Needed: A Blow

Washington A twenty-four-hour visit cannot count as evidence, but it is hard to avoid impressions. One such emerged from all but two of a couple of dozen conversations: that there continues to be great good will in Washington for the new, young President. This is not limited to those who have got, or are hoping for, favors, or to Democrats. The good will is widely spread, to all but the ideologically hardened, or the thoroughly disillusioned. It penetrates the bureaucracy, and in the particular the ranks of high level specialists attached to the more or less non-political military intelligence and foreign policy agencies. It is strong in the huge foreign contingent, and it tempers the professional cynicism of the higher social echelons that record so sensitively, in their own special code, the intricate power relationships.

This good will is in part a response to the intelligence, liveliness and charm of the President and his wife. I heard not a single adverse word of Mrs. Kennedy: and is it not a fine thing to have a First Lady who goes to the National Gallery because she really likes to look at the pictures hanging there, not to have her own picture taken; who can talk discerningly about books and plays and places; who dresses so elegantly and is so very good looking? Because Mr. Kennedy consigned so much of his past to the pursuit of the Presidential office, there are important matters about which he knows little. But everyone agrees that he is very bright, and able to learn meanings as well as facts at a prodigious rate. (Scores of the courtiers are taking the newfangled training in speed-reading to keep up with President Kennedy’s astounding word-velocity per minute.)

JB

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James Burnham

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Washington A twenty-four-hour visit cannot count as evidence, but it is hard to avoid impressions. One such emerged from all but two of a couple of dozen conversations: that there continues to be great good will in Washington for the new, young President. This is not limited to those who have got, or are hoping for, favors, or to Democrats. The good will is widely spread, to all but the ideologically hardened, or the thoroughly disillusioned. It penetrates the bureaucracy, and in the particular the ranks of high level specialists attached to the more or less non-political military intelligence and foreign policy agencies. It is strong in the huge foreign contingent, and it tempers the professional cynicism of the higher social echelons that record so sensitively, in their own special code, the intricate power relationships.

This good will is in part a response to the intelligence, liveliness and charm of the President and his wife. I heard not a single adverse word of Mrs. Kennedy: and is it not a fine thing to have a First Lady who goes to the National Gallery because she really likes to look at the pictures hanging there, not to have her own picture taken; who can talk discerningly about books and plays and places; who dresses so elegantly and is so very good looking? Because Mr. Kennedy consigned so much of his past to the pursuit of the Presidential office, there are important matters about which he knows little. But everyone agrees that he is very bright, and able to learn meanings as well as facts at a prodigious rate. (Scores of the courtiers are taking the newfangled training in speed-reading to keep up with President Kennedy’s astounding word-velocity per minute.)