The Glacier reporter., 1963-04-18
Washington
News Notes
Rysk To Be Replseed2
Foreign Aid BIUnder -
De CsuIIe And AdensUer =


McNsmara's Star -
WASHINGTON, D. c. - The
top two members of the Cabinet
are in hot water and one of them
may have to 60 before the 1864
elections. Both Secretary of State
Dean Rusk and Secretary of De-
fense Robert Mcnamara are un-
der heavy fire and some of it
comes from members of their
own party.
Rusk, who has become a politi-
cal liability, may have to go if
the political climate reacts to the
Republican advantage in the
next eighteen months. The Sec
retary of States latest misstep
was in charging Senators and
Congressman seeking to cut
foreign aid with doing the bid
ding of the communists.
By testifying before Hill COM
mittee that the communists would
be pleased if we cut foreign aid,
and in thereby using the old
communist scare tactic, Rusk in
furiated numbers of Congress
men, who feel they are just as
patriotic and a lot more practi-
cal about U. S. strength and dol
lars than Rusk.
One of them, Congressman OF
to PaSsman D-La bluntly retort-
ed Rusk didn't know what he was
talking about. And PasSman's
view carries great weight among
his House colleagues, since he
has spent years studying the
foreign aid program, travelling
all over the world to see its ef-
fects. Passman. and others like
him. feel they have been per-
suaded too often, on the basis
of an appeal that the communists
are ready to move in If we cut
down on our foreign aid.
He and many on the Hill be-
lieve our foreign aid program
has too often been ineffective
and wasteful and that the coun,
try-facing a huge deficit and dol
lar crisis-cannot afford another
four billion dollar aid program.
Rusk's latest antagonizing of
of Congress is just
the last in a series. Ever since
he informed Congress in Sep
tember of last year that the COM
buildup in Cuba was de-
fensive, many have lacked conf
dence in him.
The fact that our relations with
France and President Charles
De Gaulle have sunk TO a new
low during his two years ten
ure as Secretary of State is not
in his favor. And his blunder in
alternating Chancellor Konrad Ad-
enauer, and thus sending him
into De GauI1e's camp, has caus-
ed incalculable harm to U. S. in
terests.
His constant negotiating with
the Russians on Berlin has dis
mayed others. This, with his ad-
mittedly weak, namby-pamby ap-
pearances and presentations.
which do not stir enthusiasm or
confidence, makes him a liahil-
ity. The President retains him
now as a luxury.
Should public opinion polls
show that the Kennedy margin
of support seriously dipping, Mr..
Rusk would have to go, and go
fast. II was the weakness and
poor relations surrounding the
State Department under former
Secretary Dean Acheson which
became such a costly liability to
the Democrats in President Tru.
mans day.
AS of now, the polls show Ken
nedy to have a high margin of
support. But is almost certain
to decline in the next year and
a half, as election politics and
pressures increase.
AS for Secretary of Defense
Robert Mcnamara, the "whiz-
kid" of the automobile industry
is probably secure in his job be-
cause the President admires him
personally and thinks he had
done a fine job.
But he too is under heavy fire
and his most serious mistake to
date was probably the overrul-
ing Of military chiefs in the Air
Force to award the Tx fighter
contract to a company which was
not the low bidder.
Mcnamara compounded this
error by being naughty with the
Senate, and with Senator John
L. McClellan's investigating COM
mittee. He is sure to learn a les
son in the next weeks and months
as a result Of his ramrod direc-
ton, his thin skin. II may not
cost him his job but his reputa-