Evening star., 1950-06-01
The Right Road

In his address at the unusual Senate House
meeting in the auditorium of the Library Of
Congress, Secretary Acheson has done more than
deliver formal report on his recent conferences
with the Foreign Ministers of Britain, France
and the other members of the twelve-nation
Atlantic Pact. In effect, quietly and calmly, he
has counseled all Americans that the challenge
confronting the non-Soviet world remains so
immense and fateful that great and difficult
things must still be accomplished IL the United
States and like minded countries are to preserve
their peace and freedom.
AS far as his Paris and London talks are
concerned, Mr.. Acheson has made clear that
important additional progress has been achieved
in concertng policies and actions as regards
such problems as Southeast ASIA the Middle
East, Austria, Germany, and the promotion Of
greater unity and strength in the West There
can be no doubt, for example, that the Foreign
Ministers have taken a promising forward step
in their decision to create q full time group of
exceptionally talented deputies to improve the
efficiency of the Atlantic Pact's machinery and
to give constant direction to it. Nor can there
be any doubt as to the vast potential value of
the ministers decision to recommend to their
governments speedy adoption of the principle
of balanced collective forces"
Indeed, in Mr.. Achesons judgment, the
agreement on this particular principle may
prove to be the most important single achieve
ment of the twelve-nation London talks. De-
scrbng 1t as a development of great and
perhaps revolutionary significance" he has
explained that the idea of establishing balanced
collective forces" is aimed at multiple objective
ID to prevent wasteful duplication of effort
among the members Of the Atlantic community,
CD to hold each of them to Its assigned task
on a one-for all and all -for-one basis, 80 to
reconcile the resources available with the
demands made upon those resources, "a to set
up an overall integrated defensive system
capable of winning any war that may be forced
upon the free world, and 90 thus to give
tangible proof to the Kremlin that it will face
the combined might of the pact powers and not
be able to attack them one at time.
In all of this, the United States, as the most
powerful of the non-Soviet nations, must take
the lead. AS Mr.. Acheson has persuasively
argued, with the full backing of President
Truman and Secretary Johnson, there is simply
mo other way to accomplish the job of defense
and at the same time get ahead with the con-
Structive task of building a successfully func-
tioning economy in the free world" Although
discounting immediate war threats, he has been
at pains to emphasize that the Kremlin'S chal-
lenge has nevertheless made the problem of
achieving security so big, SO costly and so in
dlVlSole that only combined effort will be
adequate, and he has stated it as his firm con-
viction that If we do our part in this connection,
our friends abroad can be counted upon to do
theirs CONN aYt 4n1Nsma a-d Z
Mr.. Acheson has not spelled out just what
our part ought to be, but he has intimated that
he will discuss it in considerable detail within
the next few days when he appears before
congressional committees to support further
armamentS aid under our mutual defense
assistance program. Meanwhile, affirming that
the United Nations Charter remains the basic
guide OF our foreign policy Gan affirmation in
which he has implicitly echoed former Secretary
MarshalPs eloquent Memorial Day plea against
proposals to reorganize the u. N. without RUSSIA
he has left little for doubt that this is truly
another time Of decision" in which our own
and other free lands must steel themselves to
the probability that they are still at the begin
ming point of long, hard road to safety
Yet that road as Mr.. AcheSon has said, is
"the right road" It is the only road that can
insure our liberties and maintain peace The
nations now travelling it together-chiefly the
Atlantic communicative moral and material
resources unmatched anywhere else in the world
Accordingly, If we and our fellow-wayfarers
continue to move forward in ever increasing
unity and association, We will arrive in due
course at point where we can be sure that
the future belongs to freedom" That is the
beckoning promise before U.S. To fall back from
1t would be an invitation to catastrophe and
deadly gamble with everything we hold dear