The Presidency: More Light, Less Heat

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Next day, after a visit with wounded Viet Nam veterans at Walter Reed Hospital, he appeared before a high-spirited crowd of 6,000 Democrats at a $100-a-plate dinner in Washington and unloosed an oldfashioned, stump politician's spellbinder—and, this time, some far broader barbs at Fulbright. When Johnson rose to speak, he glanced a dozen seats down the head table where the Arkansas Senator sat. Said the President: "I am delighted to be here tonight with many of my very old friends—as well as some members of the Foreign Relations Committee." Chairman Fulbright, wearing a thin smile, rose and bowed slightly toward the howling crowd. When the laughter faded, Johnson gibed: "I can say one thing about those hearings. But I don't think this is the place to say it."

Then, alternately waving his fists in the air and pounding the rostrum, Johnson cried: "We have always hated the horrors of war! We will have our differences and our disputes, and we will do it without questioning the honor and integrity of our fellow man. If we were to turn our backs on freedom in South Viet Nam—if Viet Nam were to fall to force—what an empty thing our commitment to liberty would turn out to be! We will stand there with honor, and we shall stand there with courage, and we shall stand there with patience. It is the stand the free people of the world will respect!"

The President's new air of confidence was buoyed by several hours of discussion last week with Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, back from his Saigon post for the first time in nearly nine months. Lodge also briefed the first meeting of the National Security Council since July, when the President and his advisers were agonizing over the possibility of having to declare a national emergency because of Viet Nam's sagging fortunes.

Spreading the Word. For their part, Fulbright and his antiwar coterie in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee continued their assault on the Administration. Secretary of State Dean Rusk, making his eighth appearance before the committee this year, proceeded to outline—in extensive detail—the legal basis for the U.S. commitment in South Viet Nam. The Secretary's discourse ended in a hot-tempered exchange among Democratic members of the committee.

Oregon's Wayne Morse complained waspishly that Rusk's explanation of Administration policies was a "one-way street" allowing no rebuttal. Ohio's Frank Lausche called that a "complete misstatement" and retorted—correctly —that the committee itself had brought up the subject, though the hearings were supposed to be limited to foreign aid. Fulbright insisted that "this morning is for the aid program," adding curtly that the legality of the war is a "very involved subject" that should be pursued later.