Evening star., 1948-05-21
To Riqht the BuIonce

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favoring American association with re-
gional alliances of friendly nations abroad,
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
has voted for profoundly significant and
vitality necessary new departure in the
international policy of the United States.
If adopted and put actively to work,
the resolution would commit us to the
principle and practice of extending mill
tary aid to other free nations and joining
with them, on the basis of carefully defined
conditions, in security pacts guaranteeing
mutual assistance against aggression.
This would add something decidedly new
and far-reaching to our normal peace
time foreign policy, but the realities of the
hour in an enormously changed and fore
shortened world argue imperatively for 1t.
The primary objective of the resolution
is to promote peace by bringing about
safer balance of power between the free
world and the world of Soviet totalitarian-
ISM The old balance has been destroyed by
the war and its aftermath. This is best il
lustrated by the condition of Europe. Unless
they form as united political, economic
and military front as possible, and unless
they have strong American support, Britain
and the western European countries will
continue dangerously vulnerable to falling,
one at time, to the expansionist drive of
the Russian Empire-a drive that could
force the entire continent under Moscow's
dominance and leave the United States
gravely isolated.
Accordingly, to cope with this threat,
the Foreign Relations Committee would
have the Senate 60 on record as advising
the President that the Government should
pursue the following major objectives,
among others: Cd Voluntary agreements
to limit the use of the veto in the United
Nations; (0 our participation in regional
work of the U. NJ; 60 maximum efforts to
achieve genuine disarmament with de-
pendable guarantees, and "a as a last
resort, if necessary, action for drastic
reorganization of the U. N. AS far as the
immediate future is concerned, the most
important of these detectives is number Q;
it goes to the heart of the problem of
establishing an effective counterweight to
the strength of the eXpanSionist Soviet
Union.
Thus, if adopted by the Senate as a
whole, and if the House approves it in
substance, the resolution will give full
congressional support to the thesis that
special American commitments and kind
of peacetime lend-lease in armaments
should back up the political and economic
action being taken now to check the spread
of direct and indirect Soviet aggression.
Such commitments and military aid, how
ever, would be subject to the constitutional
requirement of Senate approval and to the
condition that they are necessary for our
security and that our friends abroad prac-
tice real cooperation and self help among
themselves.
With policy of this sort in force, the
actual and potential might of the United
States would be placed squarely behind
such great enterprises as the sixteen
nation European Recovery Program and
the new Western Union of Britain, France
and the three Benelux countries Nothing
could more effectively inhibit aggression.
With it the free world would be in posi-
ton to organize and combine its political,
economic and military strength so i'm
pressively as to make the Soviet Empire
seem weak by comparison.
In the world as it is, we cannot safely
ignore the balance of power. That balance
is still tipped too much in favor of the
Russian dictatorship. It needs to be
righted by just such policy as that en-
visioned by the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee. The Kremlin is not likely to
pull in its horns otherwise, or show by
concrete deeds, and not mere propagan-
distic words, that it really wants to CO.
operate in building decent peace. In
these days our talk-loud or soft-will get
US nowhere unless we carry a big stick.