Evening star., 1952-12-23
The Kremiin's Christmas Gift

As its Christmas gift to the world, the Krenn-
lin-acting through Andrei Gromyko-has moved
to fill the meeting place of the United Nations
General Assembly with some of the vilest and
most hate-inciting lies that have yet been heard
there.
The move, forcing the Assembly into bitter
aI-night session as preface to the season of
peace on earth, good will to men," has taken
the form of a resolution calling upon the United
Nations to condemn the United States for Gin
human brutalites" perpetrated against Korean
and Chinese prisoners of war on the island of
Pongam" last December IA. The resolution has
sought also to brand American military authori-
ties with the charge of having been engaged in
"the systematic determination" of POWs ever
since the wars outbreak in June of 1850.
For his own part, in presenting this noisome
piece of propaganda, Soviet Delegate Gromyko
has surpassed even his best past performance
in the field of virulence and mendacity. Although
a master at that sort of thing, he has outdone
himself in turning the truth upside down and
ranting against America. The General Assembly,
which will be in recess now until February "a,
has acted accordingly Shocked by the extraor-
dinary violence and viciousness of the Russian
attack, but recognizing reality for what it is
recognizing the brazen enormity of this Red
totalitarian lie-it has overwhelmingly rejected
the Kremlins proposed resolution. 1t has done
so by vote of As to S, the only "ayes" being
those of the Stain dictatorship and its satellite
stooges.
The men of the Kremlin undoubtedly have
not been surprised by this outcome. Yet, even
though they must have been certain in advance
that the Assembly would act as it has, they
nevertheless have had Gromyko create as much
commotion as possible with the malevolent
project. Why? One speculation Is that they
have resorted to the resolution as part of series
of maneuvers designed to break up the u N. by
making themselves too insufferable to be ac-
cepted much longer as members. Another view
is that they have used the thing merely as coun-
terpropaganda to Offset bad global reaction
to their rejection of Indias proposal for Korean
truce. And third possible explanation-an
ominous one-is this: That they have embarked
on an all-out hate-America program to condi-
ton the Russian masses and the satellite peoples
for some new Soviet aggression that could con-
ceivaby lead to third world war.
One or another of such explanations-or
perhaps combination of all of them-may ac-
count for Gromyko's shocking pre-ChriStmas
show. But whatever the motivation behind it,
and even despite the U. N. reaction, there can
be no doubt that it has further poisoned the
effort to promote international peace and good
will. United States Delegate Ernest Gross has
voiced an understatement in describing it as
"sickening" and shabby" 1t is much worse
than that. It adds up to act of immense
evil by the Red totalitarians-a type we'll summed
up in the following words by Saltykov-S -Shchedrin,
a Russian writer of the last century:
There is a breed Of men who differ from
the rest by having worn their conscience to
shreds. Whereupon, in place of a conscience,
they have developed two tongues, both of them
lying-sometimes in turns. and sometimes, even
more shamelessly, at once"