Evening star., 1950-09-05
Truman and Congress,
Seen Not All Clear
On Preventive War
Appeusement Policies
Held Encouraging Reds
To Push Ageressions
By David Laurence

There's q vast difference be-
tween q preventive war" and
action to prevent war and while
the first will be deplored as unwise
the second will be accepted as
eminently desirable.
The truth, however, is that Con-
gress and the President are not at
all clear in their pronouncements
as to what is being done or should
be done to prevent a large-scale
war.
This is one Of the reasons why
some people have sought to explore
just what is meant by preventive
war" Actually no administration
would ever propose that the United
States initiate war of any kind
against anybody. But there are
Americans who are wondering If
when q local war starts that could
affect us vitally, the United States
should follow the road of appease-
ment or resistance.
There are Americans, for in
stance, who say that aggression
has already started against the
members Of the United Nations
not only in Europe but in Asia.
There are Americans who do not
consider Communist China an in
dependent country but a tool of
the Soviet just as much as are
such countries as Poland, Rou-
mania, Bulgaria, Hungary and
Czechoslovakia.
Difference of Opinion.
To these observers the real ques-
ton is how long the United Ma
tions has to wait and how many
times the members have to be
attacked before aggression will be
resisted at the real source. Not
q few of the proponents Of war
against Russia feel that the Soviet
started the war in North Korea
and that the bombers of the United
Nations should be permitted to
bomb the sources of supply to the
North Koreans even if it means
attacking beyond the Korean bor-
der in Communist territory.
There is a difference of opinion
here on this naturally and the
President has announced that
American forces will not be per-
mitted to carry on any such war
operations which means, of course
that the United Nations will not
sanction it either. ~e
Yet in the next few months
tens of thousands of Communist
trained soldiers will be slowly fed
into the Korean peninsula. The
Allied troops are going to be worn
down and more and more REIN
forcements will have to be sent
into North Korea from the United
States and other countries to meet
the drain on our manpower.
1t is all very well for American
officials to talk optimistically
about an end to the Korean war
in q few months but the United
Nations forces will have to be
augmented materially as an un-
limited number Of troops come
through Russian and Chinese
territory to help the North Ko-
reans. They have started already.
u. S. Blamed for Inaction.
The question of what shall be
done to get at the source of the
infection will become much more
pertinent a few weeks from now
than it apparently is today. The
United Nations has done little else
but talk so far. No action has
been taken to require that Com
munist China and Soviet Russia
cease giving aid to the North Ko-
reans. Instead, the Communist
argument that China should be
admitted to the council of the
United Nations is seriously con-
sidered by various governments
inside the U. N. Likewise, though
more than two months has passed
since the Communists in both
Russia and China began giving
aid to the North Koreans, the
U. N. has failed miserably to do
anything about it.
The United States Government
is mostly to blame for this in
action. Both the President and
the Secretary of State have pus-
syfooted on the issue. They have
not reflected the overwhelming
indignation Of the American peo-
pie that American boys are being
killed or wounded in Korea as a
consequence of Russian and Chi
nese aid. Instead, there has been
q tendency to grow timid about
such things as keeping the United
States Navy on patrol in the
Straits of Formosa.
About the only action taken
toward Communist China has
been to concede that 1t was a
mistake for an American plane
to have strafed some of the ter
ritor- Of Communist China. This
is an admission that the Presi-
dert and the Secretary of State
do not intend to hold Communist
China or Russia responsible II
their troops are sent into South
Korea to kill American soldiers.
AS soon as the American peo-
pie become better informed on
what is happening they will voice
their protests and it is most re-
srettable that the Truman ad-
ministration has put itself in the
position of apparently wishing to
appease the Communists in the
misguided hope that this will in
fiuence the Communists to stop
their aid to North Korea. It is,
rather, the way to encourage
them to become bolder in their
aggression.
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