When in "Due Course"

The U.S. photo reconnaissance jet swooped over Cuba, darted from point to point with whirring cameras. Offshore were four escort fighters, their jets snarling angrily, their young pilots spoiling for a fight.

On the ground. Soviet and Cuban crews scrambled for their antiaircraft missiles.

Their radio network crackled alive--and the voices were heard in the U.S. planes. Cuban commanders pleaded for permission to shoot down the photo plane. But there were more authoritative voices, speaking in Spanish and Russian. "Hold your fire.'' they ordered. ''Hold your fire. Don't shoot." The Cubans obeyed their Soviet masters and the U.S. planes, their mission completed, flew safely away.

All this happened just a few days ago. And it served to stress one of the most curious facts of the Cuba crisis: that though the Soviet missile buildup in Cuba brought the world close to war last October, the presence of Soviet forces there may now have some peacekeeping advantages. Continuing Soviet strength in Cuba makes U.S. photo flights necessary, yet it is Soviet authority that presently restrains Castro's trigger-happy gunners from trying to stop them.

This bewildering combination of circumstances has an inhibiting effect on U.S. policy toward Cuba. There are people in the Administration who regard the Soviet presence with some equanimity, and even argue that it is necessary to take Khrushchev's sensibilities into account, and to understand that having already lost face in the Communist bloc by his missile withdrawal, he cannot afford to lose more by pulling his troops out under U.S. pressure. Khrushchev promised to withdraw them in "due course." and last week President Kennedy instructed Ambassador Foy Kohler to find out. in no combative way. what the Russians regard as "due course." The Administration hopes that Khrushchev will eventually call most of his troops home on his own volition. But it is hard to see why he would, and the Administration is under mounting U.S. criticism for its failure to force Khrushchev out of Cuba.

President Kennedy conceded at his press conference last week that Soviet troops in Cuba are surely being used to train Cubans to export revolution and sabotage throughout Latin America. Moreover, by one White House estimate, at least 13,000 students from other Latin American nations are in Castro's Communist schools; about 100 graduate agents leave Cuba monthly to cause trouble back home. The tacit bargain with Khrushchev may have its advantages for the U.S., but it has them for Khrushchev too.

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