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Show deltind flte JJeacfined leverage on American domestic politics, especially with a crucial congressional election ahead, than they should be allowed. The President would be well advised, it seems, to work here at home to develop a truly bipartisan bi-partisan non-political Congolese policy, as he has on Berlin, so that neither party becomes a mere extension of the Congo's factional feuding. President Kennedy is almost in constant contact on aspects of our Berlin policy with such key Republicans as former President Eisenhower. He has helped still criticism of our policies in Laos and South Vietnam by similar consultations and through his reliance on Generals Maxwell nnr? Tomnc? Von TTIoof fr n l -J Vm One of ;the pitfalls of playing politics with U.S. foreign policy could be seen in the jumbled and bizarre Congo-Katanga crisis. Just when Republicans, the Rightist Extremists the Administration Admin-istration is attacking and others began to denounce U. S. foreign policy in the Congo, secessionist Katanga's wily President Moise Tshombe suddenly retreated and compromised his dispute with UN and Congolese central regime and left his surprised supporters all over the world out on a limb. Then, as these were explaining away their embarrassment arguing argu-ing that Tshombe's agreement to return Katanga to the Congo proves his "reasonableness," Mr. Tshombe repudiated his agreement, agree-ment, declaring that it had been signed "under duress." Western ability to wage guerilla fighting there before launching negotiations on Vietnam. Any administration failure to approach every problem area on a bipartisan basis, or any failure by the opposition to be helpful, merely invites domestic political and global chaos. The John Birch Extremists the President is currently attacking as well as Republicans, have already been handed ready made issues by Indian Premier Nehru's seizure of Goa and Portugese conclaves on the Indian sub-continent. The U.S. did not support the Indian use of military action, but it also did little even to arouse UN action against it and strong Rightist moves are now underway to cut off economic aid for India when Congress reconvenes. The same reaction will be inevitable in-evitable if the U.S., ascting as a mediator, permits Indonesian Sukarno to launch threatened military action against Holland for control of West New Guinea, called Irian by Indonesia, or if U.S. objections to aggression are ineffective. The Neutralist nations, which so often preach to the West about the great need for compromising Cold War differences and which pay lip service to Pacifism, have now shown that they have no compunctions against launching aggressions to suit their national As events developed, Tshombe showed that he was under some powerful Rightist pressure in his own province, which resisted a compromise with the UN that would return the mineral rich Katanga to the Congo. The UN, with U .S. Air Force support, prepared to step up its war to forcibly unite pro-West Katanga with the Pro-Soviet Congolese central regime, which is where everything began. What many of the critics of the Kennedy administration's Congo Katanga policies had discovered in the meantime, is that it can be politcally risky to link U.S. domestic politics with those of the crazy quilt Congo. Whether Tshombe, the Congo central regime, the UN, or the U.S is right in the tangle is not the point being made at this writing. This columnist happens to believe that US policy blundered badly in supporting the UN effort to militarily crush anti-Communist Katanga's separatist regime to force it to rejoin the pro-Red Congo. The point to be made here is only that critics must accept the real risks of entangling their own views with the muddled politics of the Congo, whose jungle politicians are continually trying to out maneuver each nthpr fnr lpndprshin. pride. So long as the Neutrals play a pro-Soviet game, their new aggresiveness is bound to play into the hands of the Americans who have been anxious to bring them to heel anyway, which also plunges these issues deep into American partisan politics. These are not only issues to challenge the most able and best leaders we have, and which will require spectacular integrity of our partisan politicians. The fate of much of the world and of nearly half of Mankind is at stake. India's 360.000 000 people and Indonesia's 90,000,000 can not become partisan political pawns. When George Washington gave his warning against "permanent entangling alliances" in has Farewell Fare-well Address he might also have warned Americans against the greater danger of entangling the domestic politics with internal politics of other nations. This is especially dangerous when our parties tie themselves to political factions in an unstable, un-stable, underdeveloped area of the world which Communism is trying to seize. It is especially dangerous when our political parties take sides in the Congo dispute. The Republican Republi-can party has become linked to the fate of the Katanga regime, just as the prestige of the U.S., President Kennedy and of the Democratic party has become tied to the central Congo's stability sta-bility and its ruling factions. Many Republicans who criticized criti-cized the Kennedy Administration's Administra-tion's support of UN military action against the pro-Western Katanga, are genuinely concern lest the GOP be too closely tied to the future of Katanga and Tshombe, whose politics already have observers confused. Many Democrats, supporting the President, are equally uneasy as their party, which suffered from "softness on Communism" charges before, becomes tied up with the pro-Soviet Congolese regime. All of this gives the Congo's tribal politicians much more |