DISARMAMENT

The U.S. Tries Again

Ever since the atom became a weapon, the U.S. has been creating new programs for arms control and disarmament as fast as the Russians can reject them. Last week, in his address to the U.N. General Assembly. President Kennedy put forth still another U.S. offer to get started on planning for peace. This time the President picked up and took as his own the Soviet Union's perennial demand for "general and complete disarmament"--but backed up that sweeping plea with some specific proposals. Kennedy's steps toward disarmament included:

sb Signing a nuclear test ban treaty. "This can be done now," he challenged. "Test ban negotiations need not and should not await general disarmament."

sb Halting the production of fissionable materials for use in weapons and the transfer of such materials to nonnuclear powers.

sb Prohibiting the transfer of nuclear weapons to nations that do not have them.

sb Keeping nuclear weapons from outer space.

sb Destroying strategic missiles and aircraft that could deliver nuclear bombs.

Actually, the President's program contained little that had not been suggested before by Harry Truman or Dwight Eisenhower--and it offered nothing that seemed likely to lure the Russians from previous stands against disarmament inspections. Despite Kennedy's promise to resume discussions of any one step toward disarmament whenever agreement seemed in sight, the U.S. plan is basically a step-by-step approach requiring international inspection to ensure that each stage has been carried out.

A Start. Until the possibility of eventual disarmament is destroyed by Soviet intransigence, Kennedy is willing to keep working for some form of agreement. Last week that work got a start when the President signed into law the brand-new U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and named William Chapman Foster, 64, as its director. Set up as a semi-autonomous agency, operating out of the State Department building, ACADA has long been a pet Kennedy project. Appalled that only about 75 people in the U.S. Government were at work on disarmament planning under Eisenhower, Kennedy set out to create a specific agency for the work, got congressional approval a fortnight ago.

Bill Foster was a logical choice to head the new agency. Like new CIA

Chief John McCone, Foster was long ago appraised by the New Frontier's talent scouts as an able, experienced administrator who might some day fill a job for President Kennedy. Also like McCone, he is a Republican, which may help fend off partisan objections to actions taken by an agency new to the ways of Washington. Born in New Jersey, courteous, methodical Bill Foster studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, piloted "Flying Jennies" as a combat instructor during World War I, then spent 24 years with Long Island's Pressed & Welded Steel Products Co.

A Spiral. Since World War II, Foster has held five major Government jobs, ranging from Under Secretary of Commerce (1946-48) to Deputy Secretary of Defense (1951-53). He is thoroughly familiar with both peaceful and military uses of atomic energy: since 1955 he has been vice president of Olin Mathieson Chemical Corp., which is spending millions in development of nuclear fuels, and in 1958 he headed a U.S. delegation to the U.S.Soviet conference in Geneva that futilely attempted to develop a system for preventing surprise attacks. By the reputation he brings to his new job, Foster is a just boss, but a tough one: when he served with the Economic Cooperation Administration in Paris in 1948, he fined subordinates 100 francs each time they showed up late for staff meetings.

Foster has an unenviable task. So long as the Soviets continue to threaten nuclear war, his agency is sure to face national--and congressional--apathy. (Noted Barry Goldwater last week: "I have no faith in disarmament. There is always one s.o.b. in the world who won't go along with it.") But Foster is convinced that, ultimately, nuclear explosions can and should be brought to an end. "You're not helping your security by spiraling the buildup of arms," he says. "You're only counteracting it."

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