IT sometimes seems that the U.S., like a man with an aching tooth, can think of nothing but Viet Nam. Man and nation begin to feel bad all over. But more detached historians could conclude that in the spring of 1967, the general state of the world is more promising than discouraging, more optimistic than gloomy. There is rapid, continuous change, and much of it is in the direction of hope and betterment.
One major factor is the altered character of the Communist challenge. By every indicator, Russia's two-headed leadership is cautious and conservative, having learned from the ignominious failure of Khrushchev's scary brinkmanship in Cuba. The result has been warily negotiated agreements with the U.S. on the peaceful use of outer space, reciprocal establishment of consulates, and the basis for a treaty restricting the spread of nuclear weapons. Equally significant, Russia and the East European Communist regimes have begun to abandon "command" economics. While certainly not decreeing instant free enterprise, they are taking into account the desires of their peoples for consumer comforts—and Western notions about how to achieve them through production incentives and market economies.
Botched Model New Courage
In Asia, Mao Tse-tung's Red Guards have destroyed the image of Red China as a seductive model for emerging countries and largely reduced the credibility of China as a military threat before whom her neighbors must cringe. In fact, while China has been thrashing in economic disorder, her neighbors have by and large prospered and plucked up their courage, partly—as Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew admitted publicly last week and other neutralist nations cautiously indicate in private—because of the U.S.'s determined stand in South Viet Nam.
In some of these countries, the U.S. can take credit for advice and aid. Japan, converted to democracy and free enterprise by the most remarkable military occupation in history, has built an economy that has far outpaced any other in Asia, and is now dispensing foreign aid itself. Despite perennial corruption, the Philippines has established itself as a vigorous and functioning democracy, sufficiently secure to be increasingly assertive in its relations with the U.S., and to become a leader in organizing such inter-Asian regional enterprises as the Asian and Pacific Council (ASPAC) and the Asian Development Bank. Taiwan, once cited as the supreme example of an economy artificially supported by outside (U.S.) aid, cut loose from all U.S. economic aid more than a year ago and is now sending technicians out on its own aid programs, notably to Africa. South Korea, with some 50,000 U.S. troops still stationed there to guard the northern border, has achieved a relatively stable government, and its economy is slowly improving.