Through the Wringer

Before any free nation can press its hopes and aims, no matter how high-minded, into workable and acceptable form, they must first be wrung out in terms of politics. This was the process, with all of its charges and countercharges, conspiracies and compromises, that was at work last week as the U.S. attempted to wring out a workable policy for the Middle East. It was at work as U.S., Canadian and Indian delegates huddled and haggled on a new approach to Israel v. the Arabs in the gleaming corridors of the United Nations; it was at work as Democratic Senators contested the Eisenhower doctrine and tried to bring down the Republican Secretary of State; it was even at work when New York City's Mayor Robert Wagner Jr., trying to look good before his constituency, refused to welcome visiting King Saud.

The net of the wringing-out was that policies in the making were more surely based because of their political testing. When the U.N. passed resolutions at week's end designed to get the Israelis out of Egypt and to give Israel more security by deploying the U.N. Emergency Force in some of the borderline areas (see FOREIGN NEWS), the U.N. approach had more chance of success; more than 50 nations supported it. On Capitol Hill President Eisenhower, stung by the attacks on Dulles, helped the Middle East doctrine through the Senate by saying in effect that he did not intend to fire Dulles as a price for senatorial cooperation (see below). Most notable good news of the week was that the U.S. and Saud, without wasting time on platitudinous shows of regard, were settling down to negotiate a tough and workable agreement whereby 1) the U.S. Air Force would continue to use the key $50 million Saudi Arabian air base at Dhahran, 2) the U.S. would send Saud phased shipments of arms that would strengthen Saud as a monarch but would also increase Saud's value as a stability factor in the Middle East.

Thus, emerging out of politics, came progress that was more secure because of politics. "There is no doubt that these are not perfect documents," said U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. during the U.N. maneuverings, "but they are the product of compromise. They contain the words which can lead away from hostilities and toward an era of peace."

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