Evening star., 1948-06-14
Peoce Talk vs.. Peace Work

No matter how Moscow's propaganda
guns may reply, President Truman's plain
spoken address at the University OF
California adds up to challenging invita-
ton to the Kremlin to show by concrete
deeds that its so-called peace offensive"
launched recently with the help OF
Henry A. Wallace-has at least grain
of sincerity in it.
In the Presidents words, Anyone can
talk of peace. But only the work that Is
done for peace really counts" The Rus
slams, along with vilifying the United
States and the democratic West in general,
have been chattering linitlessly about
how they are dedicated to the task OF
building good world. But their actions
have been all in the other direction. They
say one thing and do the exact opposite.
Ever since the end of the war, their per-
formances have been ut violent odds with
their most solemn promises.
The record on this score, rs the Presi-
dent has said, is beyond dispute. Far from
living up to its obligations as member
of the United Nations and as 4 signatory
to numerous inter-Allied agreements, the
Soviet Union has been following 2 lone
wolf course calculated to make decent
peace virtually impossible. BY the reckless
use of its veto power, it has frustrated the
desire of the overwhelming majority to
establish control of the atom and draw up
settlements for Austria and Germany.
Similarly, by boycotting the U. MS Balkan
and Korean commissions, 1t has succeeded
in keeping Greece and Korea In turmoil.
At the same time, while exerting threatiul
pressures against the Middle East, it has
built vast satellite empire in Europe on
the broken remains OF nearly dozen
once independent lands, and 1t has not
even attempted to hide its effort to wreck
the Marshall Plan for European recovery.
This is but part of the record, but it Is
enough to justify the judgment that Soviet
policy-as displayed to date-has been
deliberately designed to promote chaos in
order to spread the Kremlin's dominance
as far and as fast as possible throughout
the globe In the circumstances, President
Truman is on thoroughly sound ground in
indicting the Russian dictatorship for the
worlds failure to make any real progress
up to now toward an enduring peace. He
is on sound ground, too, in emphasizing
that the cleavage is not simply between
the u S. S. r. and the United States, but
between the u s. S. R. and all free nations
everywhere And that is why he Is COM
pletely right in rejecting the poisonous
thesis that Washington and Moscow ought
to get together on deal between them
selves. u
As far as the United States is concerned,
the President has made clear that our
door is always open for honest negotia-
tions looking toward genuine settlements"
But he has made clear at the same time
that what is primarily needed for peace
is a basic change in Russian policy
change under which the Soviet Union will
will begin to work sincerely with the
United Nations by ending its obstruction
ism and aggression and abandoning the
absurd idea" that capitalism will collapse
and open the way to global communism.
Above all, what is needed from the
Kremlin is concrete evidence-such as
cooperation on Greece and Korea-of 4
earnest resolve to contribute toward the
building of better world. Talk is cheap.
What really counts, as the President has
said, are deeds. Until the deeds are in
accord with it, the Soviet peace offen-
sive" must be written OF as propaganda
directed toward evil ends.