To Dare Mighty Things

By Hugh Sidey

The Presidency

"We had a special session at Camp David on the rescue mission. After we had made the decision at the NSC to go ahead we had another meeting with the top leaders of the mission. That was at the White House. We went through the sequence for the raid step by step. We cross-examined the leaders. We asked all the questions we could think of about all the possible contingencies. We never found a single question that they had not thought of and considered in the planning for the rescue."

That was Jimmy Carter talking last week about the special strike that he ordered to try to rescue the American hostages held in Tehran by terrorists. Carter has looked back a good deal, wondering what could have or should have been done differently. So far he has not changed his mind about anything. "I regretted that it did not succeed," the President said. "I would have regretted not trying at all."

There is swirling around the post-mortem of this venture a larger question.What risks should a President take in these dangerous times? There is a considerable and growing force within and around the Government that opposes almost any action that entails risk to life or property even in the national interest. Unwittingly, perhaps, but nevertheless effectively, congressional investigations lend weight to these arguments for inaction.

"If we could do things without risk," declared Carter, "it would surely make the job of President a lot easier." But risk taking is inherent in the presidency, he believes. Without risk there is no action, no achievement.

"The object is not to be foolhardy," continued Carter. "But then you have to take a chance. Take a chance on an energy program, on a Middle East peace treaty, on a rescue mission. If you are not willing to risk defeat in Congress or internationally, you get nothing done. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose."

Obviously, in the case of the rescue mission, they lost. The unknowns were greater than the collective minds of the National Security Council could foresee. Carter acknowledged that. "We eliminated as much risk as possible. But it proves you cannot be sure." And such will always be the problems before Presidents. Teddy Roosevelt talked about it with eloquence in 1899: "Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the great twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat." Virtually all of his successors have leaned heavily on that inspiration in times of high risk.

Carter hears the message to be more cautious and restrained. "Anything that produces significant change will be met with resistance," insisted the President. "Change is risky. Its outcome is impossible to predict. Substantial forces are always marshaled on both sides. Had the Panama Canal Treaty been voted down, that would have been a major blow. It was risky. We had to take a risk going against the Moscow Olympics."

The President is sure that there is in the American spirit still an appreciation of how uncertain this world remains, and missions like that launched into Iran may need to be tried again. "I believe that overwhelmingly the American people felt that the Iran raid was the right thing to do, that the risk was worth it," Carter said. "That is reflected in the polls and in the White House mail and in the general public's reaction that Rosalynn and I have encountered."

Politics is a high-risk endeavor, a win or lose game, and so must be many of its ingredients, Carter believes. There is a little gamble in almost everything he does. Last week when he learned that China's Vice Premier Geng Biao was in town to talk about military equipment, Carter urged Secretary of Defense Harold Brown to bring the visitor by the White House and watch The Empire Strikes Back with the First Family. "Geng Biao was on the edge of his seat all the way through the movie," said the President. "Fortunately he did not ask me for any of the weapons he saw in the movie." A small risk taken and won.

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