(2) Limitation and Reduction of Armaments

207. REPORT OF THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS ON THE LIMITATION OF ARMAMENTS RESOLUTION, JULY 24, 1953 1 The Committee on Foreign Relations, having had under consideration Senate Concurrent Resolution 32 and Senate Concurrent Resolution 27, relating to the desirability of concluding international agreements for the effective limitation of armaments, reports an original resolution, Senate Resolution 150, and recommends that it do pass.

GENERAL PURPOSE OF THE RESOLUTION

Senate Resolution 150 makes plain the sincere purpose of the people of the United States to seek by peaceful means conditions for a durable peace to the end that a greater proportion of the world's productive capacity may be used for peaceful purposes and for the well-being of mankind. It requests the President to transmit copies of this resolution to the heads of state of the nations of the world so that their people may be informed of its contents.

BACKGROUND OF THE RESOLUTION

On April 16, 1953, the President of the United States, in an address before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, said:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies— in the final sense-a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

He then pointed out specific steps that could be taken to reduce the burden of armaments now weighing upon the world and remarked that

The fruit of success in all these tasks would present the world with the greatest task and the greatest opportunity of all. It is this: The dedication of the energies, the resources, and the imaginations of all peaceful nations to a new kind of war. This would be a declared total war, not upon any human enemy but upon the brute forces of poverty and need.

This statement by President Eisenhower was consistent with a resolution introduced by Senator Flanders and others in August of 1951 (S. Con. Res. 42) and by Senator McMahon and others in September of 1951 (S. Con. Res. 47). It is in line with the proposal made by former President Truman in an address delivered to the United Nations General Assembly on October 24, 1950. In that address President Truman discussed the need for disarmament and remarked that

Its attainment would release immense resources for the good of all mankind. It would free the nations to devote more of their energies to wiping out poverty, hunger, and injustice.

During this session of the Congress, the Committee on Foreign Relations has had before it Senate Concurrent Resolution 27, introduced by Mr. Jackson on May 1, 1953, for himself, Mr. Wiley, Mr. Sparkman, Mr. Fulbright, Mr. Gillette, Mr. Hill, Mr. Kefauver, Mr. Douglas, Mr. Anderson, Mr. Morse, Mr. Magnuson, Mr. Murray. Mr. Lehman, and Mr. Mansfield, and Senate Concurrent Resolution

18. Rept. 620, 83d Cong., 1st sess.

32, introduced on June 3, 1953, by Mr. Flanders, for himself, Mr. Sparkman, Mr. Butler of Maryland, Mr. Bricker, Mr. Case, Mr. Cooper, Mr. Douglas, Mr. Duff, Mr. Ferguson, Mr. Gillette, Mr. Hill, Mr. Humphrey, Mr. Johnson of Colorado, Mr. Kefauver, Mr. Hendrickson, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Langer, Mr. Lehman, Mr. Mansfield, Mr. Martin, Mr. Morse, Mr. Mundt, Mr. Murray, Mr. Neely, Mr. Payne, Mr. Purtell, Mr. Saltonstall, Mrs. Smith of Maine, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, Mr. Thye, Mr. Tobey, Mr. Jackson, Mr. Fulbright, and Mr. Monroney.

These resolutions, although differing somewhat in phraseology, make two principal points. First, they express the fundamental desire of the peoples of the earth for relief from the crushing burden of armaments imposed upon them against their will but necessary in their own defense; second, they point out that once free people are assured of security by the existence of effective disarmament subject to reliable control, a greater proportion of the world's resources can be devoted to peaceful, productive purposes.

This brief background has been examined in order to make it clear that the thought expressed in the resolution now reported by the Committee on Foreign Relations is nonpartisan and universal so far as the American people are concerned.

COMMITTEE ACTION

A subcommittee, under the chairmanship of Senator Smith of New Jersey, and including Senators Knowland, Hickenlooper, Green, Sparkman, and Gillette, was appointed by the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee on July 10, 1953. The subcommittee met several times with sponsors of Senate Concurrent Resolution 32 and Senate Concurrent Resolution 27 and discussed with them the desirability of holding public hearings on these resolutions. Such hearings it was suggested would serve to make known throughout the world the strong feelings of the American people that there must be peace with honor so that man can devote his energies to productive peaceful purposes. The subcommittee felt, however, in view of the ateness of the legislative session and the unanimous expressions of support for the fundamental ideas expressed in the pending resolutions and their consistency with past expressions by Presidents of the United States, that it was in a position to report a resolution based upon the ideas that have been expressed in the resolutions and statenents discussed above. In the formulation of the resolution submitted to the Foreign Relations Committee, the subcommittee consulted closely with the Department of State and the White House.

On July 23, therefore, the subcommittee unanimously recommended o the full committee that it report to the Senate the resolution which ollows: [For text of the resolution see document 208.]

NEED FOR THE RESOLUTION

There will undoubtedly be some who will question whether the Senate should pass a resolution such as Senate Resolution 150 which sets forth fundamental truths upon which the American people so completely agree. The reason is that the propaganda distortions manating from the Soviet Union seek, the world over, to plant in

people's minds the idea that the United States seeks war, that its soldiers lust for blood; that its strength is devoted but to the building of military might which threatens peace, and the construction for itself of luxury items at the expense of the ill-fed, the ill-housed, and the ill-clothed of this world.

Hard as it is to believe, the constant din of Soviet propaganda has an effect on some people despite the fact that American actions completely deny Soviet propaganda. Soviet words make people forget the fact that the United States has fought two world wars in defense of free men and fights now in Korea to protect all independent nations from the threat of military aggression. Vitriolic Communist words make people overlook the fact that the United States has poured forth its wealth since the war to rebuild devastated Europe, to feed the children of this earth, to help by technical assistance the underdeveloped areas all over this globe. They make the people of this earth forget that it was the United States which, after World War II, as after World War I, was one of the first to lay down its arms and turn to peaceful pursuits.

It is for these reasons that we must repeat again and again the truth. The people of the United States and the free world have learned in these years since the war that Soviet designs which cannot be accomplished by subversion may be sought by military force. We have learned that efforts in the United Nations to provide for the control of armaments and to set up a reasonable international inspection system to assure free people that malevolent force is not built behind their backs have not been acceptable to the Soviet Union and its satellites. We have learned that the only defense of freedom lies, unfortunately, in building adequate defense against aggression. We have learned that until communism mends its ways freedom must rely on military defense if it is to survive. It is for these reasons that we, in cooperation with independent states the world over, have had to see to our defenses.

And yet this very defense we must build if free men and states are to survive, is distorted by blatant propaganda which uses words like "warmongers" to describe those United Nations who defend freedom in Korea, and applies the words "peace loving" to those nations which, behind the backs of the United Nations, pours arms into Korea to support naked aggression.

It is these facts that move the Committee on Foreign Relations to urge the Senate to adopt the pending resolution so we may begin now to repeat the fundamental desire of our people for peace and for the reliable control of armaments, to the end that freemen may put their backs to the job of building a peaceful world devoted to the well-being of mankind.

208. LIMITATION OF ARMAMENTS RESOLUTION, JULY 29, 19531 Whereas the peoples of the earth are plunged into vast armament expenditures which divert much of their effort into the creation of means of mass destruction; and

Whereas the American people and the Congress ardently desire peace and the achievement of a system under which armaments, except for the maintenance of domestic and international order, will be

1 S. Res. 150, 83d Cong., 1st sess.

come unnecessary while at the same time the national security of our own and other nations will be protected; and

Whereas it is the policy of the Government of the United States to seek the honorable termination of present armed conflicts, and the correction of oppression and injustice and other conditions which breed war; and

Whereas progress in these respects would strengthen world trust so that the nations could proceed with the next great work, the reduction of the burden of armaments now weighing upon the world: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That it continues to be the declared purpose of the United States to seek by all peaceful means the conditions for durable peace and concurrently with progress in this respect to seek, within the United Nations, agreements by all nations for enforceable limitation of armament in accordance with the principles set out in the President's address of April 16, 1953, namely—

(1) the limitation, by absolute numbers or by an agreed international ratio, of the sizes of the military and security forces of all nations;

(2) a commitment by all nations to set an agreed limit upon that proportion of total production of certain strategic materials to be devoted to military purposes;

(3) international control of atomic energy to promote its use for peaceful purposes only and to insure the prohibition of atomic

weapons;

(4) a limitation or prohibition of other categories of weapons of great destructiveness; and

(5) the enforcement of all these agreed limitations and prohibitions by adequate safeguards, including a practical system of inspection under the United Nations;

to the end that a greater proportion of the world's productive capacity may be used for peaceful purposes and for the well-being of mankind: and be it further

Resolved, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States and the Secretary of State, and that the President make known the sense of this resolution to the United Nations and to the heads of state of the nations of the world with the request that their people be informed of its contents.

209. REPORT OF THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS ON APPOINTING A SUBCOMMITTEE TO WORK TOWARD THE GOAL OF WORLD DISARMAMENT, JUNE 14, 19551

The Committee on Foreign Relations having had under consideration Senate Resolution 93 authorizing a subcommittee of the Foreign Relations Committee, in conjunction with other Senators not members of the committee, to make a full and complete study of proposals looking toward disarmament and the control of weapons of mass destruction, reports the resolution to the Senate with amendments, and recommends that it be agreed to.

1 U. 8. Congress. Senate. Report No. 547, 84th Congress, 1st session.

GENERAL PURPOSE OF RESOLUTION

In recent months increased attention has been focused on the uncontrolled production of armaments and weapons of mass destruction. If peace is to be preserved and if man is to be able to devote his energies to improving his life, it is essential that some reliable. method of reducing military forces and controlling armaments and weapons of mass destruction be developed. In the years since the war, the United States has taken the lead in searching for methods to control these weapons. While it is fundamental that the foreign policy of the United States is based on a constant search for peace, this fact is often beclouded by more transient issues.

It is the purpose of this resolution to authorize and direct a bipartisan group of 10 Senators chosen from the Foreign Relations. Committee, the Armed Services Committee, and the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, to study proposals to reduce the burden and danger of armaments to the end that suitable recommendations may be made to the Senate on this subject.

COMMITTEE ACTION

Senate Resolution 93 was introduced by Senator Humphrey on April 21. The Department of State was asked to give its comments on the resolution and on June 9, the following letter was received from the Department:

Hon. WALTER F. GEORGE,

Chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations,

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, June 9, 1955.

United States Senate.

DEAR SENATOR GEORGE: Further reference is made to your letter of April 22, 1955, requesting comments on Senate Resolution 93, appointing a subcommittee to work toward the goal of disarmament.

The Department of State believes the establishment of the proposed subcommittee would be welcomed as an important contribution to the increasingly intensive efforts of the Government in pursuit of international peace and security through a reliable system of world disarmament.

The problems in this field are as complex as they are important. They deserve and require continuous, thorough study and reappraisal in order to insure that sound national policy worthy of wide public support keeps pace with rapidly changing political and technological developments.

The proposed subcommittee, through its studies and recommendations, could make a very significant contribution toward further development of sound pol icy, and the dissemination of knowledge and information required for public understanding and support.

The Department would be most happy to provide every assistance such as subcommittee might require.

Sincerely yours,

THRUSTON B. MORTON,
Assistant Secretary.

In view of the full support given this resolution by the Department of State and the fact that the President of the United States has recently appointed a Special Assistant for Disarmament, the Foreign Relations Committee on June 9, 1955, ordered the resolution reported to the Senate with amendments.