`A Real Southern Populist' Ramsey Clark, New Lion Will He Be President or a By JACK NEWFIELD T FIRST I wasn't very en- A thusiastic about writing a piece on Ramsey Clark. He seemed to me like an unde- fined figure in the middle dis- tance, And besides, my head was In another place. I had made a promise to myself a few months before to write more about specific in- justices and Insurgent move- ments. I didn't want to write about personalities, especially liberal political personalities. Meanwhile, out of curiosity, not yet consciously working on the assignment, I began to ask my friends active in liber- al politics what they happened to think about this guy Ram- sey Clark. These were the insiders, the activists who will be there in New Hampshire in 1972, and they all liked Ramsey Clark very much. "He's terrific," David Mixner, one of the founders of the Vietnam Moratorium, told me. "He really seems like a principled guy who will stand up and take a risk for things he believes in." Marion Wright Edelman, the poor people's tribune in Washington, said, "Ramsey is a beautiful man." Marion's husband, Peter Edelman, who was Robert Kennedy's legisla- tive assistant, said, "Ramsey is my first choice for Pres- ident in 1972. He's tough and he has integrity. He's a real Southern populist." `Rest Liberal'

Roger Wilkins, who worked Ramsey Clark under Clark in the Justice De- partment, said simply, "Ram- "What I feel is that there have to be some of us who sey Clark is the best liberal are willing to use up all our power fighting for change. hope in the country. He's the best guy I know." That's where I think I might be of some help." Could this Texan, this ex- Marine, this son of a conser- vative attorney general and a strict-constructionist justice of the Supreme Court, this mem- ber of Lyndon Johnson's Cabi- net, become a new white hope, a wise Southern voice for freedom, the same way Senator Fulbright has been an oddly accented voice for peace? I decided to research Clark's record as attorney general, and to find out just what he has been doing since of the Liberals: he moved part-time to New `York and joined the Paul, Weiss, Goldberg, etc., law firm last July. Although responsible for the conspiracy indictment of Rev. Super-Sheriff? Coffin and Dr. Spook, Clark's record on issues turned out to he has attempted to tesuiy wi be good otherwise. (Some peo- the defense at the Chicago ple said he was a weak ad- conspiracy trial. He has perament a modest and taste- ministrator). joined the citizen's commis- ful man. Although he grew up He was the first AG to op- sion that is investigating the in the raunchy rodeo of Texas pose capital punishment while police attacks on the Black politics with LBJ, Sam Ray- in office. He opposed preven- Panthers, and has really burn, and his father, Tom tive detention. He testified worked at it. He became hon- Clark, he doesn't seem to be a against wiretapping. orary chairman of the Com- political animal at all. He In a speech in North Caroli- mittee to save our Constitu- seems more like a professor na, he criticized Mayor tion, which is trying to force a or a country preacher. Or a Daley's "shoot to kill" order strong-silent sheriff like Gary to the Chicago police. ("A rev- Cooper. He doesn't seem to Newfield is associate edi- have the politician's primitive erence for life is the sure tor of the Village Voice, the way to reducing violent death. ego lust for power, or the poi- There are few acts more like- avant-garde Greenwich Vil- tician's need for self- ly to cause guerilla warfare in lage weekly, and the author promotion, or even the politi- our cities and division and of several books, including cian's preoccupticai with the hatred among our people than "A Prophetic Minority"—an appearance of things. to encourage police to shoot examination of the New He wouldn't even defend himself against the attacks by looters ... how many dead Left—and a popular biog- 12-year-old boys will it take Richard Nixon during the 1968 raphy of Sen. Robert F. campaign that distorted his for us to learn this simple Kennedy. His article is ex- lesson?") record. Ramsey Clark, Nixon cerpted from New York implied, was soft on crime, magazine. just as Helen Gahagan Pressure Resisted Douglas had been soft on Communism in 1950. He obtained a legal permit The attack quickly became for the demonstrators at that a dominant motif of the whole doomed Shantytown of the Nixon campaign. poor called Resurrection City. When I asked Roger Wilkins why Clark didn't hit back He refused to indict the orga- Supreme Court test of the con- nizers of the demonstrations harder at Nixon during that stitutionality of the war in In- campaign period, he replied, at the 1968 Democratic Con- dochina. He has spoken, writ- vention, and despite pressure "Ramsey was naive. He ten and testified before the thought that because Nixon's from the White House and Senate 'Judiciary Committee Mayor Daley, he recommend- attacks were based on distor- in behalf of lowering the vot- tions of the record, the media ed that nine Chicago police. ing age to 18. He is currently men be indicted. would point that out. But I representing the Alaskan na- think that experience taught When three black college tive population — Aleutian Is- him a lesson. He's much less students were killed by state landers, Eskimos and Indians diffident now. He's much highway patrolmen at Orange- — in their land claims against more willing to fight now." burg, S. C., in February of the Federal Government. He 1968. and a local white grand has given fund-raising parties jury refused to indict any of and campaigned for anti-war On the Road them, Clark entered the case candidates. He has taught a and pressed federal prosecu- course in law at Howard Uni- tion of nine policemen for versity called "Law as an Ef- Now Ramsey Clark is out of murder. (They were ac- fective Instrument of Social power, and he is watching a quitted). He angered J. Edgar Change." new attorney general, a Hoover by vetoing bugs and former municipal bonds law- wiretaps on Martin Luther yer who was Richard Nixon's King; and he angered impor- Modest Tastes campaign manager and who tant congressmen by pushing thought up the campaign at- tacks against him for being for strong gun-control legisla- Ramsey Clark is by tem- tion. soft on crime. He is watching this new and very political at- Since he joined Paul, Weiss, witat ms childhood was like. torney general fire liberal lion about the latest develop- lawyers from the Civl Rights "I grew up in Texas. I was horn in Dallas. My family ments in electronic bugging Division, support men like devices. They're not really Harrold Carswell and Clement moved to Washington when I was 9 years old. My father smart enough to do anything Haynsworth for the Supreme dangerous . . . KleindiensA is Court, and abort plans for was sworn in as attorney gen- eral on July 1, 1945, by Pres- just a guy who likes to win, It school desegregation. doesn't matter much to him He is watching this new at- ident Truman. I was 17 then, and I had just joined the Ma- what he wins, just so long as torney general, who believes he wins. ... The more serious in, and executed, the very rines. I had quit high school to go into the Marines ..." problem is that all those fel- real Southern strategy, hire as lows are so political. They're his top deputies Barry Gold- "Why the Marines?" I asked. not professional. They're very water's former campaign ambitious, and there is that manager ( Richard Kleindienst ) "Why did 17-year-old kids in Watts Southern strategy, which does and a conservative Texas join in the riot? It affect things like desegregation politician who was recom- seemed like where the action was. It seemed like a great and judicial nominations." mended by Sen. John Tower I pressed him for details of (Will Wilson). And now Ram- moral crusade. I didn't want where the impetus for repres- sey Clark fears that his suc- to go to West Point because 1 sion comes — who, how, had a prejudice against being cessors are beginning to tune when? up the long-dormant machine- an officer." ry of McCarthyism. After leaving the Marines, Mitchell and his crew have Clark picked up three degrees Rumor Mill been in power for 18 months in four years — a B.A. in his- and the hard evidence of tory at the University of Tex- re- "Oh, the bureau FBI (likes pression piles up. The conspir- as and an M.A. and law de- acy indictment and trial of gree at the University of Chi- to do a lot of bugging (putting cago, all between February of a listening device into a room, 1947 and December of 1950. as opposed to a tap only on the telephone). The bureau sent me a memo just two `Frightened People' . days before Dr. King was as- sassinated asking permission I asked Clark how much of to bug his home and office in the Chicago eight, after Clark connection with the poor peo- a threat he saw to liberty to- concluded there was no evi- day. Could he, for example, dence to justify any prosecu- envisage a military takeover tion. ("The indictment of Bob- in this country in the next few by Seale was a scandal"). The years? subpenas of media files and lie leaned back in his chair, notebooks. The whole panoply paused for a long time, and of bugs, wiretaps, dossiers began to answer very deliber- and police agents. The sudden ately. 5 A. M. police raids on the "Oh, I suppose there are homes of Black Panthers, like some people in the govern- the one in Chicago that killed ment who have those in- Fred Hampton and Mark stincts. There are some very Clark. These are the tactics frightened and authoritarian and mood of 1953. And Ram- people over there who could sey Clark, private citizen, react to circumstances that watches It all grow out of the way if the kids went wild. It big office on the fifth floor of could happen here. the justice department that he "But I don't think those fel- once occupied. lows in Justice now are very So now, instead of making a competent, or efficient. They lot of money by representing just rush around from one fire big corporate clients, instead to the next. They have no plan of getting some lucrative con- or vision about the whole sulting hustle, Ramsey Clark thing. Kleindienst, Wilson, is committed, and be travels Mitchell, all of them put to- all around the country making gether, couldn't have an intel- speeches with his slow Texas ligent five-migute conversa- twang in defense of such un- Thomas C. Clark popular things as the Bill of Rights and American college "Ramsey Clark is by students. temperment a modest and tasteful man. `Moral Crusade' Although he grew up in the raunchy rodeo One afternoon I flew to of Texas politics Washington and interviewed Clark for several hours in the with LBJ, Sam Ray- Paul, Weiss. Goldberg law of- burn and his father, fices on K street. In his Tom Clark, he doesn't shirtsleeves, playing nervous- ly with a black-and-red grape seem to be a political strike button, Clark answered animal at all." my first question — about pie's campaign ... the bureau wanted me to bug the fellows body of conspiracy laws is planning the demonstrations unjust and unfair. But a liberal Democratic at the 1968 Democratic Con- "But Spock and Coffin congressman told me, "It's vention, but I said no ... I wanted to test the law, so we possible. There's a total vacu- remember in August of 1967, had to face up to it.... I feel um at the top of the party when Spiro Agnew was gover- that we crippled and hurt a now. I think what the country nor of Maryland, he said that good many people with our is really looking for is a he had evidence that the same draft prosecutions. Some of strong, quiet leader, someone people started the riots in the draft resisters were new, someone with integrity. Newark and Detroit. So I among the best and most sen- And Ramsey's Texas accent called him up, and he didn't sitive young men in the coun- and folksy style should give have any evidence. — It was try. But the law has to pro- him some credibility in Mid- the same with Mayor Daley. ceed with integrity • . , but dle America." He said the people were com- after the conviction I did urge, In April, Clark appeared through the U. S. attorney, ing to Chicago in 1968 to with his father on "Meet the assassinate the candidates. that there be no jail sentences the Spock case." Press", and panelist Carl There was no evidence of in Rowan asked him, "Do you that. It was just rumors in have any presidential ambi- police circles, stuff from in- Talk of 1972 tions?" -. formants. But a lot of police Clark, in his best Gary Coop- informants are mentally un- er-style, answered with a terse balanced people. The rumor There Is beginning to swirl "no." mill among law enforcement around 42-year-old Ramsey agencies is immense ... a lot Clark the intoxicating talk of this surveillance gets silly; that he might try to run for `Shuffling Around' at one point there were agents President in 1972. Two citi- from six different agencies zens' committees promoting following Rap Brown. His his candidacy have already But about a month later, a mother used to invite them all been started, one In Boston print journalist asked Clark, in for breakfast when they and the other in Raleigh, "What is your future in na- were waiting outside." N. C. Clark, somewhat self- tional politics?" Did Clark think there was a consciously, keeps in his desk This time Clark replied, "As systematic plan in the Justice one blue-and-white "Ramsey you know, I haven't had a post Department to eliminate Clark for President in 1972" in national politics. I started Black Panthers? bumper sticker sent to him by out as a lawyer and became a organizers of the Raleigh bureaucrat, and now I'm just group. shuffling around. No one can `Immoral' Law When I asked a wise lady tell, least of alt me, where I'm journalist in Washington what headed. I AM concerned, I she made of the Clark for think there are several sources "The way it really works is president idea, she replied, "it of real power in this country very complicated. It's not so would be nice if we had a and, happily, I think political simple as a directive to get country good enough to elect power is one of them." the Panthers. It's a mood, a Ramsey as President. But we When I asked Clark about tone, a license. The Justice don't." the thought of running for Department sets a tone Another, more cynical, President, he answered: toward dissent, toward the Washington writer said, "Are "Oh, I can't plan anything Panthers. They circulate you crazy? Ramsey has no about that. What I feel is that profiles of the leaders to the base in any state party in the there have to be some of us local police. There's a police country. He's never run for who are willing to use up al raid in one city, and then an- office in his life. He's not even our power fighting for change. other city gets the idea by political! He has no money That's where I think I might example ... in Seattle, it was and no charisma. And Nixon be of some help. I know I the Treasury Department, not has smeared him as a coddler have too many handicaps as a the Justice Department, that of criminals." candidate. I'm more liberal asked the mayor to raid the than I appear to be. I'm not Panther headquarters .. • The good at indirection. So many real root of the problem is the of my positions are not popu- no-knock law that lets the po- lar. So I just work for change, lice come in so easily. The and see what happens. I think best thing the law can do is maybe someone who is better provide moral leadership. The than me at indirection, but law can't act immorally. But who believes in the same in fact the law acts Immorally things, should carry the ball constantly- The no-knock law for our side." is immoral. That's the prob- Compared to the people one lem." normally meets cruising the The only blot on Clark's rec- corridors of power, Ramsey ord as attorney general, in my Clark is just an exceptionally view, is his prosecution of Dr. decent human being. He Spock. would be exceptional among I asked Clark if he "re- shoe salesmen or concert vio- gretted" his indictment of linists. Among politicians he is Speck, Coffin and the others. a Saint Francis. "I do regret the conspiracy Over the seasons I have aspect of that case," Clark re- met, and reported on, and got- plied. "I regret the conspiracy ten to know, many upwardly aspect of all cases I was in- mobile politicians and the volved in because our whole hungry sharks who swim in their wake, They are, general- ly speaking, a wormy lot.

Special Virtues The President thing now hov- ers over Clark like a thin Most of them are more vapor. In recent days I've turned on by money and talked to law professors and status than by suffering or 0E0 employes and delegates war. Most of them are expert to the NAACP convention who at deceit and evasion in order all said they would quit their to cover up their real beliefs. jobs to work for him. I just Most of them are terrified of don't know if he could raise losing an election because the money and manipulate the they are otherwise unemploy- media and create the national able, so they let the latest constituency. Maybe his own public opinion poll be the pup- notion that be should use up peteer of their conscience. his power in good causes Most of them don't even makes sense. know who they are and have Ramsey Clark is something no interior life. special. I believe that charac- A lot of them are plain cor- ter is more important than pol- rupt and without any idea of itics, and men with Clark's what is actually happening in character almost never reach the country. There is some- his level of political authority. thing unfortunately endemic Maybe the President thing to the environment of politics is unrealistic. Maybe Ramsey that rewards the worst as- Clark's fate is to play the role pects of human nature. It is of Ed Murrow or Eleanor only alter you have spent an Roosevelt to the new McCar- enormous amount of time thys. Maybe his destiny is to around political people that be our Gary Cooper, a good you can appreciate the special Texas lawman quietly prepar- virtues of a Ramsey Clark. ing for his High Noon with the He tells the truth. He is nei- big bad bully John Mitchell, to ther for sale nor an egomani- protect the young, the poor ac. His motives are what they and the black. seem. He has the courage to And maybe such a tall sher- take unpopular positions and iff for justice is what this stick to them. And he really country needs, even more than cares about life's casualties it needs another liberal politi- and victims• because he has cian running for President. the novelist's capacity to imagine the nature of their daily lives. What Destiny?

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