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The ‘New Look’ Raises Old Problems
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2009
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The essence of the “new look” in the national security policy of the United States has been expressed by Administration spokesmen, Democratic critics, and analysts in key phrases which have heaped confusion upon ambiguity. The “new look” has been characterized as a policy of “instant retaliation,” of “massive retaliation,” of relying on the ability to “retaliate with great force by mobile means.” It has been described as a “strategy of detachment,” as an attempt to “hedge our strategic bets,” as preparing for the “long pull,” as “a reassessment of our strategic and logistic capabilities,” as preparing to take “whatever steps our national interest requires,” and as “an attempt by intelligent people to keep abreast of the times.” It has been called “less a policy than an idea,” “a misnomer,” “no ‘new look’ at all,” “merely an acceptance of the Old Look,” “a bluff to a certain extent,” a “gradual shift in emphasis,” and “revolutionary.” The “new look” has been distinguished from the “interim look,” but there has been some doubt as to whether the “interim look” referred to fiscal 1954 or fiscal 1955 or both. The term became so contagiously popular that even the alleged clean-up of the “security risks” in the Department of State was supposed to have brought about a “new look” there.
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References
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25 On July 31, 1954, the New York Times reported that Assistant Secretary of Defense H. Struve Hensel had said in Madrid that he would return to the United States to propose a reconsideration, or review, of the United States political, economic and military policy “on a global basis,” and on all levels, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff, p. 14.
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52 In spite of Mr. Dulles' firm contention that it was made there is little supporting evidence. First, none of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ever referred to such a basic decision even though most of their significant statements concerning the “new look” were made after Mr. Dulles' speech in January (see references cited in note 51 above). Second, President Eisenhower said on the day following Dulles' speech that reliance on strong retaliatory power “didn't take much decision”; it rested on the “fundamental truth” that such power was the only deterrent to surprise atomic attack (see New York Times, 01 14, 1954, p. 12Google Scholar). Third, the only support Mr. Dulles ever received for his contention came from Walter B. Smith and Thurston B. Morton of the Department of State and Vice-President Nixon. Of these three, the only one who continued such support after the debate on the “new look” got underway was Vice-President Nixon in his obviously partisan speeches (see Bulletin, XXX [02 22, 1954], 265Google Scholar; ibid., March 8, 1954, pp. 363–64; New York Times, 03 14, 1954, p. 44Google Scholar; and references cited in note 43 above). Fourth, Dulles himself tended, in the course of his clarifying statements, to back away from his own very positive contention of January 12 (see Dulles, , “Policy for Security and Peace,” loc. cit., p. 362Google Scholar; and U. S. Congress, Senate, Statements of Dulles and Radford, pp. 23–25, 42).Google Scholar
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