The President's Decision

Not since Scarlett did her deeds at Tara had a Southern plantation received such national notoriety. The President's golf score at Thomasville was low, his aim good, and his smile broad--indications enough for the pollsters and politicians that Eisenhower would run again. In all the will-he-or-won't-he discussions, however, there is one critical problem which seems to have gone with the wind: the effect of the President's decision on U.S. foreign affairs.

It is surprising that foreign affairs has taken a secondary role in analyses of the President's decision to run or not to run. For if the President's 1952 decision is any guide, his answer this week may well rest almost entirely on his own personal desire to mould this country's foreign policy. Paul Hoffmann, for instance, has reported that when he went to Europe in 1952 to persuade Eisenhower to contest the Republican nomination, the only argument that held any weight with the General was the notion that he, and he alone, could make great, beneficial contributions to the cause of world peace. This sense of personal mission--based on Eisenhower's war-time contacts with European and Soviet leaders, as well as his popularity with large segments of the American people--may well have pushed him down the road to the Presidency with greater force than less messianic crusades.

Motives aside, Eisenhower as President has shown that when he does take personal control over foreign affairs, his creative leadership is apparent. The Atoms-for-Peace plan, the Geneva Conference, and the scheme for mutual aerial inspection have all shown that the President when he chooses, is his own best Secretary of State. Indeed, at one critical point, Eisenhower had to side-step both the Vice President and Foster Dulles to prevent U.S. troops from fighting a hopeless defense of Indo-china.

Eisenhower's creative leadership, though it sometimes had a hard time asserting itself through the ranks of "The Team," has disappeared almost totally after the President's heart attack. Since September, the Soviets have smiled their way through Asia and have courted, in a dangerously successful manner, neutrals from Yugoslavia to Cambodia. Imaginative responses from Washington to new Soviet techniques have been nil. In fact, the Middle Eastern muddle is just the latest and best instance of a policy that evidently evolved while the policy-makers were losing drinks at shuffleboard in the Bahamas. Even Senator George, that most agreeable Democrat, has now stated flatly that the President's leadership is simply not what it used to be. At a time when the President should be spending more time than ever studying day-to-day developments in foreign affairs, Eisenhower is, necessarily, taking on lighter load of work. A year of faltering foreign policy is regrettable; five years of it would be disastrous.

The President undoubtedly realizes that his heart attack has diluted his own power in foreign affairs. If he decides to run again in order to continue his commendable personal mission, he should be prepared to devote his full energies to the task of leading this country's foreign policy. If his health precludes his active leadership, we hope he has the wisdom to leave his mission to another.