Evening star., 1946-09-18

countries can have actomic bombs
and other atomic weapons. Com
pared with the cost of large armies
and the manufacture of old-faSh-
ioned weapons. atomic bombs cost
very little and require only rela-
lively small part of a nations pro-
duction plant and labor force
More Bombs Are Not Advantage.
! Second, so far as winning a war
is concerned, having more bombs
even many more bombs-than the
other fellow is no longer a decisive
advantage. If another nation had
enough bombs to eliminate all of
our principal cities and our heavy
industry. it wouldn't help us very
much if we had 10 times as many
bombs as we needed to do the same
to them.
Third, and most important, the
very fact that several nations have
atomic bombs will inevitably result
in neurotic, fear ridden, itching
trigger psychology in all the peoples
/ Va lIIC WoI dllO pCCduSC o1 OuI
wealth and vulnerability we would
be among the most seriously affected
Atomic war will not require vast
and consuming preparations,
the mobilization of large armies, the
conversion of a large proportion of
country's industrial plants to the
manufacture of weapons. In a
ry0rtI RI ,tifh OF
some incident will lead to the use
Of those weapons.
There is school OF military
thinking which recognizes these
facts, recognizes that when several
nations have atomic bombs, a war
which will destroy modern civiliza-
ton will result and that no nation
or combination of nations can win
such war. This school of thought
therefore advocates preventive
war" an attack on Russia now be-
fore Russia has atomic bombs.
This scheme Is not only immoral
but stupid. If we should attempt to
destroy all the principal Russian
cities and her heavy industry, we
might we'll succeed. But the imme-
diate CONFERENCE.-THE which such
an attack would call forth Is the
prompt occupation of all continental
Europe by the Red Army Would we
be prepared to destroy the cities of
all Europe in trying to finish what
we had started? This idea is so con-
trary to all the basic instincts and
principles of the American people
that any such action would be pos
sible only under a dictatorship at
home. Thus the predominance of
force idea, and the notion of a
defensive attack" are both unwork-
able The only solution is the one
which you have SO wisely advanced
and which forms the basis of the
Moscow statement on atomic energy.
That solution consists of mutual
trust and confidence among nations,
atomic disarmament, and an effec-
tive system of enforcing that dis
armament.
INTERNATIONAL CONTROL OF
ATOMIC ENERGY.
There is, however, fatal defect
in the Moscow statement, in the
Acheson report, and in the Amer
ican plan recently presented to
the United Nations Atomic Energy
Commission. That defect is the
scheme, as it Is generally under
stood, OF arriving at international
agreements by many stages" of
requiring other nations to enter into
binding commitments not to con-
duct research into the military uses
of atomic energy and to disclose
their uranium and thorium resources
while the United States retains the
right to withhold its technical
knowledge Of atomic energy until
the international control and in
spection system is working to our
satisfaction.
In other words, we are telling the
Russians that if they are good boys
We may eventually turn over our
knowledge of atomic energy to them
and to the other nations. But there
Is no objective standard of what
will qualify them as being good
nor any specified time for sharing
our knowledge.
Is it any wonder that the Russians
dio not show any great enthusiasm
for our plan? Would we have been
enthusiastic if the Russians had a
monopoly of atomic energy, and
offered to share the information
with us at some indefinite time in
/ the future at their discretion if we
agreed now not to try to make bomb
and give them information on our
secret resources of uranium and
thorium? l think we would react
as the Russians appear to have
done. We would have put up coun-
terproposals for the record, but our
real effort would go into trying to
make bomb so that our bargaining
position would be equalized. That is
the essence of the Russian position
which is very clearly stated in the
Pravda article of June "a, 1916.
1t is perfectly clear that the step
by-step plan" in any such one sided
form is not workable. The entire
I dSI CCIilCllI Will nave 10 DC WOIkeU
out and wrapped up in a single
! package. This may involve certain
steps or stages, but the timing of
such steps must be agreed to in the
initial master treaty.
Russia Has Two Advantages.
Realistically, Russia has two cards
which she can use in negotiating
with us: Cd Our lack of information
on the state of her scientific and
| technical progress on atomic energy
and 90 our ignorance of her
uranium and thorium resources.
These cards are nothing like as
powerful as our cards-a stockpile
of bombs, manufacturing plants in
| actual production, B-29s and B-36s
and our bases covering half the
globe. Yet we are In effect asking
her to reveal her only two cards
immediately-telling her that after
We have seen her cards we will de-
eide whether we want to continue
to play the game.
Insistence on our part that the
game must be played our way will