Man Meets Presidency

Not since the days before Pearl Harbor had a President of the U.S. delivered himself of such gloomy forebodings on the state of the Union.

On the domestic front, said John F. Kennedy, the economy "is in trouble." Unemployment is increasing, the recession worsening, the rate of economic growth lagging, bankruptcies booming, profits fading. In a special message to Congress (see The Economy), he prescribed a course of remedies to get things going again--and promised more if those did not work.

But it was on the cold war front that Kennedy talked in stark terms of onrushing national danger. Items:

P: "I speak today in an hour of national peril and national opportunity. Before my term has ended, we shall have to test anew whether a nation organized and governed such as ours can endure. The outcome is by no means certain."

P: "No man entering upon this office . . . could fail to be staggered upon learning . . . the harsh enormities of the trials through which we must pass in the next four years . . . Each day we draw nearer the hour of maximum danger."

P: "The tide of events has been running out, and time has not been our friend . . . The tide is unfavorable. The news will be worse before it is better . . . We should prepare ourselves now for the worst.''

In a week when U.S. spacemanship and missilery had won bold successes--the orbiting of Samos, the spy-in-the-sky satellite (see SCIENCE); the clean triumph of the new solid-fuel Minuteman ICBM; the Project Mercury shot and recovery of an "astronaut" chimpanzee*--President Kennedy's grim announcements seemed curiously out of phase, as if he had stumbled upon a copy of the Soviet Doomsday Book.

John F. Kennedy had discovered no skeletons in the Eisenhower closet, no cataclysmic secret-intelligence reports. But he had discovered that even a well-informed, alert Senator and President-elect has no conception of the responsibilities of the U.S. presidency. Shortly after April 12. 1945. Harry Truman said that he felt as if a load of hay had fallen on him. Kennedy was showing something of the same load, but being Kennedy, he came out fighting. He had also discovered, like many a predecessor, that he was bound in his high ambitions by the same realities that had bound the previous Administration--including the realities of Congress (see The Congress).

Nevertheless Kennedy had read and digested the contents of the "Crisis Book." a fat, black-bound State Department file of world trouble spots. It was on this reading that he posed specific concerns:

Asia. "The relentless pressures of the Chinese Communists menace the security of the entire area--from the borders of India and South Viet Nam to the jungles of Laos."

Africa. "The Congo has been brutally torn by civil strife, political unrest and public disorder." The worsening position of the West was soon spelled out in a State Department statement suggesting a drastic policy retreat (see FOREIGN NEWS).

Cuba. "Our objection with Cuba is not over the people's drive for a better life.

Our objection is to their domination by foreign and domestic tyrannies . . . Questions of economics and trade policy can always be negotiated. But Communist domination in this hemisphere can never be negotiated."

Western Europe. "Our alliances are un filled and in some disarray. The unity of NATO has been weakened by economic rivalry and partially eroded by national interest."

Cold War. "The first great obstacle is still our relations with the Soviet Union and Communist China. We must never be lulled into believing that either power has yielded its ambitions for world domi nation -- ambitions which they forcefully restated only a short time ago."

Satellite Countries. "We must never forget our hopes for the ultimate freedom and welfare of the Eastern European people ... I hope to explore with the Polish government the possibility of using our frozen Polish funds on projects of peace that will demonstrate our abiding friend ship and interest in the people of Poland."

By underscoring the dangers, the new President risked downrating such power ful U.S. assets as the strong missile deter rent shield and the proved economic potential. But the risk was balanced by a clear gain. By talking up plainly on for eign affairs, Kennedy was warning the U.S. that a cold war must be fought or lost. Perhaps it was time for a comfortable nation to share the weight of the President's load of hay.

* Last week, Moscow radio announced the successful launching of a seven-ton vehicle, heaviest yet to be flung into orbit. Though the satellite was probably large enough to carry two men aloft, the Moscow announcer merely reported: "The scientific and technical tasks set for the launching of the satellite have been carried out."

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