Speaking Out, Softly

Amid rising demands that the U.S. Government "do" something about Communist Cuba, the Senate last week at least said something. By a vote of 86 to 1, the Senate passed a resolution declaring that the U.S., in the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine, is determined to:

> Employ "whatever means may be necessary, including the use of arms, " to prevent the Castro regime from "extending by force or threat of force its aggressive or subversive activities to any part of this hemisphere."

> Prevent the buildup in Cuba of "an externally supported military capability" that would endanger the U.S.'s security.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously voted out an identical resolution. It will probably be passed by the House and signed by the President this week.

"War Hysteria." With the automatism of Pavlov's dogs, Communists salivated with denunciations. In Moscow, Red Star warned that Soviet armed forces "are in a position of highest military readiness to crush the aggressors." A Red Chinese broadcast accused the U.S. of "frantically preparing a new military aggression against Cuba." In his opening speech at the new session of the United Nations, Russia's Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko raged at the "war hysteria" and "campaign of hate" in the U.S., warned of war if the U.S. moves against Cuba.

But the Reds really had little to complain about. The Cuba resolution, as the Senate report on it said, was "firm but not threatening." In effect it went along with the President's contention that the Soviet weapons in Cuba are "defensive" in nature. How formidable the military buildup has become was evident from an official report on what U.S. intelligence has detected so far. It includes twelve antiaircraft missile installations under construction, eight patrol boats carrying guided missiles with a range of n to 17 miles, and some 60 MIG fighter planes. At the coastal town of Banes, 60 miles from the U.S. base at Guantanamo (see THE HEMISPHERE), the Russians are building facilities for launching ground-to-ship missiles with a range of 20 to 35 miles. Since mid-July, the report said, between 65 and 75 shiploads of Soviet military equipment and personnel have unloaded at Cuban ports--and more ships are on the way.

"Nose to Nose." Vermont Republican Winston L. Prouty. who cast the lone Senate vote against the resolution, charged that it "does not even face up to the Cuban problem. It reminds me of the resolve from King Lear that goes:

"I will do such things--

What they are yet I know not,

But they shall be

The terrors of the earth."

Other Republican Senators, including Nebraska's Carl Curtis and Iowa's Jack Miller, grumbled that the resolution was too soft. Florida's Democratic Senator George Smathers said it was only a "first step." In the House, New York's Republican Congressman John R. Pillion thundered that the resolution was "worse than no resolution at all. It scraps the Monroe Doctrine. It legitimizes a foreign regime in Cuba, telling it you can stay there unless you do this or that."

Far from embarrassing President Kennedy, the Cuba resolution carried the White House stamp of approval. Although it cited the Monroe Doctrine, the resolution endorsed the Administration view that the Russian buildup in Cuba, a flagrant violation of the Monroe Doctrine, does not demand any U.S. intervention. That view was affirmed once more in Secretary of State Dean Rusk's testimony before a joint closed-door session of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees. Rusk argued against a U.S. blockade to halt the flow of Commu nist arms to Cuba, or any kind of unilateral U.S. action to deal with Castro. "It is not possible any longer for the U.S. to act strictly in unilateral terms," said Rusk. "We are engaged nose to nose with the Soviet Union right around the globe. It is almost inconceivable that that engagement could become hot at one point and not at others, and at each of these points we are necessarily involved with our allies."

Rusk did not rule out all possibility of U.S. military action against Castro. The U.S. is "conducting a close surveillance of the Caribbean area," he said, and that "could lead to certain incidents which would involve the use of the armed forces." In other words, the U.S. could blunder into military action by accident. Furthermore, "if any elements of armed forces embarked from Cuba for any neighboring countries," U.S. military force would be used to "intercept" the invaders. But as long as Castro refrains from intervening outside Cuba, Rusk seemed to say, the U.S. will refrain from intervening inside Cuba. And so, the Soviet buildup will continue apace.

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