Evening star., 1961-08-11
Time to Resume

The President has left little room
for doubt at his latest news conference
that our Government may soon decide
as many experts have been ardently
urging it to do for the past couple of
years-to resume nuclear testing under
the ground, and possibly in outer space
as well.
This prospect has been made more
imminent by the fact that a special
panel OF distinguished scientists has
recently completed a new study Of the
subject, and its report to MIR. Kennedy
apparently has confirmed prior expert
studies Of the same thing. At any rate,
while declaring that the document can
not be released because it involves
highly classified materials" as to de-
tecting capabilities and questions re-,
lating to the development of weapons,
the President has plainly indicated that
it has convinced him. That is to say, it
has convinced him that our country
can no longer afford to take the perilouS
gamble of adhering to the unpoliced
test ban, or moratorium, that has been
in effect for almost three years pasta
moratorium which In actuality the
Soviet Union may have been clandes-
timely violating, and repeatedly, during
all that time.
Thus, as Mr.. Kennedy has told his
news conference, "this report has made
me feel more urgently than ever that
without an inspection system Of the
kind proposed by the United States and
the United Kingdom at Geneva, no
country in the world can ever be sure
that a nation with closed society
meaning particularly the Soviet Unionl
is not conducting secret nuclear tests"
Accordingly, with . our hopes and
prayers" Ambassador Dean is to return
to Geneva on August "a in an effort
to determine whether or not the Krem-
lin is willing, at long last, to accept an
adequately policed test-ban agreement
an agreement in which 1t will abandon
its recent insistence on a "troika"
administration "a three-horse team of
WeSterner, "neutraliSt" and Communist)
that would amount to an automatic
Red veto on any inspectional system,
and hence reduce the proposed treaty
to an abSurdity.
The President has expressed the
hope, perhaps with a certain amount
OF audible skepticiSm, that Mr.. Dean,
on his return to Geneva, will find the
Russians in an affirmative, cooperative
frame of mind. But the record Of
nearly three years Of fruitless palaver-
ing over there-during which they may
have been cheating on us with numerous
secret and possibly decisive underground
testS-SuggeStS otherwise. In any event,
Mr.. Kennedy has made a point Of
emphasizing that the resumed talks
will be most important, most critical
and probably decisive meeting
though not necessarily "our last try
in terms Of attempting to work out
genuinely trustworthy ban on nuclear
tests as prelude to wider arms-control
efforts. ~
Unhappily, the latest Soviet note
on the issue would seem to leave the
President without any reason to be
hopeful. However, as he has put 1t, this
is something that will be quickly
ascertained by Mr.. Dean, and If the
Russian reaction remains negative, "the
appropriate decisions" will follow. Pre-
Sumably this means that American
nuclear tests will be resumed promptly
thereafter. Actually, from the stand
point of our national safety and survival,
there is ample reason to believe that
they should have been resumed long ago.
Indeed, with little bit of hindsight,
it is only too easy to see why our country
in October, 1858, should never have
proclaimed it's voluntary suspension of
underground atomic-hydrogen expert
mentation. Certainly, If the Russians
have been cheating on us in the mean
time (and why should we trust them,
in view of their record2), we may even
now be in deeper trouble than we know.
c.TJs II nsGeIs