THE BIGGEST CONTEST IN THE WORLD .sx After four months' travel in Russia and the United States MERVYN JONES compares life in the two competing super-Powers and the attitudes of their people .sx TO say that it is nice to be home , after four months and seven thousand miles of travel in America and Russia , is true in more than one way .sx Appreciation of living in England , now amply reinforced , is the least of it .sx The greatest relief is not to be at either pulling end in the global tug-of-war .sx Whether we call it cold war or peaceful competition , the contest between the two super-Powers is a burden of which they will never be free in what we can discern of the future .sx The material weight of this burden , considerable in America , is enormous in Russia .sx Its psychological weight is incalculable for two peoples whose inclination , from reasons of geography and tradition , is to want the rest of the world to stop bothering them .sx This is evident , notably , with regard to the race to the moon .sx For us in England , according to individual outlook , the exploration of space is either a silly game or a glorious endeavour of the human spirit .sx For the contestants , it is no joke and no fun either .sx It is something that has to be done because the other side is doing it .sx Teacher's view of space flights .sx For Americans , Russia's lead in the race is as grim a matter as Japan's initiative after Pearl Harbour .sx Of the possible reactions , sheer denial was commoner than I could have expected .sx A famous columnist explained in detail how the Gagarin and Titov flights had been ( not " might have " ) fabricated .sx A mother , sensible enough to believe in them , asked me what she should say to her child after the teacher had told the class they were a fake .sx " Tell her what you think , " I said ; but in a conformist small town this was evidently as hard as for an atheist parent to challenge religious instruction .sx Belief in the flights necessarily implied gloom .sx As I bought my paper at the candy store on the day of the Titov flight , the headlines were big and black .sx The shopkeeper's wife glanced at them and said :sx " Isn't it just too awful ?sx " The third reaction was to take comfort in America's way of doing things .sx " Ours , " said a young teacher , " is a democratic space programme .sx " By this he meant that it was attended by publicity and by care for human life .sx I had been assured several times that half-a-dozen Russians are whirling dead through space .sx " We could have a man on the moon in six months if we just shot them off regardless , " said the teacher .sx None of these people was excited by the thought of an American in space .sx " The whole thing's crazy when you think of half the world starving , " said an economics student at Cleveland .sx But he added :sx " I guess we've got to do it .sx " Getting ready for massacre .sx For the Russians , who enjoy the lead , one might expect it to be an inspiration .sx For some of them , it is .sx A woman pulling potatoes on an especially primitive collective farm , and lunching as I spoke to her on dry bread and gherkins , said :sx " Don't judge our country by what you see- we've got the first man in space .sx " The surprise was to meet Russians ( not intellectuals , but common folk ) who took a contrary view .sx An engineer :sx " It's not the right way to use millions of roubles , with conditions as they are .sx " A miner's wife :sx " It won't do any harm , if we can believe it's for peaceful purposes , but it would have been better to build more hospitals .sx " A tractor driver :sx " We don't say this publicly , you understand , but most of us think it's a waste of money .sx " At this , the tractor driver's mate grinned and said :sx " People say Titov was really sent up to photograph America .sx " I asked if he thought the space flights justified .sx He shrugged :sx " Might do one good thing- prove once and for all there's no God up there .sx " What is taken for granted , both in America and in Russia , is that there would be no sputniks if there were no military rockets .sx Which brings me to the gloomiest aspect of my journey :sx the spectacle of two great peoples getting ready to massacre each other .sx It is a cliche@2 to say that neither the American nor the Russian people want war , but it is true .sx With the Russians , it is a simple matter of scars yet unhealed .sx Time and again , people gripped me by the arm , told ghastly stories of the Nazi invasion , and asked :sx " Can you imagine that we would start a war ?sx " It is impossible to doubt their sincerity .sx With the Americans , there are several strands .sx They have a great deal to lose .sx They have , even now , a deep suspicion of militarism , of " the brass , " of the gearing of the nation to war .sx A young ornithologist , asked how he came to choose his profession , explained :sx " After I graduated I was in chemistry , but I found they were using it for war .sx I switched to electronics , and it was the same .sx I sat down to figure out what they couldn't use for war , and what I came up with was birds .sx " No real awareness of nuclear threat .sx Add to this a still potent distrust of foreign entanglements .sx The evening after the President's July 25 speech , announcing a readiness to fight for Berlin and an increase in the call-up- a speech which caused more alarm over interrupted careers than satisfaction- I chatted over a coffee with a factory worker .sx He was all enthusiasm :sx it was a wonderful speech , he was behind Kennedy all the way .sx Then he said abruptly :sx " A good thing we haven't got Truman in the White House now .sx Never was any need to fight in Korea , and if he was around we'd be fighting in Germany now .sx " But , sad to relate , " they want peace " is not the whole story .sx One has to add that both Americans and Russians are ready to contemplate war .sx The reason is that neither people has any real awareness of what nuclear war would mean .sx Union Square in New York is a public forum , comparable to Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park .sx As a listening-post , it is more instructive than Hyde Park because nobody gets on a platform .sx A man with something on his mind starts to talk , and those around him join in .sx " You gotta admit , " a young man was saying as I neared a sizeable group , " that things advance when there's a war .sx We got penicillin because of the last war , and we'll get something else next time .sx " A religious pacifist intervened :sx " Did you ever see a picture of Hiroshima ?sx " The first speaker countered :sx " Aw , Hiroshima- did you ever see a man mangled by a bus ?sx " Another man observed with an air of sagacity :sx " Wars are fought for real estate .sx They kick it around for a bit , then they divide it up .sx Look at Korea , look at Vietnam .sx " Another summed up :sx " There always will be wars , it don't matter how much you talk .sx " I broke in to ask if anyone disagreed with this proposition .sx Among about fifty people , nobody did .sx Lecture on need for disarmament .sx Nobody in Russia would talk about the benefits of war .sx But when a Russian talks of the horrors of war , he is talking a different language from a nuclear disarmer .sx The very intensity of past experience inhibits thought of a worse future .sx Once , a man who had experienced Nazi occupation told me how the Germans knocked people about and turned them out of their homes to freeze .sx He wound up , inevitably :sx " We don't want to see that again .sx " I said :sx " One thing that's certain is that you won't .sx You'll see either peace or death in a split second .sx " He stared at me , wondering what I was talking about .sx At a restaurant in Kursk , three Russians lectured me on the need for disarmament and cited the speech Khrushchev had made the previous day at Stalingrad ( sorry , Volgograd) .sx Nettled by some remarks by de Gaulle , the Soviet Premier had declared that France would be obliterated in another war and added :sx " However , it is impossible to destroy the Soviet Union .sx " Americans' inborn optimism .sx I said that Khrushchev was quite right about France , and Britain , too , but unduly sanguine about his own country .sx Nuclear weapons , I went on , could destroy the human race .sx Signalling to the waitress for another round of Cuban rum , one of the Russians said positively :sx " Not the Soviet Union .sx " It is equally inconceivable for Americans that their country could cease to function as an organised society .sx Paradoxically , the civil defence drive strengthens this feeling .sx Estimates of how many people would be killed , however horrific , merely suggest how many would be saved .sx With their inborn optimism , many Americans envisage the aftermath of nuclear attack as a period of getting back on their feet , like the day after a hurricane .sx The point is often made that Americans have never known modern war on their soil .sx It is sometimes forgotten that Russians have never known long-range bombing .sx The blitz on London was a frustrated substitute for invasion .sx Leningrad was shelled and many Russian towns were devastated by street-fighting , but Moscow- with the Germans almost in the suburbs- never had an air raid on the London scale , and behind the lines was behind the lines .sx It is natural to think with some confidence of keeping the enemy out next time .sx Russians do , of course , know about nuclear bombs and missiles .sx But everyone hopes that his home town will not be a target , and they have been told very little about fallout .sx Defence , therefore , means defence for them .sx Views that go unchallenged .sx To this , one has to add the general conviction that " our side " is in the right , and acting defensively , over what Russians call the German question and Americans the Berlin crisis .sx The view that Khrushchev is simply trying to settle the German problem on a sensible basis is , of course , never publicly challenged in Russia .sx The view that Kennedy is simply trying to maintain a position unreasonably attacked by the Soviet Union is seldom publicly challenged in America .sx For people who do not rule out " war if necessary , " the mood is not far on either side from :sx " We don't want to fight , but by jingo if we do .sx . " Any glossary of the Russo-American political vocabulary ( and I am thinking of everyday speech as well as official statements ) must include these entries :sx " Threat :sx a bellicose move made by our opponents .sx Warning :sx a bellicose move made by us .sx " I have met both Americans and Russians who were genuinely saddened by the resumption of nuclear tests , which was in the offing while I was in America and happened while I was in Russia .sx It meant that hopes had been dashed , and it showed how bad things were getting .sx But I met nobody who thought it actually wrong if their leaders found it necessary .sx One might sum up by recording two posters in the same street in Kiev .sx The first showed a mother clutching a child and read :sx " For their sake , we must have peace .sx " The other showed a steel-helmeted soldier with levelled bayonet and read :sx " Ready for the defence of the Motherland .sx " I feel sure that both meet with general approval .sx Cold war , nevertheless , is less intense than hot war in more than one respect .sx The antagonism is less total , and among both peoples there is a refreshing absence of the undiscriminating hatred known in the last war as Vansittartism .sx This is easy for the Americans .sx They reason that , since one can be loyal to America and oppose Kennedy , one can be fond of Russia while loathing Khrushchev .sx There is in fact a certain vogue for Russia in the United States .sx Far more young people are learning the Russian language than in Britain , and they are not all hoping for jobs with the Voice of America .sx