FROM THE ROCKING CHAIR

WITH wooden blocks placed under his rocking chair to keep him from jouncing off-camera. President Kennedy faced the U.S. on television. Each of the major networks had asked time for a review of his years in office. Kennedy himself had suggested that newsmen from all three networks meet him in a single session--an updated, visual version of F.D.R.'s folksy fireside chats. The taped interview lasted one hour and 35 minutes, was edited to an hour-long show by the networks. The questions asked him were kindly. Some of Kennedy's views were debatable; he seemed to think, for example, that the great danger during the steel crisis was that he might fail to work his will. No momentous news was made, but the session served to show the President at his informal, confident best. Excerpts:

On the Presidency: "I would say that the problems are more difficult than I had imagined them to be. The responsibilities placed on the United States are greater than I imagined them to be, and there are greater limitations upon our ability to bring about a favorable result than I had imagined them to be. It is much easier to make the speeches than it is to finally make the judgments."

On the Congress: "I think the Congress looks more powerful sitting here than it did when I was there in the Congress. But that is because when you are in Congress you are one of a hundred in the Senate or one of 435 in the House, so that the power is so divided. But from here I look at a Congress, and I look at the collective power of the Congress, particularly the bloc action, and it is a substantial power.''

On Sending Troops to Ole Miss: "I don't think that anybody who looks at the situation can think we could possibly do anything else. I recognize that it has caused a lot of bitterness against me and against the national Government in Mississippi and other parts."

On the Steel Crisis: "Now, supposing we had tried and made a speech about it and then failed. I would have thought that would have been an awful setback to the office of the presidency. Now, I just think, looking back on it, that I would not change it at all. There is no sense in raising hell and then not being successful. There is no sense in putting the office of the presidency on the line on an issue and then being defeated."

On the Bay of Pigs: ''The advice of those who were brought in on the Executive Branch was unanimous, and the advice was wrong. And I was responsible."

On Cuba, 1962: "If we had had to act on Wednesday in the first 24 hours, I don't think probably we would have chosen, as prudently as we finally did, a quarantine against the use of offensive weapons. In addition, that had much more power than we first thought it did, because I think the Soviet Union was very reluctant to have us stop ships which carried with them a good deal of their highly secret and sensitive material. One of the reasons I think that the Soviet Union withdrew the IL-28s was because we were carrying on very intensive low-level photography. Now, no one would have guessed, probably, that that would have been such a harassment."

On the Cold War: "The real problem is the Soviet desire to expand their power and influence. If Mr. Khrushchev would concern himself with the real interests of the people of the Soviet Union, that they have a higher standard of living, to protect his own security, there is no real reason why the United States and the Soviet Union should not be able to live in peace."

On Anti-Missile Missiles: "He [Khrushchev] might hit a fly, but whether he could hit a thousand flies with decoys --you see, every missile that comes might have four or five missiles in it, or would appear to be missiles, and the radar screen has to pick those out and hit them going thousands of miles an hour. You can hit one. What you are trying to do is shoot a bullet with a bullet. Now, if you have a thousand bullets coming at you, that is a terribly difficult task which we have not mastered yet, and I don't think he has. The offense has the advantage . . . When that day comes, and there is a massive exchange, then that is the end, because you are talking about Western Europe, the Soviet Union, the United States, of 150 million fatalities in the first 18 hours."

On the U.S.: "I must say that I have a good deal of hope for the United States. Just because I think that this country, which as I say criticizes itself and is criticized around the world, 180 million people, for 17 years, really for more than that, for almost 20 years, have been the great means of defending first the world against the Nazi threat, and since then against the Communist threat, and if it were not for us, the Communists would be dominant in the world today, and because of us, we are in a strong position. Now, I think that is a pretty good record for a country with 6% of the world's population, which is very reluctant to take on these burdens. I think we ought to be rather pleased with ourselves this Christmas."

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