Letter from Washington

“If anyone can predict how foreign difficulties will affect an election, it’s Richard Nixon,” commented one GOP strategist in Washington this week. But as the campaign enters its four final weeks, foreign policy is suddenly posing new problems for both parties. Washington is as full of contingency plans to deal with the domestic political effects of crises abroad asitisof contingency plans to deal with the crises themselves.

The Administration faces two principal political problems in its handling of the Middle Eastern crisis. The first is the problem of the Jewish vote and what effect the worsening situation in the Middle East will have on it. The second is how much adverse effect a major American commitment in the Middle East will have on segments of the electorate upset about heavy expenditures in Vietnam.

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“If anyone can predict how foreign difficulties will affect an election, it’s Richard Nixon,” commented one GOP strategist in Washington this week. But as the campaign enters its four final weeks, foreign policy is suddenly posing new problems for both parties. Washington is as full of contingency plans to deal with the domestic political effects of crises abroad asitisof contingency plans to deal with the crises themselves.

The Administration faces two principal political problems in its handling of the Middle Eastern crisis. The first is the problem of the Jewish vote and what effect the worsening situation in the Middle East will have on it. The second is how much adverse effect a major American commitment in the Middle East will have on segments of the electorate upset about heavy expenditures in Vietnam.