War Danger Real, Symington Asserts
Speaks At Clarksburg
March 8, 1959
Sen. Stuart Symington (D-Mo) said Saturday night "there is real danger of a shooting war or shameful surrender" in the Berlin crisis."
Symington, a member of the Senate armed services committee said in a speech prepared for a Democratic rally that the Eisenhower administration is failing to recognize growing dangers in the international situation.
"We are faced with an immediate threat to our national security by the most ruthless and most powerful dictatorship the world has ever known," he said.
"There is real danger of a shooting war or a shameful surrender. But the Republicans seem more worried about a possible deficit in the budget."
Symington, a potential candidate for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination and is frequent critic of administration defense policies, called for immediate marshaling of American military strength.
"We must stop talking of what we cannot afford to do, and start talking of what we must afford to do" he said.
"The brutal realities of the world in which we live today demand that we start marshalling our national strength - all our resources - so as to protect our country, preserve our freedom, and lead the world to peace. This kind of effort requires leadership."
"And if the latest six years have taught us anything, it is that you do not get real leadership from the Republicans - but you do get it from the Democrats."
Symington also urged the administration to call a conference of bankers, businessmen and labor unions to plan for national economic expansion. He said differences of opinion among these groups "can only please the Kremlin."
He assailed what he called Eisenhower's "phony balanced budget," saying it won't be balanced because it depends on a nine billion dollar increase in revenues "nobody is sure will happen."
"The budget this year is just as phony as it was last year, when they first claimed it was almost in balance, and then ran up a 10 billion dollar deficit," he said.
"To slash into the needs of the nation in order to conform to this phony budget is to sacrifice our opportunities; our future, and our national security on the altar of politics - and Republican politics at that."
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