Evening star., 1953-12-11
The Hopeful White House

It will be good for the world il events bear
out what the White House has had to say in its
special statement on the discouragink nature
OF Initial Soviet reactions to President Eisen-
hower's proposal for peace promoting inter-
national atomic pool.
The first and the worst, of these reactions
has been the viciously untruthful comment
broadcast by Moscow Radio This has been
accompanied by Andrei Vishinsky's cold-water
remarks at the closing meeting of the recessed
eighth session of the United Nations General
Assembly. Although expressing himself in tenn
perate language for change the chief Soviet
delegate to the U. N. has strongly limited that
the men of the Kremlin will fight against the
Presidents idea as long as the United States
and the free world as a whole reject their
demand for an immediate and unconditional
ban on atomic and hydrogen weapons-a ban
that would go into force prior to the establish
ment of an effective system Of international
policing and control.
But the President and his chief aides,
according to the White House announcement,
have not been disheartened by this negativism.
They do not believe that it necessarily" repre-
sents the considered decision of the Soviet
government" They feel that such hurried,
overnight reaction by Russia's officials and
propaganda media cannot be accepted as any
thing more than stop-gap interim statements"
Hence although others may take pessimistic
view of the situation, they are "still very hope
full" that the Kremlin twill recognize the Presi-
dents proposal for what it iS-a serious and
feasible first step toward atomic peace" In
other words, it is their opinion that the Malen-
kov regime, after it gives the matter thoughtful
study, may we'll decide on an Affirmative official
response offering to cooperate in the project
However, even though this cautious White
House optimism may be vindicated by future
developments, the fact remains-as indicated
by both Vishinsky and Moscow Radio-that the
Malenkov regime seems ready officially and
formally, to take the position that the Eisen-
hover proposal must be rejected unless every
body agrees to outlaw A-weapons and H-bombs
right away without any guarantees whatever.
This is an old Soviet demand, of course and its
objective is obvious-namely, to have the United
States accept kind of unilateral disarmament
under which, in exchange for paper promise
from the Russians, we would toss away our
present atomic superiority and thus give them,
with their huge land armies, an enormous
advantage in the international balance of mil
itary power.
Actually, as far as sovereignty and security
are concerned, the Soviet Union would be sur
rendering nothing and taking no real risks II
it agreed to the Presidents proposal. The only
thing it would have to do would be to contrib
ute collaboration and relatively small amount
of fashionable material to a potentially great
international undertaking designed to generate
good will, create new climate of cooperation,
promote the economic progress of mankind,
and improve the outlook for eventual disarma-
ment and the effective control and prohibition
of all weapons of mass destruction.
On the face Of things, therefore, the men
of the Kremlin can hardly oppose this project
without giving the impression that they are
against devoting even an ounce Of their tssion-
able material to world betternent, but are
intent instead upon outstanding all OF 1t for
the production of weapons Accordingly since
they must not relish the idea of being viewed
in such light, the White House may not be
too optimistic in hoping for their cooperation.
AS to that, the next few days or weeks should
tell the story.