Evening star., 1950-12-05
Free World FumbIinq
In Hour Of Decision
Obvious 10 Everybody
Lack of Realism in U. N.
Shown With Retreat
OF Armies in Korea
By David Laurence

Is up against the totalitariar
world where neither parliament.
nor business. nor labor, nor allie.
have much to say about public
policy.
This handicap. long expected
to plague the free world in it.
hour of decision, is visible te
Observation-Disclosures Russia. Il
all the nations in the free worlc
were to recognize that a state o.
war already exists. there would
be unity in a common cause ane
a measure of self-discipline. BuI
there is no such realism.
American troops in large num-
bers are in Korea with other al.
lied units to carry out a mission
for the United Nations to halt
aggression.
The U. N. troops are being
beaten on the field of battle
they are meeting severe reverses
after having been prevented from
using air power against enemy
concentrations across the Man
churian border.
Trades Against General.
What does the world hear from
the principal members of the
U. N? From Britain and France
come TRADES against the Ameri-
can general. In the British Par
lament. one cabinet minister says
Macarthur exceeded U. N. direc-
tives. A member of the British
government repudiates that
charge and says Macarthur car
ricd out U. N. objectives.
Hindsight is always better than
foresight. but what is inexplicable
today is the assumption in Euro
pean official quarters that If U. N.
troops had stopped at the 38th
Parallel or at an imaginary line
north OF 1t. the Chinese Com
munists would have promptly
made peace and the u. N. mission
into Korea would have been car
ried out successfully.
There is not the slightest evi-
dence that there would have been
any such acquiescence by the Com
munists, whose broadcasts from
Peiping for several weeks have
insisted only on the immediate
and complete exodus of U. N.
forces from Korea.
The decision which really hangs
In the balance to be appraised
one way or the other is the U. N.
decision Of June 26 to 60 into
Korea. The moment the U. N.
constituted itself as an interna-
tional police force it could not
revert to the status of a quasi
military or a quasi-diplomatic or
ganization which tries to tell their
troops to move into a country.
then asks them to halt while the
enemy is politely asked whether
1t will accept defeat. If the enemy
says it won't do so, then there
is evidently more debate on what
to do about it while the enemy is
given time to regroup his mill
tary forces.
If the U. N. now. having gone
into Korea, in effect orders its
military forces to evacuate what
has been conquered, then the u. N.
will lose the respect of many mil
lions of Americans and there will
be demand for full freedom of
action for the United States in
world affairs-leaving it to Ameri-
ca to decide hereafter when and
where 1t will use it's forces and its
resources.
Isolationists Increase.
This Is sometimes called "iso-
lationism.' More "isolationists"
have been born in the last few
days since the British government
has enunciated its viewpoint than
were bred since the 1920s. The
demand for America to go its own
way in world affairs-helping in
Europe or in Asia as its resources
permit-will become the demand
Of many political groups inside
both major parties. Isolationism
bored within the Democratic as
we'll as the Republican Party as
late as 1882.
The situation today happens to
fit a paragraph written by Owen
baltimore, the Far Eastern expert,
in one Of his books published In
1949 when he said:
a.. Those who plan and carry
out American policy will fall into
q trap II they think that what is
required Of them is decision be-
tween Europe first and Asia first.
In 1916, 1947 and 1948 Europe
fitted the combined specifications
OF the Communist theory of what
constitutes an opportunity and
the methods available to the So
Wet state for exploiting an oppor-
tunity better than in Asia.
I'm 1949 Asia fits the specif1-
cations better than Europe. But
both then and now the situations
in Europe and in Asia have never
ceased to interact on each other"
1t Is the global aspect of Ameri-
cas- responsibility and the U. Ms
responsibility. and the inter-
dependence Of policy in Europe
and Asia which are being over
looked by those who today are
counseling retreat and surrender
In the Far East on the theory that
this means a strengthened U. N. in
Europe. Wherever the free world
Is beaten, It's prestige goes down.
but 1t doesn't stay down If 1t hero
ically fights back as it did all the
way from Bataan in 1941 to Tokyo
In September 1945.
tReproduction Rights Reserved)