The Great Debate

The next great Congressional debate on the international position of the U.S. will come this fall. Once the question for debate was: Should the U.S. cooperate with the other United Nations? Now all that is over the dam. The people have said yes (the most recent Gallup poll showed 74% for an international police force). The Republican Party generally has cleared its skirts of isolationism; with this refuge gone, only a few really bigoted isolationists remain.

The debate has moved to a new phase: How should the U.S. cooperate? And how specifically should Congress assure such cooperation?

Last week Congress readied the stage. In the Senate, Michigan's Arthur H. Vandenberg, once solidly identified with Republican isolationism, joined with Maine's Republican Wallace H. White Jr. to plump for postwar cooperation. Their resolution avoided specific commitments.

Four months ago, when Senators Ball, Burton, Hatch and Hill introduced their provocative resolution (now known as B2H2), a full-dress debate on the U.S. postwar position was unthinkable. The B2H2 resolution is the most specific of all postwar resolutions (36 to date) before Congress: it calls on the U.S. to take the initiative in forming a United Nations organization to set up machinery for peaceful settlement of disputes between nations and establish a United Nations police force to stop future aggression. Texas' Tom Connally, chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, stuffed B2H2 into his pigeonhole.

Last week sponsors of B2H2 bluntly served notice that they would demand debate on their resolution when Congress returns this autumn. Then they announced a bold and backbreaking plan to enlist popular support. Throughout the heat of July and August, eight teams of Congressmen--one Democrat and one Republican to a team--will stump 26 States in favor of B2H2. Republican Joe Ball, teamed with Tennessee's Representative Albert Gore, started the tour this week on the West Coast. Besides the other three authors of B2H2, the teams include, from the Senate: Missouri's Truman, Michigan's Ferguson, South Carolina's Maybank; from the House: Minnesota's Judd, Pennsylvania's Wright, Maine's Hale, Georgia's Ramspeck, Oklahoma's Monroney, Indiana's La Follette and Massachusetts' Herter--some of the best brains in Congress.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.