Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1960-02-19
To Make 1t Safer

Secretary of State Herter, In his
address to the National Press Club, has
effectively outlined the basic conSidera-
tons guiding our country'S approach to
the forthcoming Geneva negotiations of
the donation Disarmament Commission.
The approach involves no magic for
mulaS, no glittering or Sensationally
new proposals, but it nevertheless holds
out the promiSe-if the Kremlin is will
ing to co-operate-of bridling the arms
race and making the world a safer place
to live in.
Certainly it is not a safe place now.
On the contrary, as Mr.. Herter has
warned, the longer the arms race con-
tinueS, the greater grow such dangers as
these: U) War by miscalculation-a war
that could come all of a sudden in the
missile age, during moment of high ten
sion OF crisis, if one side misinterpreted
the moves of the other and launched a
surprise attack in the fearful, mistaken
belief that it had to do so to avoid being
attacked itself. And (2) with more and
more nations producing nuclear weap-
onS, any country, however irreSpon-
Sible, might eventually be able to obtain
those weapons and trigger off global
catastrophe by using them lin haste or
blind folly"
So our representatives at the Geneva
disarmament talks, which are scheduled
to begin March IS, will strive for prog
reSS toward two major goals. The first
OF these, according to Mr.. Herter, is the
altogether urgent one of establishing
more stable military environment
In the world by bringing into genuinely
effective action unprecedented policing
systems, These SystemS-including ae-
rial and mobile ground inspection
would be designed to guard against sur
prise attack and to supervise ban on
nuclear tests, and eventually ban also
on the production of fashionable mate
rails for weapons. AS for the second
goal, our country will seek at Geneva to
lay the groundwork for a Step-by-Step
advance toward sweeping general dis
armament under revolutionary new
order of global law backed by interna-
tional armed force too strong to be chal-
lenged by any single nation or coalition.
OF course, neither of these goals is
going to be attained in a hurry, but if
the Russians are prepared to negotiate
seriously, they will find us ready to do
the same. However, in Mr.. Herter's
words, the task cannot be accomplished,
against the present background of a
wide spectrum of complex weapons,
merely by repeating or indorsing hollow
slogans such as ban the bomb give up
foreign bases or cut armed forces by
one-third'." Instead, eff real progress on
arms control is to be made, the great
weapons systems that have been built
up during the long years of the arms
race must be carefully and reciprocally
reduced"
Moreover, the Secretary has made
clear that our country will not disarm
solely on the basis of Soviet promises.
AS he has put it, our deeds in that
respect will only be done in step with
veri1able deeds of Others" and we will
refuse to agree to anything that fails
to meet that test, which is vital to the
free worlds security. This is in keeping
with the fundamental law of self -preser-
walton. If the Kremlin will do business
accordingly, the Geneva talks may well
produce good results for everybody on
both sides of the Iron Curtain.