Evening star., 1950-10-10
The Purpose Is Peace

Secretary AcheSon, in his address at Freedom
House, has spoken out in timely fashion against
loose talk about preventive war or the newt
ability of armed conflict with Russia-talk that
Is inherently dangerous because it misrepresents
the basic purpose of the free worlds current
rearmament effort and thus tends to weaken still
further the already-weak foundations of peace
OF course, as Mr.. Acheson has said, the dan
gers about us are deadly in the extreme, and 1t
may well be that another global war will come
sooner or later But it is not because they regard
such catastrophe as inevitable that the United
States and like-minded nations are working to-
gether now to build up their individual and col
lective power as fast and as thoroughly as pos
sible On the contrary their great hope is that
by so doing, by strengthening and unifying them
selves against the towering menace of Soviet ag-
gression, they will be able to avert the kind Of
conflict that could ruin our civilization and
desolate the whole world.
That is to say, the basic purpose of what the
free world is doing today is first to preserve the
present uneasy peace, and then steadily, step by
step over the years, to improve upon that peace
and make it good and enduring. That is the
real objective of our own rearmament and the
rearmament of our allies That is the aim of the
work now going on under the Atlantic Pact That
is the end being served by the United Nations
history making action to put down the aggres-
sion in Korea. That is the goal set up by our
American propoSal-which has just begun to
receive the General Assemblys serious attention
to equip the Assembly to strike back effectively
against all such future crimes when and if the
Soviet veto paralyzes the Security Council. In
sum, the peoples and governments on this side
of the Iron Curtain are following their current
course not because they consider war inevitable
but because they consider it preventable, on the
hopeful and not unreasonable assumption that
If they become strong enough the Kremlin will
have reason to pull in its horns and begin to be
less threatening neighbor.
Stated another way, the non-Soviet lands,
under the leadership of the United States, are
attempting to make themselves sufficiently
formidable in the international balance of poll
tcal, economic and military power to persuade
Russia and its satellites that aggression has
become far too hazardous and far too unproft
able a crime to be tried. Thus in Mr.. Acheson's
words, "as the strength and durability Of the
free nations bite into the consciousness of the
Soviet leaders, some modification of their de-
termination to achieve world domination could
follow. This would open door on many possibi
ties for the peaceful adjustment of differences"
There can be no guarantee, obviously, that
things will work out that way But if the free
world does all that it needs to do in this time of
great peril, if it arms as much and as fast as it
should, II 1t cultvates growing political unity, and
IF 1t proceeds at the same time to strengthen
itself economically, then the men of the Krenlin
conceivably may be sobered into decision to
abandon aggression as lost game. In that case,
peace may begin to seem more inevitable than
war. And II war comes anyhow, despite our best
efforts to prevent 1t, we and our allies, If we do
not falter now, will be far better equipped to
wage and win 1t.