Evening star., 1948-02-28
Death Blow to u. N?

To the Editor OF The Star:
Your editorial The Hour of Crisis in Pales-
tine" Is based on the assumption that en-
forcement Of the decision Of the United Nations
to partition Palestine is detrimental to the
best interests of the United States. The editori-
al further implies that 1t would be unwise to
support or implement any United Nations de-
cision which Is not in accordance with United
States policy
II these assumptions are examined In the
light OF recent history, it becomes obvious that
the underlying considerations are based on a
kind OF thinking which ignores completely the
course of recent developments, moving still
along the lines of global strategy which were
so popular before the first atom bomb was
dropped on Hiroshima.
The consideration mentioned primarily is
oil. Once before, in the case Of rubber the
United States placed its reliance on a distant
source Of raw material vital to the defense Of
the United States and pursued a policy of
appeasement to safeguard the supply of this
material CLOSING Of the Burma Road, shipment
OF scrap and oil to Japan while the develop
ment OF synthetic rubber in this country was
neglected. Now we are told again that the oil
resources of the Near East are vital for our de-
fense in the event of war. Yet military author
tiles agree that the Near East could be overrun
by Russian forces in three weeks while the
extremely vulnerable oil facilities could be de-
stroyed easily by Russian bombers based nearby.
Billions of dollars are expended, vitally needed
steel and thousands of trained experts are dis
patched to develop these oil resources, which
will be lost to us in time Of war, while nothing
is being done to develop synthetic oil indus
try in this country which would free us forever
from dependence on foreign sources and from
political entanglements to protect them.
1t further is considered unwise to dispatch
an international force to Palestine, which would
permit the Russians to establish a military
base there and at the same time jeopardize our
own position by antagonizing the Arabs. Is
there really any one today who still clings to
such an outmoded concept of military strategy,
in the age of the atomic bomb, globe -circling
aircraft and guided missiles? It indeed would
be sad if our military strategists and those
responsible for the shaping of our foreign policy
have not learned the lessons taught by the
events leading up to World War II, but still
are thinking in terms of military bases or
strategic areas and still are placing their faith
In power politics. That this is the case, how
ever, seems to be evident, in view of the fact
that we are now being asked to repeat the
same mistakes, which have led to such calami-
tous results before. We are being asked In
the interest Of United States security to deal
a death blow to the authority of the United
Nations, thus in effect abandoning the only
remaining instrument for world peace and
security in favor Of a policy which would at
tempt to contain Russian aggression in Greece,
Turkey and China by unilateral action while
at the same time safeguarding our oil interests
by bowirg to Arab aggression
FRED r. STEVEN.