THE STASSEN CRUSADE
By RICHARD H. ROVERE New York THANKS to Harold E. Stassen, the President's adviser on disarmament, we have had a few days of fun and comedy in American politics. They were welcome because the campaign up to now has been the dullest and least suspenseful in living memory. The gaiety began last Monday, July 23, with Mr. Stassen's announcement that he was breaking ranks and supporting Governor Christian Herter of Massachusetts for Vice-President on the Republican ticket. That is to say, he was opposing Richard M. Nixon, the President's choice. To put it another way, he was opposing the President. But was he? Is Nixon really the President's choice? Over all other men? The President has never put it quite this way. Mr. Stassen's action placed this question before the President and the country. Was Mr. Stassen speak- ing with the President's knowledge? And approval? Know- ledge—yes. Stassen had seen the President the previous Friday. He had told Mr. Eisenhower what he proposed to do. The President said he was free to support anyone he chose for anything because this is a free country but that of course he would not speak with White House backing. Stassen said he got the feeling that the President would be 'pleased to have him [Herter] on the ticket.'
In Panama, where the President was conferring with fellow Presidents, James Hagerty, the White House press secretary, gave out a statement which confirmed Mr. Stassen's account of the audience with the President but did not endorse either Nixon or Herter. Nixon, of course, has a continuing endorsement.
In Washington, an immediate demand for Stassen's resignation was made by a number of Republican Congress- men. Leonard Hall, the national chairman, reiterated his support of Nixon.
Still, Stassen was for Herter. He said that Herter could do 6 per cent. better in the general election than Nixon. Where he got this interesting figure he did not immediately explain. A hat would have been as good a place as any. He talked of polls, but he did not say which polls, when, where, who, what question.
Was Herter for Herter? Earlier there had been a certain amount of talk about Herter for Vice-President. Herter had said he wasn't interested. But he said it rather softly. Many people felt that with a little encouragement he might become a candidate. Stassen was providing encouragement. For a moment Herter seemed to be taking it. He put out a statement of his own that sounded as if he thought that Stassen had come up with a pretty sound idea. And he put it all up to the President. 'I firmly believe,' he said, 'that the decisive factor to be considered in nominating a Vice-Presidential candidate is the wish of the President.' He didn't say he understood the President's wish was that Nixon should get it. And he didn't say it was his. Herter's, wish that Nixon should get it.
The general reaction to Stassen's proposal had much in common with general reactions to previous proposals by Stassen--that it was all a lot of foolishness. Stassen is a middle-aged boy wonder. He became governor of Minnesota at about thirty and established all sorts of records—youngest governor in Minnesota's history, youngest Republican key- noter, youngest this, youngest that. This was in the late 1930s, and as soon as he became of age—thirty-five—he began Proposing himself for President of the United States. He kept this up until 1952. In Chicago that year he threw what remained of his support—the Minnesota delegates—to Eisenhower. By that act he achieved a rare kind of political independence : that of a man who has shed himself of every last one of his political backers. Though it was not forecast by anyone, it could have been figured out that if anyone was going to break ranks over Nixon it would be Harold Stassen.
Stassen is still officially for Herter, but no one else is. Forces were set in motion by his proposal. The very next day Nixon got a powerful backer, Governor Herter, who announced that he would be proud to place the Vice- President's name in nomination at the Republican conven- tion in San Francisco next month. This was announced by Leonard Hall in Washington, who said that Herter had just phoned in the glad news. 'Governor Herter and Dick Nixon have talked together about this today, and the Vice-President authorises me to say he is very pleased to have Governor Herter place his name in nomination.' Stassen said this was no surprise to him and intimated that tremendous heat had been applied to Herter, 'who is not a candidate [and] could not do anything else but accept.' His position was that Herter was still the best man for the job and was still receptive to the idea, but was boxed in by Hall and Nixon.
That afternoon the President returned from Panama. He was met at the airport by Nixon, Stassen and Hall. among others. He beamed on one and all and shook all hands. Some thought he clasped Nixon's a bit longer and more firmly than Stassen's, but these things are hard to measure, and no one was able to say that he froze Stassen.
When Stassen launched his anti-Nixon movement the general expectation was that he would have to leave the Eisenhower administration. A typical compromise has been reached. He has been given four weeks' leave of absence. He says he will devote them to his great crusade. No one expects it to come to much, but it will liven things up a bit and will force Nixon's defenders, including the President, to state and discuss their case publicly. The President, one imagines, will have to make a firm declaration of his preference for Nixon over anyone else. He has thus far resisted doing this. He may now even make clear the reasons for his resistance.
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