Where the News Ends
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY
WHERE the NEWS ENDS By William Henry Chamberlin Prelude to a Mideast Policy THE "Eisenhower Doctrine" may mean much or little, depending on how it is implemented. It is a gesture in the right...
...and indirect aggression is much harder to recognize and to grapple with than the direct form...
...That would loose World War III, and in an atmosphere psychologically very unfavorable to the Soviet Union...
...As the sum total of results from past United Nations "concern" with these matters has been zero, no great expectations seem warranted for the future...
...The decision to project United States power and influence into the Middle East more decisively, while it might better have been made earlier, is a move in the right direction...
...So far so good...
...This comes pretty close to being the equivalent of United States membership in the Baghdad Pact—a mutual-defense agreement embracing Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan...
...There is also the possibility of providing arms and "volunteers" to those states which are willing to go along with Soviet designs and then unleashing them in local attacks against their neighbors or utilizing them for political plots against these neighbors...
...Britain is also a member, but resentment against the British invasion of Egypt has considerably diminished British influence...
...support should hearten the elements in the Middle Eastern countries which are prepared to resist Soviet attack and discourage the adventurers who are receptive to Soviet arms and propaganda...
...The French Ambassador to the United States, Herve Alphand, put his finger on one cause of the futility of the United Nations, never more manifest than during these last months: "If you go to the Security Council you are faced with the Soviet veto, and if you go to the Assembly you could be defeated by a majority formed by the Soviet bloc and the Bandung group...
...It is a gesture in the right direction and a welcome departure from the weird mixture of passivism, pacifism and drift —toughness toward allies and softness toward enemies—that made November such an unhappy month for the free world...
...It seems reasonable to assume that the Soviet struggle for the high stakes of the Middle East, nothing less than a grip on Europe's economic jugular vein, will take the form of indirect aggression...
...But it is not very probable that Soviet designs in this economically backward area, so rich in oil that is the lifeblood of Europe's industries and transportation, will be prosecuted by the clumsy method of marching Soviet divisions into Turkey or Iran...
...It is a good thing that the United States has served a blunt "No Trespassing" notice on the Soviet Union, at least as regards direct aggression in the Middle East...
...Even President Eisenhower, whose professed dependence on the UN was one of the most disconcerting and discouraging aspects of United States policy in the November crisis, in his more recent pronouncement recognizes that "the United Nations cannot be a wholly dependable protector of freedom when the ambitions of the Soviet Union are involved...
...At the same time, the aims and purposes of a more positive American attitude are defined so vaguely as to suggest a prelude to a policy, rather than the policy itself...
...Vigorous implementation of this decision is probably the only alternative to the loss of this area to Soviet intrigue, economic disaster for Europe and the turning of the flank of NATO...
...In meeting such problems, the Eisenhower proposals are of little practical value...
...The most concrete statement of intent is to be found in the following phrase in the President's speech before Congress: "The employment of the armed forces of the United States to secure and protect the territorial integrity and political independence of such nations requesting such aid against overt armed aggression from any nation controlled by international Communism...
...Subversion of relatively friendly Arab governments would be one form of indirect aggression, and subversion is easy to organize in an area where a small amount of money will produce a howling mob and where the assassination of a statesman accused of pro-Western views is not too difficult to arrange...
...And such vital issues as the relations between Israel and the Arab states, the resettlement of the Arab refugees, the future operation of the Suez Canal are brushed under the rug with the statement that "the United Nations is actively concerning itself with all these matters and we are supporting the United Nations in that effort...
...Unequivocal assurance of U.S...
...It is very seldom that I find myself in agreement with Professor Frederick L. Schuman, but I think he deserves an A for the following characterization of the United Nations in a letter published in the Nation of December 22: "A fiction, a fraud and a shabby device to enable the great powers to evade their obligations...
Vol. 40 • January 1957 • No. 3
