In Command

The state of the nation is often reflected by the mood of its President--and John Kennedy has never seemed in jauntier spirits or more in command of his job.

Visitors in the President's oval office can only be impressed by his appearance.

His color is high, his face almost unlined, his figure trim, his nervous energy controlled. He stays on the go from early morning to early morning, sees an in credible number of people and performs an incredible number of tasks. He listens to his advisers, makes his decisions and sticks by them. Most of all he has learned that the nation's problems cannot be considered in absolute terms; that a part-success is better than nothing, that failure is rarely cataclysmic.

The President talks long and candidly about U.S. problems at home and abroad; he knows that they are there, and he knows that they are not going to dis appear overnight. He is optimistic about the U.S. economy in 1962, but disturbed about its longer-term future (see following story). He is perhaps too sanguine about the legislative prospects for his programs; he seems confident that his proposals for foreign trade, medical care for the aged, agriculture and tax revision will pass Congress without substantial change. As long ago as October, he had essentially decided that the U.S. would have to resume testing its arsenal of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere; despite considerable disputation among his advisers, he never really wavered from that decision.

He concedes that the situation in Southeast Asia is precarious in the extreme, but is calmly committed to protecting the freedom of South Viet Nam, and is pouring money and manpower into that nation. He is worried about Berlin, but realizes that the troublemaking initiative there is held by the Communists, and he is determined that the West must maintain its basic rights. He is unwilling to go to the Summit just for propaganda purposes or to size up Nikita Khrushchev ("He was pretty well cased at Vienna"); but he is willing to talk to Khrushchev if the cold war seems on the brink of nuclear conflict or if there seems a substantive chance for progress in easing some basic issues.

At the end of last week--it had been busy as usual--President Kennedy went to National Airport to bid a fond farewell to his wife, off on her trip to India. He intently watched as the plane began to move; when he saw Jackie wave from the window, he broke into a grin. As for himself, he was about to take off for Florida and a weekend rest--and also for a bit of politicking, which to him is both recreation and lifeblood, and one of the reasons he is able to stay on top of his job and feel jaunty.

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