Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1951-07-08
Koesong and Peace

Inc hopes OF people everywhere LII tIlc WOIlu
are hinged today on the preliminary talks at Kae-
song. The great bulk of humanity in all coun-
tries-not excepting Russia and Red China-has
no stomach for the agony of armed conflict.
Regardless of their geographical location or the
forms of government that control them, men
and their families want peace. They loathe
fighting and dying. They do not wish to see
their cities and their homes destroyed. The one
thing they look for in life is a chance to live 1t
out in decency, to be reasonably happy in 1t.
to improve their lot as much as possible, and
to avoid-if 1t can be avoided-the humiliation
of their dreams, their aspirations and their own
flesh and blood in the abominable slaughter
that war has become in this super scientific age
of the atom and kindred weapons of mass de-
struction.
That is why mankind looks now toward
Kaesong with bated breath. For the talks which
are beginning there may well determine whether
or not another global war can be prevented Will
the United Nations and the Communist agrees
sors be able to reach armistice and cease fire?
Will the agreement, once it is signed be faithfully
adhered to? Will it lead to political settlement
that will make possible the eventual unifcation
of Korea a genuinely independent land? Will
it be the forerunner of general and enduring
paciication of the Far East as whole? Will it
pave the way for tep-by-step progress slowly but
surely from year to year, toward live and-let-
live understanding between the free world and
the world behind the Iron Curtain? In short
will it come to be known in history as bright
and decisive turning point in the age-old effort
to establish lasting peace through a truly ef-
fective system of collective security?
No man today can give sure answers to these
and similar questions Yet there Is this much
that can be said with certainty: II the Kaesong
talks end in failure, or If they result in truce
that is later violated by the Communists, the
peace outlook will be DINNER than ever. For
then, with the resumption of about hostilities
in Korea, the United States and its allies in the
United Nations will have every reason and justi-
fication to give serious thought to the idea of
Immediately adopting General MacArthur's pro-
posals for massive counteraction against Man
churia and the coastal areas Of Red China. And
if events demand that those proposals be put into
effect-as may prove to be the case-then the
expanded wardn Asia will automatically increase
the possibility, if not the probability of direct
Soviet intervention and everything that that can
mean in terms of setting off an unprecedent-
eddy devastating global explosion.
Further even if we assume the best, even if
we assume that the Kaesong meeting will result
in a cease-f1re agreement on which a sound
Korean political settlement can be built, we
shall still have to- maintain the greatest measure
of armed vigilance against the threat of Red
aggression elsewhere. This we shall have to do
(not to do it would be to invite the destruction
of the free world until the men of the Kremlin
and their satellites come forward with concrete
evidence of a basic change in policy-a change
offering proof positive of sincere desire to CO.
operate in organizing good international So
cety. Certainly, we cannot trust them, we can
not do normal business with them, we cannot
be at ease in their presence or dream restful
dreams in the night-unmndfu of what terrors
their furtive and vile tyranny behind the Iron
Curtain and Systematically sabotage such vital
enterprises as the effort to control the atom.
Peace, after all, is not something we can take
for granted just because the masses of humanity
want it. The universal yearning for 1t, the hop
ing and praying for it, may help, in a way, to
restrain those who would tear its present delicate
fabric into tatters and plunge the whole world
into the abyss of atomic war. But that is a
doubtful restraint at best. What we must reckon
with, what we can ignore only at the risk of
exposing ourselves to catastrophe, is the fact
that we are living in time when handful of
ambitious and conspiring men (who does not
know their nameS?) have it within their power
regardless of the wishes and feelings of peoples
everywhere, to bring our generation face to
face with the gates of hell The only thing that
can deter them is armed might on our side. No
matter what may happen at Kaesong, let us
never for a moment forget that.
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