Political Repercussions

Everyone recognized that the Cuba crisis opened a void of annihilation. But there was another void, in American political life, that few people remarked upon: the almost complete absence of any serious opposition or even restraining influence as the Administration mounted its skillful answer to the Russians. It is simply awful that a man—who like Stevenson has passed for the spokesman of liberalism—has to purge himself of the suspicion that he had proposed a more moderate approach than the one adopted by the Administration. That the possibility of his having advocated an exchange of bases with the Russians should be regarded as evidence of political “softness,” speaks poorly of our political climate. And it speaks poorly ...