Remember Lord Acton

Among Washington's younger political columnists, few might have been expected to cheer more loudly for the Kennedy Administration than balding William V. Shannon, 33, pundit-in-residence for the liberal New York Post.

Massachusetts-born, Bill Shannon graduated from Clark University in 1947, wrote a political history of the Irish in Massachusetts while studying for a master's degree in history at Harvard under Arthur Schlesinger Jr.. who called him "the most brilliant student I ever had." Then he sailed a few miles down the Charles River to M.I.T. to help edit the letters of Theodore Roosevelt under Historian Elting E. Morison, won his reporter's ribbon in 1950 as a State Department legman for pugnacious. New-Dealing, syndicated Columnist Robert S. Allen, with whom he co-authored The Truman Merry-Go-Round. A year later, he moved to the Post's Washington bureau as a reporter.

Between the Lines. As a Post columnist since 1957, Shannon regarded Dwight Eisenhower's biggest failing as "not mobilizing the full energies of the American people in fighting the political cold war." But almost alone among the liberal pundits, he has never gone overboard for Kennedy. Even in a seemingly honeyed tribute to Kennedy just after the election. Shannon expressed between-the-lines doubts: "If the physical courage is matched by the political courage, if the intellectual brilliance is touched with enough compassion and imagination, if the canny political skill is ennobled by an occasional act of reckless daring on behalf of moral principle, then John Fitzgerald Kennedy will take his place in the lofty company to which he honorably aspires." Since then, although still generally enthusiastic about the Kennedy Administration, Shannon has increasingly peppered his prose. Wrote he of Kennedy's early Cabinet choices: "It has been a pretty sad interregnum for liberal admirers of our new, young President-elect. What began as a search for new men is ending as the acceptance of grey men." After Secretary of State Dean Rusk's first press conference, Shannon commented acidly: "Answering approximately 20 questions, he explored the outer reaches of cliche and the higher peaks of platitude. One [reporter] described Rusk's performance as 'an educated man's parody of an Eisen hower press conference.' "

Danger in Power. Last week Columnist Shannon went farther than ever before --,with a plea to intellectuals not to follow Kennedy blindly. Wrote he: "The love affair between the intellectuals and President Kennedy is a striking feature of the political scene. This romance may be fine from the viewpoint of Mr. Kennedy, but it is doubtful if it is a wise venture for the intellectuals.

"An intellectual's basic posture is that of a critic. He has no right to be enamored of men of power. Kennedy, by virtue of the office he holds and by temperament, is a man of power. Since he wants to hold power for himself and his party, he must manipulate situations and people consciously, sometimes cynically, for his own and his party's selfish advantage.

"It is easy to understand the enthusiasm of the intellectuals for Kennedy.

After 15 years of Truman and Eisen hower, it is a pleasure to have a sophisticated, literate mind in the White House.

But another personal cult is precisely what we do not need. Hero worship is not only unbecoming but unhelpful. It can only lead to an unhealthy disillusionment as President Kennedy engages in the awkward shifts, evasions and compromises that inevitably accompany the exercise of great power. Let us remember Lord Acton-and take care."

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