Unity on Berlin

"We have two problems," said President Eisenhower last week at the end of a press conference where major questions dealt with the Berlin crisis. "One, not to allow ourselves to get thrown off balance, to get frightened, to get hysterical about the thing; but on the other hand, don't be so indifferent that we are certain that it's just a cry of wolf."

All week the President, deprived of cancer-stricken John Foster Dulles, led the nation between these extremes. He took charge of a three-hour National Security Council meeting, battened down the U.S. determination to fight, if necessary, to defend the Western position in Berlin. He called in congressional leaders of both parties to muster a show of national unity. He tried to restrain U.S. allies from sliding off on tangents, kept up a stern front as Communism's Khrushchev changed pace from "global holocaust" threats to such seeming concessions as an indefinite extension of the May 27 deadline for Berlin settlement (see FOREIGN NEWS). All week, Dwight Eisenhower was the man in command of the Berlin situation, to the point of acting as his own Secretary of State.

Garrison State? At his press conference, the President keyed the week to the U.S.'s determination to defend its rights of free access across Communist East Germany to West Berlin--"We could not abandon them; we never would abandon them." Asked about the possibility of "troop withdrawals or disengagement in Central Europe," he ducked a direct answer but stressed that any agreement with the U.S.S.R. in Europe must rest upon "some self-enforcing element . . . so that we can have confidence."

At the National Security Council meeting next day the President and his advisers settled the key elements of crisis policy. Military element: the U.S. would try to run ground convoys to West Berlin even if it meant challenging Communist roadblocks with armored column escort. Diplomatic element: the U.S. was ready for Big Four foreign ministers' talks at Geneva (probable date: May 11), after that for a parley at the summit (probable location: Geneva). Next morning the President called in congressional leaders--Senate Democratic Leader Lyndon Johnson and House Speaker Sam Rayburn, Republican Senate Leader Everett Dirksen and House Minority Leader Charles Halleck--gave a total briefing. Said Speaker Rayburn afterward: "The upshot of it is that we are united. We don't have any political parties when it comes to this. We think with the President that we must remain firm."

$64,000 Question. At week's end the President briefed chairmen and ranking members of Senate and House foreign and military affairs committees, got the sternest questioning of the week. Was it not inconsistent, asked Georgia's sharp-tongued Democrat Carl Vinson, to go ahead with planned manpower cuts in the Army and Marine Corps, given Communist strength in East Germany? Answered Ike: No. The U.S. has enough nuclear and conventional arms on hand.

Asked Senate Foreign Relations Chairman J. William Fulbright: suppose the U.S. sent an armed convoy through, the Communists stalled it by blowing up a bridge? Answer: the U.S. would repair the bridge. Asked Fulbright: "What would we do if they used armed force at that point to prevent us from repairing the bridge?" Said the President: "That is the $64,000 question."

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