Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-05-13
Dangerous Noysoyinq

Senate should not promptly and over
whelmingly vote for ratification of the
plan for the International Atomic En-
ergy Agency. The gentlemen who are
opposing it, or who would render it inef-
fective with Gripping amendments, may
feel that they are doing the right thing.
But the objections they have raised re-
f1ect little more than a naySaying spirit
that feeds and fattens on insubstantial
fears and suspicious. To put it mildly.
this is sterile spirit dangerously ill
suited to our fast-moving revolutionary
age-an age in which our country, wheth-
er 1t likes 1t or not, cannot Shrug of
the massive burdens of affirmative world
leadership.
And what, actually, are the objec-
tons? Well, the dissenting Senators have
gwen voice to several Of them, but par
ticularly to two. The first of these is that
the statutes. ratification would mark the
beginning OF an American "giveaway" of
precious fashionable material. And the
second is that it might somehow enable
the Communist empire to acquire an ad-
vantage over us in the field of nuclear
weapons. On both counts, however, the
naySayers are seeing things under the
bed which are not really there. Certainly,
as just re-emphasized by Secretary Dulles
testimony and by special State Depart
ment paper, the IAEAs operations will in
no sense involve a free distribution of
nuclear fuel or an exchange of military
secrets. Instead, subject to strict rules
and regulations, the agency will confine
itself excluSively-on thoroughly real
iStic, supervised baSis-to peaceful atomic
projects aimed at developing industrial
power, encouraging agricultural progress
and promoting advances in human health.
These detectives, self-evidently, are
all good. Like the IAEA itself, they are
part and parcel Of the atoms for peace
program with which President Eisen-
hover, in December Of 1858, electrified
and inspired the world Indeed, the
projected international atomic agency
which has been Endorsed by some 80 ma
tons and which certain of our Senators
would now kill or amend to death-may
rightly be regarded as a creature con-
ceived and brought into being by the
United States. This was no easy task.
especially in terms of persuading the
kremlln, which for long time turned
thumbs down on the whole idea, to CO.
operate. Happily, however, the Russians,
who have already ratified the statute,
were prevailed upon to act affirmatively.
And so now, if our Senate does the same,
mankind can look forward to two bright
things among others: % Cooperation
OF sort that is absolutely indispensable
to the safe development of nonmilitary
nuclear progress and (2) the establish
ment Of system of inspection and Joint
effort that can do much to lay the ground
work for effective disarmament and a
trustworthy global peace.
These are considerations that make
opposition to the IAEA seem unrealistic
and narrow viSioned in the extreme Re-
CARELESS Of what some of its members
may say, regardless Of the bogeymen they
may try to conjure up out of the thin air,
regardless of how they may appeal to
people Of little faith and faint hearts
(people who wish that our tremendously
complicated and perilous world would
just go away and not bother them), the
Senate Of the United States should rise
to this occasion and reSoundingly approve
ratification of the agency'S statute, which
is our countryS own brainchild To do
otherwise would be to strike grievous
blow at American prestige throughout the
world In that respect, surely, the nay
saying gentlemen are playing with fire
in way that does violence to common
sense.