Word: off-the-cuff
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Soon after Ike's talk about neutralism hit the news wires, the State Department began to get anxious calls from some of its best friends in Embassy Row. While Ike's off-the-cuff slip about alliances' was explainable, it was obvious that some U.S. allies were shaken by what seemed a new, friendly emphasis on neutralism. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles rushed to set things right in a speech delivered at Iowa State College...
...President took the advice. Next morning he opened his news conference with an off-the-cuff statement that the U.S. is "waging peace." Said he: "There is no amount of money that you can pour into bombs and missiles and planes and tanks and guns that will assure you peace." It is more profitable to spend for "constructive things that tend to make people respectful of the great values that we are supporting." Thus, it would be "tragic" not to support foreign-aid programs "cheerfully and adequately...
...Acknowledging a Washington debate over whether or not the U.S. is headed for inflation, he reaffirmed an earlier statement backing the Federal Reserve Board's decision to raise interest rates to member banks although the President's own administrators opposed the decision (see BUSINESS). In an off-the-cuff opinion, he suggested that Illinois' Senator Everett Dirksen's proposal to limit income taxes to a 25% ceiling might get the Government into "a very rigid fix." He revealed that he had persuaded retiring NATO Commander General Alfred Gruenther not to retire "for a long time...
...spokesman." Herbert Hoover also required written questions, and almost abandoned conferences altogether toward the end of his term. Franklin Roosevelt was the first President to master the press conference, and was its alltime king of repartee as well. Harry Truman tried to use the same methods, though his off-the-cuff answers often landed him in trouble. But F.D.R. and Truman rarely let themselves be quoted directly, and both cooled noticeably toward the conference as their years in office lengthened...
...with a newsman right after he became chairman of the Senate Banking and Currency Committee, Fulbright was asked if he would look into, among other things, the steep rise in the stock market. Why, yes, said Fulbright, "we ought to have a look." The headlines that followed his off-the-cuff answer caused Wall Streeters to brace themselves for something like the Pecora investigation...