Evening star., 1950-12-01
A Matter of Life and Death

in which we find ourselves today is that our life
hangs in the balance-our life as free Nation
and the lives of millions of us as individuals.
Mr.. Truman has spoken of the serious
crisis" and Mr.. Acheson has talked of "a situation
of unparalleled danger" These words carry their
ominous connotation, but they are not adequate
to convey to the people of this country the enor-
ity of their danger. There is feeling, though
perhaps not shared by MIR. Truman and Mr..
Acheson, that we should be careful not to alarm
the people. OF course, the people should not be
unduly alarmed. But the people will never ac-
quire that understanding of the danger, that
sense of dedication to the task of preparing to
meet 1t, for which leaders keep calling unless
they are given all of the facts that can be made
public within the limitations imposed by security
considerations.
The people have not been given all Of these
facts
One fact not generally known is that there
are responsible men in Washington, men whose
official position is such that their opinions are
entitled to consideration, who believe that this
country, as of today, would have no better than
an even chance to win an all-out war with Russia.
They also believe that time is working against us
that Russian military production is geared
up to point at which they will grow relatively
stronger while we grow relatively weaker. Given
the opportunity, at some point, with maximum
effort, we would overtake them. But that will
not happen soon, and, meanwhile in the opinion
of these men, our chances of winning a war will
diminish.
It should be emphasized that this is merely
an opinion. But If it is correct opinion, it has
a most profound bearing on the policies which
this Government is pursuing and for which the
answering support Of the people is solicited.
These policies have been stated in various
ways. Mr.. Truman summed them up yesterday in
these words: % We shall continue to work in
the United Nations for concerted action to halt
this aggression in Korea. (2) We shall intensity
our efforts to help other free nations strengthen
their defenses in order to meet the threat of
aggression elsewhere. 90 We shall rapidly in
crease our own military strength.
The essence of this policy is that every
thing possible should be done to avoid war,
while doing what we can to prepare for the worst
If total war should come.
Along with this is the point of view of those
who feel that time and opportunity are slipping
away from us. They do not advance their point
Of view as an argument for so-called preventive
war. They merely set forth what they believe
to be the facts, which may be summed up as
follows: AS Of this time, we have great supe-
riority in atomic weapons and, again as of this
time we are capable Of using those weapons
against any enemy. The Russians do not now
have large store of atomic bombs, but they will
acquire them They do have planes capable of
carrying atom bombs to our Cities and, at best,
we would not be able to prevent more than one
fourth of their planes from getting through to
their targets in a surprise attack
One may regard these as facts or only as
opinions which deserve consideration The i'm
portant point is that they add up to body of
information that should be put before the Ameri-
can people. The people are entitled to know
just how great the danger is-not in generalities
but in terms that are as specific as possible
The Star does not believe that anything is to be
gained by withholding information of this kind.
It is the lives of the people that are at stake
in this business, and they should be shown the
grim picture, not from one point of view, but
from all responsible points of view. If the Gov
ernment wants the support of the American
people, a support imbued with a sense of urgency,
it should see to it that the people are given
maximum, not minimum, of information con-
corning the really great danger in which all of
us find ourselves.