Old Friends & New Allies

Soviet propaganda would have Americans believe--and some do--that the U.S. has not a friend or worthwhile ally in all the world. Actually, the U.S. now has more friends abroad than any great nation has a right to expect, and more allies than any power has ever rallied in time of peace. Last week the U.S. welded together one recently assembled alliance at the eight-nation Southeast Asia Treaty Organization conference in Bangkok. This week the U.S. welcomed a great new ally: Western Germany, which by the historic Bundestag vote at Bonn formally ratified its allegiance to the Atlantic alliance (see FOREIGN NEWS). For the U.S., Bonn and Bangkok have a special meaning.

Despite Soviet temptations and threats, the representatives at Bonn voted decisively to put their trust in and join their forces (50 million people and eventually twelve divisions) with the and-Communist Western powers. At Bangkok the SEATO nations set up permanent headquarters for the defense of Southeast Asia, and U.S. policies were advanced with skill and success. For the affirmative decision at Bonn, the U.S. could congratulate itself on having a rocklike friend in Der Alte, Western Germany's Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. For the common consent achieved at Bangkok, the U.S. thanks the (literally) shirtsleeve diplomacy practiced by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, who first conceived SEATO. But the basic factor underlying success in both places is confidence that the U.S. will neither encroach upon nor abandon its friends and allies.

The events at Bonn and Bangkok made up a week of such notable progress that it was easy to view without alarm or depression the evacuation of Chinese Nationalist forces from Nanchi Island off the China coast. Nanchi has little or no military significance. If the Communists try to pursue their success by attacking the islands of Quemoy and Matsu on the way to Formosa, they are very likely to find that retreat has ended and that the air and naval strength of the U.S. Seventh Fleet stands in their way.

Politically, Europe and Asia, as the Communists well know, are locked together. Simultaneous progress at Bonn and Bangkok signals the strengthening of the anti-Communist force along its whole worldwide front.

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