European Security

Report Outline
Forthcoming Test of Spirit of Geneva
Regional Security and Non-Aggression Pacts
Security, Disarmament and German Unity

Forthcoming Test of Spirit of Geneva

European security and reunification of Germany are bracketed together as the first and most important topic on the agenda of the Big Four conference of foreign ministers scheduled to open at Geneva on Oct. 27. The foreign ministers have the task of implementing broad directives agreed upon by the heads of government at the Geneva summit meeting in July, At the close of that meeting, President Eisenhower said the follow-through of the foreign ministers would be a decisive test of the true worth of the new “spirit of Geneva.”

The high hopes raised by the summit meeting have been tempered by events of recent weeks. The possibility still exists that the foreign ministers will be able at the second-round conference to reach agreements on basic issues that divide East and West, and thus bring the cold war to an end, hut western capitals now look for no more than a start in that direction. Everything depends upon the persistence with which the Russians hold to ultimate objectives they have not ceased to proclaim.

Secretary of State Dulles confesses that he does not know the real meaning the Soviet Union's apparent change of attitude toward the West. “We cannot tell whether what is now going on marks a genuine change of purpose or whether it is merely a maneuver. We have to have plans that fit either contingency.”