STEP by step, ever since the Suez crisis, U.S. diplomacy has been on a forced march toward a program of order in the Middle East. Each step offered its special hazards, each week its seemingly paralyzing "What if ...?" Last week, as the Middle East crisis seemed to be heading for a settlement, the question was: "What if Israel refuses to get out of Gaza?" To forestall such a refusal, the President and the State Department engaged in the most serious diplomacy of the winter. See NATIONAL AFFAIRS, What If . . .? As for the larger-looming question--"What if Russia decides to oppose the U.S. moves to establish world order?" --the U.S. now has the biggest big stick in its history: an armed force far mightier than the Russians', presided over by Admiral Arthur Radford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a man who doodles (see cut) while listening to his colleagues, and who reflects his hard-driving personality in his motto, "The more our country sweats in peace, the less it will bleed in war." See NATIONAL AFFAIRS, The Man Behind the Power.

SAUDI ARABIA'S brown-robed King Saud, on his way home from Washington, will soon meet in Cairo with Egypt's President Nasser. In the four weeks since Saud and Nasser last met, there has been a perceptible shift of opinion in the Arab world. Though the Eisenhower Doctrine has given all Arab nations evidence of U.S. readiness to protect them, Arab leaders are trending away from Nasser on their own initiative. Beirut's Nahar quoted Saud as saying: "I am convinced that the future of the Arab world must be founded on its friendship with America." See FOREIGN NEWS, Shifting Opinion.

PROBABLY no Administration in U.S. history--and certainly no President--has enjoyed the freedom from press criticism extended to President Eisenhower. There have been sporadic grumbles from pro-Ike editors over isolated issues or personalities, but in essence the predominant segment of the press that went for Eisenhower four years ago has stayed with him enthusiastically and uncomplainingly. But if the pro-Ike Cleveland Plain Dealer is right, "The honeymoon is over." For the first time, a general murmur of complaint is rolling across the pro-Administration editorial pages. The editors think the budget should be cut, and they are disturbed because Ike will not cut it--but not so disturbed as to suggest any appreciable slippage in the President's newspaper backing. See PRESS, The First Tiff.

AS U.S. tourists, sick of grey winter days, flew to the West Indies in record numbers, the sunny lands of the Caribbean surged with progress, violence and tropical intrigue. In Jamaica, the democratic chieftains of the British Caribbean islands formed a new nation at a significant, heartening, little-noticed conference. In Cuba, a dictator struck out sharply to quell a running revolution that was not yet shaking his regime--but was not slowing down, either. Another dictator, in the Dominican Republic, was caught in a tightening web of evidence in the airplane kidnaping of a Manhattan scholar who criticized him. See THE HEMISPHERE.

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