A REVIEW OF OUR FOREIGN POLICY IS NEEDED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00058R000100130053-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 3, 2000
• Sequence Number: 53
• Publication Date: September 10, 1956
• Content Type: NSPR

PROVIDENCE (R.I.). r= l 19 FOIAb3b
Bul'lf roved For Release 2000/08/24: CIA-RDP-00058R0001001
Circ.: e. '145,400
Front Edit /Other
Page Page` Page
Date: k1eview of Our Foreign Policy ls'4eeded
C'`DVRGHT -
In., this election year, it is inevi-
tabl, that political shadings tend to
color evaluations of : y given na-
tional issue, including America's
foreign policy. Therefore, it should
neither shock nor confuse when
President Eisenhower honestly finds
the free world "stronger" today than
in 1953, while his Dei aocratic ad-
versary, Adlai Stevenson, views
with alarm America's "'waning in-
fluence" abroad.
There are large element! of truth
in both statements, although neither
assertion encompasses all facets -
both, good and bad - of America's
standing in the East-West conflict.
It certainly is true, as President,
Eisenhower poipted out i last
week's press conference, that the Re-
publican administration has notched
many. important achievements in the
Cold War against Soviet imperial-
ism. By finding acceptable terms by
which to end the fighting- in Korea
and Indochina, the Republican ad-
ministration removed. two extremely
serious threats to world peace.
Settlement of the Italian-Yugoslav
dispute over Trieste, prevention of a
Communist Party coup in Iran and
the ouster of a Communist re.jg e
from G temala we accomplished
with va- degrees of direct or
covert American help and strength-
ened the free world.
The United States also gained in
stature by its steadfast protection of.
Formosa and the free world achieved
a moral triumph in the roll back of
the Red Tide from Austria. Most
recently, Secretary of tote Dulles'
handling of the Suez situation mark-
edly increased the free world's trust
in the maturity of American leader-
ship.
Although it must be admitted in
all fairness that Democratic policies
set the original course in several of
these issues, it also must be conced-
ed the Republicans carried the pol-
icies to success. By the code of prac-
tical politics, the Republicans can
claim the lion's share of the credit;
just as they must exptct to be
blamed for badly deteriorating situ-
ations they did not necessarily
create.
And there is the dark side of the
picture -- the only side the Demo,
crats see when they charge Repub-
lican policies are losing the Cold
War. This is also the side Presi-
dent Eisenhower largely ignored.
In Europe, France is severely
weakened by her; costly war of attri-
tion with Algeria. The political sta-
bility of West Germany is at best
shaken over reunification and rearm-
ament. England, ' caught in an infla-
tionary spiral, fights for its economic
life against looming trade deficits.
C has become the pawn that
has revived bitter enmities between
Turkey and Greece, while Yugo-
sivtk edges closer to the renovated
communism of the Soviet Union.
Each of these problems saps the vi-
tality of NATO. Meanwhile, the se-
curity of U.S. air bases from Iceland
to Saudi Arabia becomes increasing-
ly uncertain.
The pistol that Se crettry of State
Dulles presented to tian Gen-
eral Naguib, predecessu esi-
dent Nasser, backfired with a bang
that is altogether too . obvious not
only along the Suez but in the Is-
rael-Arab duel that seems no closer
to solution now than. in 194&
Farther East, Indonesian and Af-
ghan problems multiply; ripening
those two neutral states for the
"parliamentary compromise" w i t h
Soviet communism, of which
director, Allen Dulles,
warned. Even in India, Red China's
major contender in the Far East,
many are beginning to incline to-
ward the Soviet Union instead of the
United States over such emotional
issues as the disputed territories of
Kashmir and Goa.
The free world debits in the Cold
War ledger stem largely from the
Soviet Union's new "soft sell" and
as yet do not pose lethal threats.
Yet, each is loaded with political
high explosive, made more danger-
ous by unavoidable election year
"blindness."
Therefore, President Eisenhower's
appointment of Benjamin F. Fair-
less, retired head of the United
States Steel Corp., as chairman of a
citizens committee to analyze with
a nonpartisan eye the entire range of
American foreign aid and foreign
policy, must be welcome.
Of course, neither the Fairless
committee nor parallel Senate and
House study groups could possibly
complete their work in time to clari-
fy election claims and charges. But
the very existence of such partisan
differences over foreign policy in
these critical times attests to the
need for unbiased and responsible
e
view before the next session of
Doctors Disagree r
21-::rald Con recs.
-Blett. Miami
Approved For Release 2000/08/24: CIA-RDP70-00058R000100130053-8