Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1950-12-15
Is This Our Last Hour?

Is This Our Last Hour?
Is this the hour of our Nations Twilight, the
last fading hour of light before an endless night
shall envelop US and all the Western aOorld?
That is a question luhich 1De still hare in
our po,oer to ansaoer IT ,Oe delay longer ape can
expect nothing but darkness and defeat ana
deSol1tion. If GnS,1er the challenge l0th
courage and confidence and NTH the abihty~ot
sohich aDe capable ne can, am sure, triumph
over our foes.
TT WAS in these words that Senator Lyndon
l. Johnson of Texas summed up an address to
the Senate this week-an address which deserves
a great deal more attention than 1t has received.
It was talk which deserves attention because
Senator Johnson was addressing himself to the
most urgent question of our time: What must
we do to survive?
There are men-men of ability and integrity
who advocate something less than total,
about effort. General Marshall spoke for them
when he testified on December before House
committee. The Secretary of Defense wants a
greater effort. But he does not favor an all-out
war mobilization at this time. He fears that
If we go to total mobilization the Communists
might then ease up and leave us in a difficult
position. General Marshall is worried about the
reaction of the people in that situation. He is
concerned with the matter of cost In short, he
is against an about wartime mobilization until
we clearly have to do it,
CENATOR Johnson takes the stand that that
~ time is now-that the need is clear and will
never be clearer while we still have chance
to survive.
The Texas Senator is in position to speak
with some authority on this question. AS chair
man of the Senate Military Preparedness Sub
committee, he has seen at first hand the hest
tations, the uncertainties, the fumblings of the
rearmament program And he has come away
from that experience with this conviction: II say
that the policy of wait and see must end, and it
must end now. For what are we waiting? What do
we expect to see tomorrow that we cannot see
clearly today-or could not see (when the Korean
war began) on June ESP"
What Senator Johnson sees is this:
First, we are at war. We are at war not
merely with Communist China but with all the
military strength and both the physical and
human resources behind the Iron Curtain We
have been at war for six months. We may well
be at war for 10 or 20 years more
Second, our primary and immediate goal
In this war is survival This is bleak, disturb
ing reality. In other wars, our goal has been
simply victory. Now, however, we must make
our survival certain before we can hope for
victory, because we cannot be confident of sur
vival.
Third, we are not getting ready for war.
We are in war, but all our effort is seemingly
directed toward staying out of the war that we
are in already This is adolescent nonsense"
THE STAR believes that these are facts, and
l. that no rational appraisal Of the rapidly
mounting evidence can lead to any other con-
clusion. It is possible, by an emotional process
of wishful thinking, to arrive at some other con-
clusion. If one resolutely turns his face away
from the evidence, If he merely shrinks from the
$4,000 American casualties in Korea, If he will
not look through his minds eye at the Russian
Jet fighters which have appeared in some force
over the Korean battlefield, if he ignores the
words of Russia's Mr. Malik, if he closes his
ears to the Communist threat to drive our armies
into the sea-if man will do these things he can
make himself believe whatever he wishes. But
he cannot convert state of war into a state
of peace. And such a man will never be ready
to take the steps that must be taken in the in
,terests of our self-preservation.
What should be done? This question cannot
be answered with any absolute assurance. Sena-
tor Johnson has some definite opinions. He
says that first, and above all else, we must have
1ong-range global plan of strategy for the war
to which we are committed We must not let
the Russians decide where we shall fight and
where we can fight. We must not fall into the
tragic error of squandering our young men in
futile, indecisve little before the real enemy
is ever directly engaged. Second, we must fully
mobilize for military service all of our available
manpower-that if we do not do this we will be
weaker by next June than we were when we went
into Korea in June of this year. Third, he calls
for immediate mobilization of our economy, in
Guiding tight controls, and an urgent drive to
organize and greatly increase our productive
capacity.
THERE are others who say mall earnestness
:. l. that we should not go this far now. They
give reasons for their stand. They say that
the necessary plans have not been made, that the
) machinery has not been set up that the neec
is not finally clear One might ask why after
six months of war; little planning has beer
done, so little machinery is ready But thai
serves no useful purpose. We have to go or
from where we are and do the best we can.
Those who would move slowly are gambling
on the time factor This must be so, for certainly
If we should find ourselves at war with Russis
tomorrow they would urge all possible haste.
But how much reliance can be placed II
this assumption. that we will have the time re-
quired? Some of these people thought that thu
Russians, at earliest, would not get the atom
bomb until 1882 They got 1t in 1949. Our mill