Renewal of Leadership

During President Eisenhower's long absence from the White House, the U.S. posture before the world slumped. When situations arose in which no one but the President could speak effectively for the U.S., he was not there to speak. After Dwight Eisenhower finally returned to the full role of the presidency, there was an immediate change.

By last week the Eisenhower leadership was again being felt around the world. Items:

P: Dramatically demonstrating U.S. willingness to share its assets with other nations, the President, before he returned to Washington, had released $1 billion worth of uranium 235 for peaceful production of atomic power at home and in free nations that cannot produce their own fuel.

P: The President caught the world's imagination and raised its hopes with a new disarmament plan sent to Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin. Eisenhower proposed that the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. agree to halt the production of nuclear weapons, if the nations can agree on air and ground inspection systems. Said Eisenhower:"My ultimate hope is that all production of fissionable materials anywhere in the world will be devoted exclusively to peaceful purposes." Commented Bulganin: "It is a very interesting letter, and a good one."

P: The President spelled out, as only the man in his job could, the U.S. position vis-`a-vis the new Soviet stance: there is less danger of a shooting war; there is new and serious danger in Soviet economic and political offensives; the U.S. must aim toward a long-range world economic policy to counter the new Soviet offensive. With President Eisenhower back in charge, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles went abroad in an attempt to bolster some points of strength, mend some points of weakness. In Karachi, at a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, Dulles considered ways to promote new collective action against the new Communist economic offensive. Before the session was over, the SEATO council had agreed to appoint an economic officer to speed work in that field, and had pledged not only to fight aggression and subversion but also to "press forward with national and international programs to raise standards of-living in the treaty area." This was less than some members of SEATO had hoped for, but it was a step forward.

From Karachi Dulles flew on to New Delhi, where he spent six hours with a cool Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and an hour with a hostile Indian press. Dulles was friendly but firm (see FOREIGN NEWS).

Throughout his stay in India, Dulles repeatedly made the point that the areas of agreement between Indian democracy and U.S. democracy were wider than the areas of disagreement. "You all know," he said, "that in our country there is nowhere anything but the greatest regard and respect and affection for India . . . We differ on some matters, but that is characteristic of free peoples."

As he headed on through Asia, John Foster Dulles could count some gains. He could also count serious troubles in the Mediterranean area that will have important impacts on U.S. foreign policy. But the U.S. and its Secretary of State could face those admittedly difficult problems with the reassuring knowledge that the U.S. posture in the world has straightened up with the return of the President to the presidency.

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