Vietnam, his sense of certitude is shared by my gas station attendant. Of course my gas station attendant has not read Controlling Small Wars and Problems of Modern Strategy, but he is as innocent of the intricacies 'of limited war as is Mr Powell. Given the type of war Americans chose to fight in Vietnam. many years will have passed before his- torians will be able to judge the American achievement.
R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr The Alternative, Rural Route I1, Box 360, Bloommington, Indiana, 47401
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