'A Time for Diplomacy'

  As the world teeters on the edge of thermonuclear war, which is a mere euphemism for thermonuclear annihilation, rational men-everywhere-in the United States, in the Soviet Union, in the United Nations and in all its member countries-must seek a peaceful way out of the terrible impasse into which the reckless Soviet action has thrust us.

  That action was, of course, the secret establishment of bases in Cuba from which Russian missiles as well as jet bombers could be launched against the United States.  It was more than that: it was the deliberate and deceptive effort of the Soviet Government to upset a tenuously balanced status quo by initiating an incursion into the Western Hemisphere, an area from which the massive military power of the Soviet Union had heretofore been excluded. It was still more than that: it was a resumption on a new scale and in a new place of Soviet Russia's unremittingly aggressive effort (that has already subjugated Eastern Europe and half of Asia) to advance world Communism by any means.

  The reaction to the Soviet move by the United States Government was to establish a blockade against potentially offensive arms shipments to Cuba and , more importantly, to insist upon dismantling of the bases already there. President Kennedy's reaction was inevitable and proper. The offensive build-up in Cuba could not be tolerated by the United States.

  Having provoked this fantastic crisis, Premier Khrushchev then proceeded to sow confusion through his contradictory messages, which have thus far added up to a mixture of restraint and duplicity. First he ordered his arms-laden ships to avoid the blockade zone. Then he offered a private message to President Kennedy to remove the offensive weapons systems from Cuba altogether in return for our lifting the blockade and guaranteeing there would be no invasion-an offer that the President naturally accepted with alacrity.

  But, in an as yet unexplained switch-which may have been due to propaganda policies, or to military pressures, or to Castro's objections-Mr. Khrushchev yesterday sent his second and public message to the President, tying in the removal of the Soviet bases in Cuba with removal with the American bases in Turkey. Which message represents the real Russian offer and which the false one is not yet known. In either case, Premier Khrushchev has implicitly acknowledged that the bases are offensive in purpose and he has explicitly stated that they are under Russian, not Cuban, control.

  If the genuine Khrushchev message is the one relating to the Turkish bases, the situation remains crucial-even though the proposal may well have long-range practical possibilities for a future settlement. It is still critical because what is of immediate concern to the United States is the necessity of stopping the build-up of nuclear arms potential in Cuba. Once work on the bases has stopped, negotiations can fairly begin.

  Violence is not the way to settle this or any other argument; and violence in the present instance could lead to literally incalculable consequences.  As this newspaper has reiterated time and again, negotiation is the way; but for there to be negotiation there must be good faith and an honest desire to reach a peaceful settlement in which neither side will be asked to grind its nose in the dust.

  As long as both the United States and Soviet Russia continue to tread warily, as we trust they will, every opportunity for a settlement can be explored. The good offices of U Thant provide a hopeful avenue for such exploration. The stakes are too large to permit his efforts to fail. As Ambassador Stevenson said, "This is a time for diplomacy". It is not a time for mutual annihilation.