Evening star., 1961-03-18
With Fingers Crossed

II4C E1IllCLIGoll PCOplC IAdNG SOOO
reason to feel confident in the team of
negotiatorS that has gone to Geneva to
resume efforts to arrive at an agreement
with Britain and the Soviet Union on
banning nuclear tests. The head of the
team is Arthur H. Dean, law partner
of the late Secretary of State Dulles.
He has dealt with the Communists be-
fOre-notably in the Korean truce
talks at Panmunjom-and he can be
counted upon to carry out his new
assignment with great knowledge
ability, and in manner calculated to
advance the cause of peace without in
any way weakening or gambling with
the security of the United States.
1t need hardly be added, of course,
that this is an exceedingly important
assignment. In effect, Mr.. Dean will
have the responsibility Of striving
beginning next TueSday-to persuade
the Russians (the British already concur
with uS) to commit themselves to what
President Kennedy has described as "a
safeguarded agreement on sound and
equitable basis" The Presidents con-
trolling views on the matter have been
expressed in these words: THE United
States delegation will return to the
conference table with proposals which
could constitute the basis for a treaty
fair to all contracting parties. 1t is my
hope that the proposals will be accepted
and that the negotiatorS will be able
to proceed with all appropriate speed
toward the conclusion of the first inter
national arms control agreement in the
nuclear age"
Judging from past experience, how
ever, there is precious little ground for
optimism regarding the Kremlin's readi-
ness to join in an adequately policed
ban on nuclear tests. Actually, for
almost two and half years, we have
been trying at Geneva to get the Rus
slams to accept such ban, but they
have perSiStently SHE'D away from It.
Meanwhile, our country has voluntarily
and unwiSely, we think-debarred
itself from experimental atomic-hydro-
gen detonationS Of any kind, and it has
done so without the slightest assurance
or protection against the very real
possibility that the Soviet Union, during
all the dreary past palavering at Geneva,
may have been cheating on us by stag
ing clandestine underground explosions
Of a sort that could be of decisive
military importance. Our own Atomic
Energy Commission, in the annual re-
port it submitted to Congress last
January, warned against this in way
that merits repetition now:
Nuclear weapons development is not a
static science. Important advances in
weapons design are posSible-advances
which would have great military signifi-
canoe. . Our weapons scientists are
convinced that further nuclear testing
would achieve major advances. E.
The military advantages to be gained
from clandeStine nuclear testing are
great and the probabilities Of detecting
and identifying clandestine tests are very
small. This will be the free worlds Stua-
ton so long as there is an unpoliced de
facto moratorium on nuclear weapons
testing.
The Commission recognizes that
treaty to refrain from nucear weapons
tests under conditions of adequate con-
troll might be a significant step toward
better international relations. 3. 1t
would be quite another matter, however
to continue indefinitely a self-imposed
moratorium on the testing OF nuclear
weapons while the means of detecting
violations does not exist.
Elsewhere in its report, the Acc
presents what is perhaps the finest
existing summation of the altogether
diScouraging history of efforts to get
the Kremlin to accept a trustworthy
test-ban agreement. Mr.. Dean un-
doubtedly has made a point of reading
this summation. AS a result it may be
assumed that he has gone to Geneva
without any wiShful illusions about the
immense difficulties inherent in the
negotiating job confronting him. We
extend to him our wholehearted best
wishes for success, but we have our
fingers crossed in view of the dismal