WHAT ABOUT PREVENTIVE WAR?

...But the odds are great that the Politburo, faced with American atomic bombs and the world's armed forces, would accept and retire behind the curzon line, to stew in its own communistic juice...

...in the case of (bi, peace could come after placing Moscows' rulers before an iron alternative: to be crushed immediately in a hopeless war or to submit to effective international control of atomic and similar weapons and withdrawal bohind the Curzon Line...

...Certainly not...

...he wants to use it by the ever-disastrous power-politics method of international gangsterism...

...Must We Hide?, apparently did succumb to this temptation in his fantastically optimistic es'imate of the lime limit of American atomic monopoly...

...If the Politburo refused, Major Eliot would have his preventive war while preserving his conscience...

...but a force subject to due process of law, where decisions against aggressors are made not by gangs of power politicians but by a World Court...

...You will get a fair quota of world production of heavy arms for defense, and atomic energy will be internationally controlled and, of course, inspected...

...Major Eliot writes: "We have seen that for the present, ai any rate, we cannot have peace by agreement through . . . the United Nations...

...A mystic dream, for no one knows who could start this war or how, but all hope that somebody, somewhere, somehow, will start the ball rolling...

...Eliot's latest book are exceedingly good, ethers are exceedingly amateurish...

...But even if there were nine chances in ten that* Dr...

...Thus," he concludes, "according to our estimate, it will be about 1960 before others can conceit;ably have a sizable supply of A-bombs" (my italics...

...Urey, one of the fathers of the Atomic Revolution, believe the time limit is even less...

...In his enthusiasm he Innocently fell into the greater evil of attempting to lull America into a tragically false sense of security...

...Lapp were right, it would be criminal folly for our leaders to gamble with the destiny of our nation...

...Let's make him mad...

...Now 1 am a betting man, no* impervious to what looks to me to be honest but easy money...

...and I would have my effective threat of force...

...We are a nation of deputy sheriffs...

...Stalin, who certainly does not want to fight until he gets a few atomic bombs himself, will turn every incident into a love least...

...The World Court could have issued an order to the Soviet Union, saying in substance: "We do not like your Communist State but we all have agreed to live in peace with each other, and an attack on one is an attack on all...

...Ceitainly not the masses, who like all people, do not understand the bloody logic of iiower politics and don t want their kids to go to war if they can help it...

...I must congratulate Major Eliot for resisting the temptation to write only what is pleasing to the oars of stodgy authorities in Washington...

...So long as we live in a world crisis, America must be armed in every dimension...

...1 I am not eesily shocked by advocacy of a preventive war, even though it may be waged with atomic bombs...

...The odds are actually much higher...

...And even if a preventive war broke out, the killing of a single Russian child would be a crime against humanity, because a method exists which is neither appeasement nor preventive war but more noble and far more effective than either...

...Churchill, as Prime Minister, said officially on August 4, 1945, that other nations (meaning the U.S.S.R...

...Assuming that a preventive war —which is a war of aggression—is desirable, who is going to start it in the American democracy...

...and this Third War will be an atomic war, because it will take far more than two and a half years (the time allotted by Major Eliot to the Soviet Union for production of its atomic bombs) to convince America to seek the destruction of Russia in a preventive war...

...In the case of (a), a stable peace would come after destruction ,f the communist state...

...The whole difference between Major Eliot's method and mine is this: I want to apply military force in a lawfully organized, open way...

...To prove how quick, how easy and how inexorably efficient this method can be, I'll take the vast pomposity of the North Atlantic Alliance and put some really military sense into it...

...And if the law is defective we democratically write a better law...

...If there were no other way than appeasement of a powerful dictator (which means a bigger war later), I would accept a preventive war against communism...

...HIS THIRD FALLACY is wrapped up in his statement that "the danger of war now is a grim reality...

...Lapp even hint at the reasons for his mystical teven-year figure...

...He v. II U- ..,,1(1 -h.iuld be) impeached...

...The emergence of the atomic bomb, far from decreasing the need for other weapons and types <>f armed forces, actually increases it...

...They could have set up, and very quickly, an International Police Force recruited from volunteers of smaller nations and backed up by armed forces of larger nations...

...1950— which is the year considered by major" Eliot as the most crucial year for Russia's invasion...

...His train of thought runs smoothly enough for long stretches of military road...

...The policy of containment practiced by th > State Department — a policy of halfmeasures, from the Truman Doctrine through the Marshall Plan to the North Atlantic Treaty...

...Our nation must, at once, make a supreme effort to eliminate the atomic threat from the face of the earth beyond any doubt and at any price...

...As a confirmed pacifist, I realize that so long as nations live in an anarchic world of sovereign states, power-politics is the final method regulating their survival...

...It is reasonable to assume...

...Revolutionary, bridge expert, student of international affairs, author of many books —Ely Culbertaon is the originator of the famous QuotaForce principle for the organisation si a world police force...

...Lapp served with the War Department as scientific advisor on atomic energy and later was promoted to Executive Director (if the Committee on Atomic Energy of the Research Board in the Nation.il Military Establishment...

...Pax Americana—Preventive War...

...Nowhere in the book does Dr...

...We must either conquer the world or conquer the bomb...

...It will probably be only to face the necessity for deciding whether we can, while we still possess air and sea superiority and a monopoly of the atomic weapon, permit the Soviet Union to acquire the means to confront us with such a threat as a war of mutual annihilation...

...This is the book's second and gravest blunder...

...GEORGE FIELDING ELIOT, is one of the best popular writers on military matters...

...Somewhat tardily, but nevertheless firmly, ho has grasped the supreme importance of decisive action against Soviot Russia within the atomic time limit allotted to us...

...In other words...

...Major Eliot can see no method other than a preventive war against Russia...

...R. E. LAPP, in his recently published hook...

...and then, confused by events, he smashes himself against some fallacy or hasty assumption...

...Although fifteen years will have passed since the 'iiroshima bomb, the second most industrial state in the world—the Communist—would be barely ambling along in an undertaking which to its rulers is a matter of life and death...

...IF WE ACCEPT Major Eliot's concept, then the Third World War is absolutely inevitable, since Russia will be offered no alternative...

...Lapp's wild estimate...

...Stalin, maybe...

...Where I seriously quarrel with Major Eliot's book is on the vital matter of the method best calculated to compel the Politburo to stop building atomic plants...

...The overwhelming majority of physicists, including Einstein, would agree with Major Eliot's estimate of three years, and come, including Dr...

...An incident to make Americans mad...

...The only peace we are likely to have is a power peace—a Pax Americana, resting on the foundation of American power and American determination...

...UNDER ARTICLE 51 of the UN Charter, the State Department—if its planners had had any political imagination—could have proposed a World Federative Alliance open to all nations including Russia...

...Too slow...

...The practical result of the Preventive War thesis is precisely the same as the Wallace Appeasement idea—waste of precious time and energy, to the benefit of the Politburo...

...would be producing their own atomic bombs "in three or at the most four years...

...Why reasonable...

...Lapp does not explain this computation, either...

...Major Eliot starts with the flat assertion: "We cannot make peace with the present rulers of the Soviet Union.'' He should have said: "We cannot make peace with Russia's rulers except (a) through use of greatly superior military force, or (b) through effective threat of a greatly superior military force...

...It could destroy with not too much difficulty twenty or twenty-five of Russia's key centers virtually paralyzing her economic warmaking power...

...Major Eliot correctly estimates that "the American-British time-limit for exploiting our present capability of using air-atomic power to destroy the Soviet ability to make war without fear of atomic retaliation, is probably about three years—the years of 1949, 1950 and 1951...

...To escape the concentrated power cf atomic and other weapons, future wars may have to be fought by vast masses of men broken up, guerrilla-fashion, into small, loosely connected but powerful units on land, air and sea...

...Ikwrites, "that other nations will not develop bombs until 1952, seven years after our first atomic test...

...This contention is sheer nonsense, although it is shared by many Washington notables...

...But he is mad already...

...They could have set up a Council and a World Court without a veto by any aggressor...

...Major Eliot, as I do, rejects containment as a definite solution, and for the same reason: The Politburo, armed With the vast resources of the Commuist Empire and German science, is feverishly building atomic plants...

...Had Soviet Russia refused, they could have proceeded to organize the rest of the world into a new United Nations without her...

...An intensive and clevi i c fficial propaganda to inflame public .pinion'' Our State Department can do wonder.-, with propaganda, but- assuming it i.> possible it...

...He then proceeds: "Before an enemy can accumulate a respectable stockpile of atomic bomos, it will take as many years as it tfiking for the development of the ffrst ' ne...

...We must act as though the twelve fanatics in the Politburo already have the bomb and will soon have it in quantity enough to terrorize Europe and threaten our great cities...

...Then who...

...What do I mean by "an effective threat of superior military force...

...I HAVE TWO OBJECTIONS to Major Eliot's preventive war thesis, one practical and one moral...

...W„e go to the law...

...will take many years to convince millions of moms and pops that they should part with their kido in a war of aggression...

...The United States created the bomb in less than fouryears...

...Only George Fielding Eliot in his books and all the others dreaming silently their dream of a preventive war...

...because, "first, the russians may feel themselves compelled to invade western Europe in order to prevent its economic and military recovery...

...THE THING TO DO is not hide the atomic bomb in a midst of hazy assumptions, but arouse the American people by telling them the truth about the catastrophic danger of the atomic race—a race in which the Politburo is deliberately engaged, confident that we will give them time in which to huge the one and only weapon that ran destroy us from without...

...An atomic bomb, when possessed by one side only, is in effect an absolute weapon...

...I am certain there is another method, also a military method, which is more noble than a preventive war and just us effective...

...It would be preferable for humanity to destroy twenty industrial centers in Russia, first permitting their evacuation, than to wait like cattle for the slaughter of scores of millions and the destruction of civilization...

...His latest book is worthwhile and should be read by all who are interested in the struggle between the West and Russia...

...Thus, overwhelming evidence and good sense are against Dr...

...a military equation that is abundantly confirmed and supported throughout the book...

...Ultimatum...

...It is also a way of military force, if necessary...

...Since his book deals with some of the basic concepts of the military Strategy of today and tomorrow, I am going to review it by analyzing these concepts and by pointing out what, in my opinion, are his fallacies...

...Henceforth we shall all be pacifist, and you have one week in which to make your choice...

...When confronted with a gang in a community, we do not organize another gang...

...Too uncertain...

...Why...

...Some concepts in Mr...

...Major Eliot is too hasty in throwing it away...

...Here I have no quarrel with Major Eliot...

...These partial solutions are steps forward), but none, nor all together, can penetrate the core of the problem: How to stop the threat of atomic war by Moscow...

...Why couldn't Russia copy tne blueprints in twice that time, especially since there is little doubt that the Politburo knew all about the Manhattan Project long before Hiroshima...

...Each is, in my opinion, decisive...

...We dare not resign ourselves, or accommodate ourselves to the "reality" of atomic war, or disperse our cities, or build deep shelters, or buy a hundred-year treaty with Stalin...

...Furthermore, we have decided no nation may arm for aggression or produce atomic bombs...

...He writes simply and forcefully, although at times too rushingly...

...And exactly how will this Pax Americana operate for peace...

...Lapp wrote in his book, Must We Hide?, for the ostensible purpose of dissipating unwarranted fear of the effects of atomic bombs...

...DR...

...My way is the way of the American people...

...this also permits me to dispense with a critique of a number of chapters of this otherwise excellent book, since they are based on the same fallacy of an "imminent" invasion of western europe by soviet russia...

...Therein lies the salvation of the world—in a revised United Nations as a foundation for a workable World Federation...

...And in America they ci.n help u, by voting...

...That means 7iou...

...Congress'' Any Congressman \ iting for such a war will be accused of murder by the voters whin the fust American boy is killed The President...

...Too difficult...

...I would be willing to bet Major Eliot my $500 to his $50 that the Soviet Union will not attack first in Western Europe between May 10th, 1949 and May 10th...

...And we must conquer the bomb with Russia, if possible, against Russia if necessary...