Evening star., 1951-02-25

Wnen ne was equally sure America
would not intervene. When we
did so again, we won at still great
er anguish and bloodshed.
Our Government in substance
announced 1t would not defend
Korea. Again a vacuum was cre-
ated and again the aggressor
moved in and again we have in
tervened with great anguish and
bloodshed. =.
am pleading for this course
because it is the only course on
earth that will save us from
] World War III and the total de-
struction of our civilization. /.
Most opinion In this country
and abroad realizes that Stain
is not maintaining the largest air
force in the world, the largest
army in the world and 800 SUBJ
Imarines-by far the largest un-
dersea armada in the world
purely for pleasure purposes. No
dictator denies his people the very
essentials of life to maintain such
incredible armed forces unless he
expects to use them In all-out
warfare at the moment of his own
choosing.
Of course the Kremlin is now
waging various limited or little
wars. 1t is waging aggressive war
through satellites in Korea, Tibet.
Indo-China and Malaga. It is
Waging a war of nerves against
Formosa, Yugoslavia and the coun-
tries of the Middle East, against
Western Germany and. of course,
all Western Europe. =.
Fortress America Discussed.
If this resolution should be
adopted. 1t would be taken in
every capital in the world. both
free and slave. as a signal that
the United States has hauled
down its flag.
I should like to discuss this
Fortress America idea with you
briefly. It. of course, lies at the
heart Of this resolution. 1t stems
fundamentally from a terrible
WEAKNESS of our people with wars
and threats of wars. With this
WEAKNESS I have the deepest IF
sympathy and understanding. It
also springs from a completely
natural feeling that our sons
should not be sent into far-away
places all over the globe to risk
death by disease or bullets when
they could stay home and grow
up as normal healthy American
boys. =.
Here is the central thesis which
must be dealt with. It is the
idea that Fortress America could
survive alone. I am sure the
members of this committee agree
with me that it could not. ).
The Congress has in effect twice
solemn1y rejected that idea III Just
the past u years. It might even
be said that the Congress has
twice, in another form, overwhelm-
Iingly rejected the concept of the
very resolution before you. I say
this because the Congress has twice
enacted a Strategic and Critical
Materials Stockpile Act, the first
time on June z, 1889 and the sec
ond time on June %. 1946. The
solemn recital of each act in
cludes this reference: "The natural
resources of the United States Of
certain strategic and critical ma
terials being deficient or insult
ficiently developed to supply the
industrial, military and naval
needs of the country for conf
mon defense -. hold in
my hand a list of II critical ma
terials.
| It is interesting to note that all.
of these sources of vital supplies
are presently controlled either by
European nations or by independ-
ent nations who might not well
come becoming the battle-ground
between the United States and
Soviet Russia. Let me summarize
this another way, just in part:
The Belgian Congo provides
us with uranium, cobalt. chromite,
and industrial diamonds.
Southern Rhodesia and Turkey
provide chromite.
| The Union of South Africa pro-
vides industrial diamonds ard
manganese.
| Dutch Guiana produces bauxlte.
Nigeria provides columbite and
French Equatorial Africa indus
trial diamonds.
From India we get manganese
and quartz crystals.
From Brazil we get manganese,
industrial diamonds and quartz
crystals.
From the African Gold Coast we
get manganese and industrial dia-
monds.
Concept Called Illusion.
No, Fortress America is an llu-
sion. ! wish it were real because
we could then solve so many
problems so easily. But it is not.
1t is simple fact that our in
dustry would grind to halt and
we would be absolutely defenseless
in this world without the supplies
of critical materials which come
to us from half way around the
world, in India, from the southern
most tip of Africa, from the Near
East and from South America. +.
Now let me move to somewhat
higher ground. I think 1t is plain
that whether we act from strictly
patriotic motives or whether from
strictly selfish motives, the secur-
ity of the free world is absolutely
essential to us.
How best shall we 60 about it?
It seems to me that instead of
adopting this resolution, which,
however thin you slice 1t, implies
our withdrawal from the world,
we should do the opposite. We
should, within the reasonable
limits of our capacity, whole