THE IMPERATIVES OF PEACE
McMahon, Brien
The Imperatives of Peace By Sen. BRIEN McMAHON IWRITE this to express the dictates of conscience—not alone for my own conscience, but in such measure as I may for the conscience of my country. I...
...Our actions must positively demonstrate that we regard our moral position in the world as of transcendent importance—actually as our greatest line of defense...
...He laid down what I like to call the two imperatives of peace—first, foolproof disarmament and, second, use of the money thus saved for human betterment...
...Without sending into battle a single Russian soldier, the Kremlin threatens to win the truly decisive battle: the struggle for the minds and souls of men...
...I have therefore proposed that the Senate adopt a resolution expressing friendship for the people of Russia by the people of the United States...
...that while we arm for defense, we ardently desire a just peace...
...She is at the summit which Hitler and Tojo reached only after a long chain of conquests...
...If it were rejected, the American people would lose nothing in material terms and they would gain in moral stature...
...and that we ask the Soviet Government to publicize these facts in their newspapers and over the radio...
...A year ago, when many members of the Senate worked toward the altogether desirable goal of balancing the budget, I ventured to predict that our military expenditures would mock at such hopes, that they would force our budget up and up and up...
...And yet, despite this contrast in conduct during the years after World War II, untold millions still gravitate toward Moscow's cause...
...They requested signatures at union meetings...
...I think they have a right to expect from us a forthright declaration of where we stand...
...But we must go even further...
...The petition asked that the nations agree not to use atomic weapons, and demanded that the first party to break this pledge be branded an aggressor...
...In this way, our armaments would be transformed into foods, medicines, tools for use in underdeveloped areas, and into other aids for human ad' vancement . , . Thus we could give real meaning to the old promise that swords shall be beaten into plowshares, and that the nations shall not learn war any more...
...Today, 10 months later, we know that $50,000,000,000 will be spent— not in five years, but in less than one year—all for engines of war, none for engines of peace...
...The Congress shares the blame...
...It cunningly ignored the fact that the real crime against world peace is international aggression—of the kind the Soviets have abetted in Korea...
...Truman said: "If real disarmament were achieved, the nations of the world, acting through the United Nations, could join in a greatly enlarged program of mutual aid...
...I refer to the spurious peace movement that operated under the guise of the Stockholm petition...
...there are no scapegoats...
...Our European friends, it is true, have been gullible...
...I declare that the United States owes its greatness to idealism...
...If they are left unsaid, they may remain buried until the wreckage of our civilization closes over them...
...I see blunt truths that need to be said...
...untold millions suspect us of aggressive imperialism and remain blind to the terrifying advance of the Soviet power...
...Their hearts were open to anything, no matter how deceitful, that promised them peace...
...The era of colonialism is dead...
...There is again talk of a Big Four meeting to compose international differences...
...it is intended in good faith...
...The offer which we propose would not cost the United States one cent to make—and nothing but good could come from that offer...
...I regard it as altogether imperative that we so express our desire to live in friendship with all the worlds peoples...
...The Voice of America, let us never forget, merely transmits policy: it does not make it...
...The men in the Kremlin are stockpiling atomic weapons...
...Let us recognize that fact and welcome the new movement toward political and economic freedom which has taken its place...
...We have properly worked to reconstitute the free world's military strength, but meanwhile some of us have not realized that weapons are worthless unless the men behind them passionately believe in the rightness of their cause...
...Peace instead of war, bread instead of bombs, life instead of death —here is the terminus of our foreign policy, the end point of our strivings...
...It carefully did not mention that only Soviet opposition has prevented worldwide adoption of a plan that would truly end the threat of atomic war by effectively regulating the manufacture of these weapons...
...Why have so many put this topsy-turvy interpretation on our record...
...Here is a proposal the peasant will understand...
...I am convinced that if we can get the ear of the Russian people, it will work...
...Once again, however, we must refrain from calling the kettle black...
...We act almost as if we believe that merely wishing will make it so...
...need filling no less than their stomachs...
...Their expanding air force includes long-range bombers...
...The campaign was disarmingly simple, and its real purpose was equally simple—to disarm the free world of the one thing that prevents all-out Soviet aggression—its atomic superiority...
...Is it any wonder that the Stockholm appeal mightily strengthened the cause of European neutrality...
...All our national history is proof that a fighting faith comes from more than the cold metal of armaments or the cement of factory walls...
...All of us could then pool even greater resources to support the United Nations in its war against want...
...I believe that the resolution which my colleagues and I introduced last session—and which I shall reintroduce—informs the world that we have an affirmative program for justice and peace and human enrichment...
...We have failed because we have not completely rallied the moral and spiritual strength of the free world as a mighty force for peace...
...Our record, with all its shortcomings, emphasizes the constructive achievements of the Marshall Plan, our offer to share all that is good in atomic energy in return for safeguards against its military exploitation, and our determination to build a strong and free United Nations...
...that we do not desire the death of a single Russian soldier...
...I believe that it would find responsive hearers wherever men yearn for peace and security...
...I believe, in fact, that a resolution of this character might dramatically change for the better the course of the ideological war which now flows so strongly in the Soviet's favor...
...I challenge the skeptics to produce a superior program...
...They would like nothing better than a pooling of resources to lift the world toward a new city of man...
...If we lay down a moral program of splendid and compelling dimensions, the Voice will do its part...
...Speaking before the United Nations, in one of the great addresses of our history, Mr...
...Last October, President Truman set forth a program capable of achieving this mighty result...
...They must learn that we do this only with heavy heart...
...We almost appear to think that verbal incantations will somehow repeal the inexorable laws of an accelerating arms race...
...Why are the tides in the ideological conflict still running so strongly against us...
...If the Senate does its part—if it declares our friendship toward the ordinary people of Russia—if it puts its weight behind an audacious program for bread instead of bombs— the free world could enter upon meetings possessing a mora] strength such as it has never before known...
...There must be a positive alternative to all-out war...
...bicycle riders carried it to farmers...
...Through that resolution, we asked that the Congress formally advocate the two imperatives of peace as the supreme moral goal of our nation's policy...
...I insist we had better hope this program can work...
...I predicted also that the regimentation necessarily accompanying the na-tion-in-arms would force our freedoms down and down and down...
...In essence, the resolutions I have commended to the Senate do no more than bring out from hiding what we Americans deeply believe...
...No sensible man will dispute the magnitude of our peril...
...It is a fault common to all of us...
...It is still within our power, thank God, to confute this somber prophecy, but we must act valiantly and we must act now to do anything and everything in our power to find an honorable and just alternative to otherwise inevitable war...
...Why are we still waiting to tell the world, "Here is our defense money...
...If the offer were accepted, not one penny of the taxpayers' money would be spent that would not have been spent in any event—that would not have gone for armaments if a foolproof system of world-wide control had failed to take effect...
...it asks no more than the rights we accord to all other nations...
...As the cost of maintaining armaments decreased, every nation could greatly increase its contributions to advancing human welfare...
...this is not the fault of the Republicans or the Democrats...
...The Europeans have fought and heroically died for freedom, and they are willing to do it again...
...Why is this Congress not now proclaiming and raising on high these identical aims as the crux of our moral plan for peace...
...It would tell all the world—the French, the Italians, the Indians, the Chinese, the Egyptians, the Czechs, the Poles —that we Americans, with all our hearts, want a just peace, and that we arm only because our lives and honor are desperately imperiled...
...Here is a proposal which might gather to itself such support that not all the opposition on earth could stop its march to fulfillment...
...Present-day Russia already controls one-third of the world...
...While our eyes were on Korea last summer we overlooked a tremendous Communist victory in Western Europe...
...1 believe that my co--sponsors on that Senate resolution combine idealism with practical hard-headedness...
...But truth has a dynamic quality...
...Why have we failed...
...they must understand that we would prefer—far prefer—to use our skills and moneys for human enrichment...
...Nonetheless, the peoples of the earth, and the Russian people especially, must know why we are rearming...
...Inspectors from each country would make absolutely certain, with their own eyes and ears, that the other had truly kept its agreement...
...Why are we not now declaring, in no uncertain terms, that the official policy of the U. S. Congress rests upon the two imperatives of peace: foolproof control of weapons and use of the money saved for human betterment...
...Today we "face a military budget of $71,000,000,000, and even this sum will prove sadly inadequate if the arms race rushes onward...
...and we must presume that they are working on the development of hydrogen bombs as well...
...Truman defined the basic goals of our foreign policy...
...The Communists have done an excellent job of selling the idea that the United States is war-minded and seeks conquest...
...Without firing a single shot, the Soviet Union is depriving us of our weapon prized above all others —our reputation as a nation ardently desiring peace with justice...
...I believe the massive danger now confronting our nation stems primarily from our failure to recognize the strength of the spirit as the only absolute weapon...
...Some skeptics will no doubt brand this resolution impractical and idealistic...
...I believe that such a declaration would more than undo the disastrous effects of the Stockholm appeal...
...And the end is not yet...
...One example suffices...
...Peace with justice has always been —and is now—the overriding objective of our citizens...
...It is not a propaganda trick...
...We are building our defenses against the Soviet armies and against their atomic weapons...
...I know we must start striving to see that it does work...
...We are all of us fond of repeating that war is not inevitable...
...Early last February I pointed out that if a safe system of weapons control went into effect and if our military expenses were, therefore, reduced two-thirds, we would save some $50,000,000,000 over a period of five years...
...I suggested that we offer to take such a sum as this $50,000,000,000—once the control system were proved to be airtight— and use it for Point Four programs and technical assistance to backward areas and splitting the atom for peace...
...that our government stands ready at all times to compose its differences with the Soviet Government through honorable negotiations...
...Arguing against any such comforting notion is 5,000 years of history, which teaches over and over and over that arms races always lead to war—under today's conditions, atomic war...
...We must demonstrate that we are willing to do our share and more in bringing about such a fraternity of mankind, and that we have a program that can lead men toward the final enshrinement of human brotherhood...
...I am completely in favor of honorable negotiations...
...II Our failure in this respect does not lie at the doorstep of any individual or any department of the Government...
...I believe it would immeasurably strengthen us in our struggle with the few men who control Russia's destinies...
...The recent conference of British Commonwealth Prime Ministers called for a frank exchange of views with Stalin...
...But are we sure that we have as yet offered them a satisfactory answer to the Communist peace campaign...
...Unless we act boldly and immediately to wrench history from its present course, war is inevitable...
...It is one of the tragedies of our time that we in the Congress have so far failed to act affirmatively for peace by putting ourselves foursquare behind the ultimate foreign policy objectives the President announced before the United Nations...
...In both Europe and the Orient we have taken a severe propaganda beating from the Communists in recent years...
...Too many, I fear, have overlooked what all military leaders hold to be axiomatic—that even cold military power ultimately rests upon morale, and that morale, in turn, rests upon a surety of conviction that one's cause is the cause of decent men...
...Before going to the Senate he served for four years as Assistant U. S. Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice Criminal Division...
...I am supporting that program all the way, and yet I am deeply concerned lest the world think that America is reaching for the sword of steel as though it alone would save her...
...The history of the past five years shows that the Soviet Union has extinguished the freedom of 700,000,000 people, has flatly rejected the international control of atomic energy regarded as wise and just by all the free world, and has operated a reverse Marshall Plan, stripping her satellites of their industries and draining them of their resources...
...I fear that some of us take false refuge in such reiteration...
...They have tagged America with the epithet "warmonger'' and have sold it to an alarming extent...
...We could act to fill the giant vacuum of yearning across the world— yearning for a program adequate to establish peace and worthy of decent and free men...
...I propose that we simultaneously ask the Soviet Government to make this resolution known to the Russian people...
...McMahon's program for world reconstruction and disarmament, first announced a year ago, will be reintroduced soon in the 82nd Congress...
...We should in turn fortify their resolution by a bold proclamation of those principles to which free men everywhere will pledge their all...
...First elected to the Senate in 1944, he was reelected in 1950 despite a bitter campaign waged against him by the forces of McCarthy-ism...
...Our failure to proclaim such a program is a national failure...
...In no manner would this declaration constitute a hostile act...
...their fleet contains submarines potentially capable of launching guided missiles against our shores...
...We confront the grim prospect of price controls, allocations, rationing, increased requirements for military service, and a thousand and one other growing encroachments upon our cherished liberties...
...I think we have failed because we have not sufficiently put first things first...
...join us in a secure system to regulate all weapons, and the money you save, along with the money we save, can be pooled through a common United Nations fund to buy bread and tractors...
...III This manifesto would serve to do more than express our friendship for the Russian people...
...priests and ministers were asked to circulate it among their congregations...
...Our country has embarked on a great program of rearmament to guard against aggression...
...The Communist zealots spread this petition, of whose existence many of us were hardly aware, with their customary fervor...
...I believe that the Senate should immediately undertake a ringing declaration of America's intentions...
...I shall therefore press for formal action by the elected representatives of the people—showing that Congress is ready and eager to back a plan which can banish fear and want...
...Without engaging a solitary Red division, the Soviets may destroy America's moral position before the free world...
...Some of us have nonetheless supposed that global situations of strength could be created solely with guns and goods...
...I stand, as I have always stood in the past, for all the tanks and planes and atomic weapons we need to frustrate Stalin's designs...
...Yet one supreme danger we are largely ignoring...
...it expresses a legitimate request...
...But standing by itself, the resolution would be insufficient...
...Some will, of course, charge that the Kremlin would ignore such a resolution...
...These stark facts were obvious last spring to those distinguished colleagues of both parties who joined me in sponsoring Senate Concurrent Resolution No...
...The resolution which I suggest might emphasize, in plain language, that America does not want war...
...They must understand that we will never close the door on peace, and that there is no malice in our hearts or in our actions...
...We have rightfully worked to invigorate the free world's economic strength, but in the process many of us have forgotten that men's souls BRIEN McMAHON, senior U. S. Senator from Connecticut, is chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy...
...Everyday Europeans, who had known five years of total war, flocked to sign this cunning document...
...We are about to appropriate huge sums for our common defense...
...Its needs are not only material, but of the spirit which seeks the freedom and the equality that for so many generations men of the West have denied to their brothers in the Orient —in India, in China, in Africa...
...Why are we losing ground in the battle for the allegiance of men...
...We find ourselves locked with the masters of Russia in an accelerating armaments competition...
...It is inevitable that we do this...
Vol. 15 • March 1951 • No. 3
