Evening star., 1950-07-20
In the Foce of Aggression


and in his report to the people, has not tried to
soften the harsh outlines of the future.
Only few weeks ago, Mr.. Truman was say
ing that the world was closer to peace than at
any time in the past five years. Throughout the
defense establishment economy was the order OF
the. day, and proposals for strengthening the
armed forces were brushed aside. Our economy,
it was said, could not stand bigger defense
budget.
But all of that has gone out the window. In
Korea the Russian string -pullers have shown
that they will resort to open aggression, and in
the face of that grim and unmistakable fact the
President and his administration have reacted
in the only possible way.
For practical purposes, we are back where
we were ten years ago. Once again we must get
ready for war. The bitter price of too-hasty
disarmament of too much wishful reliance on
the good faith of the Russians must be paid
There simply is no other way.
In the message to Congress, Mr.. Truman set
out clear and convincing justification for what
this Nation has done and must do. He produced
the record to show that Moscow's North Korean
puppets were the aggressors in Korea, and he
nailed the Kremlin lie that the South Koreans
provoked the attack
Stating that our decision to intervene in
Korea was made as matter of basic moral
principle" Mr. Truman went on to imply that we
took into account the relative immediate super
iority" of the attacking forces, the supply diff
culties with which we would be faced, etc. In
other words, he leaves the impression that the
decision to send American troops into Korea was
not based on faulty estimate of our own capa-
city or that of the enemy.
Whether this is correct or not, there is moth
ing in the message to justify conclusion that
Mr.. Truman is Understanding the gravity of
the situation as 1t now can be seen.
He has asked Congress to adopt measures
which will enable us to put forth the necessary
military effort in Korea which will increase our
ability to deal with other possible aggressive
moves and which will hasten and expand the
common front that we are trying to erect with
other free nations against aggression This means
more men in the armed services more military
production and more money for defense-the
initial increase to be in the neighborhood Of $40
billion
To support these purely military measures
and to curb the inevitable imitation the President
also has recommended economic measures
Among these are authority for priorities and
material allocations to requisition needed sup
plies to impose restraints on credit, to set up
certain production incentives and to levy higher
taxes-the details of this to be announced later
II there is room for question here 1t is
whether the President has gone far enough. He
did not ask, for instance for any authority to
control manpower. wages, prices, or to ration
goods. With respect to the last two, however,
the President said in event of need he would not
hesitate to request the authority, and mounting
crisis undoubtedly would force him to go all the
way.
All of this is going to be bitter pill for
people who had hoped that wars and threats of
wars were behind them. But in the face of ag-
gression we are left with no rational alternative
The actual fighting now may not spread beyond
Korea. But there is no assurance of that and
the President has warned the Russian govern
ment that new recourse to aggression in the
world today might well strain to the breaking
point the fabric of world peace"
. If the fabric is to be broken, and it will be
broken if the men in the Kremlin so decide, the
measures advocated by the President will pro-
vide little enough in the way of shield against
the torrent of destruction that will be unloosed
upon us. We had better make the most of the
opportunity that we have.