1. An Obsolete Conception of the Efficacy of the Techniques of Persuasion and Violence in the Communist Strategy

Many readers will stumble over a preliminary difficulty when they settle down to consider the subject seriously. It so happens that the press, television, and radio continuously present Russian and Chinese aggression against non‑communist nations as practicable most frequently through armed invasion and through social revolutions promoted by the communist parties of the various countries to be invaded. According to this conception, violence is far and away communism's principal instrument of conquest.

Undoubtedly, those who hold this viewpoint also speak of techniques of persuasion as a means of conquest. But they view such techniques simply as elements of classic warfare, indispensable but secondary to military operations.