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He had said his last word for the time being on the subject (of McCarthyism), President Eisenhower declared flatly. He answered questions on Indo-China (no decision on intervention) and on his proposed peacetime atomic pool (no hope of Soviet acceptance). Asked about a charge that Democrats were riding on his coattails, the President laughed: You don't know, just trying to ride someone else's coattail, where you are going.
The Lift of Courage. Asked for a comment on his first 16 months in office, one-third of his term, the President scratched his left ear and replied reflectively: He didn't enter this kind of task with any idea it was going to be a picnic. There are many frustrations. But you get inspirations that you hadn't expected.
For instance, the President related, a little girl (Sandra Miskelly, 18, of Keene, N.H.) took very great pleasure recently in coming to his office. Two years ago, when she had a date to see the White House, she was stricken with polio. In her determination to walk again, to fulfill that date, she had both legs broken. In that long two-year struggle she had had operations on her hands and her feet and her legs, but she finally got to the White House.
When you see courage like that, the President said, you don't feel sorry for yourself any more. That lifts you, possibly, above yourself.