Evening star., 1961-06-07
Somber Report

President Kennedy was staying
safely on the side Of underStatement
when he reported to the American peo-
pie that mo spectacular progress" was
made in his Vienna discussions with Mr..
Khrushchev. 1t may be doubted, in
fact, that there was any progress.
Nevertheless, it was good, we think,
that Mr.. Kennedy had this face-to-face
discussion with the Soviet leader. Dur
ing the recent political campaign he
decried summit" meetings and indi-
Gated that he would eSchew them if
elected. In these times, however, a
President cannot function best in iso-
lation. The benefits of personal con-
formations may be Intangible, but we
think they exist nonetheleSS. At least
two men, in this way, get to know and
understand each other little better.
And If such meeting results in no
spectacular progress, one may hope that
this one will serve to check further
deterioration in Soviet-American rela-
tionS.
The President painted no rosy pic
lures in this respect. Only in the matter
of Laos was he cautiously hopeful, and
even here the latest news from the
fighting front is bad. AS Mr.. Kennedy
spoke of the Importance of an effective
cease-f1re, the Communist forces were
intensifying their attack on the Laotian
government troops.
Mr.. Kennedy all but threw in the
sponge on the bogged-down nuclear
test talks. Mr.. Khrushchev, he said,
insisted that a Soviet veto would have
to apply to all acts of enforcement, and
further contended that inspection was
merely subterfuge for espionage. OF
course, there is nothing new in this.
But it is compelling argument, we
think, for terminating the talks and
reSuming our own testing program. In
view of Mr.. KhruShchevs attitude, we
ought not to accept any longer the
grave risks of doing nothing while the
Communists may be secretly conduct
ing their own tests. The most "Somber"
discussions between the two concerned
Berlin and West Germany. Apparently,
Mr.. Khrushchev would not bulge from
his publicly stated position, and Mr..
Kennedy renewed his warning that we
are determined to maintain our rights
there "at any risk"
In the face of this stalemate, what
is the rational course for us? Mr.. Ken
nedy stressed, and rightly so, the i'm
portance of our foreign assistance pro-
grams. But this will hardly be enough
in the stern years that lie ahead. 1t
may be true that Mr.. Khrushchev
believes the world will move his way
without resort to force" But this is no
assurance that force will not be used.
A greater effort, it seems to us, should
be made to strengthen our military
arms. If foreign aid cannot be safely
cut back, the same does not apply to
all of the billions which the President
wants to spend on domestic programs
designed to provide a more abundant
life for the American people. In COM
menting on the report, Mr. Nixon said
he hoped the President, having had his
Somber discussions with Mr.. Khru-
Shchev now would put emphasis on
national defense instead of domestic
spending. We agree. If the outlook is
as grim as the Presidents report sug-
geSts, he should be calling for greater
national security. And If something has
to "give" in order to achieve this, that
something should be the vote-catching
programs which tend to lull all of us
into false sense of security. They can
wait.