Word: pact
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Next day, Michigan's Arthur Vandenberg seconded Connally's words. He, too, would reassure the cautious that the pact was not an automatic commitment to war; it was, he said, "a fraternity of peace. It involves us in no obligation not already implicit in our signature to the United Nations Charter...
...argue ourselves out of ratifying the pact," Vandenberg warned, "but we cannot thereby argue ourselves out of the jeopardy which the pact seeks to minimize . . . Appeasement is surrender on the installment plan...
Vandenberg sat down to thunderous applause from Democrats and Republicans alike. The last stubborn opponents of the pact seemed to be a mere handful-but a two-thirds majority was necessary for approval...
Great Discomfort. The opposition was represented by three points of view. First there were the hard-shelled isolationists like North Dakota's William Langer. They had a surprising ally in elderly, mustached Ralph Flanders of Vermont, a longtime internationalist. He thought the pact did not go far enough; he wanted to turn it into a rejuvenated U.N., equipped with its own international police force. Senator Flanders was convinced that the Politburo had set out to ruin us economically . . . by a "budgetary ambush," forcing the U.S. into a bankrupting arms race...
This week a more penetrating voice was heard in opposition to the pact. No matter what Vandenberg and Connally said, Ohio's Robert Taft felt that it commits the U.S. to arms assistance as well. And if it does, "I believe it will promote war in the world rather than peace . . . My conclusion has been reached with the greatest discomfort. When so many disagree with that conclusion, I must admit that I may be completely wrong...