Evening star., 1955-06-12
Speaking of 'Breokthroughs

Our scientists apparently have
achieved another significant "break-
through" in their efforts to speed up the
development of nuclear-powered air
craft. This IS plainly indicated in the
just-releaSed testimony given last month
to House Appropriations Subcommittee
by Chairman Strauss of the Atomic
Energy Commission. For the Acc, ac-
cording to Mr.. Strauss, has hit upon
new approach" enabling it to make
rapid strides" toward the building of
such plane. And the promise of success
is so great that he has asked that almost
$38 million (nearly double the current
expenditure) be invested in the project
during the coming fiscal year.
So there seems good reason to believe
that the atom-driven bomber-capable
of flying nonstop at fantastic speeds
through virtually limitless reaches of the
sky-may be an operating reality in the
relatively near future, perhaps within the
next five years. But this is only one of
several revolutionary prospects military
and nonmilitary-that are discernible
enough today for the whole Of mankind
to see. And not the least among them
is the intercontinental guided missile
a thing that needs only few more
capable of rendering obsolete all our
present highly advanced concepts Of
modern war. Here is the absolute
weapon" in the making, and when it
comes into being, as it almost certainly
will, marvels like the man-piloted A
plane or the man-piloted super-Super-
sonic interceptor will be more or less
as outdated as the horse and buggy. In
deed, armed conflict itself will then be
the equivalent of an act of total suicidal
madness sufficiently scientific and dev-
astating to bring about the end of the
world.
This is the thought that can be read
between the lines of President EiSen-
hoWerS address the other day to the
latest group of West Point graduates.
AS he has put it, "Now, by the calendar,
exactly 40 years separate my class from
this one of 1855. Yet, by the changes
mine has seen-in the weapons of combat
and the tools of peace, in the balance
of international power, in the thinking
of men-there might as easily be 40 as
four decades separating us. Obviously
a change is inescapable in human society
But change in the leiSurely days of
the past was gradual and evolutionary.
The armies of Napoleon moved across
Western Europe with no more speed than
those of Caesar, his predecessor by 18
centuries. Now, within single genera
ton, a natural process" Of steady ad-
vance and general progress "has become
a cataclysmic rush" And this rush, al
though it does not mean that the tide
of events and "the immense problems
newly arisen" are beyond human control,
very definitely does mean that 1--WE must
think better, we must think faster and
we must think more wisely than ever
before"
What the whole world requires, in
short, are not just "breakthroughS" OF
the sort that enable scientists to produce
things like an A-plane or horrendouS
intercontinental missile. What it re-
quires in addition, and even more ur-
RGIlGly, dIC UlCdhUll1OuS1lo AL ACo OAA
habits of international political thought
and action-those habits of behavior,
those habits of decision making, those
habits of negotiation and accommoda-
ton which were adequate enough in
times past, but which today are hope
leSsly outmoded. 1t is here, in this field
of the heart and mind, that men every
where must most seriously search for
new approach" permitting them to make
rapid strides" toward modus vivendi
that will allow them to live together in
an enduring and reasonably good peace.
Fire From the Left
1t is hardly secret that little love
is lost between the Democratic leaders in
ConpreSS and the Americans for Demo.