Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1961-01-22
Mr.. Kennedy on Arms

Shchev'S repeated intimations of strong
desire to negotiate with him for i'm
proved Soviet-American relations, Pres
ident Kennedy has made eloquently
clear in his inaugural address that our
country is ready and anxious to begin
anew the quest for peace" with "those
nations who would make themselves
our adversary" In effect, without COM
hitting himself in the slightest to the
idea Of a near-future summit meeting,
he thus has challenged the Kremlin to
join us with genuine ,earnestness and
sincerity In striving for decent and
trustworthy world order lest "the dark
powers Of destruction unleashed by SCI
ence engulf all humanity in planned or
accidental self-destruction."
In making this appeal to reason,
Mr.. Kennedy has emphasized that the
United States must remain militarily
strong enough to deter aggression as
long as disarmament continues to be q
will-o-the- wiSp. At the same time, how
ever, he has warned that neither we
nor the Communists can take comfort
from the present state Of affairs, with
both sides overburdened by the costs of
modern weapons, both rightly alarmed
by the steady spread of the deadly
atom, yet both racing to alter that un-
certain balance Of terror that stays the
hand of mankind's final war" Hence
there Is an urgent need to make q new
start in searching for peace-a start
involving serious and precise proposals
for the inspection and control Of arms"
and laying the groundwork for cooper
alton in all sorts of great enterprises
aimed at lettering the life Of peoples
everywhere.
Mr.. Kennedy, Of course, has said
nothing essentially novel in saying these
things. After all, the quest for peace
with the Communists has been going on
for the past IS years-ever since the
end Of the Second World War-and
Presidents Truman and Eisenhower
have voiced in the past pretty much the
same sentiments as those Of the new
President. More than that, there still
are left over from their administration
more than few serious and precise
oposals"-including elaborate atomic
controls, the open skies" plan and ade-
quately policed Step-by-step general dis
armament-that are as valid today as
when first presented. But they have
become begged down in negotiations
that have passed from one frustrating
deadlock to another because Of simple
and altogether discouraging fact
namely, persistent Soviet resistance to
the creation Of an international policing
c,1ffioionf11, ~ ~ oxA
to safeguard effectively against VIOLA
tions and evasions.
This is the basic factor that accounts
for the failure since 1945 to make any
real Roadway toward a reliable system
Of arms limitation and control. It &C
counts also for the continuing lack of
agreement, after more than two years
Of negotiation, on putting a permanent
end to nuclear tests-a situation in
which the Kremlin may we'll be staging
secret underground detonations while
we stage none whatever. Indeed, here
Is a possibility so real and so potentially
menacing to our national security that
President Kennedy has reason to give 1t
high-priority consideration to deter
mine how much longer we can safely
suspend such testing without adequate
inspectional guarantees against the
grave possibility Of Soviet cheating.
Nevertheless, despite all the great
discouragements involved in the dis
armament effort up to now, Mr.. Kennedy
has done well to inform the world, in
Guiding particularly the Kremlin, that
the United States Is prepared to try
again for agreement in this all-impor-
tant and enormously complex field. And
Premier Khrushchev, in congratulating
him on his Inauguration, has once more
raised the often-dashed hope that the
Kremlin may really want "a radical i'm
provement" in relations with our coun-
try and that 1t may actually be "ready
to support any good initiatives In this
direction and do everything in its power
for lasting peace" If these words
mean what they say (skepticism, Of
course, is in order), then maybe the
President will be able to promote prog
ress, at long last, toward real arms
control.