STANDING PAT ON A POWDER-KEG

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP68-00046R000200020017-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 19, 2014
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: November 12, 1956
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @50-Yr 2014/03/19 : CIA-RDP68-00046R000200020017-8
NUV ith 1956
?
?
NEW YORK POST
Circ.: e. 399,886
S. 65,O66
Front Edit Other
Page Page Peg*
Date: NOV 1
Standing Pat Pat on -a Powder-Keg
President Aisenhower met the other day with Con-
gressional leaders of both parties 101 d review of the turmoil
confronting humanity in the Middle " East and Eastern
Europe. Although no formal communique was issued at the
end of the meeting, a Washington dispatch to The Times
offered this remarkable glimpse of what had?and hadn't?
taken place at the session:
t was understood that no new United States policies were
discussed because none were regarded as needed at the moment.
Judging from the comments of the Democratic states-
men who participated in the meeting, they concurred in
this astonishing conclusion. Neither Senate Democratic
Leader Lyndon Johnson, reappearing in publiC after a long
strategic silence throughout the election campaign, nor any
of his colleagues had any independent opinions to offer.
All this will no doubt be heralded in some places as
patriotic bipartisanship. It is, in fact, bipartisan bank-
ruptcy. As this meeting occurred, heroic men and. women
were risking their lives for liberty in Hungary; granted
that the choices we face are difficult, dare any one smugly
proclaim that "no new policies are needed at the moment"?
In the Middle East it is increasingly plain that there
can be no real armistice unless we insist that the Arab
states finally agree to negotiate an over-all settlement with
Israel. We have condemned the Israeli act of aggression;
Thlrsuch censure can hardly be effective if we are unwilling
to demand that the Arabs end their eight-year declared war.
On these and-other fronts there must be affirmative,
coherent programs. If the Administration cannot furnish
any new ideas, it is up to the Democrats to raise their voices.
The phrase "no new policies needed" reflects a terrifying
vacuum in high places; it is incredible that Lyndon Johnson-
should seem to accept this formula as his oWn.
For a few brief hours on Saturday .there appeared to
be hope that the Administration was recognizing the urgent
need for fresh talent in the field of foreign policy. It was
reported that Walter Bedell Smitl2,,the able. former Under
Secretary of State, had` been n-aiiied as a special aide to the
President. But the good news was abruptly and vehemently
denied by the White House.
So 'Herbert Hoover Jr. remains in command of the,
State Department "team." As long as he is in charge we?
shall continue to hear that no new policies- are being'
moulded; and as long as Johnson holds his post as Senate
Democratic spokesman, the country' will get little original
thought or courageous dissent from the Democrats. ?
How long can we afford the luxury of sterile inaction,.
camouflaged as high-minded bipartisanship?
The campaign is over; but the crisis endures. It will not
be met by pretending that all our troubles.were resolved,
at the polls.. 41 ,
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2014/03/19: CIA-RDP68-00046R000200020017-L