Peace Has Its Bargains

All last week the Senate debated ERP. Michigan's big Arthur Vandenberg, imbued with a sense of "terrible urgency," and with most of the Senate behind him, drove hard for swift action. But against him a handful lined up in relays to argue, haggle, hold back. From the crowded galleries, spectators' attention focused on the massive figure of Big Van, on his feet most of the time, parrying questions, thrusting home his answers, meeting objections & complaints. When he left the floor, Massachusetts' able young Henry

Cabot Lodge stepped up to carry his share of the debate.

Some opponents of ERP seemed determined to sludge up the going. Some, who had once quailed at the magnitude of ERP, now asked: "Is it enough?" How, demanded Missouri's white-haired James P. Kem, could a "wall of dollars" keep Communism out of Western Europe? Arthur Vandenberg admitted that ERP was simply "the best of calculated risks." But Kem insisted on having some kind of "reasonable assurance." Snapped Vandenberg: "Can the Senator from Missouri give me any reasonable assurance as to what the plans of the Politburo are . . . regarding their conquest of the west?"

Erupting Volcano. Minnesota's Joe Ball picked up the argument. Too many foreign-policy programs, he cried, have already been oversold to the U.S. people. Would ERP be any more effective? Joe Ball did not think so. He said: "It is like asking [Europe's] men and women to build a factory on the side of a volcano which is already erupting. ... I see no signs that the Administration has any policy or program ... to solve the problem of pure Soviet power aggression."

Replied Vandenberg: "If the Senator is asking me to disclose the plans of the Executive ... he has applied at the wrong window. ... I know of no bargains that war has. I think that peace does have a bargain once in a while. Perhaps [ERP] is one. I am irrevocably of the opinion that it is well worth finding out."

Joe Ball was far from satisfied. Next day he proposed an amendment to ERP directing the President to begin immediate negotiations with "whatever members of the U.N. will join [us] in an agreement establishing a supreme council without the veto power . . . which could act to stop aggression."

But Not to Vote. Vandenberg countered by inquiring sarcastically: "Is it the Senator's theory that the majority of the . . . nations on his proposed council could declare a state of war . . . without our consent?" It was. "The Senator," taunted Arthur Vandenberg, "is a little more internationalist than I am." "I suspect I am," said Joe Ball. "I think I probably always have been." Vandenberg fired his last broadside: "It is interesting to be in favor of everything that is not available for us to vote on, and not in favor of anything that is."

Joe Ball did not press his amendment. Other opponents of ERP kept attacking. They charged that ERP, besides encouraging socialist governments, might even aid Russia. Nevada's George Malone, who held the floor for one whole day, revived an old sneer: "Sure, there'll always be an England--so long as we continue to finance her." Then Vandenberg's foes hatched a plan to slash the ERP commitment from $5.3 billion to $4 billion. There was little expectation that their plan would be accepted. But, thanks to obstructionist maneuverings, ERP would not pass as soon as Vandenberg had hoped.

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