FOREIGN RELATIONS: The Basic Assets

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This week, in simple, ringing, memorable sentences, U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles laid out the nation's position in the world as of fall, 1955.

Because the Soviet Union's record is so sullied, Dulles told the American Legion's annual convention in Miami that it is impossible to tell whether the "spirit of Geneva" marks a genuine change of Communist purpose or whether it is a Communist maneuver.

As a result, the U.S. must follow a policy that will not rebuff a real change for the better, but will not expose the nation to mortal danger. "Fortunately," said the Secretary of State, "we have basic assets, material and moral," to underpin that policy.

Productivity. "We have productivity," he said. "Our rate of productivity is the greatest in history, now estimated at nearly $400 billion a year. The magnitude of that can be appreciated when it is noted that it is three times that of the Soviet Union with its much larger population. It is the result of free choice. No governmental decree forces men and women into work that is repugnant to them. And because people do work that they like, they strive to excel, and so become competitive and more productive.

"It is also significant that what our people freely produce is not only huge in quantity but it is widely distributed to bring rising standards of living. Forced labor can, of course, be made to produce some conspicuous results. The world is dotted with monuments of past despotisms, and some new ones are being built today. But admiration of such feats should not submerge pity for the human misery which they cost. Our duty and opportunity is to offer the world the example of an economy which, as a matter of free choice, produces vastly and distributes fairly."

Power. "We have power out of productivity; a part is set aside to make sure that the treasure house of freedom will not be pillaged. We do not like to divert human effort to nonproductive purposes, and it requires a strong sense of duty to apply, as we are doing, more than a tenth of all we produce to national defense. Our Government is striving to bring about conditions which might safely enable us to reduce this nonproductive diversion.

"We do not, however, intend to be reckless in this respect. We had to build hastily the military establishment we needed in World War I; and then we scrapped it. Then, with the coming of World War II, we built up what became the world's greatest military establishment; and again we scrapped it. Then, when the Korean war came, we had to build the third time. This time we do not propose to disarm ourselves unless we can be sure that others are doing the same."

Principles. "We have principles. Our productivity and our power do not rattle haphazardly about the world. They are harnessed to basic moral principles. There is a school of thought which claims that morality and foreign policy do not mix. That never has been, is not, and I pray never will be, the American ideal. Diplomacy which is divorced from morality also divorces the Government from the people. Our people can understand, and will support, policies which can be explained and understood in moral terms. But policies based on carefully calculated expediency could never be explained.