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THE ARMS RACE “MUST BE ENDED

Says Cyrus Eaton

HE time has come when civilized man must aban- don war. As the proud

holder of the Lenin Peace Prize,

am dedicated to promoting friendship and understanding be- tween the world’s two super- Powers, the USA and the USSR, 8s the surest means to this all- important end.

Now that. I have passed the Our-score mark in years, I in- tend to devote my remaining days ever more actively to the Cause of peace.

In my long lifetime, I have Witnessed numerous wars that have brought deep suffering to

€ participants, imposed severe ‘economic burdens on them and left little but anger and bitter- Ness as a legacy.

Through constant reading of istory, I have also been a close Student of the conflicts of old. ne of my favorite chronicles is

Gibbon’s monumental “Decline .

and Fall of the Roman Empire”.

Gibbon graphically describes _the Roman Empire, as it stood at the pinnacle of its power in 300 A.D., with: most of the na- tions of Europe, African and Asia included inside its far-flung Orders. Emperor ~ Diocletian Wielded influence and authority Such as has rarely been possess- €d by any ruler in history.

More than a hundred religions, including Christianity, had long €en practiced throughout the Mpire, with official toleration. locletian’s military advisers Succeeded in persuading him, however, that Christianity had €come a dangerous conspiracy hreatening the very existence of the Empire.

In 303 A. D., the Diocletian Edicts against Christianity were 'Ssued, and the Imperial Army 1N every part of the Empire was instructed “to discover, to pur- Sue and to torment” the whole _ body of Christians. All churches

Were ordered demolished, the Prisons were filled with multi-

Cyrus Eaton, famed Ameri- can iillionaire industrialist, gives a businessman’s point © of view on why the arms race must be ended. His article was first published in the newspaper Moscow News.

tudes of believers and prominent Christian leaders were beheaded,

This fierce and fanatical oppo- sition to Christianity, far from destroying it, served to bind to- gether its adherents and win them the sympathy of the world. 3

Their position was so streng- thened, in fact, that Diocletian was forced to abdicate and, within ten years, the new and liberal Emperor Constantine proclaimed Christianity the of- ficial religion of the Empire.

The lesson of Diocletian is one that history is still trying to teach, but mankind still seems unable to learn. The sword is useless in controlling the mind, the spirit and the emotions of men.

Had the Empire’s philosoph- ers, scientists, educators and

other leaders of thought raised .

the voices of reason and persua-

sion to drown out the fanatic shouts of the militarists in the days of Diocletian, the Christian religion might well have faded like the worship of Apollo. Six- teen hundred years later, Chris- tianity is now the subject of searching analysis and investig- ation, and the world is by no means persuaded of its absolute finality.

Down the centuries, regret- tably, the leaders of Christianity themselves have been guilty of

‘using force against those who

differed with the orthodox point of view or were adherents to other religions.

During the llth, 12th and 13th centuries, the Christian powers of Europe convinced themselves that they must elim- inate Mohammedanism. They mounted a series of costly but ineffectual military Crusades to the Holy Land until 300 years of fighting and expense drained away their excessive zeal.

The two sides finelly decided on peaceful coexistence, and holy warfare is farthest from the thoughts of today’s practic- ally equal numbers of practicing Moslems and Christians.

Another example of the im- possibility of influencing men’s beliefs by. force is afforded by the Thirty Years’ War, one of the most devastating in the-en- tire history of humanity.

From 1618 to 1648, Europe was rent asunder into two arm- ed camps stirred by the blind conviction that the continent could not exist half Catholic and half Protestant. Again this is a question that has become of negligible concern with the pas- sage of time.

A century ago, violent civil war broke out between the North and South in the United States. Waged with bitterness and destruction, it left scars on the minds and spirit of men that have not yet healed a hundred years later.

A few reasonable and respon- sible men from each side, sitting down together and patiently dis- cussing their differences, could have reached a compromise that would have averted this ravag- ing war and its tragic conse- quences.

The two global conflicts that have taken place during my ma- ture years have impressed me deeply with the urgency of Striving for peaceful ways of resolving the problems that arise between opposing systems, whether political, economic or philosophical.

World War I tore 30 of my close relatives, including my only brother, away from their homes and professions in the prime of their lives. Many mem- bers of my family, including my two sons, also answered the call to arms in World War II.

When the sound and fury of battle died away, neither of those hideous struggles had us- hered in the promised Golden Age. Instead, the prizes won by both sides were death, devasta- tion and debt.

With the wonders of today’s advanced science perverted to the production of weapons cap- able of obliterating man and all his works, warfare has become absolutely unthinkable. U.S. Se- - cretary of Defense McNamara, who should be in a position to know, recently felt impelled to state publicly that at least 149 million Americans would be killed in a modern missile war.

A large majority of the people of America are opposed to war of any kind, make no mistake about it. This is overwhelmingly the case with the intellectuals, the university leaders, the histo- rians and the scientists them- selves in the United States.

American industrial and finan- cial leaders are coming more and more to the same point of view.

The biggest remaining ob- stacle to progress toward peace is the unworthy appeal to un- due national vanity made from day to day by much of the Ame- rican press, radio and television.

With a few conspicuous ex- ceptions, however, these media of public information, which are nevertheless privately owned in the United States, are slowly but surely veering away from bellicosity and, once they come all the way around, the poli- ticians are bound to follow.

The arms race must be ended, I repeat. Peaceful collaboration between the two super-powers,

the USA and the USSR, is im- perative. My greatest remaining goal is to help persuade my countrymen of the utter folly and futility of war.

May 14, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5