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5/15/54: Reel 4, Track 2, Page 13 about a great many of these questions, apart, maybe, from our position in the UM, and I think that's one thing we should keep in mind. Now, in taking the position that we do, which is basically to maintain the because status quo in the world/ although a change might be desirable, the process of change leads to instabilities; we get ourselves in very dangerous posi- tions. If, say, the world had been frosen at any given period in the past, a great deal of the progress which has been made in the world would not be possible. If, for example, we had never been able to revolt against the British, or various other wars had never been fought to a conclusion, a & the great deal of progress would have been denied the world. And in a sense US. any one of the great problems of the UN-I don't know whether it's generally recognized--is to prevent wars from being fought out. It's very dangerous to stop a war from being fought out, because no one is willing to act like a loser. And there's no proff yet that wars which are not fought out can ever really be resolved by peaceful methods-the existing examples, the Arab-Israeli is one, Kashmir is another, are not very good of wars having been stopped artificially ever reaching any agreement by them. I think it would be a dangerous form of thinking that this present attitude of ours, which is dictated entirely by the cold war, could lead us into general recognition-approval of all the status quo in the world. Now, the Middle East I'd always analyzed is a great problem, mainly because it's the tag end of policies made elsewhere. No one really cares very much, basically, about the Middle East; you care about other things more. When in terms you talk about the Middle East, the average person thinks/of Israel and the states adjacent to Israel. Turkey isn't really the Middle East; she dis- claims it. Iran is quite a separate thing--you talk to the average person about the Middle East, they're thinking of the countries involved in the Arab-Israeli dispute. Now if you take the countries most closely involved, they aggregate very few people-empty people. And it is true that they live

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    "ocrText": "5/15/54: Reel 4, Track 2, Page 13\nabout a great many of these questions, apart, maybe, from our position in\nthe UM, and I think that's one thing we should keep in mind. Now, in\ntaking the position that we do, which is basically to maintain the\nbecause\nstatus quo in the world/ although a change might be desirable, the process\nof change leads to instabilities; we get ourselves in very dangerous posi-\ntions. If, say, the world had been frosen at any given period in the past,\na great deal of the progress which has been made in the world would not be\npossible. If, for example, we had never been able to revolt against the\nBritish, or various other wars had never been fought to a conclusion, a\n&\nthe\ngreat deal of progress would have been denied the world. And in a sense\nUS.\nany\none of the great problems of the UN-I don't know whether it's\ngenerally recognized--is to prevent wars from being fought out. It's very\ndangerous to stop a war from being fought out, because no one is willing to\nact like a loser. And there's no proff yet that wars which are not fought\nout can ever really be resolved by peaceful methods-the existing examples,\nthe Arab-Israeli is one, Kashmir is another, are not very good of wars\nhaving been stopped artificially ever reaching any agreement by them. I\nthink it would be a dangerous form of thinking that this present attitude\nof ours, which is dictated entirely by the cold war, could lead us into\ngeneral recognition-approval of all the status quo in the world. Now,\nthe Middle East I'd always analyzed is a great problem, mainly because it's\nthe tag end of policies made elsewhere. No one really cares very much,\nbasically, about the Middle East; you care about other things more. When\nin terms\nyou talk about the Middle East, the average person thinks/of Israel and the\nstates adjacent to Israel. Turkey isn't really the Middle East; she dis-\nclaims it. Iran is quite a separate thing--you talk to the average person\nabout the Middle East, they're thinking of the countries involved in the\nArab-Israeli dispute. Now if you take the countries most closely involved,\nthey aggregate very few people-empty people. And it is true that they live"
}