Ike IV

General of the Army Dwight Eisenhower lectured the country last week on war and peace. To at least one point, official Washington lent a very attentive ear.

There are worse things, said Eisenhower, than war. "We like to repeat, 'There never was a good war, or a bad peace.' " But war has often produced "greatness of spirit," while peace "may be the product of chicanery, treachery and the temporary triumph of expediency over all spiritual values. The pact of Munich was a more fell blow to humanity than the atomic bomb at Hiroshima . . ."

Out of Freedom Lost. "Out of rubble heaps, willing hands can rebuild a better city; but out of freedom lost can stem only generations of hate and bitter struggle and brutal oppression . . . Far better risk a war of possible annihilation than grasp a peace which would be the certain extinction of free man's ideas and ideals. ..

"Let us continue to confer . . . but let us not delude ourselves that, in 1950, establishment of real peace is merely a matter of very important personages signing papers or 'talking tough' . . ."

He saw the ultimate hope for the world in "a respected United Nations." But he warned: "Until war is eliminated . . . unpreparedness for it is well-nigh as criminal as war itself . . . No sane man will challenge, under present circumstances, the need for defensive strength . . ."

Then Columbia President Eisenhower, speaking in Manhattan, pulled the cord and fired the shot that made Washington sit up. "America has already disarmed," he said, "to the extent, in some directions even beyond the extent, that I, with deep concern for her present safety, could possibly advise, until we have certain knowledge that all nations, in concerted action, are doing likewise."

Fingers Pointed. Ike Eisenhower himself had helped scale down the armed forces' original demand for $18 billion to the figure set by the President: $14.2 billion. Defense Secretary Louis Johnson had instructed Eisenhower to cut that down further to $13 billion and had taken most of the credit for the economizing. When Johnson was booed for hacking off military muscle, he had pointed an innocent finger at Ike, insinuating that the whole idea had been Ike's. In fact, the various versions of the unpopular 1951 defense budget, said Johnson, had been known affectionately around the Pentagon as "Ike I, Ike II, Ike III."

Now Eisenhower was pointing the finger right back. The Senate subcommittee on defense appropriations promptly sent for him. This week he would be questioned further as to how far he thought criminal unpreparedness had gone. Congress looked forward to Ike IV.

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