Ball Raps Nixon’s Call for Israeli Military Superiority, Urges Arms Controls

George W. Ball, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations who resigned last week to become principal foreign policy advisor to Humbert H. Humphrey, today attacked Richard M. Nixon for advocating military superiority for Israel. Appearing today on the Columbia Broadcasting System’s television program “Face the Nation,” Mr. Ball was asked about his views on a balance of power in the Middle East and the fact that both Presidential candidates have advocated arms for Israel. He replied “Mr. Nixon said…that we should always assure military superiority for the Israelis…He is a man who thinks that military might is the answer to everything and that the only way that we can have a prosperous and happy world is for the U.S. simply to have arms and threaten to use them.”

Commenting on a possible peaceful settlement without arms, Mr. Ball suggested “an agreed solution between the parties which they hopefully would reach on their own” but that he would not exclude the American-Soviet arms control negotiations.

He advocated “some serious efforts between the U.S. and the Soviet Union to bring about a control of the arms that are going into the area, in which other nations, too, would join – France, for example, which has been an arms supplier in the past to the area.”

Mr. Ball said he thought the concept of a super-power arms control involving Israel was “vitally important and, I think, diplomacy should be directed at it, as it has been.”