New York, Oct. 10—You can hardly blame Carter for opportunizing on President Ford’s startling liberation of Poland during their debate on foreign policy, but the roles of the Democratic and the Republican candidates have become almost impossibly confused by the gaffe. After all, it is the Republicans who have traditionally done the most (however insufficient) to keep alive the hope of the liberation of Eastern Europe. The Democrats tend to be associated with a foreign policy of permanent acquiescence in the colonization by the Communists of any part of the world, with the single exception of Israel. A political party that, through Senator Frank Church and his committee, threatened congressional mutiny when the Executive tried to help Portugal and Italy stave off the Communists is not going to lie down for anything in Eastern Europe that tends to threaten their policy of appeasement at any cost. But as a purely political matter, Ford is now on the defensive.
What Mr. Ford said is, frankly, inexplicable—notwithstanding the explanations he and his aides have attempted. Itisasif Ford had said, during a general discussion of the great rivers of the world and the problems of flood control: “Fortunately, the Mississippi River doesn’t flow through the United States.” Everybody looks up and someone finally says—“You do mean the Amazon doesn’t flow through the United States, don’t you Mr. President?”
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