THE WORLD'S ONE GREAT HOPE
Tydings, Millard E.
The World's One Great Hope By MILLARD E. TYPINGS DEVELOPMENTS during the past year have bombed us out of our complacency and altered the time-table of history. Four years ago I first proposed to...
...They are all deposited in a steel-riveted sphere of frozen vacuity...
...Sooner or later people will begin to realize that much they need and desire could be won if this policy were adopted...
...It is impossible to outlaw any of them without opening ourselves to the risk of reinstituting them all again as soon as a new war breaks out...
...At worst, there will be nobody left to commence the rebuilding of civilization...
...This lethargic statement parades us before the world as impotent, devoid even of the will to try, and exhibits a paucity of thought and action in the face of a gathering storm which could sweep away all Christendom, all civilization, all living things...
...Both sides are trying to occupy the same squares on the checkerboard...
...We should try to surmount the difficulties, not cringe in surrender before them...
...His statements point to one single conclusion: that we and the other democratic nations of the world, on the one hand, and Russia and those associated MILLARD E. TYDINGS, senior U.S...
...Senator from Maryland, is one of the most influential members of the Senate, where he is chair' man of the Armed Forces Committee, and a member of the Foreign Rela-tions Committee and the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy...
...Like Mr...
...We cannot win the cold war by dynamic negativism or by burying our heads in the illusion that the enemy will pass by...
...It is an appealing idea and for a moment seems to attain the objective we all desire...
...With the announcement of the H-bomb, many people have been seeking to apply the same formula to it as was attempted to be applied to the atom bomb, namely, control of atomic and hydrogen-bomb activities, with proper inspection...
...It would follow such agreement...
...they are breaking the universe up into elements...
...The State Department's position, condemning us to a new arms race and trial of strength, was further developed in an article in the March Reader's Digest entitled "Is War With Russia Inevitable...
...Soon bigger planes carrying in themselves increased air defenses with greatly increased speed, capable of flying at higher altitudes, will be in the skies...
...Micawber, the State Department seems willing to wait for something to turn up...
...Let us assume that tomorrow morning the United States and Russia agreed firmly that neither country would make or possess the atom bomb or the hydrogen bomb or have the means with which to make them...
...The effort toward world disarmament is loaded with no realistic danger...
...All that the Secretary of State could hold before us was the demand that we create strength everywhere in the world...
...that is, wherever we can...
...The new bomb will be to the H-bomb what the H-Bomb is to the atom bomb...
...Albert Einstein, commenting on the H and future bombs, has said that with their invention "annihilation of any life on earth is within the range of technical possibilities...
...That conflict will not be just starting another war...
...V Yes, there is a real alternative to defeatism—a call for world disarmament...
...I assume they would rather have the resources of Russia not turned into tanks, ships, guns, and bombs but into those things attached to the home which raise the standards of living of the people of Russia...
...This is a difficult invitation for any government to reject...
...Must we walk the roadway to possible war with all of its sacrifices...
...If an invitation is extended, all eyes will turn to Russia...
...Thoughtful men say, "Such a conference will fail...
...From almost every point of view we were in an excellent position to exercise moral leadership in persuading such a conference to accept total, universal disarmament...
...But this should not deter us from the undertaking...
...Therefore, what we need, if we want the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb controlled, and if we want a world in which these two instruments cannot be manufactured, is not only an agreement which encompasses these two great destructive weapons, but we must go further than that and have disarmament all the way down the line to rifles...
...Here we are spending for our national defense almost $30,000,000,000...
...with her, on the other, must sit and sweat it out...
...The situation requires bold treatment...
...When Russia speaks, we will know what the score is...
...I would start it by calling a world disarmament conference, by going to the very core of the matter, at the beginning...
...In the conference which I propose, with the full flood-light of world publicity upon it, where men would sit down to solve the destiny of the millions of people of this earth—if it were an open conference, and that is what I would advocate—the proposals of every nation would be known, and all manStampone in The Army Times kind would be put on notice whether or not the nations assembled were acting in good faith...
...It was a favorable moment in history—then...
...It cannot be brushed aside...
...Planes will be built that are more certain of hitting the desired spot in an enemy country...
...Long a leader in the drive for universal disarmament, Sen...
...Unfortunately, this isn't always the case...
...We alone had the atomic bomb...
...There Mr...
...Under such a plan as I suggest those men, or most of them, could return to their homes, help to develop the rivers, help to turn the great timber resources of Russia into materials for home and factories, help to dam her great rivers for electric power...
...From my close association with the problem, as Chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, I have come to the conclusion that armies and armed force are not the answer to the settlement of international disputes and the easing of international tensions...
...It is a call to end both the cold war and the hot war...
...There is too much of an atmosphere of sitting around and finding fault...
...But let us have more prognosis and less diagnosis...
...What we want, in plain American, is a clean showdown...
...If successfully developed, we are told, this H-bomb will have 1,000 times the destructive power of the atomic bomb and will, reportedly, kill as many as 10,000,-000 human beings and destroy an area of 100 square miles, with a single blast...
...As we attempt to build up strength, certainly the Russians will attempt to build up strength...
...The time is less favorable now, but the urgency is infinitely greater than it was four years ago...
...Kennan's three alternatives, taken together, are mountainous in their defeatism...
...If it is logical to outlaw the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb, it is then just as logical to outlaw the conventional bombing and all forms, of warfare...
...The Russians have today 200 divisions under arms...
...No one knows what the final answer will be, but if civilization and humanity are to find security on this earth, they cannot find it by partial disarmament, they must find it by complete disarmament, plus inspection before, during, and after disarmament...
...Some say the Russians would never agree to the proposals we would outline...
...I think that is a defeatist attitude...
...IV In such a conference as I have proposed, disarmament would not precede complete agreement...
...I should like to see our President, difficult though this matter is, fraught though it is with possibilities of failure, undertake to invite the nations of the world to sit down for the single purpose of accomplishing world disarmament—not mixed up with tariffs, currencies, immigration, or any of the other things which we may settle afterward...
...With the unfolding years, we may look ahead to the awesome possibility of the ultimate destruction of civilization...
...It is the call that millions are waiting for...
...If Russia refuses, or the conference fails, we shall be no worse off than we are now...
...I would be happier if he were to open it...
...There must be millions of Russians who would like to be relieved of the threat and fear of war...
...Churchill, I would like to know the answer...
...The board on which Russia and ourselves are playing checkers is the volatile map of the world, peopled by 2,000,000,000 human beings...
...Likewise, in these United States, the same thing would apply...
...The impact of that message, properly framed, will stir millions in every land all over this earth...
...Without additional State Department policy, the American nation and those associated with us are compelled to live on the other side of an iron curtain already hiding nearly half of the world and its people...
...We are attempting to checkmate the Russian moves toward our king row...
...He says it may come either by accident, or from the fear of the Russians that someone is going to attack them...
...Speaking for the State Department, he tells us that there are only three courses open to us: "(a) a return to isolation and armed neutrality, (b) war, or (c) to continue the policy of throwing our weight into the balance wherever there are relatively good chances that it will be effective in preventing the further expansion of international communism...
...That is the call of the hour...
...That is why I renew my plea to the President of the United States, and to the Secretary of State, to call a world disarmament conference of all nations...
...No sooner would the war break out than all international inspection would be wiped out in an instant The moment inspection was wiped out each belligerent nation would immediately have to start building a plant in which to make the atom bomb, or the hydrogen bomb, or both, for fear the other belligerem cation was doing it behind its own battle lines...
...Relations between the Russians and ourselves were less strained and more friendly...
...The truth is that in all probability the slaughter will be many times as great as was the slaughter in all the other wars of human history combined...
...II I would offer another alternative to the three which the State Department says are our only recourse: the alternative of taking the initiative, stating our objective before all the world, and carrying our message in every manner possible to all people behind the iron curtain...
...All imagination, energy, ingenuity, and diplomacy on the part of our Government and people are by such a policy completely and un-mitigatingly discounted...
...Like Mr...
...Prof...
...No one can predict its outcome with certainty...
...Four years ago I first proposed to our Government that it take the initiative for enduring peace by summoning all the nations of the world to a conference dedicated to reaching agreement on total, universal disarmament by all nations of all weapons of war...
...Must we give new thought and effort and sacrifice to preparedness against attack...
...Disarmament would not take place except under proper inspection...
...Or is it possible to remove the fear of war by stopping the arms race...
...1, 1954, except only for such actual occupying forces, with appropriate weapons, and for such agreed period of time, as will be necessary to police the defeated and occupied nations as a result of the recent war, and except only for such armed forces and for such weapons as are to be placed exclusively under the jurisdiction of the Security Council of the United Nations Organization, and except only for such limited forces and limited small arms as are needed to keep law and order within each country, and directly prohibiting the manufacture, storage, and possession of all other weapons, ammunitions and munitions of war, and providing further for the international inspection force authorized and instructed to see that the terms of such world disarmament are rigidly adhered to and carried out, and thereafter maintained by all the countries of the earth...
...There is little hope held out by these alternatives either to our own people or to the people of Western Europe...
...If someone has a better plan, let him come forward...
...We are faced with the extinction of all human beings on the earth as the march of events and of science proceeds down the roadway of the future...
...I am not willing to admit that a fair proposition submitted to the Russians touching this matter would receive their complete veto, for I believe that, by and large, it would be difficult for the representatives of any nation to resist the appeal of the President of the United States, or to turn down a proposal for real disarmament, with real inspection, if it were made in the open, and The Tydings Resolution T HE original Tydings' Resolution called on the President to invite the "governments of all nations" to send delegates to a conference whose single purpose would be the achievement of total disarmament by Jan...
...All that would be gained, therefore, would be a little time...
...The Russians are attempting to checkmate our moves toward their king row...
...1, 1954...
...and all the wealth which Russia is now pouring into her military machine on land, on sea, and in the air, could be used to better the lot of the Russian people...
...But I assume that the people of Russia, very much like the people of the United States, are anxious to survive, to stay alive, to try to make an end to warfare...
...All that would result from atomic or H-bomb control would be a truce between wars, with almost the certainty of the bomb's being built by either or both belligerents in any future conflict, as soon as the new war started...
...There is no hope held out to those nations, once free, that are now behind the iron curtain...
...But I think I can show that even were it possible—and I certainly should not disapprove of all efforts toward that result—it would be an illusory rather than a real attempt to control these weapons...
...Tydings has delivered three major addresses on the subject in the Senate this year, and the article in this issue represents an integrated condensation of most of the major points in speeches which were powerfully presented and are all the more remarkable coming from the Senator who heads the Armed Forces Committee...
...They are a transitory need that we and other people adopt because for the moment there is no alternative in the existing state of international affairs except to be strong...
...We can win it by launching now a program of strong, aggressive, imaginative, diplomatic action...
...The second great new fact of life is that both the United States and the Soviet Union are embarked on the manufacture of the hydrogen bomb—a weapon whose described potentialities are so great that it is difficult, if not impossible, even for those of us on the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy to comprehend them...
...From the Secretary's remarks it would seem that what the two great alignments of nations in the world are doing for the moment is playing checkers with each other...
...Thus, he said, while we remain strong and steady and while we wait for the Russian people to reexamine themselves and their policies, the time may come when we can get an atmosphere of good will and establish a peace that will reconcile our various difficulties...
...The development of the first hydrogen bomb is not the end...
...they are finding out how they can use those different elements to destroy vast numbers of mankind...
...What the Secretary says is that it is his hope that eventually both sides will stop playing checkers...
...The ultimate prospect in such a war is that the wreckage—spiritual, economic, and financial—will be so strewn around the earth that, at best, the efforts throughout the ages to improve the lot of man will be set at naught...
...These new planes will carry scientific instruments which make the delivery of the bomb largely independent of human failings...
...I do not think we know what the answer will be until the Russians act upon such an invitation...
...made on an honest and fair basis...
...In the last analysis, the use of atomic and hydrogen weapons cannot be prevented short of destroying war itself...
...Kennan closes the door...
...They place a new low on American ingenuity...
...They offer nothing but the ultimate expectation of the incineration of mankind...
...It will not be the most decisive weapon mankind will ever construct...
...Rifles might conceivably be needed to maintain law and order in any country, or in any group of countries on the globe...
...Confronted with these painful facts, our Secretary of State has been looking at the modern world lately...
...The time for full speed ahead is now...
...two new factors have lately demonstrated how insecure our shelter is...
...Inspection would continue after disarmament, to make sure that it was maintained...
...He said that if we do this, there is hope that the Russian people may reexamine their policy and change their point of view...
...Out of a budget of $42,000,000,000, we are spending practically $30,-000,000,000 of the wealth of the American people, of their energies, of their resources—and necessarily spending it, in my opinion, by reason of wars, past, present, or future, in the present international situation...
...This is ultra-expert testimony...
...But unless all things above the rifle are outlawed, we get back to the hydrogen bomb and the atomic bomb when war comes...
...But we ought not to throw away $30,000,000,000 every year and be content to say, "Oh, well, we will do it so long as that fellow does...
...Let us see if we cannot remove, by courageous, determined, and honest effort, from the minds of the Russians and those associated with them, and from the minds of our own people and those associated with us, the fearful and darkening threat of the possibility of the last great war of them all, which carries with it the possible extinction of all humankind...
...We want peace...
...If at some point they quarrel over who rightfully should have this or that square, conflict ensues...
...No sooner will the hydrogen bomb be a reality than a new bomb—the X-£omb—will be on its way...
...Its text follows: RESOLVED, That the United Nations is hereby requested to invite the representatives of the governments of all nations to enter into an understanding and agreement to achieve world disarmament on land, on sea, and in the air, including bacteriological warfare, poison-gas warfare, and so forth, by Jan...
...Is it possible to find a formula where the East and the West can do business writing out the burden, the fear, and the unlimited disaster of another world war...
...The present version, however, makes the United Nations the instrument for action...
...This situation calls for strong action, and we cannot take it 250 years from now...
...If what I say is true—and who is there to doubt it?—shall we be like dumb driven cattle waiting for the butcher's knife...
...There must be many Russians who want to be relieved of the awful burden of slaving not for themselves and their families but for the waste of giant armaments...
...Men are taking the universe apart...
...The Secretary holds the door a little ajar...
...Let us assume that there was the proper type of inspection inherent in the agreement which would keep these two nations, and all others, from embarking upon the making of either bombs...
...It is a call to restore to mankind those inalienable rights —life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—with which our Creator, has endowed us...
...George F. Kennan, the able counselor of the State Department, says war is possible...
...We are willing to work for peace...
...It is a call that all but a few will heed...
...They are not in the American tradition...
...It is the call that stems from strength...
...The calling of a world disarmament conference is fraught with great possibilities for good, even if it should fail...
...We propose that each side show his good faith really to secure peace before the bar of world public opinion...
...Events have been catching up with us...
...Let us then suppost that war came, without either natien having the bomb, but that other conventional means of destructions were employed...
...probably three or four million men...
...Or shall we take firm, aggressive action in good faith backed up by the logic of the situation, with an appeal to all mankind to come forward and act in an effort to put an end to what now causes so much fear, a fear which will darken and still further darken the atmosphere with the passing of the hours and the days...
...I believe we must be willing, eager, and able to lay our case before the world's jury...
...We are not faced with a flood or a famine or a typhoon or a tidal wave...
...It must form part of the pattern of our planning...
...The first factor is that Russia now has the atomic bomb and the means for making more of them...
...We must either retreat back to America and pursue a policy of armed and isolated neutrality, or go to war with Russia, or just hold fast as we are...
...Dean Ache-son has outlined the difficulties of achieving peace...
...Maybe it will...
Vol. 14 • May 1950 • No. 5
