Getting the Inside Dope

For the rushed businessman shuttling between his office and his television set, U.S. News and World Report is an indispensable as a set of golf clubs. Especially important is a yellow page set in typewriter characters and called "Tomorrow," which presents the inside dope on what to expect in world affairs. To be unmistakably clear the News underlines key words like "Ike," "Malenkov," "war," and "money."

Early in 1953, magazines were commenting on the world political situation Ike would inherit. The U.S. News knew exactly. In the January 9 issue under the heading "Ikes Plan" the magazine said, "Move fast after January 20. Get the ball rolling. The first hundred days will tell the story. Act decisively then. Momentum, once started, will carry the new administration through for many months. Change overwhelmingly favored by voters must be shown quickly." The next week brought another issue, announcing that Eisenhower's ball might take a while to get started: "First period to end June 30. That's Truman's period largely. It is not to be expected that the new Administration can change things much."

Stalin's death early in March brought healthy activity from all of the country's publications. Most of them devoted columns to the immensity of Malenkov's torso, which was the only concrete thing not state in Who's Who. But the News editors made some positive evaluations of the dictator. On March 13, "Tomorrow" explained, "Malenkov is untried, probably isolationist at heart, without knowledge of the world outside Russia, inherently cautious. Malenkov, even if he tries to be tough, will frighten less than Stalin". A week later, the editors reconsidered: "Malenkov is a much more dangerous man than Stalin. He's less cautious, more daring, more disdainful of words from the West."

Also in the issue of Mach 20 below the statement: "You can set these things down as near certainties," they remarked, "Truce as an idea, is dead."

Concerning the new President's relations with Soviet leaders, on January 16 the News was certain that Ike wouldn't take any guff from his counterparts in Moscow. It said, "Stalin, foxy, will pull Ike's leg. Ike, an old hand, will not permit his leg to be pulled. Ike may pull Stalin's leg. The News also felt that diplomatically Malenkov would be quite similar to his predecessor. On March 20 the News declared, "Malenkov, like Stalin, will go on waging World War III, Russian style. Under Malenkov as under Stalin Russia is keeping the initiative in that war." And somehow, perhaps because of Ike's preference for the fairway, the News forgot about the gymnastic session of the January 16 issue, "U.S. under Eisenhower as under Truman is on the defensive."

But the U.S. News did not restrict its comments on the new President to his activities with the USSR. Throughout October 1952, it pointed out that Ike was a team player and on March 27 the magazine reminded, "Eisenhower's method will be to work with Congress, work with others, not try to come up with a big Eisenhower plan." A week later, April 10, under the heading "What you can expect before too long is this," the News said assuredly, "Eisenhower beginning fast, learning gradually, will assume role of leader, will seek to get a step ahead of problems."

But a few inconsistencies can never blur the uncanny accuracy with which "Tomorrow" has predicted the future. What other group of prognosticators could have said, on January 23, a full six weeks before Russian doctors battled with Stalin's fatal illness, that "Russia will be weakened by bloodletting at the top."