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But Kennedy went on to caution against exaggerating the importance of the crisis, and what he later called "war hysteria." Said he: "This is not the first abuse of Soviet power, nor will it be the last ... It is less than a year since the Vienna summit when President Carter kissed President Brezhnev on the cheek. We cannot afford a foreign policy based on the pangs of unrequited love." Kennedy cautioned against taking action in the Persian Gulf without the support of our allies. He warned against haste in adding new nuclear weaponry like the MX missile to the U.S. arsenal. He opposed registration for a peacetime draft. He criticized Carter for allowing the Shah of Iran into the U.S., and he called for a U.N. commission tc investigate Iranian grievances once the hostages are returned.
Domestically, he faulted the President for "our petroleum paralysis.' He urged gasoline rationing to reduce America's dangerous dependence or Middle East oil. Said he: "I am sure that every American would prefer to sacrifice a little gasoline rather than shed American blood to defend OPEC pipelines in the Middle East." To combat inflation, he asked for an immediate freeze on wages, prices, profits, dividends, interest rates and rents. Repeating a metaphor he had used with effect in a speech to the Democratic mid-term convention in Memphis in 1978, he concluded: "Sometimes a party must sail against the wind. Now is such a time."
The speech was a calculated risk-in a campaign that had reached a desperate stage and at times showed it. Though it would fire up Kennedy partisans, it would surely cool off many other people. Surveys indicate that many Americans are so exasperated with inflation that they would accept gas rationing, at least under certain circumstances, as well as wage and price controls, which traditionally do not work. But both policies would require the creation of unwieldy and expensive bureaucracies in which Government decrees would replace the efficiencies of the market. Gas consumption could more easily be reduced by allowing the price to rise; a tax could then be imposed to return money to lower-income groups. Surveys also show that the majority of people want to fight inflation by cutting Government spending.
Kennedy's speech was received coolly by Carter, who ordered his staffers to control their emotions and hold their tongues. But they were barely able to contain their anger and sarcasm. "The speech will win back the liberal activists but hurt him in the general election," said a staffer. Campaign Director Robert Strauss commented: "I'm rather speechless about the speech. It didn't excite me, and I suspect the American public feels the same."
Kennedy backers hope that the speech will rekindle fervor for their candidate. Enthusiasm, in fact, is now financing much of the campaign, since contributions declined dramatically after the Iowa defeat and have only gradually started to come in again. Kennedy had to abandon his lavish 727 jet for a modest twin-engine plane, and reporters must now follow him around New Hampshire and Maine in small planes of their own.