A Decade of Peace?

As the United Nations opened its Tenth General Assembly (see NEWS IN PICTURES), attention centered on the heads of two delegations. Would the conciliatory "spirit of Geneva" be carried into the

General Assembly and broadened there by U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov?

Firm & Hopeful. Dulles, the first of the two to speak, was firm. No delegate could misunderstand his language when he said that the Geneva spirit could never be genuine or permanent if any nation continued "political offensives aimed at subverting free governments." Equally sharp was his charge that the veto power had been abused in the Security Council, and his recommendation that the proposed conference to review the U.N. Charter should reconsider the veto procedure on admission of new members. His label of "evil" for the record of the Chinese Communist regime showed that the U.S. had not stepped down from its position that

Red China should not be admitted to the U.N.

But the U.S. Secretary of State saw signs of progress: "It was ten years ago last month that the fighting stopped in World War II. We have lived through the subsequent decade without another world war. That is something for which we should be profoundly thankful. But true peace has not been enjoyed. There have been limited wars; free nations have been subverted and taken over; there has been the piling up of armament, and there have been rigidities of position which are imposed upon those who regard each other as potential fighting enemies.

"That phase may now be ending. I believe that all four of the heads of government who were at Geneva wanted that result and that each contributed to it. In consequence, a new spirit does indeed prevail, with greater flexibility and less brittleness in international relations.

"Some find it interesting to speculate as to which nations gained and which lost from this development. I would say that if the 'spirit of Geneva' is to be permanent, then all the world must be the gainer.

The 'Summit' meeting, if it is to be historic, rather than episodic, must usher in an era of peaceful change. It will not be an era of placidity and stagnancy, in the sense that the status quo, with its manifold injustices, will be accepted as permanent. It will be an era of change . . ." As if to get that era on its way. he announced that "the Western powers are ready to advance some overall plan of European security which would give the Soviet Union substantial additional reassurances." His closing plea was based on hope: "Let us strive together ... so that when this Assembly meets at its 20th session, it will look back upon the decade that now begins and call it the healing decade of true peace." Smiling & Unyielding. Next day Molotov rose to state the Russian position.

Since his arrival in the U.S. five days earlier, the Russian Foreign Minister had been living up the new Russian diplomatic etiquette, smiling for cameramen, making genial remarks ("I have gained the impression that the road from Moscow to New York now has become better and smoother") and even giving autographs.

When he walked to the rostrum, in well-tailored, single-breasted navy blue, he could have been mistaken for a shrewd bank president or a shy professor.

Neither Molotov's tone nor his words contained any of the old Soviet vituperation. He, too, saw welcome "changes which are contributing to the relaxation of tensions in relations between nations." But he was unyielding in the basic Russian position: the Soviet Union and Communist China are the real champions of world peace; the North Atlantic Treaty Organization must be scrapped; U.S. bases abroad must be abandoned; Red China must be admitted to the U.N.; and the Big Nation veto, which the Russians have used to thwart the peacekeeping function of the U.N.'s Security Council, must be allowed to operate even more widely than it has in the past.

While the U.N. listened to Dulles and Molotov, it was disclosed that President Eisenhower had received an unprecedented, 2,000-word personal letter from Prime Minister Bulganin. Discussing the President's Geneva proposal for an exchange of military blueprints and for free aerial inspection. Bulganin did little more than rehash previous Soviet disarmament proposals and urge the President to work for them. While the President considered his plan as the beginning of a path to disarmament, Bulganin wanted a Soviet-style disarmament plan to come first. In language as warm as Molotov's smile, Bulganin neither accepted nor rejected the President's proposals.

When the week's words and smiles were added up, it was clear that they did not hold rich promise for John Foster Dulles' decade of healing peace. The best that could be foreseen was a period of well-mannered, well-armed negotiation.

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