Evening star., 1951-04-19
Senator Vondenberg

Senator Vondenberg
It can be said without exaggeration that
Senator Arthur Hendrick Vandenberg was one
of the most important and most constructive
figures in the modern history not merely of his
own country but of the world at large No man
played a more significant role in alerting and
reinforcing the citadels OF freedom against the
towering menace Of Red totalitarianism. The
tyrants of our time have reason to remember
him with bitterness and hate. But the rest Of
us must remember him with an abiding sense Of
gratitude gratitude that must be felt by all
who cherish the meaning Of liberty, justice,
truth and simple ordinary decency in an epoch
when every such value, where not wiped out
already, is menaced as never before. His death
comes at an hour when our own structure Of
unity that he helped to build is gravely threat
ened by internal dissension. If he could leave
one admonition with us 1t would be not to forget
that we are in greater danger Of destroying our
selves than of being destroyed from abroad.
There was long period in Mr.. vandenberg's
81 years OF life when he felt that the United
States was pretty much an island unto itself.
unaffected by the bells that tolled for other
lands as the winds of doctrine and the waves
of-subverson and conflict lashed angrily at their
shores. In that stage of his career, he vas the
young editor Of Grand Rapids, Michigan, who
took up crusading cudgels against the League
of Nations. Later, after becoming Senator in
1928, he left no room for doubt that he was In
the forefront of American isolationists, man
who voted-aS recently as decade ago-against
reciprocal trade, against the repeal Of our un-
neutral neutrality legislation against the extern
sion of the draft and against measure as vital
as lease-lend. At that time, as he then said, he
simply could not believe the novel theory that
our safety and our peace and happiness require
of us that we shall make our White House the
war capital of half the world or more"
But Mr.. Vandenberg, as the struggle with the
Rome-Berlin- Tokyo Axis bathed mankind deeper
and deeper in blood, tears and terror passed
through profound intellectual conversion. The
oceans had narrowed to mere moats; airpower
had begun to annihilate space and time; geo.
graphical distances had ceased to be barriers
protecting America; new weapons particularly
the atom-had awesomely demonstrated beyond
the slightest doubt that this Nation could no
longer try to live alone of by itself in self
sufficient corner, without endangering its own
survival. And so the Senator from Michigan-a
patriot of the highest order-abandoned isola-
tionism completely. He did so because, in his
heart and mind, he had come to see, with
exceptionally acute perception, that 1t could
lead to catastrophe for his country, whose in
then on more aware than most Westerners of
the grave threats implicit in Soviet policy, he
played genuinely great and dedicated role in
arousing the United States and the rest of the
free world to unite against the common peril
Thus, wholly apart from what he did to
bring the United Nations into being, Mr.. Vanden-
berg-as chairman of the Senate Foreign Rela-
tions Committee in the Republican controlled
Both Congress, and later as ranking member Of
that committee-exercised key leadership in
effecting basic and far-reaching change in the
traditional peacetime foreign policy of the
United States. More than any other American,
he was responsible for the bipartisanship that
carried this Nation far beyond the limits of the
Monroe Doctrine to such history-making enter
prises as aid to Greece and Turkey, the Marshall
Plan for European recovery, and the Atlantic
Pact which had its genesis in resolution bear
ing his name. A measure of his tremendous
influence in this respect is the fact that bparti
sanship began to wane with the beginning Of
his tragic llness-a waning which may In itself
be regarded as high tribute to his powerful
personality, his eloquence, his craftsmanship,
his magnanimity, his good humor and all his
other superb qualities that made his contribution
to these times a thing Of world historical i'm
portance.
Senator vandenbergs story-which has
many facets, which is in the tradition of Horatio
Alger, which involves distinguished service in
domestic as well as foreign affairs, and which
made large numbers of his compatriots anxious
to elect him Presdent-cannot be summed up
in few paragraphs Within the limits Of sum-
mary, however it may truly be said Of him that
he was great American who served his country
exceedingly well--and not only his country but
the entire free world Certainly, in unique
measure thanks are owing to him for the fact
that we and our allies have been awakened to
work together for our common survival and the
preservation of all the decent things Of life. The
hope that exists today-the hope that the West
can prevent the cataclysm of another war, or
triumph in it If it cannot be prevented-is In its
own way humanity's monument to him.