"The More Things Change . . ."

'The More Things Chsne. . .'

The world last week acclaimed a Russian Air Force major nicknamed Gaga. And as Yuri Gagarin became the first man to escape the planet and return safely, earthbound humans could view the event through telescopes that offered radically different images. In the long-range reflection of history, Gagarin's adventure was one for global celebration, an inspiring forward thrust in man's effort to explore the universe. Through the foreshortened telescope of the cold war, the Soviet achievement could be seen only as a victory for Communism and a defeat for the free world as led by the U.S.

Yet in a week that could change the whole future of mankind, there was still another view, and it seemed all too familiar: Plus fa change, plus c'est la meme chose. In 1957, when Russia orbited Sputnik I, the U.S. displayed its rocket lag for all the world to see. Last week's Soviet exploit demonstrated that the lag has scarcely lessened. Official U.S. reaction to Gaga's feat was at least as nonchalant as the reaction to the first Sputnik. President Kennedy congratulated the Russians, but at his press conference he indicated that the desalinization of ocean water was even more important than space exploration. In 1958 National Aeronautics and Space Administrator T. Keith Glennan insisted that the U.S. was really not too far behind in the space race; in 1961 NASA Chief James Webb insisted that U.S. projects were "solidly based" and proceeding "step by step." In 1957 the Eisenhower Administration was embarrassed by Presidential Assistant Sherman Adams' scoff that Sputnik I was little more than a shot in a game of "outer space basketball." Last week the Kennedy Administration was monumentally embarrassed by an unwitting growl from Air Force Lieut. Colonel John ("Shorty") Powers, information officer for the U.S.'s astronautical Project Mercury. Awakened for a 3 a.m. comment on Gaga's flight, Powers snapped to a newsman: "If you want anything from us, you jerk, the answer is that we are all asleep."

Dead Center. For a few days this riposte was taken by the cynical as a description of the whole U.S. In reality the country was far from asleep, even on the scientific and astronautical fronts. But Gaga's triumph did come at a time when things seemed to be on dead center in Washington, and hadn't progressed too much since the Eisenhower Administration.

The superficial signs of similarity were more obvious each week. Instead of presidential golf at Palm Springs and Gettysburg, there was presidential golf at Palm Beach and Middleburg. New Frontier "task forces" had taken over from Eisenhower-era "study committees," but little seemed to be happening. Dwight Eisenhower had been criticized for his wandering press conference syntax; last week's Kennedy conference was as notable for its shapeless prose as for its muted tone.

There was no doubting President Kennedy's energy or his ambition to get things moving; but in his desire to get fresh policy in motion, he seemed to have met a multiplicity of barriers.

Taking power in a period of economic recession, the Kennedy Administration presented a spate of recovery bills to the Congress--which proceeded to take its time about enacting them. In 1958, Republican Eisenhower declined to take drastic pump-priming measures in a similar situation--and the economy righted itself. Last week President Kennedy's Commerce Department advisers bubbled that the economy was again righting itself (see BUSINESS)--and again without drastic measures. In his press conference last week, the President was pointedly asked why he couldn't seem to get people steamed up about his economic program, he replied: "When you have 7% unemployed, you have 93% working."/-

Soviet Delay. Laos had become another Viet Nam, a battleground where diplomatic defeat seemed better than the risk of military forces. To reporters the President seemed casual about the Soviet delay in replying to Britain's request for a ceasefire. "I'm hopeful that we're going to get an answer," he said. At week's end Ambassador to Moscow Llewellyn Thompson sought out Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko to express U.S. "concern" over the silence. But the Russians could not lose: a neutralized Laos clearly meant major Communist participation in that nation's government.

Age-old troubles cropped up in the strongest of U.S. alliances. Convinced that non-nuclear war is now possible in Europe, U.S. strategists want to beef up NATO's strength in conventional weapons. For the President the new doctrine meant long hours of convincing West Germany's change-wary Konrad Adenauer (see Foreign Relations) that the U.S. resolve to defend Berlin and Europe has not weakened. Far more challenging would be Kennedy's Paris confrontation next month with France's Charles de Gaulle, who has called for drastic changes in NATO. Kennedy may promise De Gaulle a stronger voice in shaping the alliance's policy, perhaps offer to let a Frenchman succeed U.S. General Lauris Norstad as NATO's European commander.

No Intervention. In Castro's Cuba, the New Frontier had a sort of Guatemala (where the U.S. encouraged the coup that ousted left-wing Dictator Jacobo Arbenz in June 1954). At his press conference the President limited U.S. responsibility for the war talk of exiled Cubans eager to see Castro overthrown. "There will not be under any conditions," he said, "an intervention in Cuba by U.S. armed forces." But policymaking New Frontiersmen, convinced that the U.S. will be blamed for any anti-Castro revolt, were prepared to give solid assistance (short of troop support) to ensure that a coup does not fail. At week's end, as B-26s bombed Havana (see THE HEMISPHERE) the time for such help seemed drawing near--and the path ahead full of possible pitfalls.

The predictions of Kennedy's campaign followers that there would be a brilliant "100 days" at the start of his Administration have long been discarded. As the President noted in his inauguration speech, creating "a new world of law" is not a matter for 100 days, or even 1,000. True to his plea that day--"Let us begin"--the President inaugurated in Washington an era with a quicker pace, a faster pulse. But in a week of limp response to Soviet triumph, it was unfortunately clear that there are some well-worn ruts along the road to the New Frontier.

/- A tautology that took the U.S. back three decades to New England-born President Calvin Coolidge's remark: "When a great many people are unable to find work, unemployment results."

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