Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-10-07
Beyond Portisunship


but it would be good thing if Adlai
Stevenson would stop making a campaign
issue of our country'S nuclear and thermo-
nuclear tests. Certainly, as the President
has said in his impressive statement on
the subject, it is motor at least ought not
to be-a topic of partisan political debate
that "can lead only to confusion at home
and misunderstanding abroad"
Yet Mr.. Stevenson, together with
some of his supporters (but not ally, seems
intent upon having such a debate. In
any case, since last April, he has periodi-
cally been calling for action to put an end
to the. testing of hydrogen bombs And
although he has modified his proposals
from time to time, they still add up to
the proposition that the United States
should forthwith suspend it's thermo-
nuclear experimentation regardless of
whether or not there are effective guar
antees that the Soviet Union will do the
same thing.
The unwisdom of this has been well
set forth by President Eisenhower. Speak
ing in his capacity as Chief Executive,
charged with responsibility for the secur-
ity of our Nation he has pointed out that
the testing of A and H weapons is as
indispensable as ever to our defense in
a world that still remains dangerous. He
has pointed out also that the development
OF these weapons continues to be major
perhaps decisive-deterrent to agrees
sion by the Communists and their numer-
ical superiority in manpower. At the same
hnUoUnr hn hoc onn3,a 73V.N,, =
the readiness and strong will of the
United States to restrict and control both
the testing and use of all such instru-
mentS as part of general disarmament
program equipped with specific policing
and inspection arrangements adequate
enough to head of violations and eva
Sions.
At presenter course, there are no such
arrangements, and the Kremlin-which
is feverishly striving to equal or surpass
us in the field of nuclear and thermo-
nuclear ornaments - has perSiStently
blocked all American-led Western efforts
to reach agreement on the matter. Ac-
cordingly as the President has said, it is
essential that our country keep on with
its experimentation, not to make bigger
bombs, but to create variety of weapons
and tailor them for specific purposes, just
as they have been tailored in our most
recent tests for the defense of our cities
against air attack. To stop doing this
would be to invite what Mr.. Eisenhower
has called a dangerous "curtailment of
our power to defend ourselves, our allies,
and the free world"-a curtailment which
he will not allow as long as he remains
Chief Executive and there is no properly
supervised international disarmament
Mr.. Stevenson, by way of contrast,
has argued that we can safely do what he
proposes because any big defamation by
the Russians would Immediately become
known and we could then resume our own
experimentation. AS the President has
emphasized, however, this view takes no
account of the fact that many months of
research and preparation precede each
test series. Hence if we disbanded our test
ing organization lit would require year
or more to be brought back into being)
and then discovered that the Kremlin
had been cheating "our present COM
manding lead in the field of nuclear weap-
onS could be reduced or even overtaken"
in way that could be dangerous in the
extreme.
Given these circumstances, given par
ticularly the fact that the Soviet Union
has yet to accept the idea of adequately
policed disarmament, Mr.. Stevenson GER
tainly stands on weak ground when he
advocates that our tests be stopped. He
would be well advised to remove the sub
ject from his campaign arsenal. But
whether he does or not, the chances are
that most Americans share the Presidents
view that it is subject much too por-
tentous, and too vital to our national
security to be kicked around as if it were
just another political football.