CONFERENCES: With Utmost Vigor

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President Truman grasped the hand of his Secretary of State. "Bon "voyage," he said with breezy assurance. "I know you're going to have a successful trip and make a contribution to the peace of the world. Best wishes." Dean Acheson answered solemnly: "This is another indication of your support, which has never failed me. I will carry out your instructions and your wishes." Then he flew off, in the President's Independence, to confer with fellow diplomats of the North Atlantic community.

Western chancelleries hoped that the overseas talks would be more than just another regional conference. ECA and the North Atlantic Treaty had arrested the first wave of Communist expansion on the European front. The Red tide, meanwhile, had rolled unchecked over much of Asia. Western diplomats were learning that the front against Communism was meaningless unless worked out on a global basis.

"Free men and free nations everywhere," said Dean Acheson at his departure, "will face increasingly crucial tests in the years immediately ahead. What we seek at London is to accelerate the mobilization of ... vast untapped moral and material resources in the free world. We must develop those reserves to the best of our ability. We should be doing so even if international Communism did not exist. As things are, we must do so with utmost vigor."

In Paris this week, the U.S. Secretary of State stopped for a two-day parley with French leaders. His next stop would be London. There Acheson would first confer with Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, gaunt-faced (21 Ibs. below his usual 231) after an operation and three weeks in a hospital. Then France's Foreign Minister Robert Schuman would join them for three-way discussions. Later, Acheson would meet with representatives of the nine other North Atlantic signatories.

The meetings would continue for a fortnight, would probably include a survey of the whole perimeter of the Russian-controlled world. Most likely, three matters would be uppermost:

Germany. The powers were agreed on converting their former enemy into an ally. The question was, how fast and how far?' It looked as though the Americans would argue for the swiftest pace, the French for the most cautious.

Asia. The French wanted immediate U.S. help in the defense of Indo-China, which is more & more tied in with the defense of France and Western Europe. To support the Viet Nam regime of Emperor Bao Dai against the forces of Communist Ho Chi Minh, the French were using the bulk of their army (130,000), spending about $500 million a year, almost as much as their ECAllocation. Paris argued that IndoChina's defense was a joint Western concern: only U.S. aid could make it effective. After his exchange of views with Schuman, Acheson announced that the U.S. agreed and would give economic and military help to Indo-China.