Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1951-11-06
Peace Is Possible

Reports indicate that President Truman's
address tomorrow night-to be followed in Paris
by Secretary Acheson's address to the General
Assembly of the United Nations-may include
specific and possibly "sensationaT proposals to
the Kremlin for great new effort to eliminate
the grave tensions now threatening the world
with another terrible war.
Through Foreign Minister Vishinsky, who is
in Paris along with Mr.. Acheson the Kremlin is
expected to reply in due course with proposals
of it's own What seems to be shaping up, there
fore, is situation in which the Donation Gen.
eral Assembly will ring with debate over rival
peace plans from the West and East with the
United States taking the lead on one side and
the Soviet Union on the other.
However, until the precise details OF these
plans are revealed and subjected to close in
spection, there will be no way OF knowing whether
the debate over them will degenerate into mere
propaganda warfare or whether 1t will succeed
in promoting an area OF agreement big enough
to make possible substantial easing of present
tensions At the moment as far as international
affairs are concerned, about the only thing any
body can be sure of is that the tensions are
dangerous, that they are capable of causing
global explosion, and that it is accordingly i'm
perative for the great powers to spare no effort
to find common ground for the negotiation OF a
live-and-let-live understanding-an understand
ing that could lead eventually to firm and
enduring peace settlement
OF course, as matters stand today, 1t Is only
too easy to be discouraged and take a defeatist
or even despairing view of the possibility of
averting another world war. The chief reason
for this is that the Soviet Union, alone among
the great powers, has been persiStently and de-
liberately violating all the basic essentials OF
peace. As listed in resolution adopted two years
ago by So members of the General Assembly, the
essentials include the following: Cd That every
nation refrain from using or threatening to use
force in violation of the U. N. Charter; CD that
1t honor the territorial and political independence
of its neighbors; 60 that it live up to its inter-
national agreements; "a that 1t eliminate fear
breeding barriers-the Iron Curtain-to the free
exchange of information among peoples; 50 that
it abide by the principles of liberty of speech.
assembly, religion and other human rights; and
CO. that it cooperate sincerely in program
effectively controlling the atom and regulating
armed forces in general.
Considered in relation to these essentials,
the Kremlins performance to date-wholly apart
from it's role in the Korean aggression and its
viruent hate-inciting propaganda against our
own and like-minded Enthusiastically offers
no ground for optimism over the outlook for
peace. Yet even though the gulf between our
world and theirs is very wide and deep, there is
at least some reason to hope that the Russians
may be anxious to narrow 1t or keep 1t from
growing any wider or deeper or beyond the pos
sibility of bridging After all, they are not so
strong or self-suf1cient that they can laugh of
the fact that the overwhelming majority of the
u N. has ranged itself against them morally and
otherwise. Nor can they welcome such things as
the Atlantic Pact and our vast American re-
armament.
Actually, in addition to being heavily out
weighed in a moral sense, in addition also to
being troubled internally with social and eco
nomic stresses and strains, the Soviet Empire
has been losing ground in the international bal
ance Of military power. Indeed, the West, by
arning for defense, has been Fighting that bal
ance in such way that the men of the Kremlin
must surely be sobered by it-so much so that
conceivably they may be ready now to begin
pulling in their horns.
If this assessment of the situation is not
overhopeful, then there is fair chance that
world tensions will be eased in the months i'm
mediatey ahead. At any rate given continued
growth of Western strength and a continued
Western readiness to keep on striving for reason
able agreements with the Russians, 1t should be
possible to stop the current drift toward war and
start making progress, step by step, toward
good peace.