Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1962-11-21
Away From the Brink

AS President Kennedy made clear
last evening, the crisis in the Caribbean
has entered new and hopeful phase
as a result Of Premier KhruShchev's
pledge that all of the Soviet twin-jet
bombers now in Cuba will be withdrawn
in the next 80 days. In the Presidents
judgment, this goes long way towards
reducing the danger that faced the
hemisphere a month ago, and he has
accordingly, in an act of reciprocation,
put an end to our Cuban naval blockade.
In promising to withdraw his bomb
ers, Mr.. Khrushchev also has agreed
that they can be observed and counted
by our forces-presumably from the air
and at sea-as they leave. Further, Mr..
Kennedy has been informed that Soviet
ground combat units in Cuba, made up
Of perhaps as many as 10000 troops,
will be sent back home "in due course"
Certainly, coupled with rather firm
evidence that the Russians have already
fulfilled their promise to withdraw some
40-odd nuclear missiles and to diSmantle
the launching sites, all this constitutes
good progress, and 1t reflects most
creditably on Mr.. Kennedy's handling
Of the situation and on the firmness
Of our position in the negotiations with
the Kremlin.
With all that said, however, the
fact still remains, as the President has
emphasized, that the crisis has not yet
been fully resolved. This is so because
two basic conditions of the original
aIyy to-,
have still to be met: ~ On-Site in
spection by the United Nations to verify
whether all offensive weapons have been
removed from Cuba and (2) the estab-
dshment of lasting safeguards" against
the possibility that such weapons may
be clandestinely re-installed on the
island in the future. Consequently, as
the President has put it:
-. If the Western Hemisphere is to
continue to be protected against offensive
weapons, this Government has no choice but
to pursue its own means Of checking on
military activities in Cuba. :. I repeat.
we would like nothing better than adequate
International arrangements for the task Of
Inspection and verification in Cuba. Until
that is done, difficult problems remain. AS
for our part If all offensive weapons systems
dI0 IeHlONSQ 1IOm SuDd anu kept OUT OF the
hemisphere in the future, under adequate
ratification and safeguards, and II Cuba is
not used for the export Of aggressive Com
nuniSt purposes, there will be peace in the
Caribbean. And as I said in September, we
shall neither initiate nor permit aggression
In this hemisphere.
S If words mean anything, these mean
that the United States will decline to
pledge not to invade Cuba, and will con-
tinue with aerial reconnaissance and
other methods Of surveillance, as long
as the two conditions on-site inspection
and lasting safeguards" remain I'M
satisfied. Fidel Castro has threatened,
somewhat ambiguously, to shoot down
any of our planes engaged in such oper-
atoms. Needless to say, if he does, he
will be paid back in kind and with COM
pound interest, and the Caribbean crisis
will once again heat up to a boiling
point.
Nevertheless the Presidents eau
tiouS, highly qualified optimism is juSti-
fled. There has been real progress toward
peace in the Caribbean in the past
month, and there is ground for hope
that further progress can be made. In
any event, as Mr.. Kennedy has said, "In
this week Of Thanksgiving, there is
much for which we can be grateful as
we look back to where we stood only four
weeks ago"-on the brink of a possible,
If not probable, nuclear war.