Evening star., 1947-06-17
Indictment of Russiu

UnderSecretary of State Dean AcheSon
will not retire until the end of this month.
His blunt and powerful words at Wesleyan
University must therefore be regarded not
as mere farewell address but as highly
significant reflection of the official Amer
ican view regarding Russian policy. Moth
ing could make clearer-either to the
Soviet Union or to the world at large
that the United States is thoroughly out
of patience with that policy and that our
Government proposes to do everything it
can to stop 1t.
In effect Mr.. Acheson has indicted the
Stain government on charges of bad faith.
He has accused it of long series of actions
dramatically opposed to the very premises
of international accord and recovery" He
has found it guilty of infidelity to the
principles of the United Nations, of failure
to live up to such specific obligations as
those solemnly undertaken at Yalta, and of
deliberate obstructionism thwarting efforts
to end the worlds deadly economic and
political sickness. If this Soviet policy has
filled Americans with bitter feeling OF
betrayal, who can blame them? After all,
as Mr.. Acheson has pointedly recalled, we
gave the Russians eleven and half billion
dollars of vitally needed lend-lease sup
plies during their life-or-death struggle
with Hitler, and after We day we gave
them another billion for relief and
reconstruction. In addition, at their re-
quest, we limited the advance of our armies
in Germany and were at pains to recognize
i1f n "a
and the Far East.
All we have ever wanted in return for
this very great aid and for our own un-
broken adherence to Allied agreements has
been the full and sincere cooperation of
the Soviet Observation-Disclosures to It's
pledges, respect on its part for the rights
of other nations to govern themselves
freely, and its help in promoting the
recovery and peace of the world. But
what have we received? Mr.. Acheson has
catalogued only part of the Krenlin's
reciprocation, but his list is long enough
to be damning. In Eastern Europe the
Russians have been carrying out uni
lateral liberty sitting policy full of "shams
and frauds"-a policy doing violence to
their Yalta pledges and designed to make
them masters of a vast area outside their
borders. In the Middle East they have
fostered turmoil and waged steady war
of nerves. In the Far East they have
dismantled Manchuria's industries, dis
honored their obligations regarding the
free port of Dairen, blocked the unif1cation
Of Korea, and impeded every move to
encourage recovery and political stability.
What they have done in Germany and
Austria speaks for itself, and their delaying
maneuvers in the agencies of the United
Nations-the Atomic Energy Commission,
for eXample-have been notorious.
In saying these things at Wesleyan Uni
versity-with Secretary Marshall's advance
+ approval-Mr. Acheson has voiced much
more than his personal opinion. In view
of the high official position he still holds,
what he has said comes close to being an
indictment formally drawn up by the State
Department itself in behalf of the United
States and the free world. It is an indict-
ment supported by the evidence, and some
thing very much like 1t will have to be
brought before the United Nations unless
the Stain government soon changes It's
ways for the better. The situation cannot
be allowed to drift much longer 1t calls
for action every bit as fortnight and posi-
tive as Mr.. Acheson's profoundly mean
ingful words.