Johnson Has ‘Crisis Of Confidence9

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31043, 26 April 1966, Page 17

Johnson Has ‘Crisis Of Confidence 9

(X.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright), WASHINGTON, April 25. Both the strength and the weakness of the Johnson Administration lie in the political power and skill of the President himself, writes James Reston, of the “New York Times.” Reston writes: He dominates this turbulent city but he doesn't persuade it. He overwhelms both his own party and his opposition, but he does not convince either. He manipulates but alienates the press, and he does all these things so naturally that he genuinely believes that all the above statements are outrageous if not libellous lies. All this is clearly illustrat-

ed in Saturday’s accounts of his press conference in the White House. Here he is clearly the dominant man. He had his picture taken before the conference instructing one of his press secretaries, Robert Fleming, how and where to move the furniture in his office. He called the conference on such short notice that even the White House stenographer was not able to get to the meeting on time, and most of his answers to questions were denials of the obvious. Even his own aides had told the reporters in the room that the President's support of Prime Minister Ky, of South Vietnam, at the Honolulu conference had contributed to the personal battle for power there among the squabbling generals. But when he was asked about this, the President replied very calmly: “1 don’t think there is any basis for that at all." The President’s general theme was clear: “We are

moving in the right direction in Vietnam, we are making progress, we are watching but not worrying about inflation at home. “We emphasise the election in November too much, but in any event the Democrats are in good shape and the Republicans, while responsible, are in trouble, and if the reporters and Bobby Kennedy would just not stir things up, patience and common sense will see us through.” All this is very interesting and even disarming, the President talking so quietly in his rocking chair that the reporters on the couches and the floor of the executive office, addressed by their first names, can scarcely hear what he says or think about how to reply. They got a good story and they are quickly on the front pages and on the television cameras, but when they have time to think about it when they get homo, most of them wonder. They admira the technique

but question the substance. It was news, but was it true? Meanwhile, Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge in Vietnam was giving a much grimmer report of the situation in Saigon, and a former Ambassador, John Kenneth Galbraith, was in Washington at the same moment saying that Vietnam was not vital to the United States, was not “a bastion of freedom,” was nbt a “testing place of democracy" and was not likely to be won by bombing in the north. But never mind. The President carried the headlines. He achieved his immediate objective, before going to Baltimore and Texas; he dominated the front pages over the week-end but he did so at a price. The price he pays is doubt. He has no effective political opposition but himself in Washington. Few people here question bis objectives. He genuinely wants peace and freedom and a negotiated settlement in Vietnam—and

equality and good wages and high profits and even nobility at home —but he surrounds all this with such cunning political techniques that, even when he wins, he gets in the way of the things he wants. He is confusing what men say to the pollsters with what they say to their friends. He is mixing up news and truth. He knows what his aides say to him personally, but he does not know what they say to their wives. He is confronted, in short, with a crisis of confidence, and it is important, not because it will defeat him, but because he will go on winning and have to live with it, and this will not be easy. The chances are that he will have the political power to go on until 1973 against a weak opposition party, but increasingly his power will depend on his ability to persuade, to make people-believe rather than merely to go along or knuckle under, and this is what he has not yet managed to do.