Evening star., 1953-01-06
The Outlook for Peace


As prelude to his informal talks with
President-elect Eisenhower, British Prime Min
lister Winston Churchill has begun his latest
visit to our shores by telling a shipboard press
conference that the danger of third world
was "has receded during the last year." Though
cautious and qualified, his optimism on that
score seems especially impressive and encourag-
ing because he is genuinely great and discern
ing statesman who has rarely given voice to
mere wishfulness or to hopes created out of
nothing but thin air.
Thus, in declaring that the international
outlook has changed for the better, he has made
clear that his assessment of the situation is
based primarily on the concrete fact OF the
Korean war. The chief meaning of that fact,
as he sees it, is that Soviet aggression has been
reSolutely and fully confronted" and this con-
frontation-"the greatest event of the past five
years'-has in itself "done more to improve the
chances of world peace than anything elSe." 1t
has done so by uniting the free nations as never
before. 1t has done so by squirting the West into
a formidable defensive build-up 1t has done so,
above all, by serving notice on the men Of the
Kremlin that they can pursue their dominance
seeking program only at the risk of finding
themselves directly engaged in titanic armed
conhict-a deterrent prospect potentially ca
pable of forcing them to retreat from their
present course
Looked at in that light, Mr.. Churchills
moderate optimism certainly seems sensible.
So also does his view that it would be pity"
if the Korean fighting were extended in way
that might involve the forces of the United Ma
tions or the United States deep in Red China
far from Western Europe, "the real center OF
gravity" in the great balance -of-power contest
between the Soviet Empire and the free world.
His judgment here may be wide open to debate,
but he himself appears to be firmly convinced
that the current Stalemate-painful and frus-
trating as it isis not nearly so bad as what
could ensue from an all-out military effort to
break it. Actually in his opinion, it does not
mean that there will be no improvement in the
situation" for the deadlock does not rule out
wearing-dow operations against the enemy.
Nor does it rule out the possibility that with
patience and steadfastness-w without expanding
the conflict-we may succeed in the coming
year in further reducing the threat of another
global war.
In a press conference of his own on New
Years eve, President Truman-referring rather
graphically to certain information available to
him-voiced much the same kind of cautious
optimism, declaring that the prospects for in
ternational peace are better now than they
, were year ago. And that may well be so, not
only because the Korean conflict has united the
free nations and prodded the West into rearm-
ing on scale that must sober the Kremlin, but
also because there are indications that the
United States has produced the hydrogen bomb,
or is on the verge of producing it. If that is
true, and if we are well ahead of the Soviets in
this field-as seems likely-then our country
and its allies have gained tremendous advan-
tage in the global balance of power For here
is the most terrible and ghastliest of all weap-
enthusiastically destructive-and if we have
it, and the Russians do not, they would be sui
cidally insane If they unleashed third world
war
Indeed, with the advent of the hydrogen
bomb-which cannot be permanent American
monopoly -all-out war must be regarded as
approaching sheer madness for every nation
without exception. 1t is thing that has reached
the last limits Of human endurance thing
that threatens catastrophe for victors and van
quished alike, thing that could literally wipe
out civilization and come close to annihilating
the human race Certainly, because of the very
horrors implicit in the new weapons of mass
destruction, the danger of another global con-
flict should keep on receding until it vanishes
altogether, and an enduring peace should be not
only possible but inevitable. The outlook in that
sense may really be lot less bleak than it
sometimes seems.