Evening star., 1950-02-05

provement. The men in the Krem-
lin continue to regard us as the
only obstacle to their ambitions
to dominate the world.
The tragic part of our spending
money on foreign nations without
substantially strengthening our
own military forces is that if Rus
sia decides to move against the
United States directly from the
polar bases" none of the coun-
tries which we are now supporting
can or will come to our aid. The
one exception is Canada, which
from the strategic point of view
is integrated with American ter
ritory.
Those countries cannot create
a diversion by threatening West
ern Russia because even if the
full military aid program is full
filled they will still be far weaker
than the Russian forces which are
guarding the approaches of the
iron curtain countries. But what
Is even more likely is that as soon
as the reports of a successful So
Wet air attack on the United
States have reached Europe the
present governments will disap-
pear and the Communists will
take over. The new regimes i'm
mediately will place their yespec-
tive countries under the protect
ing wing of the U. s. S. r.
Rearmament Urged
There is still time to offset these
great dangers to our own security.
But nothing can be done diplo-
matically at this time. If Russia
were to learn that we have decided
to build a very powerful Ameri-
can air force and at the same time
that We are proceeding with the
organization Of strong defensive
positions backed by full-strength
divisions in the polar areas" she
might think twice before acting
rashly.
The answer to the present con-
crete threat to our own territory
is to be found in our immediate
rearmament, regardless of what
other international or domestic
commitments we may have to
ignore. or how much larger the
deficit may be this year or next.
II the administration were to take
the American people really into
its confidence and tell them
,bluntly what could happen If we
continue in the present state of
unpreparedness, there would be
few regardless of political party
and beliefs who would not be
willing to buckle their belts and
even forgo some necessities I'M
order to hand out some more cash
to pay for insurance for the Ma
tion'S freedom-an adequate mill
tary force at home.
The whole program for welfare
OF the people as understood and
contained in the platform Of the
Democratic Party may be impor-
tant. But it will only be money
wasted if the country is not in a
position to defend itself if at
tackled. And today we are not
capable of warding off the first
deadly blows of potential enemy
regardless of what the politicians
say. Il
/ We are alone. We can help
those across the Atlantic after we
mobilize our forces, even if large
sections of Europe are invaded by
the Russians. The reverse is not
true. The war-weary Europeans
have neither the ability nor the
will to come to the rescue if we
ever need their help. We are
alone, 160,000,000 Americans (in-
cluding the Canadians) against
an oriental mass four times as
great, which has learned to pro-
duce and use the most modern
scientific inventions. for destruc-
4 tion.
Well-prepared in advance we
can weather any storm. But to-
day we are neither psychologically
nor physically prepared to meet
what many describe as an inevi-
Il tahle danReF. ~