EVALUATING A NATION

it's inhabitants only a small part of the world for land and only a fraction of this land is suitable for habitation three parts C one part that's the earth we live on life-giving life-sustaining land land that has known the seeds of liberty and freedom land that has known this and this and why this because someone some group wished to monopolize the land for selfish and power-hungry purpose quarter billions of people who need this very small one part land not only need it but have a right to share it in the United Nations today representatives of this Earth's land are attempting to keep the balance straight so that nations will evaluate and deal with each other in the language of peace and security instead of world domination by any one nation or group of nations to keep the balance straight to this end our federal government's job is to evaluate and analyze the power of nations for instance Italy here we see Italian citizens voting in the peaceful democratic manner of all free nations but freedom can be challenged by violators of human rights and when this happens how does it affect the rest of the world what part does it play in our evaluation of Italy then there is Greece how important is she to the peace and security of the United States in fact the whole world Greece a traditionally maritime nation easily overrun by the Nazis in the short period of a month and China how does this far-eastern seed of Asian culture fit into our land evaluation China a densely populated country almost the size of continental United States and Spain and laws of mineral resources endowed with extremely favorable climate and geographic position how does she fit into the picture of world security yes today our state Department must evaluate and analyze the weakness or strength of all nations for any nation can be a contributing factor for peace or war but what evaluating yardstick do we use to get at the figures it is not difficult we simply follow a checklist first we look at its position on a map then we examine its size and shape we check its climate [Music] we take into account its population the distribution of age groups its birth rate its natural resources which are very important for example raw materials industry the degree to which natural resources are developed agricultural self-sufficiency armaments on hand and then we examine its political and social makeup which include national desires political organization morale and scientific and technical skills these are the elements that make up our yardstick the device for measuring and evaluating a nation all these factors have an important bearing on how much a country can produce and how effective its military force can be but there is one element of strength that every nation must have to remain strong that is the willingness of its people to defend it for instance it is possible for a nation to have all the physical and human resources to make it a world power yet without the willingness of its people to defend it such a nation might be conquered by a powerful aggressive let us take these physical and human measuring sticks and actually size of one nation so we can better understand its world position for example Czechoslovakia with respect to position this country is locked in by five countries Poland to the northeast Romania to the southeast Austria and Hungary to the South Germany to the north and west so actually Czechoslovakia is in a position to be materially influenced or even swallowed up by the nations around her in size and shape Czechoslovakia is slightly larger than New York State being a small nation its ability to protect itself in time of war is limited almost half of Czechoslovakia is land he is good for agriculture about 1/3 covered with forests the rest is pasture and meadow land this means potential wealth another beneficial factor is the country's weather which is very much like that of our North Atlantic States moderate and variable this invigorates the people giving them additional energy or national power with respect to population the country has about 15 and a half million people this too is an advantage from the standpoint of national power natural resources are another of Czechoslovakia assets there is an abundance of coal and iron lead copper valuable contributions for the war machine of a superior power finally her social and political makeup the last item on our evaluating yardstick in this matter let us remember that Czechoslovakia was reborn a nation following World War one and had lived the life of a true Republic until 1938 [Music] in 1938 all of the evaluating factors played a strategic part in the fall of Czechoslovakia and its conquest by the Nazis the small country conveniently located with favorable climate peaceful people and with wealth in natural resources all of these factors offered a great temptation to a strong aggressor seeking world domination following World War two this little nation's character factors made it once again attractive to a conquering power exploitation of certain of Czechoslovakia is characteristics brought about this announcement [Music] Czechoslovakia is industrial capacities and rich uranium deposits were responsible for this announcement [Music] thus power analysis of Czechoslovakia helps us to evaluate that country's behavior within her own boundaries and among other nations long before Russia lowered the iron curtain on Western democracies a British geographer proposed some challenging theories on the power relationship between nations it was the year 1904 this early and enlightened geographer was Sir Halford mackinder a kinder proposed an evaluation of the comparative importance of the land and sea portions of the globe in other words a global view of geography and politics he saw the earth has a large body of water surrounding several land masses one landmass was made up of Asia Africa and Europe he called this the world island and in truth it was a world island a super continent made up of three continents a second smaller landmass was North and South America and a third Australia this was McKinley's original concept and with it he introduced in geography a new idea expressed in a new word heart plan the heart plan or the pivot area the area that might be made to control the life and political destinies of the world island as early as 1904 the kinder believed that if the space people raw material that industry of this heartland were controlled and exploited by some one nation say Germany the power of that nation because of its central location would be supreme the kinder warned against an alliance between Germany and Russia such an alliance he said would unite the two countries with the peoples of the heartland to form a mighty center of world power three decades later under this concept the Kinder's warning words became an argument in Germany's cry for Lebensraum space to live Lebensraum a Nazi version of McKinley's approach to the land evaluation of the earth a laboratory for evaluating nations was the Institute for geopolitics in Munich and it's guiding light was a retired Major General of the Bavarian army professor Karl house hopper taking for his Thema Kinder's warning about the pivotal area house hopper served up Germany's ambitions on a platter which he presented to Hitler and Hitler found the seasoning to his taste Nazi propaganda began to spout such big sounding words and phrases as the Splashtop front unfolded he openeth the che economy the right to space and soil geopolitical economics geopolitical psychology population pressure economy of greater space geo medicine space struggle psychology of the landscape Hitler's disciples were well fed on the house hopper diet a great many were to masquerade as tourists visiting professors travelling salesmen their job being to collect a mass of information on nations singled out for conquest facts on climate a country's physical makeup plant and animal life backed on a country's vital ports sources of power shipyards railroads important arteries of communication centers of Industry mountains of facts about a nation's character a complete strategic index of the whole world found its way into the new geography a geography that helped give the Nazis a blueprint for conquests [Music] World War two caused a great change in our attitude toward the earth evaluation in fact the kinder in the summer of 1943 revised his concept to include two heartlands Europe and America thereby recognizing the growing influence of the United States in world affairs his revised theory pictured the world with a great leverage of power stretching east from the Missouri River to central Russia and showed the British Isles as the center of the power lever between the two great Heartland our shipments of defense material to countries of the North Atlantic pact shows how we are trying to neutralize the control of that power lever in other words we're putting our weight on that lever so that the Soviet Union will find it too hot to handle all of which shows that our global view has sharpened giving us a clearer and more realistic understanding of the geographical factors affecting our present position on the Earth's surface what is our understanding of those geographical factors in other words what does the global evaluation tell us to get at the victors let us once more observe the land masses of the world at least geographically the United States is surrounded by the Eurasian landmass plus the continents of Africa and Australia in territory this area is two-and-a-half times the size of the Americas with a population ten times that of the Americas to the east is Western Europe a powerful Center because of population density and mechanical energy to the west is another great power center expressing its force largely in terms of population density since more than one half of the population of the world is Asiatic to the north is the top of the world the Arctic where power is expressed in terms of transport air routes made possible by the development of aircraft and guided missiles in other words the heart of the Eurasian continent and North America are closer together than ever before because of our geographical position among the world's land masses we are not only within the orbit of encirclement to worry in 1942 but within the striking area of the trans polar regions this fact that we call the polar concept the polar concept listen to what high military authorities say about it the strategic center in the event of World War 3 could easily be the North Pole through the Arctic every industrialized country is within reach of our strategic air America is similarly exposed we are in fact like many other nations wide open at the top our frontier now lies across the Arctic wastes of the polar regions the polar concept like encirclement the polar concept is a vital factor in the evaluation of our global situation since the end of World War two a revival of the Heartland concept has taken place in the Eurasian landmass its leaders would change the balance of productive and political power in the world so that they may overcome the productive and technological supremacy of the United States [Music] yes the old conception of plain ordinary geography has gone forever today the nation's occupying or controlling the three vital land masses of this earth represent something much more than just geographic areas they involve areas possessing great and new strategic meaning in today's global politics they involve areas of power power that can make or break mankind power that must be carefully and realistically evaluated if nations are to enjoy their right to share in the earth land [Music]