The CHAIRMAN. The next witness is Mr. Andrew E. Rice, the American Veterans Committee. Mr. Rice, will you come forward? Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Mr. RICE. I do. TESTIMONY OF ANDREW E. RICE, AMERICAN VETERANS COMMITTEE, INC. The CHAIRMAN. You may proceed for 10 minutes. Mr. RICE. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, my name is Andrew E. Rice, and I appear before you today as a representative of the American Veterans Committee to urge that this committee recommend that the Senate give its consent to the ratification of the partial nuclear test ban treaty. OPINION OF LAYMAN CITIZEN In a larger sense, however, I appear before you, as Senator Kuchel has just suggested, not as a representative of any group with a special interest in this treaty, but as one of the 190 million citizens of the United States. You have already heard the testimony of the officials of the U.S. Government charged with the responsibility of preserving the national security. You have heard the evidence presented by experts and specialists. You have heard, in short, from those whose official duty and professional competence makes them qualified and, indeed, obligated to speak to you. In preparing to make the awesome decision which is now in your hands, you are now hearing from quite another element-from the layman citizen. And it is altogether fitting that you should do so, for whatever those in authority may say, whatever the experts may believe, in our way of Government, the people must be heard. It is, after all, to the people that your ultimate responsibility runs. To say this is not to imply that there is any magic insight in popular opinion on the test ban treaty. We have no sources of wisdom different from those available to you. Public opinion can only reflect the information and facts which the people have before them. The members of my organization, like concerned citizens everywhere, have examined the merits of this treaty in the light of the facts available to us. And, like the great majority of our fellow citizens-73 percent according to the latest public opinion poll— we have concluded that the ratification of this treaty is in the national interest. VETERANS' GROUPS ENDORSE TREATY Perhaps we in the American Veterans Committee speak with a little more concern because we are more than just citizens-we are also veterans, men and women who have served our country in its Armed Forces in two World Wars and in Korea. We lay no claim to unusual military qualifications because of our service in uniform; we do lay claim to a keener appreciation of the horrors of war. To take a step away from the catastrophe of nuclear conflict, without jeopardizing our military preparedness, is the very essence of this treaty. As veterans, we can conceive of no higher kind of security. Not only has the executive body of the American Veterans Committee unanimously endorsed the treaty, so has the American Council of the World Veterans Federation. The council is made up of representatives of six American veterans' organizations; in addition to the AVC, they are the Disabled American Veterans, AMVETS, the Military Order of the Purple Heart, the Blinded Veterans of America, and the Paralyzed Veterans of America. Moreover, the General Assembly of the World Veterans Federation, whose constituency numbers 20 million veterans throughout the free world, meeting in Copenhagen shortly before the treaty was signed, gave its wholehearted endorsement to a test ban treaty. This committee has heard all the arguments for this treaty many times over. I shall not repeat them. The purpose of my appearance today is not to seek to convince you of the value of the treaty by further substantive argument, but to let you know that our organization of American citizens, having considered all the evidence which we and you have heard and seen, believes that the treaty must be ratified. For you, therefore, as elected representatives, there is a bit more evidence to consider, which we as citizens do not have. The final decision you must make, of course, must be your own. In making it you must weigh the views of the President and his advisers, those who agree and those who disagree. But you must weigh as well the views of the people of the United States. It is as a spokesman for an organization of the American people, the American Veterans Committee, that I have had the privilege of testifying before you today in support of the test ban treaty. I thank you for the opportunity to present our views. RESOLUTION OF NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE I would only like to ask you about the nature of the representation. Do I understand that American Veterans Committee has, through its council, endorsed this treaty, and you speak for them? Mr. RICE. Yes. On August 2, the National Executive Committee adopted a resolution, of which I have the text and can read to you if you wish, endorsing the ratification of this treaty. The CHAIRMAN. I would prefer that you offer it for the record. We do not have time really. The committee has another engagement, but I would receive it for the record, if you would. Mr. RICE. All right. I will be glad to give it to the reporter. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. (The document referred to follows:) AMERICAN VETERANS COMMITTEE (AVC) Washington, D.C. RESOLUTION ON NUCLEAR TEST BAN TREATY The American Veterans Committee commends President Kennedy for the development of the test ban treaty. The test ban treaty is essential to American security and can be the beginning of a realistic world disarmament program and can help prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and stop the danger of future fallout. We know that the American veteran and veterans throughout the world share the hope which the treaty brings. We urge the U.S. Senate without delay to lend its support and to ratify the treaty. Adopted at the National Executive Committee meeting of August 2, 1963. The CHAIRMAN. What you want to make clear is that this statement is not just your personal statement but that it has the actual endorsement of your committee? Mr. RICE. Well, the precise wording has not been approved by the committee, but the ratification of the treaty has been endorsed by the national executive committee of our organization. The CHAIRMAN. The treaty has. Not all the membership has been consulted, but the committee representing the membership has approved it? 2 Mr. RICE. That is correct. The CHAIRMAN. These other organizations you mentioned on page Mr. RICE. I cannot speak for the other organizations. I can only say that their representatives in this American Council, did vote for endorsement. What their procedures are I do not know. The CHAIRMAN. I just wanted to make it clear that you were representing your own organization and you are reporting that these others did. Mr. RICE. Correct, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Senator Sparkman? Senator SPARKMAN. No questions, thank you. The CHAIRMAN. Senator Hickenlooper! Senator HICKENLOOPER. No questions. The CHAIRMAN. Senator Carlson? Senator CARLSON. No questions. The CHAIRMAN. The committee is adjourned for this meeting, but I remind you that we have an appointment at our room in the Capitol. The committee will meet tomorrow in in executive session at 10 a.m. in the Atomic Energy Committee room to hear Mr. Doyle Northrup, the Director of the Air Force Technical Applications Center of the Department of Defense. * The committee will continue with public witnesses in room 4221, New Senate Office Building, at 2 p.m. The committee is adjourned. (Whereupon, at 4:30 p.m., the committee was in recess, to reconvene at 10 a.m., Friday, August 23, 1963.) • The transcript is classified and is in the committee files. NUCLEAR TEST BAN TREATY FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 1963 UNITED STATES SENATE, COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, Washington, D.C. The committee met, pursuant to recess, at 2 p.m., in room 318, Old Senate Office Building, Senator J. W. Fulbright (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Fulbright, Sparkman, Carlson, and Williams of Delaware. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. We are meeting this afternoon to hear seven public witnesses. We are very pleased to have as our first witness this afternoon the Honorable James P. Warburg of New York. Mr. Warburg, will you come forward? Mr. Warburg, it is the custom of the committee to swear all witnesses. Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Mr. WARBURG. I do. The CHAIRMAN. Under our program, each witness is limited to a 10-minute statement. He may file as long a statement as he likes, and then he will be subjected to questions. You may proceed, Mr. Warburg. TESTIMONY OF JAMES P. WARBURG Mr. WARBURG. Mr. Chairman, it has been my privilege to appear before your committee on many occasions during the past 14 years to testify on a variety of questions of foreign policy. There has never been a question upon which I could as unequivocally state that I favor affirmative action as I can with regard to the ratification of the partial test ban treaty now before you. TREATY FIRST STEP TO PEACE As a lifelong student of international affairs, I consider this treaty the first significant step toward peace taken during the whole dismal postwar period. It is true that the treaty alone will not take us very far along the road to peace, but it has let the first ray of sunlight into the darkness. I shall not detain you by taking the full time allotted to me. I have followed closely the President's statements and the testimony of the Secretary of State, the Under Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Even if I had entertained any doubts about this treaty, the testimony of these gentlemen would have set them at rest. That I had no such doubts is evidenced by the fact that I publicly advocated precisely this sort of a partial test ban in a letter to the New York Times, published more than a year ago, in April 1962. I shall not take your time to read that letter, but I have this letter here. I shall not take you time to read it unless you wish me to. The CHAIRMAN. Without objection, it will be included in the record. HEEDING PRESIDENT'S REQUEST FOR "PUBLIC DISCUSSION" Mr. WARBURG. Mr. Chairman, I am here not because I feel that I can add anything to the testimony of men far better informed than I but because I consider it my duty to heed the President's request for public discussion and support. I give my support wholeheartedly and shall be glad to submit to questioning. As some of you gentlemen know, I have long concerned myself with the problems of Europe and particularly with the problem of Germany. Both Germany and France present certain obstacles to further progress after the ratification of this treaty has opened the path to peace. I doubt whether you will wish to go beyond the immediate question before you at this time, but, if you do so desire and if I can be of any assistance in considering these matters, I am gladly at your disposal now or at some later date to suit your convenience. Permit me, in closing, to express the hope that neither the U.S. Senate nor the American people will be swayed by the testimony of a few doubting Thomases, nor by the disproportionately publicized apocalyptic warnings of a single nuclear physicist whose allegations of fact have been authoritatively contradicted and whose evaluation of risks is not concurred in by the great majority of the scientific community. I am confident, Mr. Chairman, that you will give this treaty such overwhelming support as to demonstrate to the world that the American people are solidly behind their President in his patient and persistent pursuit of peace. Thank you. (The article previously referred to is as follows:) LETTERS TO THE TIMES TEST PROPOSAL OFFERED WARBURG ASKS SEPARATION OF THE TWO ASPECTS OF To the EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES: BAN GREENWICH, CONN., April 17, 1963. Four considerations impel this deeply concerned citizen to offer the perhaps presumptuous suggestion that there may still be an alternative to the ap parently inescapable tit-for-tat spiral of atmospheric testing which President Kennedy has so patiently and earnestly endeavored to prevent. The deadlock over inspection has arisen with respect to underground tests. Tests in the atmosphere can be detected and analyzed without the international controls to which the secrecy-obsessed Russians object. After careful analysis of the Soviet explosions treacherously set off last autumn, the President has stated the reason for his obviously reluctant decision to resume atmospheric tests-namely, that if the Soviet Union were permitted further such tests while the United States and Great Britain refrained, Soviet technology might catch up to or overtake the Western Powers by achieving a major breakthrough. |