Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1951-07-26
Text of Gen. MoAhws Address Massachusetts LEGISLATURE Boston

live intend to resist by force Red
] aggression in Southeast Asia if
lit develops? Do we intend to
.ltake over commitments in the
llexplosive Middle East?
i Do we intend to enter into a
series of military alliances
,Iabroad2 Do we intend to actually
J implement by force of arms the
: lso-called Truman Plan? These
'Iare questions that disturb US be-
cause there is no answer forth
looming. We do want and need
unity and bipartisanship in our
;Iforeign policy--but when there
lis no policy we can but danger
,Iously drift.
1 In Korea. despite the magnif-
cent performance of our fighting
forces, the result has been indie
Icisive. The high moral purpose
which so animated and inspired
1.-THE world year ago yielded to the
Itimidity and fear of our leaders as
after defeating our original enemy
a new one entered the field which
they dared not fight to decision.
,IAppeaSement thereafter beanie the
policy of war on the battlefield.
In the actual fighting with this
new enemy we did not lose but
neither did we win.
Enormous Sacrifice Useless.
Yet, it can be accepted as a
basic principle proven and re-
proven since the beginning of time
that great nation which enters
upon war and fails to see it
through to victory must accept the
full moral consequences of defeat.
Now that the fighting has tempo
rarily abated the outstanding i'm
Ipression which energies from the
scene is the utter uselessness of the
enormous sacrifice in life and limb
which has resulted.
A million soldiers on both sides
and unquestionably at least like
number of civilians are manned Or
dead. A nation has been Quilted
and We stand today just where
we stood before it all started. The
threat of aggression upon the
weak by those callously inclined
among the strong has not dimin-
'Iished. Indeed, nothing has been
settled. No issue has been de-
Icided.
This experience again empha-
sizes the utter futility of modern
warts complete failure as an
arbuter of international dissen-
sions. It's threat must be abol-
ished if the world is to go on
and if it does not go on it will go
under. We must finally come to
realize that war is outmoded as
an instrument of political policy
that it provides no solution for
international problems; that it but
threatens the participants with
mutual national suicide.
We must understand that in
final analysis the mounting cost OF
preparation for war is in many
ways as materially destructive as
war itself. We must find the
means to avoid this great sapping
Iof human energy and resource
This requires leadership of the
highest order-a spiritual and
moral leadership "a leadership
which our country alone is capable
Iof providing.
Peace Ultimate Goal.
While we must be prepared to
meet the trial Of war if war comes,
we should gear our foreign and
domestic policies toward the ulti-
mate goal-the abolition of war
from the face of the earth. This
is what practically all mankind
all the great masses which popu-
late the World-long and pray for.
Therein lies the road, the only
road. to universal peace and pros
perity.
We must lead the world down
that road however long and tor
tuous and illusory it may now ap-
pear. Such is the role as I see
it for which this great Nation
of ours is now cast. In this We
follow the cross. If we meet the
challenge we cannot fail. But no
end may be achieved without first
making a start-no success with
out a trial.
On this problem Of greatest
universal concern unless we ad-
dress ourselves to the funda-
mentals we shall get no farther
than the preceding generations
which have tried and failed.
Convention after convention has
been entered into designed to
humanize war and bring it under
the control of rules dictated by
the highest human ideals.
Yet each war becomes increas-
ingly savage as the means for
mass killings are further devel-
oped. You cannot control war;
you can only abolish it. Those
who shrug this off as idealistic
are the real enemies of peace
the real war mongers. Those who
lack the enterprise. vision and
courage to try new approach
when none others have succeeded
fail completely the most simple
test of leadership.
AS have travelled through the
country since my return, / find a
great Transformation in American
thought to be taking place. Our
apathy is disappearing. American
public opinion is beginning to
exert its immense power. The
American people are expressing
themselves with dynamic force on
foreign policy. This is exerting
a profound influence upon the
Soviet course of action.
/ Few events in the life of our
republic have been of more sig
nif1cance nor more heartening
than this lallying of the collective