from a Leeds reader
Since the outbreak of the recent crisis in the Middle East, Western commentators have peddled a line that the Russians were responsible for the arms build-up by supplying huge quantities of arms to the Arabs. This is far from thc truth as was cemonstrated by a speegh in the U.S. Senate on June 26%h by Senator Frank Church, Demoerat, of Idaho. He said: "It is time for us to end the ‘arsenal diplomacy! which for years has vitiated and distorted our foreign policy". "Today, the federal government is the principle arms dis .enser of the wo ‘a; giving away, advancing credit, and promoting the sale of a volume of arms over six times that of our nearest rival, the Soviet Union," he continved,. Sen. Church said the United States, since the end of Weld War II, has doled out $322 million in military aid to the Arab nations which attacked Israel while Israel got only $28 million worth of U.S. arms. ‘