Richard V. Allen

Nikita Khrushchev reformed many of Joseph Stalin’s rigid and oppressive domestic and foreign policies when he became Soviet premier in 1958. Khrushchev advocated a policy of “peaceful coexistence” with the West. American opinion differed on whether the policy of “peaceful coexistence” was a step toward ending the Cold War or whether it was simply a strategy designed to keep the United States off guard.

In the following viewpoint, excerpted from his 1964 book, Peaceful Coexistence: A Communist Blueprint for Victory, foreign policy analyst Richard V. Allen cautions against misreading the intentions of the Communists. Allen concludes that the Soviet Union’s real motive is not to seek genuine peace but to weaken and destroy the free world. Allen later served as a presidential assistant to Richard...