Evening star., 1950-03-12
If We Are to Win

Secretary of State Acheson has acted wisely
in deciding to make public the substance of the
extemporaneous, off-the-record speech he de-
ivered last February 16 at White House meet
ing of the Advertising Council. Anybody who
reads 1t will profit from it. Indeed, If its COM
nonsense thesis were taken to heart by the wide
variety OF individuals, groups and interests
governmental and nom n-governmental-thatm make
up our own and lke-minded nations, all of us
would have reason to feel good deal more
confident about the free worlds ability to win
the cold war.
In its own way, that war is as tough and
on We day and VI day. In Mr.. Achesons
words, I'VE are struggling against an adversary
that is deadly serious. We are in situation
where we are playing for keeps" and unless we
do all that needs to be done, unless we con-
centrate our full resources on the problem-a
thing which we are not doing right noW-we
can lose out without ever firing shot. For the
Russians, as the Secretary says, are practicing
brand of imperialism that makes "kid stuff" of
every past imperialism, and it is silly to think
that "if we could only get Harry Truman to get
his feet under the same table with Joe Stain we
would be able to iron OUT our differences with
them. The hard fact is that they will not be-
come agreeable and cooperative unless and until
the free world is united and strong enough to
convince them that they have nothing further
to gain from following their present policy of
obstruction and aggression.
Accordingly Mr.. Acheson has laid 1t down
as first imperative of our foreign policy that
1--WE must be prepared to meet wherever possible
all thrusts OF the Soviet Union" just as We have
done in Greece and Turkey. To that end, he
has made clear that we should be ready to ally
ourselves with any people genuinely anxious and
resolved to help stop the further advance of the
Red tide. AS he has put it, we cannot "go from
one country to another with a piece of 1itmus
paper and see whether everything is true blue,
whether the political, economic and social
climate is exactly in all its details, the kind we
would like to have either for them or for us.
The only question that we should ask is whether
they are determined to protect their independ-
ence against Communist aggression, and if they
are we should recognize our basic unity with
them on this point" In other words, despite
failure which he has blamed primarily on the
Chinese themlselves-he has plainly implied that
1t is applicable to places like Spain, whether or
not they are democratic enough to suit our
tastes.
And on top of this, Mr.. Acheson has de-
clared it as the second and equal imperative Of
our foreign policy that we must help to create
those economic, political social and psyche
logical conditions that strengthen and create
confidence in the democratic way of lfe"-an
imperative under which we must be prepared
for example, to let foreign goods compete in
the American market, even If that hurts some of
our industries. Such ideas may not be easy to
swallow, but nothing in the cold war is easy
If we are to win, we must deal with all these
difficult matters resolutely and with unity among
ourselves at home and with our friends abroad
Given that, together with the preponderant
power of the free world, then we can be reason
ably sure of establishing conditions that will
eventually force the Russians to play ball.