Peace & the Bomb

"Only after the Proletariat has disarmed the Bourgeoisie will it be able, without destroying its world historical mission, to throw all armaments on the scrap heap . . ."

--Lenin

So wrote the father of Bolshevism in 1916. Thirty-eight years later, his words still guide the policy of his heirs. For six weeks this summer, representatives of the U.S., Britain, France and Canada met privately in London with representatives of Russia, headed by Jacob Malik of veto fame. The hope was that, freed of the necessity to strike postures in public, they might find some solution to the problem that besets all mankind: fear of H-bomb destruction.

Last week, reporting to an almost empty House of Commons, British Minister of State Selwyn Lloyd told what went wrong. The West had put forward a new, more flexible plan for controlled nuclear disarmament: the Russians budged "not an inch." But, added Lloyd, "I do not despair. What we have to do now is to mobilize world opinion. I believe we have really produced a blueprint for disarmament which is, in spite of all the incredible difficulties, workable."

U.S. Delegate Morehead Patterson, Manhattan industrialist (American Machine & Foundry Co.), found nothing at all to be encouraged about in the London talks. Said he in a cogent speech to the U.N.'s Disarmament Commission:

"The Soviet Union took more rigid positions than ever before, making it perfectly clear, where there might have been a doubt, that it will not permit a control organ to . . . take effective action in the case of violation of a disarmament agreement . . . It also became perfectly clear . . . that the Soviet Union would not permit a control organ to . . . deal vigorously with clandestine violations of a disarmament program. To use the precise example which appeared during the meetings, the control organ could not investigate a tractor factory suspected of producing munitions . . . The Soviet Union was less interested in negotiating on disarmament than in launching a large-scale propaganda campaign . . ."

Persistently, unyieldingly, Russia's Malik insisted at London on the same old Soviet plan which would in effect disarm the West without disarming Soviet Russia. "The U.S. is prepared to go ahead with any discussion or negotiations which give any promise whatever," said Patterson. "But the U.S.S.R. responds to everything we say with its simple nostrum: 'Ban the bomb; trust us Russians!' "

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