U.S. Anxiety Over “Grave Setback”

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29234, 18 June 1960, Page 13

U.S. Anxiety Over “Grave Setback”

(Rec. 10 p.m.) WASHINGTON, June 17. Reuter’s correspondent in Washington said today that the immediate reaction in Congress to the upheaval in Japan was a mixture of regret over the cancellation and relief that Mr Eisenhower would not face almost certain physical danger from the Tokyo mobs. *

But the first flush of relief gave ,way quickly to a feeling of grave apprehension over the consequences of the success of relatively small groups of Left-wing demonstrators in compelling Mr Kishi to conclude that he could not guarantee the President’s safety, the correspondent said.

President Eisenhower was not immune from criticism that a lack of foresight and planning on his part had contributed to a loss of face and would encourage Communist China to press ahead with its efforts to weaken the United States position in the Far East. The cancellation was widely regarded as a defeat for United States diplomacy in the Far East and a victory for Communist propaganda, the correspondent reported. In the Senate, Senator Lyndo. Johnson said the Tokyo rioting was "pure blackmail in its most outrageous sense.” Democratic leaders, accusing the Administration of foreign policy blunders, said American prestige had been damaged severely. A major Republican spokesman, attacking Democratic critics, said “tough talk” was now needed. . All New York morning newspapers devoted their main editorials to the postponement. The New York “Herald-Tribune" said: “Mob violence has won a victory in Japan. “As for President Eisenhower, there will be millions—and not only in the United States—who will breathe easier because he is not going to Japan. His courage has been praised throughout the free world: that his decision to go ahead with his tour will not be put to the acid test of a wild throng of Communist-inspired Japanese is, on personal grounds, a matter for general relief.” The “New York Times" said: “A feeling of relief was doubtless the first instinctive reaction of most Americans yesterday to the news that the President’s visit to' Japan had been cancelled. “This feeling of relief, however, cannot blind us to the fact that the cause of the free world has suffered a sharp political* psychological and propaganda defeat.

faction about all this in Moscow and Peking. Undoubtedly the propaganda pressures and threats of the Soviet Union and Communist China, as well as the activity of Japanese Communists, had much to do with what has happened.” The New York “Mirror” said: “A Communist minority, directed and paid by Moscow and Peking, has imposed its will upon Japan, brought the nation close to anarchy, and endangered the military and political ties between Japan and the United States. “We dream on while the Communists bring in the harvest. “We dream on while the Communists take advantage of the structure of free government to destroy freedom and establish totalitarian rule.

“Now is the time for the free world to come out of its current dream.”

“There is of course great satis-