On Call

For the second time in seven weeks, the U.S. put its military power on the line to defend an ally from threat of attack. Last July's response to a cry of help from Lebanon was swift, effective and--as the world's non-Communist governments were bound to note--unchallenged by the big-talking Communists. The Chinese Communist threats to conquer Formosa, and the stepped-up attacks on the offshore Nationalist island of Quemoy (see FOREIGN NEWS), last week brought an equally powerful presidential warning that the U.S. would not hesitate to counterattack, and it brought prompt deployment of U.S. fighting forces. New element in the Quemoy warning: the U.S. was prepared to retaliate by bombing the attacker's home bases if necessary.

Taken together, the U.S. responses to threats by force were the most important foreign-policy moves since Korea. As no mere reassuring pronouncement could do, they guaranteed that the most powerful arms in the world were on call to defend national freedom, that in its attempt to work toward a just and foolproof peace the free world could deal from ready strength and not from weakness.

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