The Politics of 'Stylish Frustration'

...Instead it behaves like a flustered hen, cackling disaster and engaging in a series of fitful maneuvers that are as bewildering as they are aimless...

...How long could one expect this proposition to survive...

...have the management of the economic system at their fingertips...

...Is there some common pattern underlying these three notable failures of American policy...

...but he did allow that this past winter has been rather more severe, politically, than the preceding one...

...I wish I knew—and I wish the Administration were not so sure it did know...

...And I find it hard to explain its bland and curt dismissal except by a doctrinaire conviction that the Administration's economists could see further, and more precisely, into the economic future than other economists we have hitherto known...

...I would not want to minimize the importance of style in a nation's leadership...

...A corollary of this commitment was that any political settlement in Europe would essentially arise out of Russo-American negotiations, with Europe itself given a mere consultative role...

...That the Kennedy Administration has style, no one can deny...

...A great leader is a man who knows what he knows, and who—even though he be a Kennedy—also knows what he doesn't know...

...On the other hand, maybe they are wrong...

...Today, the question has become how to "contain" Castro's Cuba—not Russia, not China, but the offshore island of Cuba!—and we seek consolation in the fact that Cuba, without nuclear missiles, is not in a position to commit overt aggression against the United States or its allies...

...One cannot help but sympathize with the Administration's concern over the spread of nuclear weapons, a concern that lies at the root of our quarrel with de Gaulle...

...We have a good many difficulties at home and abroad...

...They did suffer a defeat in Cuba— one which shattered the morale of the world Communist movement, exacerbated tensions between the Soviet Union and China, and damaged the prestige of the Communist idea...

...It requires strength of character to act upon one's ideas...

...Indeed, I find it almost too easy to forgive this Administration for what it has or has not done, because I am so appreciative of what it is...

...It has been a declared proposition of American foreign policy that it was tolerable for Britain to have its own nuclear striking power, but it was intolerable for the Franco-German alliance to have the same...

...Remember: At that time we were uttering dark warnings about what would happen if the Russians went so far as to establish a naval base in Cuba...

...Today, with an equilibrium of terror established between the two great powers, and with Europe capable (if it is willing to foot the bill) of defending itself, why should Europe not be the architect of its own policy...

...If anyone doubts this, let him cast his memory back to the pre-missile-crisis period and conjecture a situation in which it was suddenly revealed that the Russians had about 15,000 troops stationed on the island, that armaments were pouring in, that several thousand Latin American Communists were there being trained in the arts of sabotage and civil war, and that these Communists and some of the smaller arms were already turning up in Venezuela and Brazil...

...and I would find it hard to argue against the thesis that this improvement in the quality of American public life may, in the long run, be more significant than any (or even all) of its particular deficiencies...

...If there is any man who can make military sense of the multi-national nuclear force we are now trying to construct in Europe, I have yet to meet him...

...But we were so committed to "the longer view," so apprehensive of a future apocalypse, that we could not use this bargaining counter, for whatever it may have been worth...

...For the plain truth is that, in a fashion difficult to comprehend, a major American victory there has been transformed into a minor defeat...

...Would it not have been worth doing just to get the tax cut more quickly through...

...for we simply do not know how they will work themselves out or how they may be affected by our own actions...

...At the time of the Cuban missile crisis, the Administration had the option of seizing the occasion to do something about Cuba here and now, or to do something about our relations with Russia in the indefinite and unforeseeable future...

...Nevertheless, in its response to economic realities, the Administration has been excessively maladroit...

...On the other hand, they could never have expected, last summer, to be so powerfully entrenched in Cuba as they are today...

...It was too long a view, however, for it overshot the target...

...The so-called n-plus-1 country problem is real enough, God knows...

...It is true that we never wanted Britain to have that power, and accepted it simply because we saw no alternative...

...But his role in this affair ought not to be allowed to hide the fact that such a crisis in our relations with our West European allies was bound to occur sooner or later, and we have no right to be taken by surprise...

...I believe the true explanation of the Cuban fiasco is that the Administration never devised a policy for Cuba at all, but instead directed its attention to the internal stresses and strains within the Soviet Union— and then cast its Cuban policy in such a form as would (it hoped) favor the evolution from within the Communist world of tendencies more favorable to genuine peaceable coexistence...

...Almost—but not quite...

...Similarly, in Western Europe the Administration's error has been to try to sustain an artificial contrivance: a schematic alliance that would automatically—like a shiny computer—solve all the problems that might arise in that area...

...I sense that there is, though it is not easy to give it definition...

...it requires no less strength of character to resist being seduced by them...

...Had it been less sure, it might have avoided the present mess by making at least a token cut in its budget (say, $2 billion...

...This perspective made some sense 10 (or maybe even five) years ago, when the United States could negotiate from nuclear superiority and Europe was too feeble to negotiate at all for itself...

...I have no desire to say even a few kind words for de Gaulle, and indeed I cannot think of any...

...General de Gaulle has said, and there is no reason to disbelieve him, that his final decision to veto Britain's entrance into the Common Market came as a result of the Nassau Conference, whose communique he interpreted (correctly enough) to mean that Britain was committed to seeing Europe defended by America's nuclear might rather than by its own military power...

...But what made us think that we would permanently have such an alternative vis à vis France...

...I certainly do not mean to suggest that the Russians planned it this way...

...The defeat we have suffered in Western Europe is obscured by the fact that, in the person of General de Gaulle, we have a convenient scapegoat upon whom we can pin the responsibility...

...On the domestic economic scene, the unemployment figures speak reproachfully for themselves...

...And the split between China and the Soviet Union occurred nevertheless, in a profound and dramatic way that no one could anticipate...

...At that time, you may recall, American policy revolved around the difficult question of how to undermine and overthrow the Castro regime...

...Who wants a world bristling with suicidal armaments...

...To a large extent, this may represent nothing more than bad luck for the Administration (and for the unemployed...

...Its vaunted "pragmatic liberalism" too often seems to amount to nothing more than a ruthless opportunism in small matters of politicking and administration, combined with a selfrighteous and doctrinaire obstinacy on large matters of policy...

...In sum, that very sophistication and wide-ranging thoughtfulness which makes the Administration so intellectually attractive also seems to make it so practically ineffectual...

...Yet the Administration's attitude has remained determinedly avuncular— and it has consequently suffered the inevitable reaction...

...But it is most imprudent to base one's policy on any reading into their future...

...Yet, short of a disarmament agreement with the Russians, this is the kind of world we are going to have, and we may as well face up to it...

...Irving Kristol, formerly an editor of the British monthly Encounter, is now senior editor of Basic Books...

...One gets the impression that Heller, Gordon, Samuelson, Surrey and Co...

...Instead of a public ultimatum to Cuba—which might have demanded at least the repudiation of its military alliance with the Soviet Union—President Kennedy wrote private letters to Premier Khrushchev...

...I find it hard to believe that this thought did not occur to someone in the Administration...

...They could not have wanted that...

...In pursuit of this grand design, all sorts of specific opportunities were ignored because there was always one member of the alliance who could be relied on to object to a particular course of action...

...At that time, however, we were not interested in negotiating, only in striking rigid postures...

...We tried to achieve a harmony and a self-sustaining equilibrium that were beyond the power of any policy, no matter how ingenious...

...The science of economic forecasting is still so primitive that it would be unfair to blame President Kennedy and his advisers for having assumed an inflationary movement to be under way (as they clearly did when they forced U.S...

...A great many intelligent and thoughtful people, it can be recalled, demanded that the United States pursue a conciliatory policy toward Communist China, in order to wean it away from the Soviet Union...

...One thing, however, is clear: The science of economics (and the record of these economists) being what it is, one has every right to suspect that their superb self-confidence may turn out to be presumptuous arrogance...

...Europe is no longer the weak and dependent entity it was 10 years ago, and it is absurd to believe that it will have anything short of the major voice in determining its own political destiny...

...And the upshot is that, after a decade of scornfully rejecting negotiations with the Russians over the terms of our withdrawal—partial withdrawal, anyway—from Europe, we may find ourselves withdrawing without having negotiated any quid pro quo at all...

...Maybe they are right...

...It is this suspicion that lies behind the lack of popular enthusiasm for the proposed tax cut...

...It chose the latter course...

...Now it is wise to be aware of these stresses and strains and tendencies...

...One may put it this way: The basic fault of the Kennedy Administration is that it suffers from delusions of managerial omnicompetence...

...It is true that the President went on to deny that "now is the winter of our discontent" (Richard III, Act I...

...Perhaps if we had informed the Russians that, unless they became more reasonable on disarmament, they would confront a nuclear-armed Franco-German alliance in the near future, this would have had an effect...

...That it is in a state of frustration, President Kennedy has conceded, most stylishly: "There is a rhythm to a personal and national and international life, and it flows and ebbs...

...Cuba these days is such a favorite subject for demagoguery that one is almost tempted to refrain from critical comment...

...that they could insure economic growth, and prosperity, and full employment, and an equitable distribution of income, if only Congress and business and labor and the American people did not get constantly in their way...

...As if that were ever the issue...

...Still, at the moment and in the short run, it is these deficiencies that must engage our attention, since they so tangibly and proximately affect our national destiny...

...Well, we acted on no such grand policy, but merely reacted to each specific instance of Chinese hostility...

...Would there not have been a crisis every bit as severe and dramatic as was occasioned by the subsequent discovery of missiles...

...Well, to everyone's astonishment, the Russians put in missiles, pulled them out at our insistence, and now have the entire island of Cuba as a military base...

...One would think the State Department would be pleased to be relieved of the responsibility...

...But the President ought to execute policy in the context of problems and opportunities whose existence is material, not speculative...

...It is intelligent, it is urbane, it is sophisticated, it is vivacious, it is colorful, it is everything that an American administration has not been for 20 long years...

...As concerns domestic economics, the Administration has shown a touching faith in economic theory, of a certain kind...

...The United States is so eager to prevent the emergence of an independent European nuclear power, so worried about increasing the chances of nuclear conflict, that it now appears willing to agree that just about everyone's finger will be on our button...

...Steel to retract its price rise) at the very moment when a deflationary impulse was gathering strength...

...I know of no precedent in American history for such a spectacle as we are now witnessing...

...In politics, intelligence and imagination are qualities to be desired, but it is a misfortune when they are not subordinated to a readiness to look reality in the face, to recognize its plain features, and to act with a simple decisiveness...

...Would a token cut really have been so awful...

...Who would have thought it possible for any administration to propose a tax cut that arouses as little enthusiasm as does the present plan...

...And, indeed, is it so certain that the projected budget deficits over the coming years will be of no great economic significance, as against the advantages to be gained by a reduction in taxes...

...He did so, not out of weakness, but out of sophistication: He was taking "the longer view...

...And there can be no doubt that in three most critical areas—Cuba, Western Europe, and the domestic economy—this Administration has been ineffective, to put it mildly...

...Such errors are excusable among the members of the State Department policy planning staff, because if they guess wrong no great harm is done...

...Is this progress...

...Its general influence on the quality of American public life has been all to the good...