(3 of 9)
From the U.S.: When he returned from China a few months ago, Dr. Henry Pitney Van Dusen, president of New York City's Union Theological Seminary and one of the foremost leaders in the Protestant churches in the U.S., forthrightly wrote: "China in Communist hands would be the most probable, one may almost say certain, prelude to World war III. . . . For those who are willing to face realities unafraid, one thing is clear: America's most important strategic frontier is not on the Rhine or the Elbe or at the Dardanelles. It is on the borderline of Soviet-American confrontation in northern China. . . . Consequently the U.S. must lend every practicable support to the constituted government of China." He added a condition for support: China must clean its political hands of "incompetence and corruption." Handsome, 49-year-old Dr. Van Dusen, a Presbyterian liberal, will speak to the Institute not only as an American exceptionally well informed about the Far East but also as a church statesman, who believes that vigorous moral leadership is necessary for a just and durable peace. He has long been a leader in the movement toward a Christian Union, an enthusiastic supporter of foreign missions. He points to the fact that many of China's leaders are Christians or Christian-educated, believes that Christianity has been a major influence in China's long struggle for peace and stability.
From the Philippines: An immediately grave question in Asia is whether the so-called dependent peoples can get along on their own. The Philippine Republic, striving against serious eco nomic obstacles to make democracy work, is one of the first great experiments in the movement of hundreds of millions from colonialism to independence. To tell the Filipinos' hopes and needs comes a resounding orator, Brigadier General Carlos Pena Romulo, aide to General MacArthur on Bataan, Manila newspaper publisher, the Republic's delegate to U.N.
From the U.S.: Navy Secretary James Vincent Forrestal, the hardworking man who had the most to do with making U.S. sea power the world's greatest, is the expert advocate of the Fleet's peacetime tenet: "Our mission is to wage the peace around the world." His strong insistence on a big Navy is matched by a passion for hard facts and a grasp on world affairs which makes him one of Washington's top foreign policy advisers.
LATIN AMERICA
In an era of polar strategy, Latin America no longer bears the military importance to the U.S. that it did before and during World War II. But South America is and always will be important to the U.S. economically, politically and culturally. At present the central question of Pan-American relations is how far the U.S. and its neighbor democracies should go in combating non-democratic governments close to home. The Institute will hear these speakers on Latin America: