Crisis Of Leadership In America

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28474, 2 January 1958, Page 7

Crisis Of Leadership In America

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, January 1. “From almost any standpoint the American political scene at home and abroad was dominated by the; growing crisis of leadership that had overtaken] President Eisen h o w e r whether in terms of his declining physical powers or of his middle of the road philosophy, says the Washington correspondent of “The Times.”

This instinctive bent towards' 'accommodation, he said, had creat-' ed in this dawning space age an uneasy feeling of drift and indecision. however much it might have suited the mood of. the country when the President was elected. “Both in form and in content the President's television appearance with Mr Dulles by way of extolling the Paris agreements i

created a deplorable impression that may yet be effaced by a ringing ‘State of the Union’ mes- ' sage, but for all his personal popu- ! larity something of- the Eiseni hower mystique has undoubtedly gone, and most political pundits ' speak of the old Roosevelt landslides in assessing the Democratic prospects of increasing Congres- | sional majorities in the mid-term '■ elections next autumn.

“The Administration’s handling of the missiles crisis has been so widely criticised that even the Republicans admit that under the British system the government might well have fallen —a reflection that goes to the heart of the matter, in questioning whether the American system with its checks and restraints on the executive branch is the best suited to world leadership.

“Most of the proposals the to Paris, for example, are subject to Congressional endorsement and the Eisenhower

Administration had shown so little aptitude for the finer arts of governing that only the urgency of the situation may induce Congress to accept the legislative implications of the new doctrine of inter-dependence. “It has been well said that the President in the past has demonstrated a great capacity for mobilising and igniting American public opinion. “The question is whether he can do so in the challenging months ahead amid increasing protests. far beyond the confines of partisan feeling that the nation is not getting the kind of leadership the situation demands.”