Where the News Ends

...Another would be a swift and firm agreement between Washington and London on an alternative to EDC, if this is not ratified by France within the very near future...

...One hopes that, after the proved futility of the much-praised "conference method," American public opinion, enlightened by the deadlock of Berlin and the abounding disgrace of Geneva, will say: "Enough...

...Prime Minister Churchill repeated over and over that the British Government could and would do nothing until the results of the Geneva Conference were clear, although it should have been obvious that a do-nothing attitude was the surest means of defeating any possibility of a tolerable settlement...

...So Geneva became an aggravated Munich, with talks proceeding under the pressure of an advancing enemy and French demoralization in Paris inevitably contributing to the discouragement of the French and Vietnamese will to fight on...

...It is to be hoped that nowhere, neither in Washington nor in London nor in Paris, will there be any attempt to whitewash what happened at Geneva...

...This alternative should include full sovereignty for the German Federal Republic and the speedy recruitment, training and equipment of the German armed force contemplated under the EDC treaty, either as part of NATO or as part of an American-British-German alliance...

...The French acted on the preposterous assumption that they could obtain an "honorable peace" in Indo-China by putting on a continuous exhibition of rabid defeatism in the Chamber of Deputies and finally going into the familiar French equivalent of a nervous breakdown, the overthrow of a divided cabinet...

...Bidault seems to have beguiled Dulles at Berlin with the prospect that he could steer EDC through the French Parliament if the United States would take part in a Far Eastern conference...

...In that case, the somewhat battered framework of American-British understanding may be restored and some deeds, always far more effective than words in dealing with totalitarian aggressors, may be forthcoming...

...In retrospect, it seems a mistake for the United States to have gone to Geneva at all...

...And so days passed into weeks and weeks into months as the dismal mockery of negotiation went on in Geneva and the Communist armies continued to gain ground in Indo-China...

...But American diplomacy is open to criticism on several counts...

...One should not be too positive until the results of this visit are known, but perhaps even the proverbially patient Eden has had his fill of "negotiating" with Molotov and Chou En-lai...

...The best epitaph on this conference would be General "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell's comment after the Japanese overran Burma: "I say we took a helluva beating...

...The first elementary test of Communist willingness to discuss an "honorable" settlement, an immediate cease-fire as a prelude to negotiations, was not even required...

...Dulles should at least have exacted two preliminary conditions as a price of participation: French ratification of the EDC and firm agreement with both Britain and France as to where a line should be drawn in Southeast Asia and what each country should do if that line was overstepped...

...The British, following their rejection of Secretary Dulles's belated but constructive proposal for "united action" in Southeast Asia, acted on the absurd assumption that one can negotiate seriously from weakness with Communists...

...The Western powers at Geneva put on an exhibition of disunity and indecision that must have exceeded the fondest hopes of Molotov and Chou En-lai...

...To sacrifice the pro-Western Adenauer Government to the negativism of French neutralists and anti-American Bevanites would be a blunder worse than a crime...

...The United States appraised the bleak and indeed hopeless outlook at Geneva more accurately than France or Great Britain, where wishful thinking reached incredible proportions...

...Geneva should he long remembered when incurable sapheads on either side of the Atlantic suggest that international tension would be abated by holding a conference with representatives of Moscow or Peking...

...We have talked big (about "massive retaliation") and acted small in refusing to contribute anything but aid of the lend-lease type to the struggle in Indo-China, even after Red Chinese aid to Ho Chi Minh was greatly stepped up...

...It is a hopeful sign that Churchill and Eden are coming to Washington...

...This prospect proved a deceptive mirage...

...One such deed would be a firm understanding about a line in Southeast Asia that could not be crossed by Communist armies without inviting joint American and British military action with no holds barred...

...There is just one way to abate international tension: that is to abate very substantially the power of aggressive Communist regimes...