Evening star., 1953-10-30
The Principle Withers Away


a resolution of condemnation" The dismaying
thing about this is not that the Senator pro-
poses such an inconsequential penalty for the
Communist barbarianS who tortured and MUIR
dered more than 5000 American prisoners
The dismaying thing is that, in all probability
not even such a milk water penalty as
this will be imposed
And yet hard though it is to believe, only
seven years have slipped by since most of us
were hailing the enunciation of what was
called the Nuremberg Principle-the principle
that it is a punishable crime to plan, prepare
Initiate or wage war of aggression And at
the time, that was no empty principle. For
the court which enunciated it, with Russian
Judge participating, sentenced the top-fight
Nazi leaders to death by hanging or to long
prison terms.
Four years later, with Russian assistance,
the Korean war of aggression was planned,
prepared and launched. And now, the terrible
story Of the individual war crimes, in addition
to the general crime of waging aggressive war,
is put before shocked people, There is hardly
a mention, however, of Nuremberg, and the
principle proclaimed there
One of the news dispatches, in what must
be the understatement of the year, says the
prospect of bringing any Korean war criminals
to trial is remote" It is indeed remote.
criminals and 43 cases had been prepared
for trial. But because the Korean armistice
terms made no provision for retaining these
criminals, they were sent home in the prisoner
exchange.
1t is necessary, of course, to face up to the
fact that circumstances alter the best of prin-
ciples. At Nuremberg, we were the vctors and
could do as we wished with our Nazi prisoners.
In Korea there was no victory and the side
which, by deliberate choice elects not to press
for clear-cut military decision is hardly in
position to punish the leaders on the other side
under the Nuremberg or any other principle.
Nor could we Afford apparently, to insist on
holding and trying the individual war criminals
we had captured. For if we had done so, the
Communists quite probably would have retail
ated by torturing and killing more American
prisoners in their hands.
If we cannot punish the war criminals in
Korea however, there some things we
can do.
One thing that we can do is to temper our
judgment-and our condemnation-of Syngman
Rhee. Some of us have been almost as quick
to denounce him as to denounce the Commu-
niStS. Let us remember however, that many
more South Koreans than Americans were tor
tured and killed by the enemy. Let us also
remember that while we are far away, he faces
the prospect of having to live just across an
invisible boundary line from the perpetrators
of these monstrouS outrageS. We cannot permit
Syngman Rhee to dictate our national policy.
But when he says that, if necessary, he will
fight to liberate and unity his country let us
refrain from calling him names. After all, on
our record, we are hardly in position to say
with 1nality and certainty that our view of
this matter is right, and that Mr.. Rhees Is
wrong.
There is another thing that we can do.
Army Secretary Stevens in releasing the atroc-
ity report, said that "it exposes the enemy for
what he is" and that it proves that 1--WE can
not relax our defense efforts while such threats
to free peoples exist" Does the report really
expose the enemy? If So has Mr.. Stevens
stated all that it proves?
One is tempted to dissent on both counts.
For this report has not exposed the enemy for
what he is. It merely confirms what we have
known for long time. AS far back as 1946,
when we joined the Russians to sit in judg-
ment on the Germans, we knew about the
Russians substantially what we know now. At
least we knew that our Kremln-picked associ-
ate on the court did not really share our con-
demnation of crimes against humanity, and
it must have taken vast amount of self
deception for us to believe that he truly joined
in outawing aggressive war;
If one prefers to believe, however, that the
atrocity report actually Is the thing that
exposes the enemy, this circumstance can
hardly be said to prove only that we must not
relax our defense efforts 1t also proves, or at
least it strongly suggests, that we should take
long look at what we are trying to do now
and in the future.
At the moment we are in the preliminary
phases of So-called peace negotiation with
this enemy who tortureS and murders prison.
ers of war. But no informed American official
believes for moment that peace settlement
in any real sense of the term is going to be
obtained. The most that they expect is con-
tinuing state of war; minus actual shooting
And this incidentally, is what we propose to
ram down the throat of Syngman Rice, who is
called harsh names by some of us because he
is reluctant to swallow it,
We are also approaching the time when we
will have to decide whether or not formally to
oppose the admission of Red China to the u. N.
The British and most of our other Western
European friends are committed in favor Of
the Chinese Communists on this question. And
there are many Americans who think that,
after all, this may be the way out. In other
words, admit Communist China to the U. N, lift
the economic pressure against China, hold