Nation: The Small Type

It was great for newspaper street sales —and for exciting everyone who overlooked the smaller type. J.F.K. CALLING 150,000 RESERVES, cried the New York

Post. KENNEDY ASKS CRISIS TROOPS, headlined the Chicago American. Actually, all the furs and fanfare was just about as misleading as the presidential action itself.

All President Kennedy had done, explained the small type, was to ask Congress for stand-by authority to call up 150,000 members of the Ready Reserve between now and next February—a period in which Congress mainly would be in adjournment or just getting reorganized. White House aides said that he asked for the power, not in relation to the Communist arms buildup in Cuba, but primarily with Berlin in mind. Pentagon officials stressed that there was, in fact, no plan at all in the works to mobilize the reserves.

The President already possesses full power to order up to 1,000,000 Ready Reservists to duty by declaring a national emergency. His request for legislation thus was made for its psychological and political effect, creating an illusion of action to allay growing criticism of inaction in Cuba. The scare headlines enhanced the illusion—but the Kremlin has a sharp eye for small type and would scarcely be frightened. Moreover, Soviet and Castro propagandists now had a handy new handle to hurl charges of U.S. “warmongering.”