National Affairs: The Word for Russia

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While world diplomacy was getting a general and airy discussion during Nehru's visit, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles was busy laying down some hard specifics on U.S. relations with the precarious area of Russia and Eastern Europe. At his first press conference since his cancer operation six weeks ago, Dulles fielded more than a score of questions from newsmen, took the occasion to outline some fundamentals that would also be worth Moscow's ear. Items:

¶ The U.S. believes devoutly in genuine independence for Russia's satellites. But Dulles carefully used the phrase "peaceful evolution" in describing the method by which that independence should come about.

¶ If Russia does permit satellite independence, the U.S. has no intention of trying to convert Eastern Europe into an aggressive weapon against the Soviet.

¶ Once the satellites are honestly independent, the U.S. might review its entire military and political situation in Western Europe. Then and only then would the U.S. be ready to take another look at the Western defense system.

¶ Since the Russians, at Geneva's summit conference, promised reunification of Germany through free elections, the U.S. will not, under any circumstances, enter into negotiations over Europe while Germany is still divided.

Dulles went to infinite pains to point out to the Kremlin that, even while working toward freedom for the satellites, the U.S. has only peaceful purposes. He recalled a conversation about six months ago with "one of Europe's leading figures." Said the European to Dulles: "It's very important that this satellite situation should develop in such a way that the Soviet Union is surrounded by friendly countries." Replied Dulles: "We have no desire whatever that the Soviet Union shall be surrounded by unfriendly countries. But that is not a matter which is in our control as much as it is in the control of the Soviet Union. Unless they move fast, they are going to find that they are going to be surrounded by unfriendly peoples and consequently, in the long run, by unfriendly governments. They have got to move fast or else events will get out of their control."

Just as strenuously, Dulles last week pointed out to the non-Communist world that Communist turmoil is no occasion for Western weakness. Said he: "Whereas perhaps a couple of years ago the Soviet Union felt, and perhaps we felt, that the Soviet could count on 60 or more divisions from the satellite forces to fight on its side, it now looks as though the Soviets could not count on them . . . They might be shooting in the other direction, and it might require a subtraction in the Soviet forces to balance that factor in the equation."

Even so, Dulles continued emphatically, the "problem of military balance" does not yet permit "any reduction in the strength of NATO forces in Europe" (and the current effort to adjust and streamline NATO divisions to make them "more mobile and better adapted to modern warfare" should not be confused with any reduction in strength). Thus, said Dulles, the U.S. will stand pat against those who insist that Russia's problems in Eastern Europe are any excuse for a dilution of strength in Western Europe.