THE EISENHOWER POLICY
APART from one communique which sounded ominous. the news from Denver has been encouraging. President Eisenhower has been making good progress and is now practically out of danger. His illness has been followed by a remarkable display of responsibility from everybody, but this cannot be expected to continue. The whole. political scene has been transformed and the period between now and November. 1956, will be devoted to intensive electioneering.
It is natural that the possible effects of the President's illness on the conduct of American foreign policy should cause most alarm. At Geneva President Eisenhower laid himself open to the charge of overestimating the significance of Russian cordi- ality at diplomatic functions. But it soon became evident that he was himself aware of that. Since then he has sought to redress the balance, and the danger is now greater that Ameri- can policy will be too hard, rather than too soft. Mr. Dulles is said to be sincerely convinced of the rightness of the President's foreign policy, but the possibility has to be faced that his conviction may begin to wear off under the strain of Congres- sional opposition.
Luckily there is not likely to be much of this. The Democrats in Congress under the leadership in foreign affairs of Senator George will still follow the Eisenhower foreign policy, while the Republicans having seen how popular that policy is will not lightly allow the Democrats to appropriate it as their own exclusive property, unless tension between East and West markedly increases. Further, the Republicans now know that the odds are against their winning the next election even in a period of boom. Republican pressure on the administration to reduce defence expenditure so that the voters can next year be given tax reductions and a balanced Budget will therefore be heavy. A sabre-rattling foreign policy combined with a big reduction in sabres is not unknown, but it would seem that the Republicans' only chance is to rely on peace and prosperity; to stress the ending of 'Truman's war' and their ability to keep the country out of any more wars.
Probably, therefore, the President's illness will not lead to a return to Mr. Dulles's previous policy, which Mr. Adlai Steven- son described as frightening everybody but the Russians. But even if the President's foreign policy is broadly maintained. though he is himself to some extent incapacitated, its effective- ness will be seriously impaired merely because of that incapa- city. Mr. Eisenhower's unprecedented position in the eyes of the American people of being above party means that he can exercise a unique leadership over them. During the next few months he may not be able to do so. But it is not merely that Eisenhower policies even without Eisenhower would not attract so much approval; it is that, with the shifts and changes in world affairs which will inevitably occur, without Eisenhower it would not be known what the Eisenhower policies were. They would not have been formulated. For that reason, but above all because of their admiration and affection for him, almost everyone in the free world will hope that the President's recovery will be speedy and complete.
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