KENNEDY HAS BECOME TOUGHER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80M01009A000701110012-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 8, 2013
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: January 20, 1962
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

?" , 1
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/05/08 :CIA-RDP80M01009A000701110012-7
? THE \OASHINGTON POST Svnml~y,lmwnry2g,i962 (~ 1
TLc \VasLingtou A.[crry-Co?Iiound
'?.~~eranedy~ Has .sec?me ~'?u~'~e~
? ' t slow climb back from Lhe
t n
s
13y Dreto Peatson "
(The brass ring good for
one free ride on the ;1Vash-"
ington Dferryt~Go~ROUnd today
goes to President"'Jdhn F.
Kennedy.)
tits restlessness at [Irst
took the form o[ examining
every room in the \\'hite
House. He turned up. in
places no President had~even
seen before. Onc secretary fief
a top, back room, was ao tlab?
bcrgasted she almost tainted
when the President aPPenrcd
in the doorway. Shc had served
Some, remarkable Ichanges~
have taken place In~John F.
Kennedy during his {'first year
as President. No President
during my1--~~~~,?
under two previous Presidents,
but never saw them. .
Still Restless
nevo
caution hit him a jut
be forgotten, with the Cubanldeptlts of the Cuban crisis and
fiasco. ~ the Vienna tragedy. During
All his advisers, including this Dlr. Kennedy has regained
the Joint Chiefs of Stat[, toldlconfidence in himsclf-,and
him the Cuban invasion would Europe has regained conti-
succced.~Eisenhower advisers, Bence in him.
from whom he inherited the
plan, told him the same thing.
Only Sen. Willinm Fulbright
of Arkansas disagreed. It
nmvnA a tragic failure.
With this, the mcx u. ~~~_
Irish vanished. Mr. Kennedy
retreated to a policy a[ ex?
Creme caution, retreated also
from his new advisers, fell
back on his old. Flis brother
w,as.given the job n[ teorganls
ing CIA his close trlend Ted
Sorenson was told to review
European policy, a youngster,
Dick Goodwin, became chief
adviser on Latin A'mcrica.
Dcatdlock nt Vicuna
" after a year as much. 1 ? ~# Mr. Kennedy, The surfacer ~- >; President, is still active, still c h n n g c s a r e~ ~ ;. ~ ;! restless. He will drift into his easy to ~ diag??~ '~ --- - secretary's room to ? dlclatc, nose; the less- ~` -~ drop in on aides, shuffle perceptible, bc? lhrouCh their papers ask them hlnddhe-scenes ~.~~ ~ about problems they have for
c h a n g e a are Fcarson gotten but he hns?'t. Ycrhaps more impor?' no other President-certainly font. .` not in recent years-has
On the surface, Mr. Ken? shown such an amazing taa ncdy-has settled down.' ally for keeping all sorts o
Nhen he first became Prosl? diverse problems fn his head.
dent he was restless, hated to gut the most notable cltangc
?be confined, couldn't get used {n .iohn F. Kennedy is that rte
t
experience in
Washington has
grown up so
.
to Secret Service guards and is no longer overconfiden
the protocol that necessarily \Vhcn first elected, he ivas
tics up a President. He was ac- cocky, sure of himself, ccrtain~
cuslomed to driving his own that no problem was too com-
'
, ulc . oww. ....... ..._..
L move over, end race down the ardice, which is not in him.
highway. He doesn't do that He has great courage, but ft's
any more. ~lmixed with caution. And this
t
FR RF_ TF,T=i PLC--n ?-"
t get Alex for him to solve. He hed
car to work, he couldn
used ,to going to his office won every battle he ever
merely by going downsta'vs In tackled. The Irish tourdeat
the \Vhile House. clover seemed securely in his
\Vhen he was first elected, pocket: '
Mr `jCennedy would sometimes But there is also a cautious
___ .._ ...,.,..,1 ..r u~ nor. tell streak in the President. It !s
On top of this came another
tragedy-the deadlock with
Khrushchev at Vienna. Flying
home from Vienna, Mr. Ken?
ncdy was more depressed
than at any time in his life. ]fie
~Galkcd about the probability
that his children might live
under war. The first thing he
did on arriving home was to
get a military apprafsar ~on
the number of lives that would
be lost in an atomic war.
Immediately after Vienna
came the return o[ his back in?
jury.'Thus three failures hit
hirri almost s(mullaneously.
Gradually came the long,
gone now. The "luck of the
Irish" has been reicgatcd to
the background. 1'hc President
still relies on his remarkable
memory, still reads the papers
wllh amazing rapidity. still
uses the telephones. But he
has gone back to his old ad-
visers, realizes that his Secre-
tary of State, Dcan Rusk,
knows more than Dick Good-
win, and that he has some
able, loyal men in leis cahinet.
F1c still has not learned
what President Truman and
Roosevelt icarned, that ft's
next to impossible to gel along
with Congress, and that soft-
soaping will get him nowhere.
The President has become
tougher in the past year,
steeled in the most difficult
school of the cold war and con?
gressional forensics. And he
has become a vastly better
President. But if there's one
thing he still must learn, it's
that high Gallup Palls don't
solve problems nor can you
solve them.by being too nice.
Con>rl?M, 1a62, Bell 6>nElcete, inc.
Drew Pearson will predict
what tail! happen to Ccneral
Walker at the Senate henr?
ings~next week--over WTOP-
radio at 6:45 tonight.