“A Few Backwards”
From: The Pogo Sunday Parade, 1958, Simon And Schuster, pg. 130
“It is not so easy these days to sound a simple, clearheaded note of hysteria, but my friend Bill Vaughan, craft columnist of the Kansas City Star and the NANA Service, working hand in glove with a certain cartoonist, is positive that the bugle with which to blow such a blast has been found.
“Drift-finders, an organization devoted to the wetting of the wind with a forefinger, has discovered that the ordinary man in the street only appears to be smarter than his leaders at home and abroad. In the January 1958 report, Just Plumb Bob, Mr. Vaughan indicates that there is every reason to believe that heads of government, statesmen, and other people with yellow briefcases and blue suits, are just playing at being stupid.
“'If we are in a race with Russia,' says Vaughan, 'we cannot merely pretend to be stupid; we will have to be genuine idiots. WE MUST OUTSTUPEFY THE RUSSIANS.'
“That seems to be the key phrase: OUTSTUPEFY THE RUSSIANS. There is not much time left. But we have the material, the men, the know-how, and somewhat of a tradition in the field.”
And the Soviet Union lasted 10 years in Afghanistan. NATO is well on its way...
