Pacific Missile Mess

...Yet these conventions are completely silent on the problem of usage of the sea for scientific and military tests...

...There has been building for some years a challenge to one of the oldest and most fundamental doctrines of American foreign policy...

...These earlier Soviet activities, which were scarcely publicized, involved little, if any, interference with international shipping, fishing or air transport...

...Further conferences at Geneva will consider some of the questions which are posed by nuclear tests...

...In short, what we may do so may they...

...The impacting of the Soviet missile in the test area was the signal for a world-wide publicity campaign on Soviet prowess in this field...

...In retrospect, it would appear that fascination with our own scientific achievements has led us to overlook a grave problem to which these achievements, along with those of other nations, are giving rise...

...It is the same region in which some of our earlier nuclear tests were conducted...

...We have fought for this principle and we have pressed constantly for the development of international law which would safeguard it...

...Already the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom have staked out large areas of the Pacific at various times and labeled them Mare Nostrum for the duration of test series...

...we can hardly protest the Russian experiments...

...In the same fashion, as early as 1954, the Government was urged to give full recognition to its moral responsibility to the inhabitants of the Marshall Islands who were inconvenienced by the Pacific nuclear test series of that year...

...As early as 1955, I suggested a summit conference to deal with the single question of international agreement to end dangerous nuclear testing on a multilateral basis...

...It was not until years later, after Adlai Stevenson was pilloried for a similar advocacy during the 1956 campaign, that the Administration came to the point of recognizing even the respectability of such a position...

...Mr...

...The manner, place and timing of the undertaking were clearly a demonstration of advanced Soviet military technology to the entire world, and to Pacific nations— notably Japan—a pointed indicator of a Soviet nuclear missile capacity to cut Pacific supply lines...

...In the recent shoot, however, the Russians chose an impact area astride a region through which pass major American lines of communications with allied nations in the Western Pacific...

...We may well ask why this country has failed to press for recognition of this growing problem and at least the beginning of international action to deal with it...

...Dean: "Yes, I do, and that is why I sincerely hope that something along these lines will be done...

...Soon other nations will begin to follow suit...

...It is a region of considerable importance to world commerce and Pacific fishing...

...we shall very soon be at a critical point in the matter of use of the High Seas for the testing of scientific and military devices...

...The Administration's position on the Soviet tests is to close its eyes to any discoloration on either vessel...

...Perhaps this nation would have been in a better position to deal with these disturbing implications of the recent Soviet action had we ourselves given more consideration in the past to the long-range problems involved in any one nation's use of the oceans for military and scientific tests...

...In short, they took place without causing any world-wide ripples...

...Since the beginning of the Republic we have been powerful advocates of the basic concept of free and responsible usage of the High Seas by all nations on the basis of equality...

...Black on the American pot...

...In that respect they were not too different from our present employment of the Vandenberg missile range, which goes out several thousand miles into the desolate southeast Pacific from California, or the Canaveral range, which extends from Florida into the south Atlantic by arrangement and agreement with most of the nations along the line of fire...

...Some of us in Congress have long been concerned with these tests, despite the fact that every precaution has been taken to safeguard the rights of other nations and prompt consideration has been given to those who were inadvertently injured by them...

...Nevertheless, when they are not an outright danger to the nationals of other countries these tests can be a source of jeopardy to their equal right to navigate and to fish the High Seas...

...One would hope that regardless of the degree of black on the pots and kettles, the accumulated experience of the postwar years would urge us to take the lead in dealing with the problem...

...Dean, do you not see in the present almost complete national license to use the seas for dangerous and sometimes destructive tests, a possibility of a grave challenge to both of our basic concepts of the law of the sea—that is, to the concept of freedom of the sea and responsible usage of the sea...

...What of the questions of national prestige which would be involved in the backing down of one side or the other...

...Indeed, they have been using parts of the Arctic in the same fashion...

...The Russian test actions began after a brusque...

...But can the same be said for the recent Russian tests...

...To carry the absurdity a step further, suppose by pure coincidence both the United States and Soviet Russia announced at the same time that they were cordoning off the same area of the Pacific at the same time for the purpose of conducting scientific experiments...

...When the conventions were before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on January 20, 1960...

...It is no answer to this problem to say, as has been said, that if we do it so can they...

...Soviet missile tests in Pacific point up need for American initiative to establish international regulation of nuclear explosions on the High Seas Pacific Missile Mess By Mike Mansfield IT HAS been said that any American criticism of the recent Soviet missile tests in the Pacific is akin to the "pot calling the kettle black...

...It is clear that if we have not already reached it...

...this question was put to Arthur H. Dean, an eminent authority on the law of the sea and this country's principal negotiator at the conferences: ''Mr...

...What then...

...if such there is, hardly serves as a detergent for the black on the Soviet kettle...

...The Pacific is a vast ocean and the Russians have been looping missiles into its remote northwestern stretches for some time...

...One would hope that the recent Soviet tests might provide such a glaring revelation of the way in which the world is headed in this matter that it will prompt a strong American initiative in our own interests as well as in the interests of all nations...

...The challenge of the Soviet missile tests is a challenge to act in order that the Pacific and, indeed, all oceans remain mare omnium rather than a collection of national maria nostra...

...This, to say the least, was hardly an appropriate prelude to the first summit conference for the purpose of easing international tensions...

...Just recently we signed four conventions on the law of the sea which advance this principle to a new high point of universal acceptance...

...Regardless of ultimate scientific objective, however, can there be any doubt as to the immediate political and propaganda purposes of these tests...

...Now it embraces this position...

...The fact is that international law on this practice is virtually nonexistent...

...What is clearly needed is an urgent effort to obtain international agreement, not to stop essential scientific testing on the High Seas, but to see to it that this practice by any nation is so pursued as to minimize its provocations, and the risks and inconvenience to which it may subject other nations...

...The very use of the analogy is tacit recognition that there is something amiss in the way the Pacific is being used for the testing of dangerous scientific and military devices...

...Who would defer...

...As we interpret the law, it would now be perfectly legal for the Russians to conduct tests on the High Seas within sight of San Francisco or for us to do the equivalent off Vladivostok...

...What of the possibilities of accidents or grave incidents if both decided to test in the identical area...

...It merely holds that since the tests which we have conducted are perfectly valid under our interpretation of international, law...

...Consider for a moment the circumstances in which they have taken place...

...This position is undoubtedly in accord with the spirit of Camp David...

...The recent Russian tests may well have had valid scientific purposes in the sense that they could be forerunners of further explorations of space...

...10-day advance announcement which had the effect of putting up a "no tresspassing" sign on 27,000 or more square miles of ocean...

...It is not far-fetched, however, to consider what will happen if something is not done soon about all forms of testing on the High Seas, missile no less than nuclear...

...There have been protests raised against this practice, particularly by the Japanese, but the protests have gone unheeded...