Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-12-21
Terror Is q Teacher


AS if educated by their own expert
ments with atomic-hydrogen weapons,
the men of the Kremlin now seem to be
fairly we'll convinced that an about war
with such weapons could be at least as
catastrophe or as annihilating for the
Soviet Empire as for the free world The
latest evidence of their enlightenment on
that score can be found in the joint state
ment issued in New Delhi last week at the
conclusion of the Bulganin- Khrushchev
tour of India.
Thus, at one point in the statement,
the two Russian leaders have placed
themselves on record as agreeing with
Prime Minister Nehru that the July sum-
nit" conference of the Big Four lied to
recognition :. of the futility of war
which, owing to the development of nu-
clear and thermonuclear weapons, could
only bring disaster to mankind" And at
several other points, voicing essentially
the same thought in different language,
they have espoused the idea that armed
conflict should be totally ruled out" as
an uncomfortable thing that can profit
nobody-a thing capable Of raining Gin
conceivable" devastation on the whole OF
humanity, on both sides Of the Iron
Curtain.
This has not always been the Soviet
song. Under Stain, who apparently
never comprehended the awesome and
revolutionary nature of the terrifying
new instruments of mass destruction.
MoScow's propagandists tended to pooh
pooh the significance of A and H weapons.
True, in March Of 1854, while still serving
as the first Premier of post-Stalin Russia,
Georgi Malenkov publicly declared that
an atomic hydrogen war could readily
destroy world civilization" including
Russia. But month later, modifying
himself, he suggested that 1t would ruin
merely the Western powers. And later
still-in February of this year, just after
his resignation from the premiership
original view was further corrected" In
an acid speech by Foreign Minister Molo-
tov, who dashed out at the idea that the
USSR and the Communist empire might
not survive such war Actually, accord
ing to what Mr. Molotov said at that time,
only the rotten" capitalist system would
be wiped out in a nuclear conflict, and
the Soviet Union and all it stands for
would emerge triumphant.
But today, perhaps because of what
they have learned from their recent
hydrogen-bomb tests, the men of the
Kremlin appear to have swung back to
the judgment expressed by Mr.. Malenkov
in March Of last year. At any rate, If 1t
may be taken at face value, the declara-
ton made jointly with Mr. Nehru by
Premier Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev
looks very much like reputation Of Mr..
Molotov's wishful and unrealistic thesis.
Indeed, the declaration seems to be the
most unequivocal yet voiced by the Soviet
leaders on this, subject, and 1t suggests
that they are at last pretty much in
agreement with the Western view that a
nuclear and thermometer war would
be an all-engulhng catastrophe.
If this is so, If the Kremlin has really
come around to such view, then there
is good reason to hope that there will
never be an atomic hydrogen war. For
II the Soviet leaders are genuinely per-
suaded that armed conflict with and H
weapons is not rational instrument of
they are as sane as the leaders of the
West, and as convinced that an Armaged-
don of this kind would be as disastrous
for Russians as for anybody else, the
world should have better than-even
chance-through patient negotiation-of
achieving decent and lasting peace.
In short, the terror inherent in mod
ern arms may well deter the great powers
from the ultimate terror of resorting to
those arms. And in that case. as Winston
Churchill has said, "the day may dawn
when fair play, love of ones fellow men.
respect for justice and freedom, will en-
able tormented generations to march
forth serene and triumphant from the
hideous epoch in which we have to dwell"
Certainly humanity cannot hope for less
than this, or strive for less, without en-
dangering its very survival.