Evening star., 1953-04-05
Siren-Sonq Dangers

Odysseus when he heard the sirens sing,
escaped their lethal allure by stufing wax IN
his sailors ears and having himself tightly
bound to the mast of his famous, long
wandering vessel. His example is not without
point today, and the free nations-although
they need not emulate it down to the last
detail-could do worse than keep it well in
mind as they listen to the relatively sweet and
enticing music that has suddenly begun to watt
through the world from the inner reaches Of
the Kremlin. ...
This music, of course may have an element
of genuine sincerity in it. The new rulers Of
post-stalin Russia may really want to bring
about truce in Korea. They may really want
to promote general easing Of tensions on all
continents. They may really want to do any
number Of conciliatory things designed to
lessen the intensity of the, cold war and lead
to some kind of live-and-let-live understanding
capable of maintaining peaceful co-existence"
between their world and ours for considerable
time to come. Accordingly, assuming that they
are thus animated by measure of good faith,
their gestures toward anity cali for properly
receptive response from, our own and allied
nations
With that said, however, there is also need
to emphasize that the present international,
situation requires something very much like the
caution of Odysseus. For the siren song being
sung at present by the men of the Kremlin
may well have as its chief objective the dis
integration of the free worlds defenSeS. Ger
tainly, up to now, nothing has happened to
inspire trust in the Malenkov regime. On the
contrary, because of Communist dogma and
the past Soviet record, there is still every
reason to suspect that that regimes con-
ciliatory moves, aside from being aimed at
winning breathing space for consolidation of
power within Russia and throughout the Satel-
lite empire, are calculated to set in motion a
process that could pave the way-slowly but
Surely-for ultimate Red domination of the
globe.
To that end the men of the Kremlin may
now be executing nothing but a temporary
zig-zag in policy in the hope that a Korean
truce and an all-out peace offensive will do the
following things, among others: % Create a
false sense of security In the free world; t2)
tend to drive diviSive wedges between the
United States and its allies; 90 tempt the
American Congress and Western parliaments
to make excessive slasheS in rearrnament
budgets; (4) bring to standstill the effort to
establish the projected European Defense Com
munity and its Six-nation army, including
Germany; (5) cause a major showdown in the
military buid-up of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization; and finally (6) thus soften up
OH LOA-0OV4eL COuII1SS lOE GfSIlkudl COuQuGSL,
one at time, through Red subversion and
aggression.
It is because Of these and similar considera-
tions that Secretary Dulles General Ridgway
and numerous other leaders here and abroad
have solemnly warned that the free world still
Is in as much danger as ever. In Mr.. Dulles
words. the Kremlins peace moves have not
eliminated that danger They have not done
so because the Soviet Union continues to be
q heavily armed totalitarian state whose die
tatorship controls over a third of the earths
people and resources, remains deeply hostile
to countries like ours, and is restrained by no
moral inhibitions against the use of violence:
Hence it is imperative that the United States
and its allies keep on building up their common
political, economic and military defenses
against it.
To say this is not to say that a real peace
with Russia is altogether inconceivable. It Is
merely to say that the Kremlin's olive-hranch
gestures add UP, at the present stage to some
thing that our world must be wary of. They
are welcome gestures it Is true, but they are
not enough in themselves to Justify retreat
from our costly defensive effort. In sum,
although they may lead in due course to great
agreements of type that will insure collective
security for all, they are at best only promising
augurieS right now, and we would therefore be
guilty of the worst kind Of folly If we let down
our guard because Of them. The story of
OdysSeus remains pertinent.