New Frontier's Directions

One week in office was obviously not enough to shape or to begin to shape the policies of the Kennedy Administration. But enough did happen last week to provide an educated estimate of the directions the Administration is most likely to take in its first weeks and months as it heads into the New Frontier. Much of the evidence came from Kennedy's first press conference, held in the spacious auditorium of the new State Department Building, where, before 418 newsmen, he fielded 31 questions in 38 minutes. From that conference, along with other presidential and Administration actions during the week, came the pointers toward the policies of the foreseeable future. Among them:

FOREIGN POLICY. Kennedy and State Secretary Dean Rusk had hoped to gain time for working out foreign-policy plans by a return to the quiet techniques of traditional diplomacy at the ambassadorial level. But the release of U.S. Airmen Bruce Olmstead and John McKone upset the Kennedy Administration's schedule, made an early Kennedy-Khrushchev summit meeting all but inevitable. Both Jack Kennedy and Dean Rusk remain wary of Soviet intentions, still believe that the best way to prepare for accord is by keeping open every possible line of communication with Moscow. So long as his policy does not appear as weakness or immobility, President Kennedy does not want to make any immediate fresh decisions on such crises as Berlin or Laos.

DISARMAMENT. Disarmament Administrator John McCloy will make a strong, serious effort to get agreement on a nuclear test ban as the first step toward realistic negotiations on disarmament. Kennedy is seeking a postponement in order to give McCloy time to rejudge U.S. stands and strategy of the Geneva test-ban talks, which had been scheduled to begin next week. In seeking the delay--until March--Kennedy will continue to abide by Dwight Eisenhower's decision in October 1958 to suspend U.S. nuclear tests. But strong pressure in favor of more tests will come from some of Kennedy's nuclear and military advisers, who are eager to try out the so-called "neutron bomb" (TIME, Nov. 14)--a new breed of hydrogen weapon that is triggered by conventional explosives rather than nuclear fission. The ultimate in "clean" bombs (there is virtually no fallout), the neutron bomb is almost certainly under development by Russian scientists, and the U.S. cannot afford to linger much longer in testing its own.

NEW LEGISLATION. Convinced that there are plenty of unused executive powers lying around, Kennedy will not ask for greater authority to carry out reforms in such complex fields as civil rights, government reorganization, etc. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, for example, plans a massive attack on organized crime--but will limit his requests for congressional assistance to matters of money and manpower. Until he can tighten his grip on the Congress, with all its factions, the President will urge only a limited number of "vital" bills, such as federal aid for school construction and more money for federally assisted housing. Explained one Cabinet member: "The controversial stuff can come later. That's what Franklin Roosevelt did."

FISCAL PROBLEMS. Kennedy has promised strong action to protect the value of U.S. currency and to halt the gold outflow. As antirecession measures, he may request temporary tax cuts and increased unemployment benefits from Congress--but not vast public-works programs. Although a deficit is all but inevitable, Kennedy will try to stay close to Eisenhower's balanced $80.9 billion budget. Budget Director David Bell has already warned executive agencies to stick within previously decided limits in revising their estimates, has promised that increases will be restricted to "a relatively small number of items" upon which the President himself will make the decisions.

LABOR POLICY. The White House would like to avoid interfering with the normal course of collective bargaining. Labor Secretary Arthur Goldberg has no plans to step into every strike that appears on the horizon of the New Frontier, plans to save his referee's whistle for situations where major sections of the economy are involved. But Goldberg's intervention in the New York tugboat and railroad strike (see Labor), however dramatic and however salutary at the moment of its settlement, may well make it harder for the Administration to carry out its planned policies.

LATIN AMERICA. In keeping with President Kennedy's oft-stated intention of doing more for Latin America, the Administration will step up financial and technical assistance and free-food programs, take a sympathetic view of revolutionary movements that have the legitimate objective of bettering the life of the hemisphere's poor and downtrodden. At his press conference, the President pointedly exempted any such movements dominated by "external"--meaning Communist--forces, thereby shutting the door on renewed diplomatic relations with Fidel Castro's Cuba.

THE FARM SCANDAL. The New Frontier apparently has no more notion than the Eisenhower Administration about how to solve the farm problem. Kennedy plans to take strong executive action to disperse surplus goods to distressed areas in the U.S. and the world; but a decision on farm supports is another matter. Last week Agriculture Secretary Orville Freeman held his first major conference with representatives of national farm groups, sadly watched the meeting deteriorate into bitter arguments for and against Government control of farm policy. As hubbub rose, National Farmers Union President James Patton cracked: "Agriculture is so highly organized it's disorganized. We sound like a babble of voices." The babble broke up at noon--with no agreement in sight.

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