U.S. Interest In Prospect Of East German Revolt

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28154, 18 December 1956, Page 11

U.S. Interest In Prospect Of East German Revolt

[Specially written for the N.Z.P.A. by FRANK OLIVER]

WASHINGTON, December 16. Fv-Zvl? ® ricans . generally have turned from drowning their sorrows over the Olympic Games results (the newspapers had rather encouraged them in early stages to believe the Americans were sweeping all before them), to thoughts of Christmas now that the drama in the Middle East and Hungary is subsiding. , Americans, naturally, are apt to take tneir cue from their President, and when he adjourns to Augusta for golf, they read what they think are the signs, and adjourn their interest in international affairs.

Interest in the arrival of the Hungarian refugees is slight, and the American Red Cross has had to renew its appeal for funds to help in the refugee problem because money is coming in so slowly. But the few who always keep an eye on foreign affairs are showing some concern over events in NATO and Germany. The newspapers and radio are building up a head of steam over what could happen if, following events in Hungary and Poland, anything like a revolt against Russia occurs in East Germany. Unification and Rearming It has been common knowledge for a long time that the United States is keener on the unification of Germany than some countries that have felt the weight of her military might and world ambitions, but it is now being pointed out by some that such unification and the rearming of West Germany are completely incompatible. Senator Ralph Flanders (Republican. Vermont) is among the pointers. He speaks of the Western Powers stubbornly defending the untenable position of demanding Germany’s reunion while rearming West Germany, and suggests that a better policy would be to gain West Germany’s consent to neutralisation in return for reunion, thus removing Russia’s main objection to reunion—the fact that under the present American policy reunion would mean that East Germany could be occupied by armed German troops. As far as the NATO meeting is concerned, some observers in Washington, including members of the diplomatic corps, have been surpriser

and even startled by Mr Dulles’s insistence on the right of silence among the allies, to which he so strenuously objected in the case of Britain and France over Suez. First reactions here are that what Mr Dulles had particularly in mind was his private diplomatic garden that goes by the name of Formosa Straits. It is being said privately by some people that if Mr Dulles’s object in going to Europe was to rebuild the damaged alliance, then the retention by America of what he insists her allies must give up, is scarcely the way to win friends and influence people. Mr Dulles’s Future However, it is widely assumed that there will be changes in the State Department within a short while, and speculation is rife as to how long Mr Dulles will stay after Mr Christian Herter enters the department in February. Mr Herter’s appointment has been remarkably well received in Congress, in Washington’s diplomatic corps, among Republicans generally and throughout the country. Most of his adult life has been devoted to the study of foreign affairs. He is an enthusiastic supporter of collective security and foreign aid. He has served in American diplomacy and in Congress, and has been a good administrator as Governor of Massachusetts. Mr Hoover, the man he replaces, is described in the newspapers as a man of limited foreign experience who regarded collective security and foreign aid as a distasteful, though perhaps necessary evil. Mr Hoover is also credited with having blocked for the time being an appointment the President was anxious to make, that of General Walter Bedell Smith, the President’s Chief of Staff in Europe, as his righthand man in the White House concerned with foreign affairs, an appointment to which Mr Herter is not expected to object. Mr Herter is also deeply interested in the morale of the foreign service and that has been at a low ebb since Senator McCarthy’s tactics succeeded in driving a number of well qualified men from the service. Other important State Department appointments are under way, especially in posts concerning economic policy as well as Latin American affairs and, all in all, the State Department is expected early next year to be a very different department from what it is now, whether Mr Dulles leaves or not. But it is about Mr Dulles’s future there is much speculation and the consensus of opinion seems to be that his stay in the State Department will not be a very long one and that when he does go. Mr Herter will certainly succeed him.