FOREIGN RELATIONS: Toward Disarmament?

"It is not possible to turn backward the clock of nuclear discovery and development, nor to repeal the nuclear age." So declared U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. last week as he launched an important new U.S. offer in the continuing never-say-die attempt to promote workable disarmament. Specifically, the U.S. proposed that the powers agree to:

¶Stockpile all future production of fissionable materials under international supervision for peaceful purposes; once the powers agree on stockpiling future production they may be able to work out a formula for transferring allotments of past production, i.e., potential bombs, to international supervision.

¶Post advance notice of all further nuclear tests during negotiations designed to ban nuclear bombs; once the future production stockpile is worked out, "it would then be possible, in a secure manner, to limit, and ultimately to eliminate, all nuclear test explosions."

¶Move toward a reduction of conventional armed forces to 2,500,000 men for the U.S. and Russia, 750,000 for Britain and France.

¶Devote all future space nights and experiments "exclusively to peaceful and scientific purposes," and conduct space tests "under international inspection."

As he and his American predecessors had done for 10 years, Lodge emphasized that all disarmament measures had to be subject to foolproof inspection and controls to be safe, worthwhile and acceptable to the U.S. As he and his predecessors had done for 10½ years, Soviet First Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Kuznetsov countered with the usual propaganda talk about disarming and banning the bomb, with no assurances about foolproof inspection and controls—an attitude Lodge termed "bitterly discouraging."