OUTCOME OF WAR

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28265, 1 May 1957, Page 13

OUTCOME OF WAR

Confidence Of America

(N.Z. Press Association Copyright) (Rec. 9.40 p.m.) WASHINGTON, April 30. The United States Army Secretary (Mr Wilber Brucker) said last night that the United States could most certainly defeat the Soviet Union in a general war. He also said that the United States was on the alert and watching and awaiting for whatever developed in the Middle East. He declined to comment on whether any new orders had been issued to the United States armed forces - since the current crisis erupted in Jordan. Mr Brucker, interviewed on a television programme, said that, if needed, the United States could move troops into Jordan in a “matter of days—not weeks or months.’* He refused to comment on the number of troops which could be moved into the turbulent Middle East in an emergency, but said: “We have enough to meet the emergency.” The Soviet Union had been wearing a false face in diplomacy, Mr Brucker said. But the Soviet Union had power. Asked if he thought the United States could defeat . the Soviet Union in an all-out war, he replied: “Most certainly, yes. ’ He said the United States was ready to fight a big or little war.

But he did not know about the probability of an all-out war. Such a war “could more likely start from a little war that began to blaze and grew from there,” he said. “We think the thing to do is to put it out before it gets started.” Asked if he thought President Eisenhower was ready to invoke his Middle East doctrine to deter Communist aggression in the Middle East, he replied: “Emphatically, yes.’*