Talk Show Talks About World PeaceAuthor(s): Ward R. WhippleSource: American Bar Association Journal, Vol. 55, No. 11 (NOVEMBER 1969), pp. 1060-1064Published by: American Bar AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25724957 .

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Talk Show Talks About World Peace

by Ward R. Whipple

TV panelists Socrates, Advertising Man, Alexander Hamilton, Average Man and two visitors from the planet Neptus offer practical suggestions and urge a Madison Avenue publicity campaign to increase popular support for the concept of world peace through law.

11/rODERATOR: Welcome to this na

tionwide telecast.

What do we do about world peace? Our distinguished panelists will "tell it

like it is". Our panelists have promised practical suggestions we can use to

ward off a nuclear holocaust. They are

ready to bring us their ideas on how to

increase popular support for world

peace through law. Let me introduce:

Socrates, whose reputation, made

in Athens more than 400 years before the birth of Christ, has never faded.

He is on leave of absence from his pres ent abode to be our consultant on the wisdom of the past.

Advertising Man, who heads one of New York City's successful Madison Avenue public relations agencies. The

products he promotes enjoy phenome nal sales.

Alexander Hamilton, a lawyer much publicized in history books as a

Founding Father of our country. He was the author of most of the famous Federalist Papers. His observations on

the current American scene are certain

to be stimulating. Neptus Man and lovely Neptina,

our first visitors to Earth from outer

space. They are from the planet Nep tus, which is further advanced than Earth in solving disputes among na

tions. We are fortunate and happy to

have you Neptians on this panel to tell us what the future may hold for us on our Earth.

To complete our panel is Average Man. He has so many contacts in in

numerable groups that he is considered

by many as the most influential man

alive. His support insures success; his

opposition dooms to failure. To begin, will our guests from Nep

tus tell us whether our closeness to our

problems deprives us of perspective?

Neptus Man: To all Earth people, we bring our planet's salute and

friendly wishes. You Earth people are

closer than you realize to what hap pened to the Charred Planet. Our space

ships dare not approach it. Your Earth

signals since 1945 alarm our monitors. We rushed here to warn you. War,

with your thermonuclear weapons, will scorch Earth by a planet fire.

Average Man: Are you hoping to scare me?

Advertising Man: Average Man is

blissfully uninformed. Ten to eighty million Americans will die early in a

missile attack. We would retaliate. But some missiles will penetrate any de fenses of any target country. Survivors,

finding vegetation, animals, streams, air and food sources all radioactively poisoned, will envy the dead.

Deadly nerve gases and lethal biolog ical agents are being stockpiled in the United States and Russia. Our Govern

ment, hiding appropriations for these

ghastly killers, wants to keep them hush-hush. Countries too poor to make

nuclear weapons can produce biologi

cal and chemical weapons secretly and

cheaply.1

Moderator: Mankind lives under a

Damoclean sword. An unstable "bal

ance of retaliatory terror" maintains a

1. Hersh, Chemical and Biological War fare: America's Hidden Arsenal (1968); Clarke, The Silent Weapons (1968); Rothschild, Tomorrow's Weapons (1964). The author of the last book was Command

ing General of the Research and Develop ment Command of the U. S. Army Chemical

Corps. He states that "the build up of mili

tary strength to deter an enemy from attack

ing has never succeeded in the past" and that a comprehensive system of war preven tion with an international court and a world

police force involves risks, "but they seem in finitesimal compared to the probability that a general war will occur during the next two or three decades". He concludes: "What is needed is an educational campaign."

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World Peace

truce. What is lacking for the peace which everyone seeks?

Why Essential Public Support Is Lacking

Socrates: In Athens, without the

support of the populace, no leader dared take action, fearing to displease the people whose voice ruled our city. Is it different now in your Republic?

Alexander Hamilton: The Consti tution's ink was barely dry when Con

gress reflected public sentiment. Politi cians shun a national defense policy which lacks popular support. Our

country won't switch from its tradi tional reliance on military power (al

though it no longer protects) to reli ance on world law (although it is es

sential to survival) until Average Man favors this change.

Average Man: I don't! You risk war with the Communists. They ignore law. I leave national defense to our

Government. It has secret information.

Neptus Man: Earth is an astound

ing planet. You have put men on the

moon, and you have discovered ther

monuclear reaction, which is rather ad

vanced. But you amaze us Neptians be

cause you use law to settle disputes? but only between citizens inside your nations.

Strangely, as one of your Earth peo ple said, "There is no enforceable law

against the maintenance by any nation of whatever armaments it chooses; no

enforceable law against war by any na tion for any cause or for no cause; no

standing world police force; no tribu nals to which all nations are required to submit their disputes." No one "would be surprised at constant vio

lence in any large city if it had no defi nite penalties against robbery or mur

der, no prohibitions against organized armed bands, no police force and no courts of justice."2 On Neptus, we would consider your relations between nations quaint, except for your peril and crushing taxation.

Advertising Man: It's a turtle's

pace getting grass-roots support for in ternational law. For centuries, scholars

in ivory towers wrote and talked about it. Few listened.

Average Man: What good is inter national law?

Advertising Man : Your understand

ing of ways to peace has not kept up with new ways to overkill. That's the

understatement.

Neptina: It is not only children who want rides in our space ship. How we

traveled here from Neptus interests ev

eryone. Amazingly, scarcely anyone in

quires how we abolished war! Our

people's support of our Planetary Po

lice, who make our nations obey our

planet's law, seems unbelievable to you Earth people.

Average Man: The rule of law is

idealistic, too impractical. It's for the distant future. Immediate concerns get

my attention. No one ever tells me

what international law could do. On TV I hear about everything else, from

antiperspirants to yoga. Suppose I wanted to work for peace. Exactly what would I do? The Pentagon urges

stronger military strength and the anti ballistic missile program, costing bil lions. Would I be patriotic to question the Pentagon's judgment?

Socrates: Do most men accept

great long-existing evils without pro test?

Advertising Man: History proves that.

Socrates: Average Man, my friend, when you see others failing to protest what seems evil to you, does this un

dermine your confidence in your own

judgment? Average Man: Naturally.

Socrates: Habit and inertia rule men. Does distrust of new ideas?even

a new way to peace?deter you?

Average Man: Of course not. But I

accept the majority view.

Socrates: Slavery was accepted in

my time, just as dueling was accepted in yours, Alexander.

Alexander Hamilton: My fatal duel with Aaron Burr was certainly my last mistake. "Honor" in my day re

quired dueling. Aaron and I often talk about it. We agree that we both were

rather silly. Remember, Socrates, you have a criminal record in Athens. You were condemned to drink hemlock.

Your alleged crime was corrupting the

minds of the youth. Who is corrupt ing youth today?

Socrates: Wfio corrupts youth more devastatingly than those who per suade youth that (1) war is inevitable; (2) all efforts to abolish war are doomed to failure; and (3) it is use less to try to abolish war? The depths of Hades are reserved for those who take away hope?and effort?for

peace. A man who lived after me said "All they that take the sword shall per ish with the sword" and "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God."

Moderator: Mr. Hamilton, you were our first Secretary of the Treas

ury. Does the powerful "military-in dustrial-labor-academic complex" in

fluence Average Man's attitude toward

peace through law? Alexander Hamilton: "One of the

serious things about this defense busi ness is that so many Americans are

getting a vested interest in it, proper ties, business, jobs, employment, votes,

opportunities for promotion and ad

vancement, bigger salaries for scien

tists, and all that." So stated Eisenhow er's Secretary of Defense Charles E.

Wilson, a former president of General

Motors, when he testified before a

Congressional committee in 1957.

George Washington would endorse President Eisenhower's warning in his farewell broadcast of January 17, 1961: "The total influence?economic,

political, even spiritual?is felt in

every city, every State house, every of fice of the Federal government. ... In

the councils of government, we must

guard against the acquisition of un

warranted influence, whether sought or

unsought, by the military-industrial complex." Moderator : Are patriotic Americans

unconsciously influenced by profit motives?

Socrates: Impartial decisions are

not expected from judges having a

financial interest in a case. Even citi

zens not benefiting from defense con

tracts are affected by profit pressures

originating in defense industries.

2. Letter, Grenville Clark, The New York

Times, December 26, 1965.

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World Peace

Neptina: How comforting when an

Earth man determines that his coun

try's safety coincides with his personal benefit. Patriotism and profit, happily joined!

Advertising Man: Would we be in Vietnam today if each step of our mili

tary escalation had resulted in termina

tion, instead of creation, of those de fense contracts which escalation pro

duced? Socrates : Do those benefiting finan

cially from present international ten

sions have an incentive to oppose

world law designed to reduce those ten sions?

Neptus Man: Some people think

"peace scares" are "economically sub

versive". On Neptus, after defense pro

duction ended, economic dislocation was only temporary. Peacetime needs

soon exceeded our optimistic hopes. We never would return to your "pro duction for destruction".

Alexander Hamilton: Your enor

mous military spending appalls me.

Average Man does not realize how

soaring national deficits are legally stealing his savings. Even the dime is debased by reduction of its silver! The arms race is emptying the treasury.

Average Man: You say world law will be cheaper?you say it is neces

sary for survival. O.K. But there's

nothing I can do. What are lawyers doing about it?

Alexander Hamilton: Most lawyers say they favor peace through law. Some are even working for it. The

World Peace Through Law Center at 75 Rue de Lyon, 1203, Geneva, Switz erland ($10 membership open to all

lawyers) can put them at peace's cut

ting edge. But most of them are "too

busy right now" to get involved. In 1776 twenty-one lawyers I knew signed a Declaration in which they pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sa cred honor to a cause. It was not popu lar with all their clients; its future was

speculative. Yesterday, I saw school children looking at that paper in the National Archives.

Average Man: Because the power ful defense lobby outspends the weak

peace lobby, naturally I get a one sided presentation, favoring ever

stronger military force. I hear little about world law as an alternative. Tell

me what international law can do, and

exactly what I can do for peace.

How To Create Grass Roots Support

Advertising Man: We need results fast?short cuts?methods which

promise quick success. We can't wait

for international law to expand slowly. We must get big mileage from avail able money and time. A nationwide ed ucational campaign?a crash program to sell the rule of law to millions?is the answer!

Use a Madison Avenue publicity campaign. Advertising sells products about which the public, at the start, couldn't care less. Competition for at

tention is intense. Even a product as

good as world law sells faster if profes sionally promoted.

Pitch your appeal to the average guy. Hit him repeatedly. Use every possible publicity medium. That takes

money, but money is what gave us the atomic bomb and sent men to the

moon.

Perhaps foundations will finance it.

Maybe advertising talent, space and time will be donated. Thousands of

people work voluntarily on community projects less important than world

peace, just because a friend asks. We can do more asking for the peace cause.

Alexander Hamilton: Gifts and

legacies to the United Nations should be tax deductible.3 And to make the U.N. financially independent, U.N. of ficials might collect a small tax on cer tain imports into all countries. And

perhaps nations receiving foreign aid should use the World Court to settle

disputes. Let's establish a Department of Peace.4 Unlike the Defense Depart ment, ideologically and financially committed to military force, it would

develop other approaches. If every new

government office grows, what better

reason for expansion than the pursuit of peace?

Advertising Man : Cameramen!

Neptina looks gorgeous, but please swing your cameras off her and focus on this list of specific suggestions:

Ward R. Whipple practices law in Rochester, New York. He is Chairman of the Monroe County Bar Associa tion's World Peace Through Law Committee; a colonel (retired) in the Judge Advocate General's Corps, U.S. Army Reserve; and a charter member of the World Peace Through Law Center. He was graduated from the University of Rochester (A.B. 1933) and Cornell Law School (LL.B. 1936).

IDEAS FROM A "BRAIN STORMING SESSION"

Essay, song, or photo contests; ex

plain the rule of law in school books; World Court pictures; cereal boxes with pictures, kids' cards of "Heroes of the Law"; cartoons, slogans, comic book techniques reaching millions; international visits and "pen pal" let ters; U.N. information on TV via Tel star; school examinations on the U.N. Charter; crossword puzzles, games,

3. Int. Rev. Code of 1954 ?? 170 and 2055 prevent deductibility.

4. H.R. 6503, 91st Cong., 1st Sess., would do this, and in addition an International Peace Institute and a Joint Congressional Committee on Peace and International Un derstanding. It was introduced by Represen tative Horton of New York with more than

forty cosponsors. "The Department of Peace", Representative Horton has explained, "would balance at the highest level of government the roles of the State and Defense Depart

ments, placing its objectives on an equal lev el with them. Neither the Secretary of State nor the Secretary of Defense can be faulted. Their offices are not, never were and can never properly be primarily peace offices. . . . This new legislation would extend the phil osophy of checks and balances into the area of foreign affairs. . . . Proposals for a

Department of Peace date back to the Found

ing Fathers . . ." .

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World Peace

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Last Exit Reproduction rights reserved.

toys, designs on clothing, with refer ences to world law; postage stamps showing the World Court or com

memorating great events or people of the law; weekly newspaper col umns relating current news to inter national law. (Ideas from the World Peace Through Law Committee of the Monroe County (New York) Bar

Association.)

Average Man: You underestimate me. You are getting me interested. I avoid dry legal journals. But I talk to a lot of people, in car pools, at the super market, at my bowling league. Many of

my friends never heard a talk on any

thing international. Program chairmen

of organizations welcome suggestions. Could bar associations furnish outlines for talks, speakers' materials, or visual

aids? These would encourage us to

tackle a program on an international

subject. Advertising Man : The Rule of Law

Research Center at the Duke Univer

sity Law School, Durham, North Caro

lina, publishes excellent pamphlets on

peace, security, disarmament and

world order at 250 each. The Boy Scout Handbook should restore men

tion of the United Nations in its chap ter on citizenship. U.N. agencies are

mentioned in the Girl Scout Handbook. More communities should form local associations to support the U.N. Roch

ester's (New York) Association for the United Nations has 3,654 members.

Trips to the fascinating U.N. Head

quarters can be contest awards. Fic

tion, movies and TV plays could weave in background material on the rule of law. Uncle Tom's Cabin and

Dickens's Bleak House had vast influ ence in changing the social structures of their day. Commercial interests

plant items in mass media to influ ence public attitudes. Plant for peace also.

Socrates: Is youth encouraged to violence by growing habituation to Vietnam's daily slaughter and to law lessness by nations' reliance on force?

Average Man: Certainly. Socrates: Will a person angered by

injustice suffered in the lowest police court, where most citizens encounter

the law, be a supporter of the rule of law? Average Man: Hardly! Socrates: You believe world law is

idealistic and too big a goal for accom

plishment? Average Man: Unfortunately.

Socrates: And is youth challenged by idealism?

Average Man: Yes. Youth dislikes

war, hypocrisy and materialism.

Socrates: Then enlist youth's tre

mendous power to attain this high goal.

Average Man: How? Advertising Man: This educational

campaign should inform youth where and how to apply its energy. Tell it

like the world is. Socrates: "And ye shall know the

truth, and the truth shall make you free." In ancient Athens, youths at 17

proudly took our city's oath.5

The Toughest Obstacle:

Restricting Sovereignty Moderator : Now the thorniest sub

ject?limiting national sovereignty. To

increase use of the World Court, the

Senate Foreign Relations Committee

considered repeal of the Connally Res

5. "We will never bring disgrace on this, our City, by an act of dishonesty or cowar dice.

"We will fight for the ideals and Sacred

Things of the City, both alone and with

many. "We will revere and obey the City's laws,

and will do our best to incite a like rever ence and respect in those about us who are

prone to annul or set them at naught. We will strive increasingly to quicken the publ ic's sense of civic duty.

"Thus in all these ways, we will transmit this City, not only not less, but greater, bet ter and more beautiful than it was transmit ted to us."

November, 1969 Volume 55 1063

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World Peace

ervation, which prevents the World Court hearing any case against the United States which we say concerns a

"domestic matter". Supporters of the

reservation vehemently claimed that its

repeal would disastrously impair our national sovereignty. Does a world

ruled by law require every nation to

surrender some sovereignty? Advertising Man: Our "sover

eignty" is already impaired! Average Man, do you know the United States is

treaty-obligated to defend forty-two na

tions if any are attacked? Today, we

can't even prevent our cities being lev

eled any time an enemy will accept our

devastating retaliation?or its missiles

misfire. We spend billions on foreign aid and billions on "defense", and we

don't dare to stop! A sovereign's pre

rogative?freedom of action?it's

gone! Traditional national sovereignty is a corpse. Unrecognized as such and

unburied, it pollutes current thinking. Average Man: Sounds as if the

world is still in the old wild West days when there was no law and every man

carried his own gun.

Moderator: Mr. Hamilton, do you see any parallel between the situation

today, when a supranational body is

suggested to enforce world law, and the situation when the rival thirteen states were deciding whether to adopt our present Constitution?

Alexander Hamilton: Yes. There was fear then that if the proposed Con stitution were adopted, the states would lose their sovereignty, that there would be oppression by the feared new na tional government, that liberty would be lost. All manner of evil was pre dicted by opponents of our newly drafted Constitution. The arguments I hear today against placing the United States under world law are similar.

Moderator: You were the author of

fifty-three of the famous articles that

appeared in the New York newspapers in 1787-1788, known to us as the Fed eralist Papers. You wrote the articles to persuade your fellow New Yorkers, among whom there was strong opposi tion to ratification, to adopt our Con stitution.

Alexander Hamilton: The printers clamored for copy as press time ap

proached. James Madison and John

Jay also wrote some of those newspa

per articles. New York's Governor

George Clinton, Samuel Adams and Richard Henry Lee bitterly fought rati fication.

Moderator: New York voted 30-27 for ratification of the new Constitution, so your arguments and articles turned

the tide. Do you have any suggestions for convincing people today that the United States should limit its sover

eignty for its own good? Alexander Hamilton: We lawyers

know that agreement on facts promotes

settlements. Those Federalist Papers discussed every argument, motive, bias

and emotion affecting ratification. Your educational campaign should hammer home the facts of interna

tional life. Start a national debate on

limiting national sovereignty. Advertising Man: Something like

Mr. Hamilton's Federalist Papers is needed. We must convince Americans

that restricting sovereignty benefits them. Daniel Webster said, "Liberty exists in proportion of wholesome re

straint."

Neptina: How is this for a peace commercial? "Use world law to in crease your liberty."

Starting A World Police Force

Average Man: I am curious how the Neptians, who apparently are much like ourselves, have eliminated war on

their planet. Neptus Man, will you tell us how you eliminated disputes be tween nations?

Neptus Man: We didn't! Neptus has lots of disputes, but they are set tled in the Planetary Grand Court. The

key to our elimination of war is the

Neptus Police Force, which forces all nations to settle disputes by planetary law. Our system on Neptus is remarka

bly like a plan for your Earth that two of your Earth men, Greenville Clark and Louis B. Sohn, described in their

book, World Peace Through World Law. Disarmament of all nations per

mits our fairly small Planet Police Force to stop any aggressor nation.

Moderator: Our U.N. Charter Arti cle 43 provides that members make

military forces available to the U.N. But no such forces on a permanent

basis have ever been provided. All U.N. police actions were on an ad hoc

basis for each emergency. Ten coun

tries have earmarked approximately

11,000 men to be available to the U.N. This is a beginning.

Mr. Hamilton, you were a lieutenant

colonel at twenty-one in General Wash

ington's army. Tell us how a "ready" world security force could be started.

Alexander Hamilton: Elite cadres could immediately be created in the U.S. military. Personnel would be a

part of our Armed Forces and wear our country's uniform.6 Distinctive in

signia, perhaps blue helmets, would show that they will serve with the United Nations when the United States receives a call. In other nations, simi

lar elite groups would be wearing the same blue helmets. The "United Na tions Cadre" should be men of out

standing qualities. Language and

knowledge of foreign lands could be included in their training. Average Man: I don't think the

United States should be the world's po liceman. If my son could get in that Blue Helmet unit, I would be proud that he was helping to enforce peace

through law. Moderator: Nothing is more prac

tical than a high ideal, and "There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world; and that is an idea whose time has come."

Our time is gone. Thank you, pane lists, for your suggestions. I hope our

audience will discuss them with their friends and neighbors across America.

6. A House-Senate Concurrent Resolution that the United States affirm its support of a

United Nations peacekeeping force by ear

marking a 1,000-man technical and noncom batant First Brigade (Forces for Interna tional Relief on Standby) in our military forces was reintroduced in June, 1969, by Representative Horton of New York. In a letter of August 1, 1969, to the author, Fred erick J. 0. Blachly, Deputy Public Affairs

Adviser, Bureau of International Organiza tion Affairs, Department of State, wrote that "the most practical way to assure the avail

ability of trained forces for UN housekeep ing is to encourage UN members to earmark and train units which would be kept on a

standby basis and available for use in UN

peacekeeping operations". 7. See Rhyne, World Peace Through Law:

The President's Annual Address, 44 A.B.A.J. 937 (1958).

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