Message from Washington

"Our side is doing fine," said Nikita Khrushchev in East Berlin last week. "We have put the enemy on the defensive, and that's the main thing."

But had he?

Last week the main talk about the "main thing" came from Washington.

The President of the U.S., by now thoroughly in command of the Berlin situation and acting as Secretary of State as well as Commander in Chief, took charge of the job of putting the Soviet Union on the defensive.

Not everyone agreed with everything the President said; as usual, there were some blurred edges on some of his thoughts and sentences. But it was a week in which almost everyone, including most of Ike's severest critics, agreed that he was once again an undisputed leader, diplomatic as well as military. Statesmen and pundits in the world's capitals sensed this as well.

Strong Terms. As military leader, Ike assured the world that there would be no ground war over Berlin. Some strategists thought that by saying this, the President (who has had some experience around Berlin) gave away part of his bargaining power, part of his choice of alternatives; but its military truth in the face of overwhelming Communist manpower in Europe could hardly be disputed.

As statesman and diplomatic leader, Ike warned the Russians in the strongest terms he has yet used that if they start fooling around with the U.S.'s treaty rights of access to West Berlin, with any little incidents or so-called brush wars, they are only fooling themselves, for they are fooling around with the big war.

Ike's thoughts and words were made known in quiet talks with unnerved Congressmen, in one of his toughest-talk press conferences (see below), in a strategically timed call on Congress to provide more foreign aid to U.S. allies, and finally, in a speech drafted for nationwide telecast a few days before the arrival this week of Britain's Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (see FOREIGN NEWS).

Scraps of Paper. West Berlin, said Ike in his speech draft, is not just a city 4,000 miles away--seven hours by jet flight--but is the symbol of the free world. Khrushchev's talk-threat to renounce the Big Four agreements and impose a new blockade fitted Lenin's definition that "promises are like piecrusts, made to be broken." Free men have died before for so-called scraps of paper that represented duty, honor and freedom. Said Ike: "Let the Soviets remember."

The U.S., the President reiterated, obviously does not want a war that might mean the destruction of civilization, although it has the strength to wage and win one. But the real, the basic issue, is how best to prevent such a war. Said the President: No nation has ever been successful in avoiding the terror of war simply by refusing to defend its rights and live up to its responsibilities. And the U.S. cannot hope to escape war by running away from it, has no intention of surrendering to the Communists at Berlin or any place else. That said, President Eisenhower offered to the Kremlin the prospect of "honest negotiations," any time and in any circumstances, if they had "hope of success."

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