President Eisenhower’s request to Congress for “stand-by” powers to use military force in the Middle East will, if granted, reassure America’s allies, both in western Europe and the Middle East itself, of her readiness and capacity to fulfil her existing pledges in time. It would also free American forces for support of United Nations action in the Middle East. Without demanding the alliance of the “neutralist” Arab states, it may deter Soviet military intervention and also limit the tendency of these states to look for Russian backing on account either of local fears or of local political ambitions.
Although the “Eisenhower Doctrine” is careful to offer help only to countries that ask for it and does not imply any new American movement physically to the Middle East, it is in danger of being misunderstood by Arab nationalists as an attempt to put the United States into the power position lost by Britain and France. In the present mood of the Middle East, this may hamper the reduction of those local tensions on which Soviet political influence feeds.
Key quote
“Oh dear, I often say to myself as I sit down to this weekly article, what thin rubbish I do write – I really feel ashamed, sometimes, of the poor fare I supply.”
Vita Sackville-West in her In Your Garden column
Talking point
I am tired of hearing that amateurs are more sincere than professionals because they do it for love. It seems to me unjust that the man who forgoes regular employment and devotes his life to the fluctuant rewards of stage pretence should be held less sincere that the man for whom acting is simply a more exhibitionist alternative to bridge.
Kenneth Tynan in his At the Theatre column
