A Conviction of Correctness

About to begin his third year in office, President Kennedy looked well--and felt good about his job.

Physically, he stays at a trim 175 pounds. He churns twice daily through the White House swimming pool without any sign of back twinges; he races through long processions of visitors without weariness, and occasionally even complains that there aren't more.

Mentally, Kennedy is clearly filled with confidence about his presidency. It showed in the tone of his State of the Union message, and it showed in his White House meeting last week with the leaders of Congress; he gave them only the barest outline of what he planned to say in the State of the Union message, generally treated them with a coolness that suggested they might represent some foreign power. It was almost as if F.D.R. were in that rocking chair.

The Kennedy confidence is also plainly apparent in his recent conduct of foreign policy. He led the U.S. into confrontation with Khrushchev over Cuba without consulting the nation's Allies. His decision to cancel the Skybolt missile program, upon which Britain had based its nuclear hopes, was independently made and brusquely carried out. He thinks it is nonsense for U.S. Allies to want independent nuclear forces, although he has not yet convinced--if that is the word--France's Charles de Gaulle of this.

Last week the White House released part of the transcript of a "background only" Kennedy press session held at Palm Beach on New Year's Eve. Although Prime Minister Harold Macmillan remained calm about it, at least one passage had Britons and other Allies fuming. Said Kennedy of the U.S. and its relations with allied nations: "I think too often in the past we have defined our leadership as an attempt to be rather well regarded in all these countries. What we have to do is to be ready to accept a good deal more expression of newspaper and governmental opposition to the U.S. in order to get something done. I don't expect that the U.S. will be more beloved, but I would hope that we could get more done."

The President has plenty of cause for confidence. He has been acclaimed for his handling of Cuba, and his midterm popularity is remarkably high. A recent Gallup poll reported that 74% of the voters approve of the way he is handling his job. There is also an inner feeling best described by a professorial White House aide: "Kennedy now has a sense that his own Government can work, that he can mobilize his own resources, that he can judge people correctly. There is a conviction of correctness."

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