Evening star., 1952-10-29
Help for a Country
Like Israel Important


Mrs. LaGuardia: General, we
know what serious situations we
face in Europe and in Asia. What
about the Near East? Isn't il
important for us to be helping a
country like Israel?
A. I cannot tell you how i'm
Iportant it is. I became especially
interested in Israel shortly after
the close of the war. Ben Gurion
came from Israel to visit me in
Europe, and with me he visited
many Of the camps where the
remainder of the Jewish popula-
ton that had not been eliminated
by the Nazis were still living under
terrible conditions. We set about
rescuing them. bringing them back
to some degree, you might say, of
human decency. They were down.
trodden until it was almost brutal
to try to describe 1t.
Shortly after that, as we know,
Israel was recognized as a sepa-
rate nation. Ever since then, ]
have been much interested in
Israeli because of the very great
chance We have of establishing in
that area a spot that will be rep
.resentative of Western civilization
Now, II it is going to be that, it
must necessarily make a living
We want to develop for it markets
to make it economically strong so
it can be a fine, proud nation in
that region.
I have had some correspondence
with DR.. Silver about this uues-
ton, and I think my ideas are
probably best summarized in a
final paragraph of a letter wrote
him a couple of weeks ago on
something of that sort. I will
read it if you don't mind.
THE state of Israel has given
every indication of being q
progressive democracy which is
desirous Of cooperating with the
free world in the defense Of human
freedom against totalitarian az.
gression. 1t is in the interest OF
the United States and of all peace
loving nations that political ano
economic aid to establish their
own security should be extended to
Israel and to all countries in the
Middle East which are similarly
lntentioned, to an extent consist
ent with the sound, overall mutual
aid program"
DR.. Silver has expressed to me
his extreme satisfaction with that
statement of view.
I Nagel: Thank you, general. Mrs
Robert Patterson, I believe you
have a question now?
Mrs. Patterson: Yes, those o1
us who are supporting you believe
you can end the Korean wal
quicker than your opponent. Now
that will be wonderful. But there
are people who worry about thu
military production being reduced
They want to know if there will
be trouble in getting jobs then
Can you answer that?
A. Well. of course, that question
assumes that this great country
cannot be prosperous unless W.
are either having war or pre-.
pairing for war. \ To my mind
that is a completely false assump.
ton and we should not entertain
it for minute.
Let us take just this one factor
in this problem. We are now
putting many billions of dollar:
into things that are negative ir
purpose-defense security, guns
ships, planes, regiments. They
have no purpose except to defenc
what we have.
NOW. no matter in what way We
spend that money, through what
sourceS-private sources or mu.
nicipal or State-if we begin te
buy with that same money hospi.
tails. roads, schools, all of the
things We need at home, better
housing for all those hundreds Of
thousands who are living in sub.
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