U.S. Worried At New Course Of Cold War

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28130, 20 November 1956, Page 18

U.S. Worried At New Course Of Cold War

[Specially written for the N.Z.P.A. by FRANK OLIVER]

NEW YORK, Nov. 18. Americans in general and Washington political circles in particular are avidly and anxiously discussing the new era that has been ushered in so unceremoniously. There is a new Government here, the cold war has entered a new and very different phase, and the Western alliance stßl resembles a broken bridge.

Many Americans feel they have been uncomfortably close to war in the last fortnight and that the possibility still is not very far away. They do not take the Russian threats at their face value, but at a considerably higher valuation than, for instance, London or Paris, and the question “Where do we go from here?” is on many lips. Certainly this constitutes the most serious foreign policy crisis in President Eisenhower’s Administration, the most serious since Mr Truman decided to intervene in Korea.

Before the President could celebrate his election victory he was giving orders to the American armed forces to take up readiness positions for fear of Soviet attack.

Public Mystified There is considerable public mystification as to how this all came about and this of itself seems to constitute valid criticism that the Administration has not kept Americans fully informed about the enormous head of steam that has been building up in the Middle East for many months and criticism that foreign problems were softpedalled during an election year. Now suddenly the country is face to face with a grave international crisis while the initiator of its foreign policies is sick and before the reelected President has had an opportunity t.j choose his new Cabinet. All eyes are on the White House wher • new policies are being fashioned at a reasonably high speed. For four years policies have been

based on an assumption that force and the threat of force had been abolished for all practical purposes as instruments for settling disputes. That assumption has been blown sky high. Israel, after considerable provocation, attacked Egypt; Britain and France decided to take military action; Russia took devastating military action in Hungary and threatened to use force in the Middle East. The cold war, now not as cold as it was, has indeed entered a new era. What seems to be the disturbing factor in Washington is a belief that Russia so far has gained more than anyone else in the Middle East. Washington believes it was more Russia’s threat to use force that caused Britain and France to order the cease fire, rather than American or United Nations appeals and that by that threat and its results Russia has been able to establish herself as the guardian and protector of the Arab world, an area vital to Western security. • What Washington is waiting for is the President’s reaction to these unpredictable events . and his policy response. Certainly he is as free an agent as perhaps any President ever was. His personal endorsement by the voters, while they rejected his party, is significant. His party’s debt to him far outweighs his debt to his party. Therefore, he is as free an agent as a President well can be.

As one commentator put it. he is free to make a new beginning, and accepting or rejecting Cabinet resignations, especially in the field of foreignaffairs and defence, may have greater influence on world events than anything else he does in the next four years. New policies are needed for the new era and new policy makers in the State and Defence Departments are important. There is. not only the newspapers’ criticism of these department heads, but also criticism within the Administration.

Eisenhower’s Plans Now that President Eisenhower has definitely graduated as a politician, he is expected by many to take a much bigger hand in formulating policies in both the Defence and the State Departments. He has, in fact, already begun, for his warning to Russia seems clear to all here that any intervention in Egypt is likely to create another Korea. What is to be done about the damaged Western alliance may take a little while to formulate. Eventually there will undoubtedly be a meeting of Mr Eisenhower, Sir Anthony Eden and Mr Guy Mollet, but the signs in Washington are that the President is not ready for it yet. The problem still is to repair the alliance without appearing to condone the British-French action at Suez. To that end there has been no great action to replace Western Europe’s lost Arabian oil supplies by American oi\. Recriminations within the Western alliance have ceased here, but the whole business of the damaged alliance is being carefully assessed before repair measures are decided on and taken.