“A Sense Of Destiny7’ AN ESTIMATE OF THE NEXT U.S. PRESIDENT

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29368, 22 November 1960, Page 16

“A Sense Of Destiny 7 ’ AN ESTIMATE OF THE NEXT U.S. PRESIDENT

[By JOSEPH ALSOP in the -New fork Herald Tribune"! (Reprinted by Arrangement)

Washington, November 11.— There are all too many things to be said about the breathless and historic moment when the United States chose a new course. For instance, there is at least one decided advantage in the narrow margin by which Senator Kennedy was elected to the Presidency. It will strengthen Kennedy's impulse to form a truly national Administration. The chances are -now very good indeed that at least one high post will be offered to the kind of nationalminded Republican typified by Under-Secretary of State Douglas Dillon.

Again, quite aside from this special bonus, one can also predict that the new Kennedy Administration will set an exacting standard of human quality. To be sure, the next Secretary of Defence is unlikely to be a president of General Motors. But the most probable candidate, the little-known chairman of the Citizens for Kennedy. Byron White, is a man of brilliant intellect, strong judgment, and great moral courage, who has worn his country’s uniform with valour. He has. in short, all the qualifications which Charles E. Wilson so conspicuously lacked. Yet again, there is the election s

proof of the political talent of Kennedy and all his tribe. Consider. for instance, the nationwide registration drive organised by Robert Kennedy. It was modelled on the 1952 registration drive in Massachusetts, also organised by Robert Kennedy at the age of 26. That time. 150,000 new Massachusetts Democrats were put on the rolls, and Kennedy’s winning majority was half that number. This time, the new registrants were again essential. Or consider the other great practical factor in Kennedy’s victory, his choice of Lyndon B. Johnson as his running-mate, which was so much criticised at first. In the outcome. Lyndon Johnson performed magnificently in the campaign. In addition, his presence on the ticket meant the whole difference between triumph and disaster in the South. A truly national approach: a knack for discovering and using very able men; a great political talent—these qualities of Kennedy’s are revealed by the foregoing brief, disconnected notes. They are qualities of utmost value for any American President. Optimistic Estimate

Yet Kennedy’s possession of these qualities is only part of the answer to the central question. One still wants to know what sort of man the American people have now chosen to lead this country and the free half of the world. This reporter’s worst misjudgments have always erred on the optimistic side. That must be said as preface, because my estimate of the man we have chosen is so supremely optimistic. In brief, after nearly 30 years of political handicapping and 15 years of fairly close observation of John Fitzgerbld Kennedy. I believe he is the only new political entrant in my time who has shown the promise of becoming a President of the first rank. One of the marks of the true masters of men is complexity, and Kennedy is indeed too complex to be neatly summed up. His mind is unusually richly furnished, and he has a sense of the moment in history that can best be compared to Theodore Roosevelt’s. He detests cant, whether the fashionable, damp cant of the liberal Left or the smug, self-righteous cant of the Right. He observes the world, and himself as well, with an odd. detached, sardonic humour. Humorous style means much to him. and he. is almost too afraid of anything that is corny—this fear prevents him from showing his feelings in public, as a politician sometimes needs to do. Deep Feelings He has strong feelings, none the less. The deepest of them, I would guess, is a passionate feeling for the greatness of America, an intense sense of the high destiny of this nation. Next to this, ther. are his ambition. which is fierce, and his competitiveness, which is also fierce. But his priorities are proven by the gamble he took, when he keyed his Presidential campaign to an honest description of America’s real posture in the world, at a time of seemingly unshakable national complacency. No-one who put personal success above everything else would have taken the gamble of challenging that complacency. In these last years, in truth, we in America have reached a condition like the condition of Theoden. the rich old king of the Mark of Rohan, in Tolkiens’ saga of “The Lord of the Rings.” As he did, we have grown self-in-dulgent and timid: and as he did, we have taken too much to hoping for the best without preparing for the worst.

But a fresh breeze like the clean air that roused King Theoden is blowing in America now. And one now remembers the cry at Theoden’s awakening: “Hope there is still, if we can but stand unconquered.”—Copyright, 1960, “New York Herald Tribune”