Above the Storm

The rising storm whipped at the banners of Dwight Eisenhower's crusade. From Tonkin to Geneva last week, the atmosphere was charged with gloom, defeatism, suspicion among allies. In Washington the determined Republican efforts to contain the McCarthy-Army hearings failed, and new thunderheads spread over the Department of Justice and the White House itself.

In the midst of it, President Eisenhower seemed to be above the storm. He stuck steadfastly to one of his favorite military maxims: long faces never won a battle. Stoutly defending his Administration against attacks, he exuded, at last week's White House press conference, the confidence of a commanding general.

The Soul of the Army. A query about Joe McCarthy's Pentagon informant (in the matter of the bogus FBI letter) got the conference off to a rousing start. The President, as usual, refused to discuss the matter on the level of personalities, but he did have a withering phrase for any officer or civilian who would give away classified information: reprehensible insubordination. To a military man like Ike, it was the unpardonable sin. The soul of an Army, he said, emphasizing "soul" in an irritated rasp, is the certainty that everyone responds to the laws of the land and to the orders of superiors, all the way up to the Commander in Chief. As any military man should know, the Army has its own recourse for soldiers who feel their superiors are derelict of duty: a complaint to the inspector general. And another thing: the armed services are quite capable of investigating their own troubles. An occasional and proper congressional inquiry into specific military matters might be a good thing, but the services should be permitted to do their own housekeeping.

When a reporter mentioned Indo-China, the President seized the opportunity to clear up something that had been bothering him: the Washington rumor that he and John Foster Dulles differed on U.S. policy in that unhappy country. Said the President: That was not so. If there was any detectable difference in their recent utterances, it must be because of language, not intent. Naturally, Ike continued, all of us want to save Indo-China, but no nation can be saved for the free world unless it wants to be saved. He did not think the free world ought to write off Indo-China, though. He thought we ought to look at this thing with some optimism and some determination.

The Heart of America. Later in the week, at an Armed Forces Day dinner, the President went to the heart of his optimism. "Never forget the strength of freedom of the free world," he told an audience of 1,200, mostly high-ranking military brass and Government officials. "We know how much we value our right to worship as we please, to speak as we please, to choose our own occupations, to try to give our children the kind of training in beliefs and faith that we believe will bring them happiness. We know the values we place on those things.

"If at times we seem to ignore them, if we are torn by doubts or current fears, or our attention is diverted by unworthy scenes, even in our national capital . . ." At this pointed allusion the President was interrupted by a great burst of sustained applause, and it was a full 30 seconds before he could resume: "we still know that we are America. The heart of America is sound."

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