Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-07-20
The Time Is Not Yet

CneSe dayS-nOt tomorrow or the day
after, but in due courSe-the United
States will find it both feasible and safe
to stop testing nuclear and thermonu-
clear weapons. But that time is not yet,
and nobody ought to be hoodwinked into
thinking otherwise by Soviet Foreign Min
lister Shepilov's proposal to the contrary.
In the first place, despite some naive
and befuddled reactions to it even in our
own country, the proposal is nothing but
refurbished version of one of the Krem-
Inns dusty old pieces of propaganda.
Actually, If we were suddenly to accept it,
RuSSia'S collective leaders" probably
would be not merely surprised, but dis
mayed. After ali, they have vested in
tereSt in continuing to carry on tests OF
their own. They have vested interest in
it because they are making an about
effort to catch up with the United States,
and surpaSS it If possible, in the develop
ment and production of atomic weapons
and the hydrogen bomb.
Given these circumstances, and given
also the fact that the Kremlin has per-
SiStently blocked all Western efforts to
establish a trustworthy, effectively policed
system Of arms control, why should the
United States, together with Britain, re-
spond afflrmatively at this stage to Mr..
Shepilov'S call for an Anglo American
Russian agreement to end the tests?
Despite some bland assurances to the con-
trary, there is still doubt that such an
agreement could be monitored efficiently
enough to insure against undetectable
experimental explosions. And what would
happen if we went along with the idea
and then found, after diSmantling our
testing organization, that the Russians
were cheating? It probably would take
us year or more to bring such an elab-
crate organization back into being. Mean
while, we could easily lose the lead we
enjoy now.
In connection with all this, Mr.. Shop
ilov has argued that his no-teSting pro-
poSal can and ought to be considered
apart from the general disarmament
problem. But our own and other Western
experts have cogently observed that the
two things are inseparable and that the
United States and countries like Britain
cannot safely abandon experimentation
as long as the Kremlin rejects real arms
control. AS for the tests themselves, as
far as our own country is concerned,
nothing could be more inaccurate or ire
SponSible than to suggest that they are
designed merely to develop bigger and
bigger bombs and get more bang for the
buck" The truth is, of course, that this
years detonations have been substantially
smaller than the big one of 1854 and that
they have involved, primarily, the de-
velopment of variety of vitality needed
weapons, including not least of all ones
designed for defense against air attack.
Let us not be anything but realistic
about this buSiness-regardleSS of the
preSumable effectiveness of the Kremlin'S
propaganda. AS President Eisenhower
declared at news conference in April,
the United States is not interested any
longer in making bigger or more deStruc-
tive bombs; but it is interested, and must
continue to be, in research and explosive
tests of a Sort-including those having to
do with guided and ballistic missiles
meant to keep us as strong as possible,
defenSively as well as extensively, in an
age when the Russians, not less than our
selves, are making atom-derived weapons
an integral part of their armed forces
We are living in world, time, that
is uniquely hard and revolutionary in
many ways. AS far as ornaments go, we
have got to move forward, and the test
ing helps us to do that. And it helps, too,
to reShape our armed forces as they must
be reShaped in the atomic age. Nothing
could be more foolish or simple minded
than to equate this with some alleged
-pinching budgetary dream of the
Eisenhower administration. It has be-
come one Of the fixed realities of nuclear
life, and all future American govern
mentS will have to reckon with it just
as 1t is being reckoned with now.