Again to the Winds AN EDITORIAL
EDITORIAL Again to the Winds "A song of ascents; of Solomon. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in...
...It then went on to detail the various factors limiting bold new approaches, to raise serious doubts about "the equalitarian diffusion of the advisory function" among a group of intellectuals, and to urge that "The President must set an example to the people by sacrificing popular illusions on the altar of truth...
...There was no rancor in this, and the situation was far from atypical...
...Yet style, for all its immediate affects, is ephemeral...
...The serious journals will return to being private organs of the intellectual community...
...once again they will have to content themselves with launching straws in the wind, hoping that occasionally one will fall on the White House lawn and perhaps be picked up by an aide...
...The new man is of the old school, at least where the game of politics is concerned...
...For us, in any event, it is one aspect of our personal loss...
...Nor does it appear premature, even for those of liberal persuasion, to find comfort in Lyndon Johnson...
...As the General Staff system gave way to strong personal rule, strong personal rule will now give way to adroit political manipulation...
...It does not detract from the fact that the Kennedy suntan, seemingly permanent, radiated security...
...The President read the article, strongly disagreed, and discussed it with several of those around him...
...Yet in the context of the assassinated President's sense of taste, of his giving respectability to intelligence, it has, we think, broader meaning than may be generally recognized...
...It was with the second half of this first verse of Psalm 127 that John F. Kennedy planned to conclude his address at the Merchandise Mart in Dallas on Friday afternoon November 22...
...As the Eisenhower jacket gave way to the hatless and coatless figure, the ten-gallon hat may now emerge as the national symbol...
...Whether Johnson will succeed where Kennedy failed, or fail where Kennedy succeeded, is another question...
...Much has since been written about the late President's style...
...that the Kennedy image, youthfully handsome and brisk of pace, restored the country to its proper place in the perspective of history...
...None before in American political life could stay with such ease on so lofty a plane, and inspire rather than alienate...
...For it meant, especially where the serious journals were concerned, that it was possible to speak directly to the seat of power...
...Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain...
...Coming five months after the Administration took office and on the heels of "two glaring defeats: the Cuban disaster and the Communist conquest of Laos," it began by speculating that, "Quite a number of Hamlets must have walked the battlements of the White House in recent nights, debating with themselves the relation between thought and action...
...Isolated, this is of course a minor point in the spectrum of the Kennedy tragedy...
...All this, probably, is as it should be...
...that the Kennedy cadence, delivering carefully wrought chiasmi, rallied the spirits of a people weighted down by failure abroad and lethargy at home...
...As the "I would say this" and obfuscating ungrammatical sentences gave way to a rapid reciting of facts and a cultivated Boston accent, simpler language and a thick-voiced Southwestern twang will now become the familiar currency...
...Exchanges of this kind are not likely to take place any longer, as they did not take place before...
...And the nation still mourns...
...To those who write and those who edit, this last was of particular significance...
...An example was an article by Hans J. Morgenthau, "Kennedy's Foreign Policy: Failure and Challenge," in The New Leader of July 3, 1961...
...What is not ephemeral and what will be lacking is the elevated and elevating Kennedy taste-or, more precisely, intellectualism...
...But on that day, in that city, it was to be said with new meaning that "the watchman waketh but in vain...
...Few before read with equal scope or sensitivity...
...In substance, however, the policies will remain the same, which is different from saying they are all good...
...And frequently the man in that seat was moved to respond...
...Essentially the President felt, as Morgenthau was informed, that the situation was more complex than the article made it out to be...
...From the vantage point of the White House the view was quite different...
Vol. 46 • December 1963 • No. 25
