Moscow Diplomats’ Views On Eisenhower Plan

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28180, 19 January 1957, Page 11

Moscow Diplomats ’ Views On Eisenhower Plan

(Rec. 10 p.m.) NEW YORK, Januarv 17. President Eisenhower made a major tactical error by stressing military aid in his announcement of a new policy toward the Middle East, according to the diplomatic consensus in Moscow, said a report in the “New York Times” today. Many foreign envovs, especially those from the Middle East and Asia, were convinced that the mistake would cost the United States niuch of the prestige it gained in their countries through its ©□position to aggression against Egypt. The report by the “New York Times” Moscow correspondent. William J. Jorden. said that in general the United States proposal to aid Middle East nations in overcoming some of their critical economic problems was welcomed by these foreign representatives in Moscow as a wise and useful move. They felt that such assistance if provided without political or military “strings.” could help the countries concerned and promote much-needed stability. View of Washington The diplomats felt that the threat to use American armed forces in the Middle East, even if only against Communist aggression. raised the thought in the Arabs’ minds that Washington Sought to replace London and Paris in Middle Eastern affairs.!

That played directly into the Communists’ hands and gave them powerful ammunition for their propaganda barrage against the United States, they said. An American Associated Press report from Moscow today said that foreign diplomats there felt that the Kremlin genuinely feared President Eisenhower’s Middle East programme and was trving desperately to find an effective counter-attack. The diplomats bad talked with the Soviet Foreign Minister. Mr Dmitri Shepilov. and other Russian leaders Thev said that the Soviet reaction summed up to this:— The Russians see the Eisenhower doctrine as another step toward Western encirclement of the Soviet Union. Their opposition is not just antiWest propaganda. The Kremlin knows that it has to come up with something concrete. not just propaganda, to defeat the new United States move. But foreign diplomats said that the satellites were draining th** Russian economy so heavily thal the Soviet Union could not hope to match United States dollars said the report. Drain on Exchange Published agreements with other Communist nations in the first two months reflected the heavy drain on Soviet foreign exchange and food reserves by Poland. Rumania, and East Germany as well as smaller demands by other Communist countries, the report Sa *“This economic picture shows

that the Soviet Union’s master planners wil] be slow in recommending an attempt to match American dollars with Soviet roubles in the Middle East,” on*' foreign diplomat was quoted as saying. The Soviet Prime Minister. Marshal Bulganin, today described the doctrine as “a plan of economic and political expansion in the Arab East.” Speaking at a public meeting held to mark the return to Moscow today of the visiting Chines** Communist Prime Minister, Mr Chou En-lai. who has been visiting Poland and Hungary, he said that President Eisenhower’s message showed that America was not stopning the “cold war.” “One can be sure that the neople of the Middle East will fully understand what this socalled aid means to them.” Marshal Bulganin said: “President Eisenhower’s recent message to Congress speaks of the Communist and Soviet danger to the Arab peoples. “This is nothing but an attempt: to justify an aggressive policy and intimidate the peoples of the countries of the Near and Middle | East. “It is well known that in our relations with other countries we strictly adhere to the principles of peaceful coexistence and noninterference in the affairs of other countries.”