Evening star., 1950-01-15
Mr.. Acheson on Asia


Secretary Acheson's brilliant and far
ranging talk to the National Press Club
should be required reading for all Amerl-
cans who have let their emotions get the
better of their heads in reacting to the
fateful course of events in China and
throughout Asia.
In effect, in both a philosophical and
up and diagnosed the Asiatic situation in
a way that should make clear even to any
one that there is no easy cure to be had
for what ails that part of the world. The
problem over there is not single problem
or just few problems. No true parallel
can be drawn between it and the relatively
simple state of affairs in Europe. 1t Is
unique. Politically, economically, cultur-
ally, socially, strategically and otherwise,
it adds up to an almost overwhelming
multiplicity of enormous complexities that
vary greatly from country to country, all
the way down from Korea and Japan,
through China and the islands of the
Far Pacific, and on to the southernmost
tip of India
1t is silly, as Mr.. Acheson has said, to
| suppose that situation of this sort-a
situation in great f1ux, heaving with tumul
tuouS change-can be Gained down and
restored to order by some magic formula
or pat little policy" that would settle
everything by doling out bits of American
economic aid here and there and by dis
patching a few of our naval vessels to
places like Formosa. To say this however,
&c fn hot f1n,f fa do tS To do
nothing. The Secretary of State has ar
gued cogently that the United States and
the free world in general can achieve posi-
tive results by working out a program
tailored to fit the two biggest facts now
characterizing the seething life and the
polyglot society of the vast continent of
Asia.
The first of these facts is that Asia's
| hundreds of millions of people, though they
differ greatly as nations, have one all
important thing in common: They are
| through with colonial rule; they are de-
termined to be independents; yearning to
be on their own, they have deep and
abiding hate for foreign domination. And
the second towering fact is this: The
Soviet Union, in the teeth of such pro-
found feeling for national freedom and
territorial integrity, has acted through its
Chinese Communist puppets to detach and
absorb Manchuria and other immense
areas of Northern China-an imperial
lstic grab of the first magnitude, and one
that cannot possibly be hidden or dis
guised.
In face of this situation, what line of
qntiOn 40 fo11
ing for the United States, Mr.. Acheson
has laid it down as an absolute essential
that we must defend and hold our Western
Pacific defense perimeter from the Aleu-
tians in the north, through Japan and the
Ryukyu Islands, down to and including the
Philippines But as for the Asiatic main
land, he has emphasized that 1--WE can help
only where we are wanted and only where
the conditions of help are really sensible
and possible is to say, only where
there is genuine will to resist, only where
our aid will be really welcome and well
used, only where the outlook is promising
enough to justify an additional drain on
our limited resources and power.
In any case, however, Mr.. Acheson has
sounded an eloquent warning against
American actions that might smack of
imperialism and outrage Asia's sense of
independence. AS he has put it, "we must
not seize the unenviable position which the
Russians have carved out for themselves"
BY raping China, they are making clear to
all Asiatics that the real objective of the
Soviet Union, acting through it's satellite
Communist regimes, is to impose its
domination and tyranny on that part of
the world. From what they are thus SOW
ing, in Mr.. Acheson's judgment, they will
eventually reap a whirlwind of anger
wrath and hatred, and we would only be
DETECTING that from them to ourselves if
we undertook to intervene with unlimited
| and imperialistic adventures of our own.
MIR. Acheson, in saying all this, obviously
has not proclaimed a policy that neatly
defines wonderfully organized program of
action that can be. set in motion tomorrow
| morning and achieve good initial results
before tomorrow night. Indeed, his main
thesis rests largely on long-range hope
the hope that China will prove thoroughly
| indigeStible for the Russians and that they
| eventually will find themselves despised
and hated so bitterly throughout Asia that
| they will, in fact, reap whirlwind there.
Perhaps it is vain hope, but the history
| of this tremendous region and the nature
OF its peoples suggest Titoist potentialities
| and other revolutionary possibilities that
could turn into nightmare for the
Kremlin.
But whether that is wishful view or
not, there can be little doubt that Mr..
Acheson's diagnosis of the situation in Asia
is essentially sound and that we could do
grave injury both to ourselves and our
friends If we rushed in there with half
baked acts of intervention If we are to
follow wise policy, we have got to under
stand what we are up against. That is