Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-05-13
A Thinq to Be Doubted

western officials, including President
Eisenhower, have been properly cautious
and noncommittal in their initial COM
mentS on the Kremlin'S latest peace plan.
For the plan-which falls into two Sepa-
rate parts, one having to do with broad
issues and the other with rather specific
disarmament proposals - is much too
wordy and complicated, and too full of
Ifs" butts" and "maybeS," to lend itself
to immediate pro or con judgments on a
sound basis. The only thing clear about it,
in short, is that it is quite unclear in many
important respects and that it therefore
calls for good deal of further study-not
to mention large measure of skepticiSm.
This skepticism is entirely warranted
for a number of reasons To begin with,
leaving aside the demonstrated phonineSs
of past Soviet proposals along the same
line, quick reading of the text of the new
plan suggests that the first part is designed
primarily to shatter the defensive unity of
the West. To that end, it would have the
United Nations General Assembly do the
following things, among others: az Brand
as war propaganda" any criticism of sub
versive or aggressive Communist policies
(2) vote for the liquidation of all anti-Red
trade embargoes; 90 pave the way for
Peiping'S early admission into U. N. men,
bership; az press for the dismantling of
American military bases overseas; and
(5) advocate the immediate" withdrawal
from Germany of practically all the Big
Four troops now stationed there.
To put it mildly, these last two points
are dubious in the extreme. For what they
seem to imply is that the Russians want
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to
emaSculate itself and to agree to a pro-
gram that would "neutralize" the Germans
and prepare their country for ultimate
Communist engulfment. And by the same
token, as for the Soviet plans second
part-which has to do with disarmament
the free world must be equally skeptical.
True, this part seems In certain particulars
to approach the substance of several West
ern proposals for the reduction and control
of arms and armed forces of every kind,
including especially weapons of mass de-
struction. But it also sets forth numerous
qualifications and limitations on policing
procedures, and these qualifications and
limitations - though some of them are
based on reasonable arguments - are
sweeping enough to raise the suspicion
that the Kremlin is not really serious
about the matter.
1t is worth noting, moreover, that the
text of the new Soviet plan-as If written
more in sorrow than in anger-frequently
refers to the lamentable lack of trust
among nations. But the text, understand
ably enough, is silent on the basic reason
for that lack-namely, the fact that inter-
national communism has already sub
verified and enslaved nearly a dozen once
independent lands and that it still seems
grimly intent upon subjugating the whole
world.
If this we're not the overshadowing
reality of our time, disarmament and
peace would be relatively easy to achieve,
but the Red totalitarians have made that
impossible up to now. Perhaps they are of
different and better mind today, and
perhaps they will prove it at the projected
Big Four meeting "at the summit" Mean
while, however, free men and free nations
everywhere have reason to play the role
OF heavily armed and strongly united
douhtinp Thomases