Triumph of Manner

As cool as a mint julep in a Georgia July, prospective Secretary of State Dean Rusk stepped up for his fitness hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week and passed, as everyone expected, with high honors. Before the fact, though, there had been some promise of drama. Across the committee table. Rusk had to face Chairman William Fulbright--a man who could have had Rusk's job had he not been an Arkansas segregationist--and a squad of Republicans intent on making sure that the next State Secretary is not "soft" on Communism.

But in the face of Rusk's deft testimony, the Senators were soon reduced to politely limp questions, including none on Berlin or Laos. They got back quietly articulate answers that committed the Kennedy Administration to nothing. As against the late Foster Dulles' dismissal of neutralism as "an immoral and short sighted conception," Rusk argued that the U.S. should not insist that "anyone who is not with us is against us." Although committed to current policy toward Red China--"I see no prospect at this time that normal relations could be established*--Rusk added that it would be difficult to make any progress on disarmament without considering "the enormous force on the Chinese mainland."

Other Rusk observations:

On Summitry. "I had, as a private citizen, expressed some concern about . . . the growing habit of negotiations at the highest levels, because it seemed to me to be a diversion of important officials from their essential constitutional functions." But "in the light of circumstances," a President should consider a "carefully planned and well-timed program of state visits."

On Latin America. "We should make every effort to consolidate and energize this association of American states in our Western Hemisphere community. There is much to be done there. I feel that our friends in Latin America would like to have more interest taken in them, to feel more alertness as to what they are doing in the cultural world, in literature and the arts."

On NATO. "It is important to work toward a further consolidation of that community and to work, within the community, for more fruitful relationships between that community and other parts of the world."

On U.S. Prestige. "Relatively I would say that our prestige is not as high today as it was 15 years ago."

On Foreign Aid Costs. "I would guess that there is a larger and stronger effort we shall have to meet in the years immediately ahead of us."

At hearing's end, Chairman Fulbright decided that Rusk had "handled himself very well indeed." But the approval seemed to say more for the manner of Rusk's performance than its matter. Observed one veteran viewer of State Secretaries in their appearances before Congress: "He was as intelligent, quick, and knowledgeable as Acheson or Dulles. But he wasn't preachy like Dulles or patronizing like Acheson. Which is all to the good, for those are things that aggravate Senators."

* At almost the same time, U.S. Ambassador-designate to the U.N. Adlai Stevenson was telling a Chicago press conference about the "dark and gloomy" condition of the world, noting that "it is becoming more and more difficult to keep Red China out of the United Nations."

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