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Republican Dirksen came stalwartly to the Administration's rescue, agreed to cosponsor, jointly with Mansfield, an amendment to restore the President's authority to send surplus food (but not other kinds of aid) to Communist countries. In his speech supporting this amendment, Dirksen showed once again why colleagues consider him the nimblest of them all. Observing that he had voted for the Lausche amendment the day before, Dirksen said chucklingly: "This is not the first time I have been confronted with an awkward situation." Snorts of laughter sounded on both sides of the aisle. In 1959, Dirksen went on, he opposed President Eisenhower on a major issue. "I remember when the President was red-faced at the White House when some of his own leaders refused to sustain his position, and when he looked at me and asked, 'Will you carry the flag?' I replied, 'Mr. President, I will carry it for you.' And today I want to do as much for the present President as I was willing to do then for the President who bore the label of my party."
The upshot: 14 Democrats and nine Republicans who had voted for the Lausche amendment turned about and voted for the Mansfield-Dirksen amendment. It carried, 56 to 34. Tito will continue to get U.S. surplus food. But the Agency for International Development will have to postpone, for a year at least, the $10 million economic-development loan it had planned to give him.