Milford chronicle., 1956-11-23
AMERICAS FOREIGN POLICY

Inere is a SLfOng unQefCOW IN The Nd
ton for a return to the historical, traditional
American foreign policy" writes Dorothy
Thompson in a column concerned with the
late international crises. Miss Thompson
does not think this policy can properly be
called isOlationism-the United States, she
saws has never isolated itself from world
affairs and certainly cannot today. "But,"
she goes on, :" the traditional American
policy has been to make no permanent mill
tary alliances, to adopt no favorite nations,
to be neutral in all conflicts that do not di-
rectly engage American rights and interests
and, where possible, to use that position to
limit and reconcile such conflicts as may
arise between others" This same undertoW,
in her vicw, is taking place elsewhere in the
world, and the postwar military alliances are
dissolving.
This is indeed tremendous change. u.
S. policy for years has been based on fixed
alliances, written and unwritten, designed to
bring about collective security for the mem
bers. Under that policy we have felt our
selves pledged to participate actively in al
most every emergency, large or small, whe-
ther or not our own interests were clearly
at stake.
The grave trouble in the Middle East, and
more specifically, the words used by Presi-
dent Eisenhower in declaring that we would
not join England and France and Israel in
military action there, have served to clarity
and highlight what is happening. He said
there have been injustices suffered by all the
nations involved But j do-not. believe that
another instrument of Injustice warts a
remedy for those wrongs"
Specifically, this may seem only a con-
ventional observation, with no great signifi-
cance But the Wall Street Journal sees it in
a very different light, saying, "But the fact
is that for more than a generation it has
been an article of belief in this country that,
even though it may be at times an instru-
ment of injustice, it is also a remedy of in
justice. =. Until Mr. Eisenhower, there were
few signs that the statesmen had lost their
faith in the remedy of war;"
Mr.. Eisenhower also said, in the same
message, There can be no peace without
law And there can be no law if we work to
invoke one code of international conduct for
those who oppose and another for our
friends" Here the Wall Street Journals edi-
torial observes: "This thought is no less rev.
outionary. For what the President is say
ing is that in our dealings with other ma
tiOns we will not simply choose up sides and
then limit our future action to supporting
the team irrespective of the conduct of the
other members of the team. In short, the
United States will on each occasion do what
it thinks is right even if it means going
against old friends. The President has
said that the United States will not enter
wars just to try to patch up the world And
he has announced that henceforth the United
States will choose it's course by its own
lights even if it means walking alone"
This was grave decision to make No
one places higher value on NATO and the
other instruments of western alliance than
does the President and certainly no one has
been more intimately connected with fGrg-
ing and building them. But he places still
higher value on what he views as the inter-
ests of this country at this time.