Evening star., 1951-02-11
Mr.. Hoover Misses the Mark

mr.. hoover MISSES the marx
In his latest foreign policy talk, Herbert
Hoover retreats bit from the position he took
last December 90 In the earlier address he
said he would not send another man or another
dollar to Europe until the Europeans had created
enough combat divisions to "erect sure dam
against the Red food" Mr.. Hoover did not re-
peat that condition Friday night. Instead he
seemed willing to have this country proceed with
the extension of aid in the form of arms. But
he remains opposed to the idea OF sending any
more American troops, in substantial numbers
at least to Europe.
One of Mr.. Hoover's troubles is that he tends
to fight make believe battles Thus, in his talk
Friday night he said: There is stark reality
upon which our foreign policies must be based.
With any seeable land forces from nom -Commu-
mist nations even including the United States,
land offensive against the Communists could
bring no military victory. no political conclusion"
That may be true. But it is not stark reality"
If Mr. Hoover is talking about our policy of aiding
in the revival of Western Europe's military
strength That program has as It's dual aim
the creation of enough strength In the West
TO discourage Russian attack, and, failing that,
enough strength to keep the Russians from over
running all OF Europe. The program does not
even remotely contemplate land offensive
against the Communists, and no responsible ad-
vocate of the program has ever made any such
suggestion. So Mr.. Hoover, on this score, is
talking not about stark reality, but about
an imaginary and unrealistc proposition.
The same thing is true when he says that
Communist armies can no more get to Wash
ington than any Allied armies can get to Moscow,
and that no responsible military man denies
these two conclusions. The answer to this, Of
course is that no responsible military man, nor
any other responsible person for that matter,
has ever suggested that the force we hope to
create in Western Europe is capable of getting
to Moscow. No such thought is in any ones
mind. The whole purpose is to prevent the
Russians from invading Western Europe not to
invade Moscow and when Mr.. Hoover suggests
the contrary he is simply setting up straw man
and then knocking him down.
Beyond this, there is tone of despair and
defeatism about Mr.. Hoover's speech which
should not go unchallenged He wants to
concentrate on the air and sea arms of our
defense. "The unbearable strain on our economic
system" he said, will come from trying to do
five things at the same time. That is, to main
tain armies in the Pacific: to build up an air
force; naval force; to furnish munitions to
nations who are determined to defend them
selves, and to send land armies to Europe. Our
economy cannot carry this load for long"
But Mr.. Hoover has said things like this,
or very much like this. before.
In his speech Friday night he pointed out
that the Kremlin has under arms and in reserve
probably 800 divisions. with 80 900 tanks and
10000 airplanes. And he recalled that in World
War II, when Russia had no satellites, the
Germans failed to overcome her with 240 we'll
equipped divisions. Eut at comparable juno
ture in history-on November 49, 1941, just about
three weeks before Pearl Harbor-he made
another talk Then he was opposing American
Intervention in the war against Hitler. He
doubted that we could break the military stale
mate" in Europe, and he pointed out that I'VE
can now observe that Russia could not overcome
the German army, even with her 10000, 900 men,
10000 tanks, 10000 planes, fighting on her own
soil behind her own Notifications with her trans
portation wholly overland and on inside lines"
It was an argument with an impressive and
authoritative ring. But that German army
was chewed up and destroyed
Mr.. Hoover, in that same address, did not
believe we could send an army to Europe and
defeat the Germans. He thought our freedoms
would be lost erd our economy ruined We
would need 5000 600 to 1000 0e0 American boys
in addition to the British he said. It would
take more than five years to build the necessary
shipping. And mo military expert believes We
could land such an army in Europe even if We
got it overseas" In Mr. Hoover's Judgment 1t
couldn't be done. But we did it.
These old errors are not dredged up to en-
barrass the former President. All of us have
made mistakes. The point is that on the record,
Mr.. Hoover's crystal ball is filled with cracks
and cloudy spots. He tends to think and counsel
IN terms of what we cannot do. We need to
adopt different approach. First we must
understand clearly what 1t is that we intend
to do Our intention is not to attack Moscow
with land armies, but to assist in defending
Europe as an essential part of our own defense.
And second, we should make up our minds that,
to this end we are going to do what we can
do; that we are not ro:r" to let The fears and
80 doubts and the hes: stations cause us to lose
the battle by default.
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