Pressing the Summit

After an all-star conference on the U.S. space lag (see Space), President Eisenhower cleared his desk, canceled his scheduled press conference, and hopped down to Augusta for a five-day cold cure in the Georgia sun. But Augusta last week was cold, rainy and damp by turns, and though Ike got in a couple of rounds of soggy golf, the trip was not much of a vacation. Even before he could swing a club he got the news that his summit plans were coming unstuck and he called a press conference at Augusta's Richmond Hotel for next morning.

Though he never said so flatly, Ike was clearly nettled by the word from France that President de Gaulle was seeking to defer the proposed program for a Western summit early next month and the follow-up of an East-West meeting in December (see FOREIGN NEWS). "Time," said he pointedly, "is slipping by ... Fashions [of diplomacy] have seemed to change a little bit ... I would prefer always . . . to do these things by diplomatic means, and then finally get heads of government agreement." This time the President reversed his position that preliminary low-level talks must precede a summit meeting. Said he: "Where you do have a dictatorship there is only one man who can make decisions ... If you are going to make agreements that are useful with the Soviets, you are almost compelled to do it . . . with the heads of government." Still speaking for De Gaulle's benefit, Ike observed that "this means the Western heads of government must be coordinated among themselves, otherwise it would just be a Donnybrook."

After getting his message across, Ike went on into some informal palaver with the 75 or 80 attending newsmen, allowed that he was dismayed over stories of the

TV quiz-fix scandals (see SHOW BUSINESS). "I am one of those that never saw [quiz shows] ... If it was done, it's a terrible thing to do to the American public." The President added that while the Executive Department cannot legally take any action ("censorship"), he had asked the Attorney General to look into the scandal.

When a reporter asked: "How's your cold?" the President's health became the principal topic for discussion. "Almost three years ago," said he, "I contracted a bronchitis which finally seems to have developed and become chronic. And so every slight cold has a sort of multiplied effect on me." That is why, he said ironically, "I seek the warm weather and sun." He added that he had the flu before he went to California in October. "I called it flu. Whether the doctor did or not,*I don't think I ever asked him. Anytime I feel as badly as I did that time, I call it flu."

Even though his cold hung on, the President got out on the Augusta course for a few more rounds of golf before returning to Washington. He showed that neither cold nor rain nor flu nor bronchitis could stay his hand, sank a 20-ft. putt with the custom putter (a duplicate of Bobby Jones's celebrated "Calamity Jane") that White House correspondents had given him early last month. Buoyed by that shot and, at long last, by the appearance of the sun, Ike finished his vacation in high spirits, and at weeks end flew home.

* The White House doctors did not. They describe his condition as a general malaise occasioned by the irritating cold.

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