U.S. VIEW OF DEADLOCK

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27961, 7 May 1956, Page 13

U.S. VIEW OF DEADLOCK

“Will Keep On Trying”

(Rec. 8 p.m.) WASHINGTON. May 5. President Eisenhower today reaffirmed the United States determination to keep trying to bring the Soviet Union around to the Western point of view on arms control, in «pite of the failure of the United Nations disarmament talks. Mr Eisenhower reaffirmed that the United States could never agree to any disarmament system unless it included a system of inspection and control, enabling each side to know whether the other side was in fact carrying out the reduction in arms which it claimed to be making. Some, even modest, concessions by the Soviet Union might have raised hopes which would have offset the growing pressure in Congress for stepping up United States arms production, particularly in the field of guided missiles and airpower. A large part of Mr Eisenhower’s press conference today was devoted to efforts by him to allay fears being expressed in Congress that Soviet production of inter-continental bombers was now forging ahead of the United States.

He emphasised the importance of carrier-based airpower by pointing out that his Administration had increased the production of B-52’s twice since 1953 and hinting that there might be yet another acceleration. Neither President Eisenhower nor other officials today were ready to indicate what specific steps the Administration might now take to deal with the situation created by the continuing deadlock between the Soviet Government and the Western Powers on disarmament and on almost all the subjects discussed by the President and the Soviet leaders at the Geneva summit conference last year.