Three Strikes & Out

Among the many voices raised to counsel, berate or admonish the U.S. last week, none rang more determinedly than that of a Quaker who at one time or another has been a pacifist college professor, a Socialist, a nationally known economist, a hardworking politician, and a combat soldier. It was the voice of Illinois' able Senator Paul Douglas, and it was raised in three major speeches and three national radio forums.

Senator Douglas had decided that the time had come to 1) stand firm in Asia, 2) demand a like firmness from the U.S.'s allies, and 3) be ready to fight Russia itself the next time a Communist satellite moved.

"While our situation is desperate, it is not hopeless," said Douglas. "The decision to evacuate Korea should be a military decision, not a political decision. If we leave, we should leave honorably, under gunfire ... It happens to be my division* which was up there in the north fighting its way out, and a great many of the enlisted men and the officers are my close and personal friends . . . I'm sure that their spirit is one which believes in resistance and does not believe in cowardly acquiescence."

Time to Be Primitive. Douglas wanted the U.S. to accept Chiang Kai-shek's offer to send 33,000 soldiers of his Formosa army to Korea. Quoting an old soldiers' saying, Douglas added: "'He's an s.o.b., but he's our s.o.b.' Sometimes things get as primitive as that and if you wait until you have perfect allies . . . you will be very lonely."

". . . We should carry on a blockade of the Chinese coast and I hope our British friends will join us in that ... If any appeasement is needed, I would say that the British could make a very excellent gesture by offering Hong Kong to the Communists . . . I've been an interventionist for the last 20 years, but I think it will be very difficult to commit the U.S. to the land defense of continental Europe unless the other nations help us in the Far East . . ."

Was Interventionist Douglas* implying that he might become an isolationist? "No, I am not saying that, but I'm saying that we cannot afford to defend people who will not either defend the peace of the world, or defend themselves."

The Other Cheek. He also thought the U.S. should use its A-bomb against the Chinese troops if & when the generals think it militarily practical. "We should not be afraid of it on moral grounds," said Douglas. "You can kill a man just as much with a rifle or a machine-gun bullet ... as you can with an atomic bomb."

But the heart of the matter was in Moscow. "We've been extraordinarily forgiving and forbearing with the Russians," said Douglas. "We have pretended that the attack of the North Koreans was an attack by North Koreans alone . . . We are pretending that the attack of the Chinese Communists is an isolated act whereas we know that it is with the consent and direction of Russia. We have turned the other cheek twice and I believe in a limited application of the Sermon on the Mount. But I also believe in the American slogan, three strikes and you're out.

"I have come to the conclusion that the next aggressive movement by a satellite should be regarded by us as an act of war and we should then unleash such power as we have directly upon Russia itself."

*Douglas joined the Marine Corps as a private in 1942, when he was 50, went into combat on Peleliu as an officer, was discharged a lieutenant colonel with a permanent disability: his left arm, stitched by a machine-gun burst, is crippled.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.