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the United States $170,000 per enemy
death and it is estimated the total may
exceed
half a million dollars when all
costs iocluding veterans' benefits, war
debts, etc. are included.
Where do the world's priorities líe ?
Perhaps this will answer the question.
In 1966 the world spent 35 percent
more for military purposes than it did
on public education. While at the same
time 300 percent more was spent on
military budgets than on maintaining
public health.
It is almost beyond comprehension
what could
be
accomplished if the stag–
gering sums of money now being spent
on military operations could be used for
constructive and peaceful benefits for
mankind.
Collective Security and the
Balance of Power
As the arms race continucs and the
world becomes ever more deadly as a
place for man's habitation, the "bright–
est hope" in the eyes of many for achiev–
ing peace líes in collective security and
maintaining a balance of power.
Are these attempts to maintain peace
nell', modem,
twentieth-century inven–
tions? Is there any reason f rom the
past to believe that such attempts will
ultimately be successful today?
On page 179 of his book
The Myth of
Intemationai Semrity,
Me.
A. V. Levon–
tin wrote, "the concept of the interna–
tional balance of power is not new."
He
fucther states that the principie was
known at least as early as the
Greeks
and
ts frcquently referred to tn Greck
writings.
la
the book
Preface To Peace - A
SymposiJtm
Herbert Hoover and Hugh
Gibson wrote, "From time immemorial,
nations have marked the end of their
wars by the signature of treaties of 'per–
petua! peace' and solemnly promised its
continuance." ( Page 169.)
But there has been no perpetua! peace.
ls our present-day United Nations a
new concept? Hardly! As early as the
14th Cent11ry
a plan for a League of
Nations was considered. A Council of
Nations was to arbitrate all quarrels.
And just as surely as any former
attempts at such "united" arbitration
failed, so is the U. N. failing today.
From the Middle Ages to the present,
plans strikingly simi lar to what we sec
today have been designed in an attempt
to avert war and maintain peace. There
have been plans for federations, leagues
of nations, collective security, mutual
assistance and sanctions against an
aggressor. NONE has kept the world
f rom the tragedy of war.
Hans Morgenthau in his book
Poli–
tirs Among J'.:ations
wrote, "While
nobody can tell how many wars there
would have been without the balance of
power, it is not hard to see that most of
tl1e wars that have been fought since the
beginning of the modero state system
have their origin
in
the balance of
power."
(Page 204, Fourth Edition.)
Putting it very bluntly, A.V. Levon–
tin wrote in
The Myth of lnlemational
SeC!Irity:
"The empírica! verdict of hi s-
Ambossodor
Col/ege Arl
tory on the efficacy of the balancing
technique is not in doubt.
The balance
does not work."
(Page
18
L.)
After the balance of power failed to
stop the use of Fascism, the United
Nations carne into existence in 1945 to
avert further global wars. Putting it suc–
cinctly - the U. N.
has failed
tti
(l
peace-keeping body!
The United Nations is observing its
25th anniversary this year amid warnings
that it must shape up or collapse.
Today we witness SALT (Strategic
Arms Limitation Talks) between the
U.S.A. and the USSR - also called the
Geneva Talks. They have gone on
for so long we've all but forgotten about
them. More recently, the París peace
negotiators have attempted to negotiate
a
settlement to the Vietnam war. Then
there
is an almost endJess list
of
pacts,
treaties, conferences, etc. to avert war.
While at the same time "preparations"
for war continue on a massive global
scale.
The Way of Rome
But this has
always
been the case.
Noted historian Edward Gibbon wrote
of a sobering parallel from ancient
Roman history. "The negotiations of
peace were accompanied and supported
by
the most vigorous preparations for
war"
(The Decline and Fa/1 of the
Roman Empire,
Edward Gibbon, Vol.
1,
p.
734).
Can the United States indeed learn a
lesson from ancient Rome?
Dr. Robert Strausz-Hupé, Director of