The War of Words

In Paris, before the world's microphones and camera lenses, the U.S. had a great chance to demonstrate the justness of its cause. The U.S. was missing that chance. After a good start, it had permitted Andrei Vishinsky to take the initiative. To millions who feared war, Vishinsky made it seem that the West was stalling on disarmament.

Russia had suggested a cut of one-third in armed forces and armament for the Big Five, and a "control" system of atomic energy. Since the enforcement of both programs would be in the veto-bound hands of the Security Council, the plan would, in effect, give Russia freedom to do what she pleased.

What the Headlines Say. The chief Western reply to Vishinsky was made by Warren Austin. Said he: "Does any member of this committee think . . . that the members of the United Nations should disarm while the Soviet Union gives no evidence whatsoever that it is willing to participate in the world community? . . . Are we dreaming? . . ."

Nevertheless, Vishinsky kept stealing the headlines, even in the U.S., with what a hurried reader might take to be genuine disarmament proposals. The U.S. delegation could have stopped this nonsense if it had kept on proposing to Russia, loudly and firmly, that the nations agree to arms control, with untrammeled inspection. If they had done so, Vishinsky would have been answering them. As it was, they were answering him--and he sounded highly plausible. Samples:

"We are told: 'Well, you have huge armies. If you reduce them by one-third, you will not feel it.' We say: 'You have huge navies.' And you have atomic bombs, that little bomb . . . You adopt our resolution, gentlemen . . . then we will put our cards on the table. Every single one of them. But, gentlemen, put your cards on the table too, right next to ours ... As far as the U.S.S.R. is concerned ... the cards will be true and genuine. You can count on that . . . You say we are not pacifists. Of course we are not pacifists--we are not vegetarians either. If we were, we should have long ago been eaten up by the Hitlerites . . ."

What the Heart Wants. Next day Britain's Sir Hartley Shawcross replied to Vishinsky. Said he: "One word from Russia: one little word--'stop'--would enable [the world's] troubled countries to put their house in order . . . One little word, and it doesn't come . . . My heart, like the heart of my country, wants peace. Not the peace of slavery. Not the still peace of death, but peace and honor . . ."

It was a moving try. Nevertheless, it was Andrei Vishinsky's propaganda which would get out of U.N.'s earphones into the ears of the world.

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