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University Daily Kansan Tuesday, Jan. 10, 1961
The Years With Ike
When he goes home this January, he will be just another man for the first time in more than 50 years. There'll be no more bubble-top limousines waiting, no more secret service men—the state will have finished with him, and the state is not merciful when a servant has completed his service.
But in one way he still will be more than "just another man." He will carry with him from the capitol steps the almost tangible love of his people; and he probably will carry this great love to his grave.
This has been Eisenhower's greatest strength and the force that has lifted his administration above mediocrity—the love of the people. He has been loved and respected—worshipped, if you will—as F.D.R. never was. For eight years, he held the American people together by the force of his commanding personality. Unified in their deep respect and love, they were able to move as one.
It is impossible to gauge the effect of personality. Perhaps it was the Eisenhower reputation that so endeard him to the people; greatest of soldiers, winner of the war, keeper of the peace. This is true, to some extent; but it is also true that Eisenhower perpetuated this image while he was president. His personal life was always spotless. The faint breath of scandal that touched his administration never besmirched him. In every way, he uplifted the presidency in terms of its function as ceremonial altar of the republic.
--then that the effects of policy made and carried out decades before can be seen stamped on the years that followed.
Not since Washington has a president infused his office with such dignity. Eisenhower came to power at a time when the nation was discouraged with the presidency and disgusted with the unfortunate scandals of the otherwise competent Truman administration.
The people sought a leader they could respect, a man who could raise the presidency to the high level it occupied in years past. They found the man in Eisenhower.
Dixon-Yates and the Adams-Goldfine affair failed to touch the president. The people considered him apart from such things. Also, they never thought of him as a party chieftain, with the faint breath of corruption hanging about him that politics and patronage on a high level seems to exhale.
--then that the effects of policy made and carried out decades before can be seen stamped on the years that followed.
Armed with their support, he was able to repudiate the Democratic cry for more federal spending in 1958; send federal soldiers to Little Rock to enforce the ruling of the Supreme Court; send Marines to Lebanon to put teeth in the Eisenhower Doctrine; side against the Anglo-French alliance in their conflict with Egypt, and gain re-election by a huge plurality in 1956 while his party went down to defeat around him.
The people stood by him in 1957-58, when the recession struck. They never blamed him for it, but they did have the greatest confidence that he could "make it right." And when the recession was over—it cannot be said that his policies alone were responsible for the recovery—they gave him credit and considered their trust in him well-placed.
Eisenhower always had the support of the people; but what will history say of him? The people have made mistakes before. The true measure of a presidency can never be taken except from the vantage point of the future. It is
As the nation's chief diplomat and responsible for its foreign policy, Eisenhower's record is spotty. He used his commanding presence, his awesome reputation to the best advantage in the unique policy of personal diplomacy he followed. He was the first president ever to carry his cause to many foreign lands. On the whole, his policy was successful and will set a precedent for presidents to come.
--freshman, portrayed an Irish seaman with an accent that would fool the Blarney Stone. Bat Burke finds Anna as a result of fog and shipwreck and declares love immediately. Bettcher acts and reacts, never letting the emotion of the character escape him. His accent stays, too, although at times in his anger, it is hard to understand all of his lines.
But if he was personally successful, his foreign policy was not. Since the death of Dulles—and perhaps sometime before that—the policy followed by the United States was one of reaction, not action. We were prone to locking barn doors after horses had been stolen. History will record that we failed in Latin America and in Cuba, that we were lax in Africa, that we were deficient in the Middle East and Near East.
In the allied presidential role of commander in chief of the armed forces and defender of the peace, the Eisenhower record is stronger than it first appears. We trailed the USSR in space, we suddenly found ourselves vulnerable to attack by a militarily superior force. This was true in 1957. It is no longer true.
The Eisenhower defense measures have been wise. The tremendous outpouring of federal funds following Sputnik has given us a reliable mass-produced ICBM (Atlas) and the beginnings of a defense against missile attack (the Nike Zeus). The Strategic Air Command and the North American Air Defense Command are effective deterrents, as is the standing army of more than one million men. Polaris and its nuclear-powered host submarine are unparalleled offensive weapons. SEATO and the Bahgdad Pact were Eisenhower era alliances. He also deserves much credit for the modernization and standardization of NATO forces in Europe.
As a party leader and a leader of Congress, he has been a failure. The image he created as a non-political president has harmed him in his attempts to force legislation and unify his party. Caring little for party labels, he has relied on his personal qualifications and power to ram his programs through a Democratic Congress. Many of his failures could have been successes had he led his party and his Congress instead of standing apart from them.
--freshman, portrayed an Irish seaman with an accent that would fool the Blarney Stone. Bat Burke finds Anna as a result of fog and shipwreck and declares love immediately. Bettcher acts and reacts, never letting the emotion of the character escape him. His accent stays, too, although at times in his anger, it is hard to understand all of his lines.
But history judges the president by the peculiarities of the time in which he served. The burning issue of the Eisenhower years was not domestic policy, war policy, labor vs. management, colonialism, economics, or any of the others. It is the posture of the United States in relation to that of its ideological and military foe, Soviet Russia. In this Eisenhower has been a good president, if not a great one. He was slow to foresee future events, this is true; but he was quick to react with all the strength of his office when a threat did arise. History will say of him that he kept the peace and unified the nation in some of the most difficult years any president has ever had to face. History will say that if he did not advance very far, he at least held the line with wisdom and courage, and provided a secure foundation on which to build a lasting peace.
Bill Blundell
At the Theater
Eugene O'Neill would have been proud of the KU Experimental Theatre production of "Anna Christie" last night.
As the audience settled into the swivel chairs and the lights dimmed to darkness, a fog horn blown at the back of the book.
Two longshoremen entered the saloon, mattered lines the audience could not understand and then exited. Chris Christopherson, portrayed by Tom Woodard, Des Moines, Iowa, freshman, enters slightly drunk.
Woodard began hesitantly, but seemed to gather confidence with each line and assumed his role with ease and a convincing attitude. His stance always was that of a seaman, old and a bit bent, but not broken.
Bob Bettcher, Wilmette, Ill.
Anna Christopherson, so well done by Joyce Malicky, Baldwin senior, needs little said. Her portrayal is a tribute to the role. Miss Malicky sustained the character and convincingly showed the changes in Anna's life.
A lighter character, although by no means less important, is that of Marty Owen, done by Karen Saad, River Forest, Ill., sophomore. She is a loud, happy-go-
Set around 1924, the play does not seem dated although the costumes are of that time. The suit Mat Burke wears and the 1920 black gown Anna wears do not violently assault the sense of balance the actors set.
lucky waterfront woman, who can understand problems of men. Miss Saad's laughs seemed a bit forced, but the character is an outgoing, rowdy one that calls for roughness.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
Just how much of a production is acting and how much is directing no one knows, but here a medium is achieved. The ensemble work was good; transition accomplished without disconcerting noises or interruptions and the acting was of high quality, meritig better attendance at future performances. — Carrie Merryfield
"BETTER PAY ATTENTION — HE'S IN A FOUL MOOD TODAY."
From the Newsstand
Pride in Our Youth
Now and then Kansas citizens read about some of the antics and projects by students at state schools and the nature of the events is such to make folks wonder if the youngsters deserve the opportunities the citizenry is helping to provide via taxes.
But in most cases, Kansans can take great pride in the younger generation they have helped to spawn. For as is so often the case at Kansas University, a goodly number of the "wild hare" activities fostered by students are the products of the imaginations of out-of-state students.
It's imperative to halt right here long enough to say there is absolutely nothing wrong with out-of-state students. Most of them are valuable additions to the campus and conduct themselves in a way that reflects credit on their points of origination. It is also good for Kansas students to have a chance to mingle and become acquainted with youngsters from other parts—all parts—of the U.S., just as it benefits them to get to know us and our ways.
Yet it is interesting to note how often the most troublesome student malcontents and alleged working liberals hail from such states as New York, New Jersey, California and such and from cities like Brooklyn, Chicago and Los Angeles. One immediately gets the impression that home-bred youngsters are a little less reluctant to throw themselves into capricious and often questionable projects than those who are operating a much longer way from "home."
It is also interesting to note that all the KU Rhodes Scholars of recent years hailed from Kansas cities—Blaine Hollinger of Russell, David Ontjes of Hutchinson, Raymond Nichols of Lawrence and now Fred Morrison of Colby. Time and again the top scholars, the top leaders and the top campus personalities, who are associated with the most worthwhile projects, are of Kansas origin.
And it all gives the onlocker considerable confidence in the future, and renews his belief that while there are invariably advantages elsewhere, there still is considerable merit to being born and bred out "on the prairies" and "in the sticks."
(Reprinted from the Lawrence Journal-World, Jan. 6, 1961.)
Dailu Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
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