Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-04-27
AS Long as We Have to. !.

President Eisenhower has given an
admirably simple and effective answer
to Adlai Stevenson and others who have
proposed that the United States should
ID stop testing hydrogen weapons forth
with and (2) undertake an about effort
to produce long-range guided and inter-
continental balliStic missiles.
In effect, what the Presidents answer
shows is that these two ideas are at war
with each other-enough SO to amount
to a striking example of how even good
and well-intentioned minds can become
quite illogical when they fail to think
things through. Thus, as Mr. Eisenhower
declared at his Wednesday news conferG
ence, lit is little bit of paradox to
urge that we work just as hard as we
know how on the guided missile and that
we stop all research on the hydrogen
bomb" Indeed, unlike some paradoxes,
this is one that makes no sense whatever.
And why? Well, as the President has
said land as made clear also by Soviet
leaders,, the two projects go together in
a virtually inSeparable sense The reason
for this is fairly obvious: Certainly, if the
objective is to produce a missile with a
thermometer warhead, then H-weaponS
must be tested to insure that the warhead
Will be as effective as the missile itself.
In Mr.. EiSenhower'S words, eff you don't
work on one and get the right kind of
explosive to use there, why work on the
other?" Such procedure would be about
as sensible as fashioning piece of artil-
lery without bothering to design and
produce the shells for it.
But this is not the only reason why
the President has rejected the idea of
putting an end to our testing at Eniwetok
in the Pacific. AS he has put it, II think
research without test is perfectly useless,
waste of money" More important still,
having in mind that the Russians are
feveriShly engaged in such experimental
ton, he has emphasized that our country
is going ahead with work on hydrogen
weapons, not to make them bigger owe
are not interested in that any more"), but
to vary them, to tailor them for specific
purposes, to fabricate them for defensive
as well as offensive uses, and to develop
them in other ways vital to the security
of our country and the entire free world.
AS for missiles, the President has
indicated that our present developmental
effort is about as great as it can or should
be and that everything practicable is
being done to meet the threat of Soviet
competition. OF course, he would much
prefer to support education and other
beneticent enterprises with the money
being spent on this work and on atomic
hydrogen weapons. But he must reckon
with the fact that the world, largely
because of the Krenlin's policy, is still
engaged in history'S deadliest ornaments
race. In the last analysis, that is the
basic reason why we cannot safely stop
what we are doing and "as long as we
have to do it, let's do it right as best we
know how"
All of which adds up to lecture full
of common sense and simple sanity. We
may hope that the day yet will come
when the world will enjoy peace good
and trustworthy enough to obviate the
need for such things as H-bomb tests.
But meanwhile, the competition being
what it is, the tests must go on, and men
like Mr.. Stevenson, if they give further
thought to the matter, can hardly fail
to agree.