Evening star., 1948-10-13
Before There Con Be Peoce


declared, that the Russians are "yearning
for cooperation they can prove it easily
enough. They can prove it by concrete
deeds. They can begin by lifting the
Berlin blockade and by going on from
there to reverse their policy on virtually
every major issue now troubling the world.
There can be no real peace otherwise;
there can be only an armed truce.
This is one of the key facts of our time.
AS Winston Chufchill declared the other
day, 1t is only because of the fourteen men
of the Kremlin that mankind, instead of
making progress toward an effective sys-
tenn of collective security, Is confronted
with what seems to be remorselessly
approaching third world war" They alone
are responsible for forcing the free nations
to rearm. They alone, with their direct
and indirect aggressions, have raised the
suspicious, the fears, the disorders, the
terrors and the distractions that have
poisoned and paralyzed the effort to build
good and lasting peace.
If these men are "yearning for co-opera-
tion," If they want to avoid war and
establish a decent and secure international
society, they must effect a fundamental
change in their dealings with the rest of
the world. Mr.. Churchill has listed some
of the things they must do. Besides lifting
the Berlin blockade-which would be
merely small first step-they must agree
to peace treaties that will keep them out
of Germany and Japan; they must end
their dominance of the satellite states;
they must withdraw their armies from
Europe; they must retire to their own
country; they must liberate the Com
munist-held portion of Korea; they must
stop fomenting civil strife in Indonesia,
Malaga and China; they must do away
with the Iron Curtain; they must consent
to rigid, vetoless control of the atom; and
in general they must "be content to live
on their own and cease to darken the
world and prevent its recovery by their
endless threats, intrigues and propaganda" !"
In other words, before there can be a
sound peace in which men and nations
can have genuine confidence, the Russians
must undergo complete change of heart.
For not until they begin to offer proof
positive of their good faith, not until they
stop their aggressions and pull out OF
places where they do not belong, can they
enjoy the trust of the free world. And
that means, of course, that as long as
Soviet policy remains what it has been
ever since the end of the war, the United
States and all like-minded powers must
take every measure possible-political
economic and military-to organize q
common front mighty enough to check
and roll back the Red totalitarian tide.
From the standpoint of free men and
free nations, all this Is simply a matter
of self-preservation. In the words of
Warren Austin, our chief delegate to the
U. ~, "the heavy hand of Russia's constant
drive for world power" has made res
armament one of the greatest imperatives
OF the hour. We are in a grim twilight
zone between peace and war. Until the
Kremlin offers some of the cooperation
1t avowedly yearns for, the outlook will
remain bleak and dangerous, and we and
our friends abroad, while hoping for the
BEST must prepare for the worst as rapidly
as we can.