Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-06-11
Maybe foE 40 Yeors-or More

President Eisenhower has made clear at his
latest news conference that he has no plan at
the moment to ask Congress to grant him
standby authority to order American armed
intervention in Indo-C China. He has made clear,
too, that he considers his military budget for
the coming fiscal year to be sufficient for the
Nations security needs. However, by way of
qualification, he has painted out that the inter-
national situation is a highly uncertain and
changing one and that his present views on
, these and similar matters are subject to revi-
sion, depending on the course of events.
AS for the general world outlook, the Presi-
dent, speaking somberly, has frankly declared
that the United States, together with its allies,
is in a truly serious situation. This is so pri-
marily because the men of the Kremlin and
their co-conSpiratorS- Through black deceit and
brute force-have achieved a great degree Of
unifcation within their vast EuraSian empire.
And that uniication, in turn, even though the
product of oppression and terror, gives them
the advantage of being able to pick and choose
at will as they reach out toward new detectives
one victim at time-in an unceasing effort
to win mastery of the globe through the instru
mentS Of Subversion and aggression.
How is such menace to be met? To begin
WITH as the President has said, the free world
must be militarily strong everywhere-as strong
as it can be, with particular emphasis on organ
izing and maintaining major forces of highly
mobile reserves centrally located and ready to
move when vital interests are threatened in
any place. But that is not all that is needed.
Equally important, we and our allies and other
independent peoples, looking this danger in it's
broad face must build up economic and spirit
ual resources, pull together politically, and
develop unity OF purpose and action to hold
faSt-unwaveringly, resolutely- the Red
totalitarianS To put it mildly, there is de-
ficiency of such unity now, depressingly so in
the case of Indo- China, and that is one reason
why it would 'be useless and costly, in the Pres
ident's words, for our country to intervene there
alone at the present juncture.
This is a matter-this imperative matter of
snoring up and buIwarking the free worlds
common front-that calls for great inter-
allied cooperative effort. And the United
States, as the President has said, cannot escape
the responsibilities responsibility thrust upon
1t by its position in the balance of power, by its
own security needs and by the memorable facts
of history-of continuing to take the lead in
that effort Stated simply, what the effort re-
quires is an extraordinary degree of political
economic and military collaboration to con-
front the Communists with defensive strength,
both armed and unarmed, too formidable to be
challenged
The President has not minimized the mag
nitude or duration of the problem involved here.
1t is problem every bit as big as the Red men,
ace, and that menace, in his judgment, may be
with us for the next 40 years, or perhaps even
longer Hence, as he has said, our country
in concert with its allies must so devise its pro-
gram Of defense that we and our children and
our children's children will be able to stand the
strain and continue to enjoy freedom under our
representative form of government The task is
hard, but we cannot run away from it if we are
to preserve our way of life against the implac-
able forces of Communist aggression.