Fireworks Foregone

Before the Senate inquiry into the U-2 flight and the summit collapse got going, State Department security men gave the hearing room an elaborate electronic shakedown in search of hidden microphones or cameras. In a room near by State's Old Russia Hand Charles Bohlen sat by to censor the stenographic transcript, and at his feet, an electric "Shredmaster" waited to chew secret papers into meaningless pabulum.

In keeping with the mood of comparative calm and sobriety that gradually settled on Washington last week, the committee sessions bore no resemblance to the sensational investigation that had been predicted earlier. At week's end, the inquiry had produced no partisan fireworks, no startling disclosures. Said the chief witness, Secretary of State Christian Herter:

P: The "decision not to suspend this program of flights as the summit meeting approached was a sound decision. Conditions at a later season would have prevented obtaining very important information. There is never a 'good time' for failure of an intelligence mission."P:The decision to scuttle the summit was probably made in Moscow before Khrushchev departed for Paris. It "represented a fixed Soviet governmental position from which even Mr. Khrushchev would not have the authority to depart." Probable motive for that decision: the Russians' realization that, with the U.S. resolved to stand firm on Berlin, they would gain nothing at the summit.

Committee Democrats pecked away at the Administration's handling of the U-2 affair. They prodded from Herter a reluctant admission that no "decision" had been reached to continue U-2 flights just before the summit: in the absence of any decision, the flights had just continued according to schedule. But it was plain that no amount of adroitness in handling the U-2 affair could have kept it from blowing up the summit once Pilot Francis Powers met with bad luck over Sverdlovsk. Asked Chairman Fulbright of Secretary Herter: "Do you think we have learned--not just we, but all of us, including you and the Administration--anything from the U-2 incident?" Replied Herter, smiling wryly: "Not to have accidents."

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