Forceful Speech

From former (1949-53) U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson, speaking last fortnight in Detroit and last week at the University of New Hampshire, came two forceful, well-argued statements on U.S. foreign policy.

In recession-plagued Detroit, fearful of foreign economic competition, Acheson made a to-the-point plea for liberalized foreign trade and for deploying more U.S. funds overseas as an answer to Russia's growing economic challenge. Said Acheson: "Does anybody in this state seriously doubt the vast benefit its citizens have received from the purchase and export by foreign aid programs over nine years of $3.1 billion of motor vehicles, iron and steel items, machinery and chemicals, not to mention $9 billion of other industrial and agricultural items? In 1955, the last year for which we have figures, over 30,000 workers in this state were employed on manufacture of goods involved in this program, which should be two or three times as large."

Point by point, Acheson set forth his own program: "First, a substantial increase in the export of capital, both governmental and private, from North America and Western Europe; then, a substantial increase in imports into dollar areas, chiefly the U.S.; and finally, an overhauling of our international financial institutions, principally the International Monetary Fund, to make possible the expansion of world exchange reserves and the provision of more credit where it can be most effective."

In New Hampshire last week, Acheson drew on his knowledge of diplomatic history and his own experiences as Secretary of State, argued effectively against the hand-wringers of his own party (including his longtime friend and State Department key man, George Kennan) who insist on the international summit conference even if held on propaganda-serving Soviet terms.

The 1955 Geneva Conference, said Dean Acheson, "was not merely a failure; it was a fraud and positive harm . . . Unless the situation is ripe for settlement, then, no matter how eminent the participants, how perceptive their insight, how bold and imaginative their conceptions, their efforts will fail. In the last twelve years the international conference has ceased to be an instrument for ending conflict and has become one for continuing it. For high international negotiations it is not necessary that chiefs of state or heads of government be involved."

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