Nation: THEIR BASES & OURS

KHRUSHCHEV’S offer to remove his missile bases from Cuba if the U.S. would dismantle its missiles in Turkey was a cynical piece of statesmanship. It took shrewd advantage of the frets and feelings expressed by many peace-loving, non-Communist handwringers in the U.S. and other countries. In Philadelphia, for example, Norman Thomas, sometime Socialist Party candidate for President last week paraded outside city hall with a placard proclaiming: NO SOVIET BASE IN CUBA—NO U.S. BASE IN TURKEY.

Superficially plausible slogans equating Soviet missile bases in Cuba and U.S. bases overseas recurred in attacks on the U.S. action—whether the attackers were Russian Communists,

African neutralists, Latin American Castroites or U.S. pacifists. On the part of the Communists, this equating had obvious tactical motives. On the part of neutralists and pacifists, it betrayed intellectual and moral confusion.

Unequal Equation. The U.S.’s Jupiter IRBM bases in Turkey were constructed in 1960-61, not clandestinely but only after a publicly announced agreement between the U.S. and Turkey. The purpose of the U.S. bases was not to blackmail Russia but to strengthen the defense system of NATO, which had been created as a safeguard against Russian aggression. As a member of NATO, Turkey welcomed the bases as a contribution to her own defense.

Beyond these differences between the two cases, there is an enormous moral difference between U.S. and Russian objectives. Overseas military bases, like bayonets or bombs, are neither good nor evil in themselves. What may be good or evil are the purposes behind them, the uses to which they are put. To equate U.S. and Russian bases is in effect to equate U.S. and Russian purposes.

The point was eloquently voiced in the United Nations by Nationalist China’s Representative Liu Chieh, in a retort to Soviet Delegate Valerian Zorin. “Weapons,” said Liu, “cannot be intrinsically differentiated into good ones and bad ones, but the man who carries the weapons can be easily differentiated. A revolver in the hands of a gangster is not the same thing as a revolver in the top drawrer of a peaceful citizen. Whether a person is a gangster or a peaceful citizen depends on his record. And what a criminal record international Communism has written for itself in recent years!”

The Vast Difference. The contrast between the Communist record and the U.S. record since 1945 is vivid enough for all to see who are willing to see it. The U.S., as President Kennedy said in his speech announcing the blockade, has demonstrated that it has “no desire to dominate or conquer any other nation.” In contrast, Russia has established puppet regimes by force of arms in Eastern Europe; its attempts to conquer and dominate in Greece, Turkey, Southeast Asia and elsewhere have been thwarted only because U.S. military power, including U.S. bases overseas, has stood in the way. The U.S. bases, such as those in Turkey, have helped keep the peace since World War II, while the Russian bases in Cuba threatened to upset the peace. The Russian bases were intended to further conquest and domination, while U.S. bases were erected to preserve freedom. The difference should have been obvious to all.