Years of Opportunity

Sir Winston Churchill in the House of Commons last week clothed common sense with eloquence to align Britain with U.S. policy on the use of hydrogen bombs as a major deterrent against Communism. As he cast up the atomic probabilities of the future (see FOREIGN NEWS), he emphasized that the U.S. still has an enormous superiority over the Communists in hydrogen bombs--and the Communists probably will not catch up for three or four years.

The question that Churchill's speech left vibrating in the air was: What will the free nations do-with those three or four years? Even as Churchill was speaking last week, U.S. Secretary of State Dulles in the Far East was setting the foundations for a political-military alliance that could, if carried through, provide a position of strength for years to come. Dulles' delicate and difficult job: to build the will to resist without provoking war; to promise protection, yet to avoid tying down U.S. strength; to present to the Communists a front that is both adamant and flexible. Since many of the pressures on Dulles sprang from exaggerated jitters about World War III, his important task was bound to be made easier as the free world absorbs Churchill's wisdom and learns the real meaning of its years of opportunity: relative safety lies in greater anti-Communist strength.

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