Success & Responsibility

The final week of Dwight Eisenhower's triumphal procession through Europe was also the week of the 20th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II in Europe. By a fateful progression of events that spanned an era, the man who commanded the victorious Western armies, the man who as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, forged the shield that protected recovery from that war, was the man who as U.S. President was the walking symbol of the West's hopes for an American-led future. "That man couldn't do wrong if he tried," said a woman in London. "He's got goodness written all over him," said another. In West Germany a young gasoline-station attendant said, "Eisenhower's a nice guy," and added in instant association, "Americans are honest when they say they want peace and justice in the world."

In a role that combined old memories with new trust, the President carried a special strength for NATO. Stopping off at Bonn, he said that West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer symbolized "freedom," and at once Adenauer was unchallengeable in West Germany. He went on TV with Britain's Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (see The Presidency), gave an undeniable push to Macmillan's reelection. The President and France's President Charles de Gaulle clasped hands as men of honor, and NATO's recent rifts were forgotten; De Gaulle later messaged the President: "I very much hope to be able to go and see you in Washington."

Above all, last week, the President directed the new-found Western trust into his quest for relaxation of tensions with the Soviet Union. It was perhaps his most hazardous mission. Sometimes that quest sounded unclearly: "People want peace so much," said President Eisenhower on TV in London, "that governments had better get out of their way and let'em have it." More often the President emphasized that he was questing for peace based on principle and sure strength.

The Communists last week met the quest for relaxation by increasing their prices for it. In a 7,000-word article in Foreign Affairs, Russia's Nikita Khrushchev denned peaceful coexistence as meaning Western abandonment of West Berlin on Russian terms, and acceptance of the Communist conquest of the captive nations of Eastern Europe. Red China stirred up ferment on the borders of India. North Viet Nam's Ho Chi Minh upgraded his years-long guerrilla bites at Laos (pop. 2,000,000) into an artillerysupported invasion (see FOREIGN NEWS) so threatening that Laos appealed to the United Nations for help. The U.S., in a stern statement, flatly charged "the Communist bloc" with intent to "foment and direct a rebellion within Laos," noted that the outbreak in Laos had followed conferences in Moscow and Peking, promised to support any "necessary" free world action.

As Dwight Eisenhower headed homeward, his successes only made it more certain that still more responsibility lay upon him to keep his quest for relaxation moored to the principle that has served him well: "Strength can cooperate; weakness can only beg." That principle might have prevented the holocaust that Europe mourned last week. Today Ike's principle might not only prevent World War III but might yet find a new kind of victory.

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