Promise of Joy

by Allen Drury

  “And further be it resolved:

  “That the United Nations demands that the United States cease and desist immediately and forthwith from all military actions of whatever nature in Gorotoland and Panama, and that all United States personnel, military and otherwise, be withdrawn immediately from those two countries; and further:

  “That the United Nations demands that the President of the United States meet immediately following such cease-fires and withdrawals with representatives of the People’s Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to negotiate settlements in Gorotoland and Panama that will restore world peace, establish democratic regimes in those two countries and terminate the possibility of any further aggressive war adventures by the government of the United States anywhere in the world.”

  “Mr. President,” Nikolai Zworkyan said calmly into the expectant silence that followed, “the U.S.S.R. demands a vote.”

  “Mr. President,” Ceil said with equal calmness, “if the delegate presses his resolution the United States will veto.”

  “And if the delegate presses her resolution,” Zworkyan snapped, “the Soviet Union will veto. So I would say to you, Madam Ambassador: let us vote and be damned. And when we have done so, let us take it to the General Assembly and see who wins there!”

  “Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, sir!” Jawbone Swarthman cried to William Abbott over the noisy tumult of the House, and in the excited galleries and across the buzzing floor it could be seen that he was waving a piece of wire-service copy taken from the tickers in the Members’ Reading Room just off the floor.

  “See here what happens, Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, sir, when this Administration carries its ill-advised war policies to that great forum of the nations up there in New York, that great United Nations up there! Why, sir, this Administration gets licked, it gets defeated, it gets humiliated! Hear this, now, Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, sir! Just hear this!”

  And whipping a pair of pince-nez from his vest pocket he popped them on his rosy button of a nose, held the wire copy at arm’s length and read in a loud accusatory voice:

  “‘United Nation, New York—The Security Council today handed the new Knox Administration a stinging defeat by voting 9-4 for a Soviet-Chinese resolution condemning United States aggressions in Panama and Gorotoland, demanding immediate U.S. withdrawal from those two countries and calling on President Knox to attend an immediate peace conference with representatives of the Soviet and Chinese governments.

  “‘The resolution was vetoed by Mrs. Edward M. Jason, newly appointed U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations. But while the veto killed the resolution, it did not erase the overwhelming condemnation of the President’s war moves of the past twenty-four hours contained in the votes of other Security Council members.

  “‘Only Australia, Norway and Lesotho, nonpermanent members of the Council, joined the United States in voting against the Soviet-Chinese resolution. Two other permanent members, Britain and France, abstained. Neutralist India joined Chile, China, Cuba, Egypt, Ghana, Rumania, Zambia and the Soviet Union in voting for the resolution.

  “‘The Council then turned to an opposing United States resolution seeking condemnation of the Soviets and Chinese for their response to American moves in the two war-torn countries in Africa and Central America. It was expected that the vote on that resolution (Note to editors: Expected within the hour) would represent a similar overwhelming rebuke to the Knox Administration’s policies.’

  “So, Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, sir!” Jawbone cried triumphantly, the corn-pone accent that concealed the shrewd Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude graduate of Duke University Law School at its most fulsome and florid.

  “So! What does that say for the policies of this new President we have, I ask you? What does that say about his aggressin’, his movin’ in on li’l ole Gorotoland and Panama, his gettin’ tough with them, when all they’s tryin’ to do, Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, sir, is just to have theyseffs a li’l ole democracy, a li’l ole bit of freedom, a li’l ole self-determination without the big ole imperialist Yewnited States gettin’ in there and tryin’ to mess things up! That’s what it’s come to, Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, sir, jes’ messin’ things up! Now, isn’t that right, I ask you? Isn’t that right?”

  “Is the gentleman,” William Abbott asked ominously from the chair he was reoccupying until the House made up its mind on a new Speaker, “asking me?”

  “Yes, sir!” Jawbone said stoutly. “Yes, sir, I am askin’ our beloved ex-President, our beloved ex-Speaker, here, seein’ as how we’re now in the midst of a debate in which he’s tryin’ to persuade this House he ought to be Speaker agin. Yes, sir, I do ask you, Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, sir, since you been makin’ yourself the o—fficial spokesman for this dangerous new Administration we got down there in the White House now. I am askin’ you, I say to the gentleman from Colorado, and I tell you this House wants to know what you goin’ say in reply! Yes, sir, we want to know!”

  “Well, sir,” the ex-President said in an acid tone, gesturing to the Minority Whip, an amiable gentleman from Missouri, to take over the Chair, “I’ll tell the gentleman and this House, since they want to know. I’ll tell them!”

  And he rose and came slowly down to the microphones in the well of the House and stood there for several moments staring out impassively upon his restless colleagues and the standing-room-only crowds in the galleries. He looked as he had always looked when he held the reins of the House—stolid and unimpressed, solid and powerful—a natural force, great in the land, and muchly to be reckoned with.

  Except that this time he was fighting for his political life, and here in the body he had dominated for so long, everyone knew it.

  “Members of the House,” he said quietly, while a hush, attentive, respectful—and avid for his downfall—settled over floor and galleries.

  “The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, my dear old friend the gentleman from South Carolina who aspires to unseat me this day”—there was a ripple of laughter, not quite as plentiful or encouraging as he had hoped—“stands up here waving a piece of paper and then proceeds to read us the slanted interpretation of the media as a valid and factual contribution to this debate. I don’t think it is, I will say to the House, and I’ll tell you why.

  “When I became”—and he used the title simply, for he intended it to impress and knew it would many of them, though possibly not enough—“President of the United States, I found a situation facing me that required drastic action on my part if the peace of the world and the security of the United States were to be preserved.

  “My predecessor, the late Harley M. Hudson, had determined to take strong steps, including armed intervention, in the countries of Gorotoland and Panama, because American missionaries and American interests had been attacked in Gorotoland, and because a rebel movement in Panama was threatening overthrow of the government there, and capture of the Canal.

  “I continued those policies because I agreed entirely with his analysis of the two situations and with his methods of handling them. I didn’t apologize then and I don’t apologize now. And I don’t think”—his tone became flat and emphatic—“that President Knox has to apologize either.”

  At this there was a sudden stirring, a clearly hostile rumble of protest across floor and galleries. His voice became, if anything, more emphatic.

  “The Soviet Union and the Communist Chinese, planners, suppliers and day-by-day managers of these two attacks upon the United States and the peace of the world, have tried unsuccessfully in the United Nations to stop American moves to produce a reasonable status quo and a reasonable basis for negotiations in both afflicted countries. We have exercised our veto to stop them. Today we are exercising it again. I hope we will continue to do so whenever necessary.”

  Again the rumble of protest, louder, more excited.

  “Mr. Speaker,” he said, turning to the Minority Whip in the Chair, “may we have order in the House, ple
ase?”

  “The House will be in order,” the Minority Whip said promptly, banging the gavel. “And the galleries, too. Otherwise the Sergeant-at-Arms will be asked to clear the galleries.” The rumble died, still protesting. “The gentleman will proceed.”

  “Thank you,” William Abbott said. He looked somberly around the restless room. “Recently the Communist powers have become bolder. Two months ago they were on the verge of an all-out offensive to renew the fighting, which had sunk to a point of near stalemate, during which we have been working diligently through every available channel all over the world to begin genuine peace negotiations. In response to very full and complete intelligence information on this contemplated move, I ordered a worldwide alert of all American armed forces. I intended the alert as a signal to the Communist powers that they would be met by complete American opposition if they continued with their plans for an offensive.

  “The signal sufficed. They abandoned the offensive—until the day when they thought the United States would be off balance, namely the inauguration day of a new President. Immediately after he offered them the olive branch and asked them to meet him in Geneva for a full-scale review, and hopefully a full-scale settlement, of the outstanding issues that divide the world, they struck. Now they are putting forward the phony topsy-turvy theory that their aggression was in answer to a nonexistent American aggression. So far they have had their usual success in persuading those many members of the United Nations who hate the United States anyway.

  “I hope they will not have a similar success in this Congress.”

  Again there was angry protest.

  Into it the supporters of a strong American policy found themselves speaking with an ever-harsher, ever-blunter emphasis, regardless of what their own best political strategy might be.

  “Yes!” Bob Munson said angrily, his tone so sharp that the sounds of protest momentarily died away. “Yes, I say to this Senate, I hope the Communists will not have a success in this Congress similar to the success they seem to be having in the United Nations this afternoon. They can always persuade enough haters of America to go along with them, up there. God help us if there are that many haters of their own country here!”

  “Mr. President,” Arly Richardson said with equal sharpness, “will the Senator yield? What does the Senator think he gains by attacking those who disagree with him as ‘haters of their own country’? There are very many perfectly sincere and genuine doubts about the actions taken in the past twenty-four hours by the new President of the United States, and I for one do not intend to have my patriotism or my integrity impugned when I oppose those actions. I won’t have it, Mr. President!”

  “Very well,” Bob Munson said promptly, “I withdraw any unintentional or inadvertent impugning of the patriotism and integrity of the Senator from Arkansas, or anyone else who agrees with him. But I do not withdraw my criticism of his general approach to these matters, because I think it to be absolutely vital to the future security of this country and the group of independent nations that we not flinch or falter in this new confrontation with the Communist powers. I think it is absolutely imperative that we support the President a hundred per cent without any breaking of ranks that would encourage the Communists to believe that we are weak, or wavering, or ready to surrender in the face of their new aggression.”

  “‘Their ‘new aggression’!” Arly Richardson echoed scornfully. “What about ours? That is what we are responsible for, I suggest to the Senator, not somebody else’s. What do we do about ours? How do we extricate ourselves from this predicament into which the new President, in his characteristic fashion, known only all too well to this Senate where he served so many years, has plunged us with his usual impulsiveness and lack of forethought? That is what I think this Senate must decide. And, Mr. President,” he added, in an emphatic and pointed tone, “I do not think it can do it under an inflammatory, demagogic, subservient leadership which has already committed itself lock, stock and barrel to the President’s ill-advised, irresponsible course.”

  “Now, Mr. President!” Bob Munson said, and it was obvious he was keeping his tone level with some difficulty. “How the Senator can so quickly and easily absolve the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China from any guilt or culpability—how he can talk blithely about ‘our’ aggression and totally ignore theirs, which began this latest confrontation—is literally beyond me. It sounds illogical to the point almost of unbalance, Mr. President. I just don’t get it, and I wish the Senator would explain.”

  “Mr. President,” Tom August said in his hesitant, apologetic way, “I should like to try to answer the Majority Leader on that point, if I may, because here, of course, we part company.

  “The news from the United Nations, Mr. President, indicates clearly what the situation in the world is at this hour. Other powers, observing the actions of the new Administration here in Washington, have reached the conclusion that there would have been no Communist moves in Gorotoland and Panama had the United States not already been in those two countries, and had we not, under the two previous Administrations, consistently defied UN attempts to get us out. Therefore, Mr. President, what appears to be an overwhelming majority of the United Nations—at least in the Security Council and, I suspect, when it goes to the General Assembly later today—has decided that it is the United States that is basically culpable for being there in the first place, not the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China for following the UN’s wishes and seeking to get us out.

  “That is the fact of how they feel, Mr. President, and”—he looked with an apologetic stubbornness at Senator Munson, who was regarding him with an open disbelief—“I am afraid that is how many Americans feel, too.

  “Therefore, it becomes difficult for many of us in the Senate, and I believe in the House as well, to support President Knox in this instance. And also, I believe”—and while the apologetic air deepened, so did the stubbornness—“to support a candidate for leadership who has chosen to identify himself intimately and beyond extrication with the policies of the President.”

  “I have identified myself with the policies of the President ‘beyond extrication,’ as the Senator puts it,” Bob Munson snapped, “because I do not see how any sane man concerned for his country’s future can do otherwise. The Senator knows why we were in Gorotoland and Panama ‘in the first place.’ Every informed man and woman in sound of my voice, every informed man and woman in the country and in the world, knows why we were there ‘in the first place.’ We were there because we, and indirectly but quite effectively, the chances for world peace, were attacked. No amount of quibble or double-talk can change that fact of history. Furthermore, we are presently engaged in direct military action solely and entirely in reply to a new and completely unprovoked Soviet and Chinese aggression. No vote of the UN can change that fact.

  “Why should I not support President Knox’s response to it ‘beyond extrication’? To do any other, it seems to me, would be to abandon both what I have believed in all my life, and the survival of this country. I am not afraid to seek re-election to the leadership on that basis.”

  “If the Senator persists in that position,” Tom August said with a sort of wistful regret, while a few seats away Arly Richardson looked both grim and triumphant, “then I am afraid I, and many others, are going to have to vote against him.”

  “If the gentleman from Colorado, our great ex-President, ex-Speaker here, persists in that position,” Jawbone Swarthman cried with an almost exuberant indignation, “of supportin’ this new President in all his wild-eyed adventures no matter what, then I say to this House I’m goin’ to have to vote against him, and I think a lot of others are too! Not only vote against him, but vote for somebody who’s a little better in tune with what’s goin’ on in this world. That’s all I can say!”

  “Well,” William Abbott said bluntly, “you might as well nominate yourself, Jawbone. Or have you primed somebody else to do it?”

  “I susp
ect there will be some who will,” Jawbone said with a serene dignity. “Yes, sir, I will say to the gentleman I suspect there will be some who will. But that doesn’t change the mistaken nature of the gentleman’s position, I will say to him. I know what he did as President, I know what he did here as Speaker before, we all know he’s a great public servant, we all know he’s one of the greatest that ever served this Republic. But lots of us here feel he’s all wrong, and we feel this new President down there is all wrong this time. I’ll remind the gentleman from Colorado, the ex-President, ex-Speaker here, it’s a whole new Congress. And it just doesn’t like all this foreign adventurin’, I’ll say to the gentleman, all this interferin’ and meddlin’ and usin’ American boys to fight other people’s wars all over this whole globe. No, sir, it does not?”

  “And so what do you offer as alternative?” Bill Abbott demanded, and in the galleries and over the floor there was an uneasy shifting and even a few muted boos and hisses at his tone. “Appeasement? Surrender? Turn-tail-and-run? Just suppose you were President of the United States, confronted with the sort of sudden offensive that confronted Orrin Knox twenty-four hours ago, what would you have done, I’ll ask the gentleman from South Carolina? Given in? Pretended it wasn’t happening? Retreated without a protest? Surrendered without a fight? Which of those policies would you approve and support if you were Speaker? Just exactly what do you offer, I ask the gentleman? You aspire to leadership: what kind of leadership? I think the House has a right to know, since the gentleman is so hostile to the policies of the President, and my own.”

  “Well, sir!” Jawbone cried, and it was obvious that now he thought his once-powerful opponent had delivered himself up to him. “Well, sir! Let me tell you what I’d support, Mr. ex-President, Mr. ex-Speaker, sir! Let me tell the gentleman, and tell this House as well, since he challenges me! This is what I’d follow. Yes, sir!