Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-02-16

pointed a thousand times, and still
be ready to try again.
But as we must be hopeful. so
we must be cautious. There is a
wide difference between legitimate
negotiation conducted in an effort
to reach an agreement, and a
negotiation conducted for other
reasons. ANY trader, whether in
stocks or bonds, or horses and
mules. can testify to that.
Negotiations can be used for
delay. for deception. for dividing
friends, for diScouraging and dis
heatening populations. We must
separate the wheat from the chaf
in these matters, for there is more
grief than profit in threshing
straw.
Pitfoll Of EogeFness
And one final thought on the
matter Of patience: Once any
negotiation may be entered. we
must recognize that bad agree
ment could be worse than no
agreement, in weakening our
alliances. in compromising our
defensive position. in creating
false confidence or disillusion. It
is too easy. when talk has dragged
on long and fruitleSsly, TO be
overeager to end it with some
agreement. any agreement.
So if the first lesson Of this
agreement is that old fashioned
diplomacy. high-level horse-trad-
ing, If you like, can pay of. the
second lesson is that it will pay
OF only if employed with en-
during patience. This patience in.
cludeS the willingness to wait. the
capacity to continue to hope ana
try again, the caution to avoid
false and dangerous approaches,
and the restraint from agreement
until a meaningful agreement is
to be reached.
This is perhaps a grim picture.
This Nation broke its frontiers,
and built its industrial might. not
SO much through patience as
through Impotence. Buffalo Bill.
Horatio Alger. either one. always
had TO be pushing ahead. But we
were a young land then, and i'm
patience is luxury youth can
indulge. We have occupied this
position We hold in the world for
less than half a generation. It is
a position for which maturity is
the f1rst and most essential trait,
and patience is the sine qua non
OF the sort of maturity we need.
CopobIe Nesotiotors
Recently there has been dram
atlzed before the world the fact
that Soviet scientists and engi-
neers rank with any in the world
IN skill and knowledge. Their Dip
lomats are not less capable. and
we had better not forget it in our
haste to train more engineers.
Yet the fact that we could
come together to bargain at all,
and the fact that the bargaining
dld result in an agreement, indi-
Gates. we hope and trust. that the
Soviet are coming TO recognize
that some bridging Of the gap
between US is both necessary and
possible.
Before close let me touch one
further aspect Of these negotia-
tons for international exchange.
BY the fact Of negotiating itself
we were conducting an exchange
OF sorts. Ambassador Zaroubin
ana colleagues were tough bar.
gamers. formidable negotiators.
and neither side won all II
wanted. But for all the battle OF
wits. no one irretrievably lost his
temper and certainly we learned
a mutual respect.
And for all the restraints neces-
sarily imposed upon us by our posi-
IONS. 1t was unacceptable that we
should come to see each other not
merely as representatives. or az
forces. but as people-human be-
ings,
We served opposing interests. but
we were also serving each accord
ing to his lights. the common cause
OF humapitys search for peace.