Evening star., 1960-10-28
Sound View on TESTING


room for doubt about where he stands
on the issue of nuclear testing. AS set
forth in his speech to Sigma Delta Chi
at Toledo, the sum of his position is
simply this: That the United States
should resume such experimentation
within a fixed period of time (an 30
day deadline that would be reached next
February y unless the Kremlin mean
while demonstrates that it Is ready to
join in an adequately policed, genuinely
trustworthy ban agreement.
Up to now, throughout two years of
altogether sluggish Anglo American
Soviet negotiating in Geneva, the Rus
slams have steadfaStly fought shy Of
such an agreement. In effect, as Mr..
Nixon has declared, they have been flli-
clustering against western efforts to
work out treaty arrangements that
would provide reasonably effective safe
guards against the danger of violations
and evaSionS. And during all this time,
together with Britain, our country has
refrained from setting of nuclear deto-
nations Of any kind.
Have the Russians done the same?
They say that they have, but we have
only their word for it, and the bleak
fact is that their word has been broken
far too often to merit confidence or
trust. Why kid ourselves to the con-
trary2 Actually, for all we know, they
may have set of-and may still be doing
ground nuclear shots In the past two
years, thus cheating on us in way that
could place us at Supremely perilouS
disadvantage in the arms race. In Mr..
Nixon'S words:
The seriousness Of this great uncertainty
becomes clear when we consider where we
are in point of time as 1t concerns weapons
development For two years we have not
tested our nuclear technology. And the history
of weapons development is such that it re-
quires only between three and four years to
complete a new breakthrough. Two years of
this time has run Where has this left US?
We have no agreement. There is reason to
believe that the Soviets may have used the
time to attempt to overtake US. We cannot
prolong the risk much longer without seri-
ously jeopardizing the very objective toward
which we hoped the Geneva negotiations
would point-peace and human survival.
Accordingly, Mr.. Nixon has declared
as follows: ~ If he is elected on No
vember 8, he will ask President Eisen-
hover, on November g. to send Vice
PreSident-elect Lodge to Geneva to press
the Russians for an acceptable test-ban
agreement. (2) If Mr.. Lodges efforts
prove promising, he (Mr. Nixon) will
stand ready to meet at the summit with
Nikita Khrushchev and British Prime
Minister Macmillan to negotiate the
final details Of such an agreement. (3) If
there is no progress along these lines by
next February !, he will order an i'm
mediate resumption of non military
underground nuclear detonations. And
then, after a. reasonable" time, If the
Russians still reject a properly safe
guarded ban, he will order military
testing.
Although there is much to be said
against Mr.. Nixon'S suggestion that
there ought to be summit conference
on this issue, his general approach to
the problem certainly makes sense. In
deed, as we see it, his setting of an 30
day deadline is fully justified, and far
sounder than Senator Kennedy's appar-
ent readiness to prolong the test-ban
talks for an indefinite period-a period
in which the Russians, by means Of un-
detachable cheating, could overcome our
present nuclear lead and thus gravely
threaten us, -..,.