Evening star., 1955-08-23
Geneva Achievement

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There is good reason why President
Eisenhower, speaking through Chairman
Strauss of the Atomic Energy Commis-
sion, has urged that another international
atoms-fo peace conference be held IN
the next two or three years. For the one
that has Just ended in Geneva-the first
meeting of its kind in history-has en-
gendered spirit of genuine enthusiasm
and genuine hope, and this is thing that
needs to be maintained and nurtured with
similar gatherings in the future. Other
wise there may be dimming OF the
bright new vistas that have now been
spread before the eyes of the world.
Fittingly enough, since the President
is responsible for having inspired the
United Nations to stage the Geneva
atomic conference, our own country has
led all others in the contribution 1t has
made there. The contribution has in
volved, among other things, the revela-
tion of vast amount Of information
heretofore classified as secret by the Acc.
And as result, even If evaluated merely
from a narrow propagandistic viewpoint,
the event undoubtedly has added up to
a triumph for American policy-a tri-
umph that has won for the United States
a new understanding abroad, new ap-
probation, of its efforts to promote a
decent and enduring peace.
Nothing could be more incorrect.
however, than to suppose that propa-
ganda victory has been our countryS
objective at the Geneva meeting. Actu-
ally, as Mr.. Eisenhower has made clear,
the United States has taken the lead in
this matter solely and simply to lay the
groundwork for worldwide cooperation
designed to pool the brains and energies
Of peoples and governments everywhere
in an unprecedented common effort to
harness the atom as mans servant There
could be no nobler aim. Nuclear and
thermonuclear power, at least theoreti-
cally, is capable of wiping out the human
race But it is also capable of bestowing
unparalleled blessings on the whole OF
mankind in such fields as health, agri-
culture and industry, and this is the
aspect of its good-and-evil nature that
the President has striven so diligently to
exploit
Happily, moreover, all the great
powers have demonstrated at Geneva
that they are prepared to act afirma-
lively on the Presidents program. Each
one OF them, among the 70 nations par
q ticipating in the conference, has offered
reassuring evidence of that. Particularly
encouraging is the fact that the Soviet
Union has shown not only that 1t is well
advanced In the nonmilitary nuclear field,
but also that it is willing to reveal many
of its own former secrets" It has indi-
Gated, too, even If with qualifications,
that it is at least interested in joining the
rest of the world in undertaking to trans
late the Eisenhower dream into an
operating reality.
Hundreds and hundreds of technical
papers have been read at Geneva, and
hundreds and hundreds more have been
placed, unread, in the record Of the pro-
ceedings. And what all OF them amount
to, including those submitted by the
Russians, is a wonderfully rich promise
which slowly but surely can be fulfilled
If ways and means are found to avert the
danger Of an atomic-hydrogen war. To
that end there can be no doubt that the
now-concluded atoms-for- peace confer
ence has made an excellent beginning and
that it should be followed-as the Presi-
dent has suggested-by periodic meetings
Of the same sort, every few years or so.