Where the News Ends
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY
WHERE the NEWS ENDS By William Henry Chamberlin Report on a Visit To Washington Washington A VISIT to the national capital is, for me, something like cramming for an examination. Apart from some...
...Perhaps the nearest thing to an informed guess on a subject that is of much concern to Americans is the belief of Per Jacobsson, the gifted Swedish economist who heads the International Monetary Fund, that the current recession will have run its course by autumn...
...One State Department expert on North Africa and France remarked with a sigh: "The French are supposed to be a logical people...
...Stevenson, despite his two defeats, shows no sign of retiring from political interest— as witness his much-discussed commencement address, calling for bolder and more generous American participation in the financing of world trade...
...An official influential in the shaping of American foreign policy characterized Indonesia and Lebanon as America's greatest "headaches'' at the present time...
...There is rather general agreement that the state of the national economy in November will be more important than any specific issue between the two parties...
...There is such a force in being, of about 150,000 men...
...One star-studded general, with a long, distinguished and varied service record, offered the following estimate of Soviet political progress: "With the help of local nationalism which they have been able to exploit, the Soviet rulers have outflanked the defensive alliances of the non-Communist world in three sectors: The Algerian turmoil drains off French military strength from Europe and threatens the southern flank of NATO...
...The mood was one of relief because of General de Gaulle's initial moderation...
...The change in France dominated the Washington scene at the time of my visit...
...One encounters a feeling in high Pentagon quarters that a critical moment in America's military destiny may be reached in 1960 or 1961...
...There is certainly no suggestion of sweeping away the parliamentary system...
...How could they believe that, if they gave Tunisia and Morocco independence, they could avoid the necessity of making a similar settlement for Algeria...
...Certainly Mr...
...Neither on the military nor on the diplomatic side does one find any clear idea of how to deal with the Soviet technique of indirect aggression...
...A commentator here with an above-average record of informed guesses ticked off as the three most likely Democratic candidates, in that order, Adlai E. Stevenson, Senator Stuart Symington and Governor Robert Meyner...
...De Gaulle's cabinet was not very different from what any political leader might have put together, had he achieved the miracle of persuading the biggest democratic parties to be represented...
...The two key problems—Algeria and the crisis of the French parliamentary system—remain to be solved...
...At the same time there is general recognition of the fact that the de Gaulle story is only in its first chapter...
...Then, so the calculation runs, the Soviets may have advanced in intercontinental ballistic missiles and in defensive missiles to a point where they would feel able to risk a missile offensive against the United States without the certainty of utterly devastating retaliation...
...De Gaulle has also made an honest effort for reconciliation in Algeria, and there is now less danger of the fighting spreading to Tunisia and Morocco than there was before the General took over...
...Democrats are generally hopeful, Republicans rather resigned and grim about the fall Congressional election prospects...
...Jacobsson is, ex officio, a very close student of American economic trends...
...Looking farther ahead, one sees no visible competition for the Republican Presidential nomination in 1960...
...It looks like Nixon, almost by default...
...Hence the effort of the Army to maintain a highly trained mobile airborne force which can be transported anywhere with a minimum of delay...
...but arrangements for air transportation are not altogether satisfactory and are something of a bone of contention between the three services...
...There had been some apprehension here, which so far seems unjustified, that a radical revision of the French attitude toward NATO and the Common Market might be in prospect...
...Along with this goes the belief that, for the immediate future, "brushfire wars" may be of more direct concern...
...Apart from some time out for seeing personal friends, it is a rather grim business of interviewing as many knowledgeable people as possible in Government departments and foreign embassies, usually on an off-the-record basis, with a view to obtaining as much information as possible for immediate communication or long-range stockpiling...
...In another part of the world, pro-Communist forces in Indonesia threaten to make the rear of SEATO insecure...
...Domestic politics, as usual, is very much in the Washington air...
...The tier of countries belonging to the Baghdad Pact has been leapfrogged by Soviet deals with Egypt and Syria, already bearing fruit in the trouble in Lebanon...
Vol. 41 • June 1958 • No. 25
