Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-03-07
ChoIIenqe for Peace

President Eisenhower, in his latest
letter to Premier Bulganin, has reverted
to the subject of disarmament. And In
effect, in so doing, he has politely declined
to enter upon any further discussion-at
least for the time being-of the Kremlin's
insistent appeal for a Soviet-Amerlcan
treaty of friendship and cooperation.
This appeal was first made by Mar
shall Bulganin in letter that Ambassador
Zaroubin, with considerable propagan-
distic fanfare, personally delivered to the
White House several weeks ago. Where
upon, in friendly but firm reply dated
January %, the President-urging the
Kremlin to match it's fair words with
comparably fair deeds on such issues as
Germany and diSarmament-made clear
that the United States took dim view
of the treaty proposal. 1t did so, he wrote,
largely because mere paper accord be-
tween it and Russia might actually work
against the cause of peace by creating
the illusion that stroke of the pen has
achieved result which, in fact, can be
obtained only by change OF spirit
meaning particularly basic Soviet
international cooperation for the build
ing of better and safer world.
However, despite the Presidents de
facto rejection of the idea, Marshal Bull
ganin promptly reSponded-on February
with another letter devoted mainly to
renewing the appeal for Soviet
American treaty. And now, in his reply
to this reply, Mr.. Eisenhower-again in
friendly but firm tones-has all but
ignored the proposal. He has done so
by merely noting its restatement and by
asserting that his attitude toward 1t
remains generally" as negative as set
forth in his January % mesSage-though
he will continue to study the matter and
"may'' write to the Russian leader about
it on some later date. But at the same
time, while thus ruling out an immediate
discussion of a friendship pact, the
President has exhorted the Premier to
cooperate in arms-control steps that
would be far more meaningful than any
such pact, and far more effective in terms
of promoting trustworthy world peace.
The first of these steps, as the Presi-
dent has stated in his letter, would call
for Soviet-American adoption OF his
"open skies" proposal to reduce the danger
of surprise attack proposal whose syS-
TEN of reciprocal aerial surveillance and
ground inspection would cover not only
Russia and the United States, but also
forces and facilities which we both have
outside our borders" And the second
step, which would be taken after the first
became effective, would establish suit
able and safeguarded arrangements" to
put kind of freeze on the output OF
nuclear weapons and pave the way for
time when call production of fashionable
materials anywhere in the world will be
devoted exclusively to peaceful purposes"
Finally, given real agreement and action
along such lines, the basic groundwork
would be laid for arms limitation and
control effective enough to make every
nation feel secure.
In writing all this to Premier Bull
ganin, the President has not minimized
the many great difficulties involved. But
he has emphasized that those difficulties
can and must be surmounted II the world
is to be safe in the atomic-hydrogen age.
His letter is at once plea and challenge
to Russia'S leaders on that score. Ger
tainly, if they respond favorably-which
they will have a chance to do at the
coming London disarmament talks-man-
kind will have reason to hope for some
thing much better than relatively empty
Soviet-American friendship accord.