Evening star., 1959-11-18
The Test of Our Time

ANYBODY inclined TO DenCtle or de-
plore efforts to thaw out the cold war
would be we'll advised to read very care
fully Secretary of State Herter'S excel
lent New York address to the National
Foreign Trade Council. For the address,
at times somber and at times eloquent,
explains with special force and clarity
just why those efforts are imperative.
To begin with, there is the reality
of two enormously powerful systems
the free worlds and the Communist
world'S-competing against each other
in an atmosphere of basic suspicion and
deep antagoniSm. Accordingly, the fate
full test of our time, which is time
held in kind of thralldom by unimag-
inably deadly instruments of mass de-
Struction, has to do with how this great
rivalry can work itself out without ex-
ploding into thermonuclear war.
Actually, in Mr.. Herter'S words,
"Such an explosion has been uncom-
fortably close more than once in recent
years, most lately over Berlin" This is
what has filled the President with deter
mination "to turn the course of history
away from war and toward a lasting
peace" 1t is what accounts for his invi-
tation leading to Premier Khrushchev'S
visit to our country. And it is what &C
counts, too, for all the high-level meet
Ings, including what promises to be
series of EaSt-WeSt summit get-togeth-
erS, that are in the offlng. AS to that,
here is further trenchant excerpt from
Mr.. Herter'S address:
The real meaning of the series Of
high-level meetings is that new process
of communication may be developing
through them. I say may" because only
time can tell. &. Mr.. Khrushchev has
said that we need to develop a common
language, despite the theological conflict
to which he staunchly adheres. Many will
find this hard to believe after the years
of battling double-talk. Yet believe that
on certain fundamentals we can find
common language because we have
common interest. That interest lies
simply in the basic will to survive, shared
by free men and Communists alike I
think the Soviet leadership is reaching a
conclusion similar to our own-that un-
less the course of events is changed, and
changed soon. both sides face unaccept-
able risks of general nuclear war. which
would approximate mutual suicide.
Mr. Herter is neither wishful nor
naive. Like the President, he is only too
well aware of the fact that the challenge
confronting our country and the free
world at large is without precedent in
its hardneSs-politically economically
and militarily. That is why he has
warned that "it will take courage of a
high order and strong nerves over a
long time" if we are to meet the test
succeSSfully-courage, strong nerves and
a willingness to use our economy '1esS
for the things which do not really mat
ter, and more for the things which do"
Looked at in that light, especially
as it bears upon "the conditions of
co-Survival" in a supremely dangerous
world, the policy of seeking an end to
the cold war is a policy vital to our
existence as Nation. 1t is policy that
may fail, of course, but to scoff at it
now, to condemn it as "appeasement,"
to insist that no effort should be made
to check the worlds drift toward nuclear
catastrophe, is to offer nothing but the
counsel of despair and prescription for
global annihilation.