Evening star., 1951-03-18

UO nave Cfl6 armies OF spain
Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey
made a part of the common de-
sfense against communism.
Gen. Bradley, chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, put the idea
pieturesquely: I'm a barroom
brawl you want as many chairs
at hand as possible"
In spite of public and private
advice to the State Department
by members Of Congress "to do
something" to increase the de-
fense potential of Europe, these
pleas have brought no results. The
State Department has given the
most sympathetic consideration"
! to this problem, but our foreign
policy-makers must take into ac-
count the feeling and political
conditions of our Atlantic pact
allies.
Summary of Arguments
The position of the executive
and legislative branches of the
Government can be summed up
as follows:
The State Department is intent
on keeping the North Atlantic
pact as it is at present. 1t wants
Congress to appropriate billions
of dollars for strengthening that
organization and pays little at
tention to the nations which are
not members Of the exclusive club.
And exclusive it is, indeed.
According to the charter of that
organization, the acceptance of
new members must be voted
unanimously. This means that
each of the IL members has a
veto. If Iceland. for instance, with
no military strength whatever,
does not want Turkey with her
20 divisions as member of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organiza-
tion, it's negative vote annuls all
the affirmative votes of the other
member nations.
Confronted with the testimony
of the outstanding military men
of the United States, who will
have to bear the brunt Of the
fighting if the cold war becomes
a shooting war, the State Depart
ment hides behind this provision
for unanimity in NATO.
It says to the irate Senators
that there is nothing 1t would
like better than to have these
Mediterranean nations, with their
large organized manpower, on our
side. But what can Americans do
when Britain and France oppose
SO sternly the inclusion Of Spain
and Turkey in the defense setup?
What more can the United States
do than it mas done in the last
three months for the inclusion of
Germany? France has put up a
roadblock against the effective
alignment of Western Germany
with NATO and it is not custom
ary for our diplomats to use a
blackjack on our good Allies.
1t will take time and infinite
patience. our congressman are
told, to iron out these difficulties
which are inherent in the psyche
logical makeup of Europe, where
neighbors have been fighting each
other for so many centuries. It
is a miracle, which shows the per-
suasive skill of our diplomats. that
we have been able to organize
even the Western European powers
into a bloc. France and Italy,
for instance, have been antag-
onists for many years, but are
honeymooning now under our
benevolent eye.
But the Senate and House,
where more than 81 billion will
have to be voted to organize
"solidly" the defense of Western
Europe, are not likely to be
patient. This was shown strongly
recently when the mildly amended
Wherry resolution concerning the
dispatch of American troops to
Europe was approved over the
violent protests of the State De-
partment's spokesman in the Sen
ate, Chairman Connally of the
Foreign Relations Committee.
Congress Impatient
The legislators patience is
growing thin. They accept the
thesis that Americas security will
be adversely affected if Western
Europe collapses under the blows
Of the Russian hordes. And for
this reason they are willing to
put no hurdles in the way of the
administration, provided our for
eign policy makers follow a real
istic course.
In keeping with what the rep
resentatives Of the Nation have
been told at open and executive
sessions, they are convinced that
partial defense of Europe cannot
be successful. They do not be-
lieve that Europe can avoid catas-
trophe If her defenses are con-
centrated only In the West.
Moreover, they do not see any
indication that the members of
the North Atlantic pact-with the
possible exception of Britain-are
doing anything positive to in
crease their defense potential. 1t
is true that there has been squirt
of energy since former President
Hoover made his first speech last
December and the foreign ambas-
sadors reported that it had been
well received by the American
people.
Our Allies realized then that
unless they activated their mill
tary preparations in some tan
gible way, there was a grave risk
of their being cut off from the
vast sums the American taxpayer
is pouring into their countries
But when assurances came from
Washington that, in spite of Mr.
Y