Smithies Assails 'New Look' Defense Policy

An Economics professor and two Government Department experts on foreign policy agreed last night that the Eisenhower administration's "new look" in defense policy is an unrealistic approach to the world's political and military problems.

Speaking before an Emerson Hall audience of less than 50 people. Arthur Smithies, professor of Economics, set the keynote for the discussion by stating that Secretary of the Treasury Humphries and former Budget Director Dodge "underestimate the capacity of the country to support an adequate defense policy."

Supporting Smithies in his general thesis were Daniel S. Cheever, lecturer in Government, and Samuel P. Huntington, assistant professor of Government.

Smithies stated that the H-bomb provides a "cheap method of destruction," but he added that only through foregoing atomic wars can America hope to survive. The "incredible prosperity of the last ten years" he said, shows that the United States can support a more expensive but wiser policy than that of heavy reliance on atomic weapons.

Cheever, developing the foreign aspects of the Eisenhower defense program, stated that the primary problem in our relations with the rest of the world is the maintenance of unity and coordination with our allies.

Many of our allies, he noted, especially those located close to the Soviet Union, fear the counterattack which the "new look" emphasis on atomic weapons might bring.

Huntington said the Republican defense plans result from the party's basic motivation to lower taxes. This objective, he explained, has not brought about a balanced military force.