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The President welcomed the Nixons back from their harrowing South American "good will- tour last May. The Mystery of

A Post editor's penetrating examination of one of the most disputed figures in America— the man who at the moment probably has the best chance of becoming the next U. S. President.

By STEWART ALSOP Reception committee at Caracas. Even Nixon's enemies admitted that he faced the mobs courageously. 11111 There is at least one point about that much disputed figure, Richard Milhous Nixon, which no sensible person can now dispute. De- spite a surface blandness which sometimes makes him seem quite ordinary, Vice Presi- dent Nixon is a most extraordinary man. Con- sider one measure of just how extraordinary he is. Since 1836, when in- herited the crown from crusty old , no Vice President has been nomi- nated as his party's Presidential candidate. Yet already, two years in advance, Vice President Nixon has the 1960 Republican Presidential nomination sewed up in a nearly puncture- proof bag. And even allowing for the current low state of Republican fortunes, he unques- tionably has a better chance than any other 2g

After one of the most successful RICHARD years the college has ever witnessed, NIXON we stop to reminisce, and come to the PRESIDENT realization that much of the success A. S. W. C. was due to the efforts of this very gentleman. Always progressive, and with a liberal attitude, he has led us through the year with flying colors.

J The young Nixon (right) with his parents, and brothers Harold (left) and Nixon became student-body president of by advocating on-campus dances. Donald. Their father lived to be 77. Harold died of tuberculosis in his youth. He personally disliked dancing but, as a good politician, knew how to pick a winning issue.

man to be the next President of these United about whom no one can pretend to be wholly nesses —Nixon has handled himself brilliantly. States. objective. Until rather recently, I inclined Reporters who have covered him on his trips Yet to the vast majority of Americans, this more to the view of the old lady in Whittier abroad, some of whom started as strong anti- extraordinary man remains a cardboard than to Nixon worship. Nixon seemed a Nixonites, have come back praising him for his figure, oddly inhuman and impersonal. To his shrewd, tough, ambitious politician, and not deft sense of personal diplomacy; and, after enemies—and he has, probably, more ene- very much more. But especially in the second his trip to South America, for plain physical mies than any other American—he is a card- Eisenhower Administration, like many other courage in the face of that most terrifying of board devil, utterly without scruple or con- Washington reporters, I found myself, almost phenomena, a mob gone wild. viction. To his admirers—and they also num- in spite of myself, increasingly impressed by What is more important, Nixon has re- ber in the many millions—he is a cardboard Nixon. peatedly displayed a knack—useful in a poten- saint, whose strength is as the strength of ten In certain almost impossibly difficult situa- tial President —for being right. In the pre- because his heart is pure. tions—notably President Eisenhower's ill- Sputnik era (Continued on Page 54) Sometimes the dislike of Nixon is pure bile, undiluted by rational content, as in the case of the elderly lady in Whittier, Nixon's home town in , who telephoned this re- porter to say: "I know it's against religion to hate anybody, but I just can't help hating that Nixon." The worship of Nixon can be equally irrational, for a case against Nixon—in some respects a strong case—can certainly be made. The purpose of this report is not to please the old lady from Whittier, who will certainly go on hating Nixon to the end of her days. Nor is its purpose to please those to whom any criticism of the Vice President is tainted with treason. What follows is, instead, an attempt—doomed to partial failure, since a part of any man always remains hidden—to see through the cardboard figure to the human being underneath. The maker of such an attempt should give his credentials at the start, since Nixon is one of those men—like Franklin D. Roosevelt— Nixon wept on Senator Knowland's shoulder during the 1952 Nixon remains loyal to Murray Chotiner campaign-fund crisis, after Ike said, "Dick, you're my boy." (right), his controversial ex-manager. THE SATURDAY EVENING POST :)4 The Mystery of Richard Nixon (Continued from Page 29) last summer, Nixon's was almost the which men do not change. The psycholo- only voice in Administration raised gists have proved that a boy's intelligence against the policy of defense cutback and quotient at the age of nine will be about slowdown. He instantly recognized and the same when he is forty-five. A born publicly acknowledged the real meaning fool or a born coward will almost always of the first Soviet satellite, when other so remain. As the Bible warns, a man Administration spokesmen were smugly cannot "by taking thought . . . add one attempting to laugh it off with weak cubit unto his stature." jokes. He was the first to recognize that Yet time and experience do change a the recession was a serious matter, de- man, not in his inner nature, but rather manding a serious Government policy as saline deposits change the outer size to deal with it. And it has been difficult and shape of a barnacle exposed to the for even the most cynical of the anti- sea. It is silly to suppose that a man of Nixonites to detect a political motivation Nixon's intelligence and capacity to learn in some of the positions Nixon has taken, has been in no way affected by the ex- like his strong advocacy of the politically traordinary experiences through which he unpopular foreign-aid program. has passed. The following attempt to I also discovered something else—that understand how Nixon has changed and Nixon is a most interesting man to talk how he has not, takes the form of a to. Unlike so many denizens of the Wash- drama in three acts. ington zoo, he never wraps himself in the American flag or recites his latest In Act One we examine the original speeches verbatim to a restless audience barnacle—the boy who was father of the of one. He talks politics sensibly and man. In Act Two we consider Nixon in well. Indeed, where the subjects of poli- midpassage, in the greatest crisis of his tics and government are concerned, life, when charges in the 1952 campaign Nixon is something of an intellectual, as that he was the beneficiary of a "secret the excerpts from my notebook which ac- millionaires' fund" all but destroyed him. company this article suggest. He has In Act Three we consider Nixon today, read a great deal, and he has thought a with six years of the Vice Presidency be- great deal about what he has read. hind him, standing within a long arm's Nixon also has another quality which reach of the nation's highest office. is hardly characteristic of most poli- Start, then, with the bare bones of ticians—he listens. An interviewer is apt Nixon's early life, before trying to clothe to find himself suddenly transformed them in a little flesh. He was born in 1913 into interviewee, with Nixon taking notes in a hard-working, impecunious Quaker on a large yellow pad. State Department family, and he was brought up in the officials who have briefed him before his pleasant, sunlit Quaker town of Whittier, trips abroad, accustomed as they are to just outside Los Angeles. His school and the glazed eyes and unstifled yawns of college records have a Horatio Alger con- junketing politicians forced briefly to sistency. In Whittier High School, he was listen to the facts, have been amazed by first in his class scholastically, president Nixon's incisive questions, his intense of the student body and a champion de- "Borden's Buttermilk determination to master the essentials. bater. In Whittier College, he was second Nixon, in short, is certainly far more in his class, president of the student than just another tough, shrewd, am- body, a champion debater and a very bad is naturally cooling!" bitious politician. But then, what kind football player. At Duke University Law • of man is he? The best way to try to an- School in North Carolina—he went there swer that question is to consider the kind on a scholarship and was graduated in says Elsie, the Borden Cow of man, and the kind of boy, he has been, 1937—he was third in his class, the and then to try to understand the ways equivalent of president of the student Borden's country-fresh buttermilk is low in calories—cools in which he has changed, and the ways body and on the law review. you off without worrying your waistline! in which he has not changed. Even these bare bones tell something Among Nixon's critics and rivals, it is about the young Nixon. He was intelli- Healthful, too ... this tangy, refreshing drink contains all fashionable to scoff at the notion that gent—his scholastic record proves it. He the vital proteins, B-vitamins, and minerals of milk plus an Nixon has changed at all. And in one was popular—an unpopular boy is not sense they are right. 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THE SATURDAY EVENING POST 58 (Continued from Page 54) elected pres- law-school classmates, recalling charges that Nixon as a politician had used "ques------0111 ident of the student body. He had a 4.. One strong political instinct even then—a boy tionable tactics," wrote this reporter the who is not politically minded does not following revealing sentences: "He was a 4' Colgate Brushing Helps Give run for president of the student body man of such high ambition, and a man The Surest Protection every time he gets a chance. But what kind capable of pursuing his ambition with of boy was Richard Nixon, really? such intensity, that I could the more All Day Long! easily believe that he would and could do ~~_ — In an attempt to answer that question,

.11.■ woo ••• this reporter has corresponded with all whatever was necessary to attain the goal Nixon's college and law-school class- he had set for himself. However, I have mates, and interviewed many of them, as serious doubts whether he himself did well as relations, teachers, friends, ene- those things, because I got the impression mies and casual acquaintances of Nixon's of Richard, in college, that he had very youth. It has been a fascinating pastime, high morals and was motivated largely rather like that old favorite of children's by a very high sense of duty." birthday parties, in which the eager player Those two oddly contradictory sen- follows a string around and about and tences tell a lot about the kind of boy over and under until he comes at last Nixon was, and the kind of man he on the hidden prize. For again and again became. Nothing more infuriates his the digger into Nixon's past comes upon enemies, especially the more cynical and something in the nature of the boy which sophisticated, than what one Democrat leads directly, in a flash of recognition, called "Nixon's damned holier-than-thou to something in the nature of the man. attitude." But call it what you will, a holier-than-thou attitude or a "very high Take, for example, the odd contrast sense of duty," Nixon comes by it provided by a couple of pages of photo- honestly. graphs in the 1931 edition of the annual His Quaker background is very much yearbook of Whittier College. From one part of him. His great-grandmother and page, the self-conscious faces of the mem- his great-great-grandmother on his moth- bers of the Franklin Society peer out. . er's side were well-known itinerant Every Franklin is clad in the obviously Quaker lady preachers. His mother, a unaccustomed splendor of a Tuxedo. strongly religious and personally charm- On the opposite page are the pictures ing old lady—she looks like Whistler's of the members of the Orthogonian mother with a ski-jump nose—hoped Society. Every Orthogonian is dressed in a simple white shirt, sleeves rolled up, collars open over boyish throats. Com- paring the two, one cannot help feeling that the Orthogonians are somehow more Most children lose their fear natural, more likable—in a word, more of the darkness when they be- American—than the aristocratically garbed Franklins. come teen-agers. Among the Orthogonians appears the MILDRED SILVER familiar face—the ski-jump nose is there COLGATE'S WITH GARDOL FIGHTS already, and the jowls are faintly begin- BOTH DECAY AND BAD BREATH ALL DAY ning to appear—of Richard Milhous Nixon, founder and first president of the Richard would become a preacher, too, Orthogonian Society. It was founder- but she soon learned that he had his heart president Nixon's idea, of course, to have set on being a lawyer. She remembers the Orthogonians photographed in sim- when little Richard was sprawled in ple, democratic, open shirts, to underline front of the fire, reading in the papers FIGHT TOOTH DECAY the contrast with the highfalutin Frank- about the Teapot Dome scandal. He lins. turned to her and said: "I know what I Not long ago, this reporter was talking want to be when I grow up—an honest with the Vice President about the most lawyer who doesn't cheat people but famous speech he ever made—the tele- helps them." WITH COLGATE'S WHILE YOU vision address at the height of the fund Again and again, one catches echoes crisis. I said I had been looking over of that early pronouncement, with its some old Whittier yearbooks, and that I note, faintly priggish to some ears, of suspected I might have found the origins high moral principle. When Nixon ar- of his wife Pat's famous "respectable rived at Whittier College, the Franklin STOP BAD BREATH Republican cloth coat." Society was the only men's club on the "You mean the Orthogonians and the campus, with all the special joys which open shirts?" Nixon said, chuckling, with such a social monopoly entails. Nixon, instant recognition. "Sure, the Franklins whose reputation as a coming man had were the haves and we were the have- preceded him from high school, was nots. I was only a freshman then." asked to join. He refused—on principle. ALL DAY! Obviously freshman Nixon shared with The Franklins' social monopoly, he held, Brushing for brushing, it's the surest protection ever offered by any toothpaste! politician Nixon an unerring instinct for was unfair and undemocratic. But it was telling political symbolism. Or take an- Because of all leading toothpastes, only Colgate Dental Cream contains Gardol! also typical of him that, a mere fresh- other example of the sudden sense of man, he immediately organized a success- recognition which rewards the digger ful rival club. FIGHTS BOTH BAD BREATH AND TOOTH DECAY ALL DAY— into Nixon's past—this one more calcu- When he was a young lawyer with WITH JUST ONE BRUSHING! lated to please his critics than his ad- OPA at the beginning of the war, he in- mirers. Nixon tried out for football every sisted on taking the lowest possible Colgate Dental Cream with Gardol is backed by year at Whittier. He was slight and ill salary. "He reasoned," writes his OPA published results of 2-year clinical research on the co-ordinated, and he never made the boss, Prof. Jacob Buescher, "that the reduction of tooth decay. And of all leading tooth- team ; he was useful chiefly as a kind of pastes,* only Colgate's contains Gardol to form an boys who were then being trained to hit tireless, indestructible, animated ninepin the beaches were paid a lot less." But invisible, protective shield around your teeth that NOW— for the better players to knock down. decay with just one again, it was typical that Nixon rapidly fights decay all day . . . helps stop For New "He was a lousy player, but he sure had brushing! One Colgate brushing stops mouth odor all FINGER-TIP climbed up from his self-imposed low guts," recalls a football star of his day. day for most people, too! EASE— rung on the bureaucratic ladder. Once in a long while, Nixon would be America's First In college, Nixon was a very model WORLD'S LARGEST SELLING Aerosol Dentifriee I permitted to play in the last few minutes boy. He neither drank nor smoked—al- TOOTHPASTE Simply remove red of a game. When that happened, a class- though he took an occasional beer in cover, touch the mate who was then football linesman re- top and release the law school—and he went to church four calls: "I always got out the five-yard- / desired amount of times on Sunday. The only youthful es- with GARDOL penalty marker. Dick was so eager I COLGATE DENTAL CREAM capade any of his contemporaries can with GARDOL! knew he'd be offside just about every 1 980 recall involved his crawling over the play." 310 NO 139‘ 113it transom to get into the dean's office, COP,' ma. COLO,L,ALINOVVE con..- His critics will enthusiastically agree law school. But his purpose was not to that Nixon has been offside more than booby-trap the dean's desk or some such WHILE IT CLEANS YOUR TEETH once in his subsequent career. One of his CLEANS YOUR BREATH shenanigans. (Continued on Page 60) THE SATURDAY EVENING POST

(Continued from Page 58) It was to shy." . . . "Definitely not an extro- In 1946, Nixon, still in uniform, ac- discover, from the dean's records, where vert." . . . "Basically aloof, very sure of cepted an invitation from another family he stood scholastically. himself, and very careful to keep people friend, a Whittier banker, to appear be- OFFICE As this episode suggests, those other from getting too close to him." . . . "He fore a local Republican group which was qualities in Nixon, his "ambition" and was not what you would call a real looking for a Republican hopeful to op- "intensity" were also very much a part of friendly guy." . .. "He tended somewhat pose Representative , a the boy, as they are of the man. Nixon to shyness." high-minded, well-entrenched Democrat. -0401 says of his father, Frank Nixon, "I guess Yet his contemporaries liked him. One Nixon was chosen, and beat Voorhis in I got my competitive instinct from him," lady classmate recalls that she "thought what he has called a "fighting, rocking, and he is doubtless right. Frank Nixon, Dick Nixon was too stuck up." But she is rolling campaign." He was elected easily who died in 1956, was not a worldly suc- an exception. Very few of his contempo- again in 1948, and in his second term he cess. His grocery store brought in just raries felt really close to him, but almost won a national reputation when he was enough to support the family, and the all remember him in retrospect with ad- given a large share of the credit—which Milhous family tended to think that miration and respect. Typical is a law- he deserved—for bringing to Hannah, whose family founded Whittier school classmate, who had the trying justice. In 1950, he beat Helen Gahagan in 1897, had married beneath her. Per- experience of sharing a double bed in an Douglas in a race for the Senate—an- haps this explains why Frank Nixon, unheated shack with the future Vice other "rocking, rolling" campaign. At who suffered from bad ulcers all his adult President (they were both too poor to the 1952 Republican Convention, Dwight life, was so cantankerous and argumen- afford anything better). "Dick Nixon," D. Eisenhower rather casually selected his Paper clips will often slip. tative, and such a disciplinarian. At any he wrote, "is the ablest man I ever met." name from a list of suitable running Bostitch staples really grip! rate, Nixon's mother apparently acted From all this, there emerges at least in mates. And in mid-September, 1952, as the carrot, and his father as the stick, rough outline a picture of the kind of boy when the campaign was just gathering in spurring on the boy to try to be "good, Nixon was. There is the quite genuine steam, the story hit the headlines that not just at one thing, but at everything." Quaker strain, the "very high sense of Nixon was the beneficiary of a "secret HOME He certainly tried hard, as he has been duty." There is, as becomes an instinctive $18,000 fund"; and Nixon was almost trying ever since. And, although he was a conservative, also a certain convention- destroyed. bad football player, he was good at al- ality of outlook; Nixon has never got most everything else. He was a good ac- over his college boy's admiration for So much for the bare bones. But before tor, for example. Dr. Albert Upton, his football heroes, and the club song he going on to examine the great fund crisis, drama coach, remembers a play in which wrote for the Orthogonians is almost a it is necessary to consider two new charac- Nixon, as a sadly bereft old innkeeper, take-off on the conventional college song: ters in the dramatis personae of Nixon's was to appear alone on the stage, weep- "Brothers together we'll travel on and career. One is his wife, Pat. Like Nixon, ing. "I told him, 'Dick, if you just con- on, Worthy the name of an Orthogo- his wife is not easy to know well. But centrate real hard on getting a big lump nian." There is the fierce drive, the great according to those who do know her, she in your throat, I think you can cry real shares many qualities with her husband. tears.' He did too—buckets of tears. I Besides the interest in the drama which couldn't help remembering the play when first brought them together, she shares I saw that picture of Dick crying on Sena- with him a good intelligence, much tor Knowland's shoulder. But mind you, cop is a police officer who energy and a strong ambition. Her chief Dick is never spurious. He really felt it." A influence appears to have been to magnify stops you for speeding. Cancel the call for the horses and men. He was more than good at debating— Nixon, to intensify those qualities, es- Bostitch got Humpty together again! he was brilliant, the champion college H. D. BILLINGS pecially his drive and self-confidence, debater in . Debating which were present in him from the first. was taken seriously at Whittier, almost She has acted as a sort of extra backbone as seriously as football, and being presi- for a man whose backbone already had SCHOOL dent of the Debate Team automatically ability, the first-rate mental equipment. great tensile strength. made Nixon a very big man on the There is the urge to manage, to influence, The second new character is Murray campus. The Rev. William Hornaday, to lead, and an instinct for the means of Chotiner, who was Nixon's campaign now a well-known California preacher, doing so. There is—especially worth adviser in 1946, and his manager in 1950 then Nixon's debating teammate, recalls noting for future reference—the brilliant and 1952. Chotiner is out of politics how shrewd Nixon was. "He used to pass mastery of debating techniques. There is now; in 1956, still-unproved charges that me little notes, 'Pour it on at this point,' the touch of the ham, which most suc- he had used his political connections in or 'Save your ammunition,' or 'Play to cessful politicians have. And there is his law business destroyed his political the judges, they're the ones who de- also something highly unusual in a usefulness. Nixon, who is still out- cide.'" Mrs. Norman Vincent, his high- politician, a withdrawn quality, a lack of spokenly loyal to Chotiner, considers it school debating coach, remembers, "He easy warmth, a loneliness of spirit. a "tragedy" that Chotiner became in- was so good it kind of disturbed me. He This, then, is the basic Nixon, the volved in "the kind of law business which had this ability to kind of slide round an original barnacle on which the rest is does not mix well with politics." Chotiner argument, instead of meeting it head on, built. Every one of the characteristics is—or was—a remarkable political phe- and he could take any side of a debate." Nixon displayed as a boy is still clearly nomenon in his own right. He managed Mrs. Vincent, it should be noted, is an and visibly present in him. Now let us campaigns for and William Kids at work wi h sticky glue? ardent Democrat. Moreover, the abili- plunge into what would certainly be Knowland as well as Nixon, and he has With Bostitch staples there's no goo! ties that "kind of disturbed" her were Act Two in any competent play about often been described as a political genius. precisely those which made Nixon a Nixon—the great crisis of the $18,000 He is a shrewdly humorous fellow, with champion debater. fund. In two episodes of that crisis— something of a Hollywood touch about both involving Dwight D. Eisenhower, him—he affects such eccentricities as And Nixon was also a brilliant campus and neither fully told before—we shall miniature watches worn as cuff links. He politician. The Whittier yearbook for his see that something new has been added is fascinating when talking about the senior year records how Nixon became to the original barnacle; that the earnest one subject on which he is a genuine ex- student-body president "in a campaign Quaker boy has somewhere acquired an pert, and the one subject which really amazing inner toughness of fiber. '44 in which mudslinging was noticeably interests him—the art of winning elec- absent. . . . On a platform advocating a But first, again, the bare bones of tions. Chotiner was Nixon's chief mentor for those who enjoy the social Nixon's life. The years from 1937 to in that art, in Nixon's early days, and Only stapler in the world niceties, he stormed to his position." 1946 are quickly told. They were pre- there is no doubt that his influence on with staple remover attached The "social niceties" were on-campus cisely like the same years in the lives of Nixon was very great. dances, previously outlawed on that some millions of other young men. After Both Pat and Chotiner were on the The Indispensable Quaker campus. Nixon disliked dancing, law school, Nixon became a junior part- campaign train with Nixon, who was BOSTITCH B8R and still does, but he clearly had a well- ner in an old family friend's law business. whistle-stopping on the West Coast when He was president of the Twenty-Thirty Now in handsome three-tone gray developed instinct for the winning issue, the fund story broke on September and gleaming black-and-chrome. even then. Yet the odd fact is that many Club, and active in Kiwanis and in the eighteenth. Nixon's first reaction to the Whittier Little Theater movement. There of his classmates did not think of Nixon story was simple unconcern. It is impor- 11316 at your stationer's as a natural politician at all. "He was the he met Thelma Ryan—"Pat"—a pretty tant to understand that the unconcern Slightly higher in the West and outside U.S.A. last person in the class I would have high-school teacher and occasional Holly- was quite genuine. Neither Nixon nor Bostitch, Inc., 307 Briggs Drive, East Greenwich, Rhode Island picked to be a political headline," one wood bit player. He married her in 1940. Chotiner, who also knew about the fund law-school classmate wrote; and another: There followed the brief stint in OPA, and who was no political babe in the Fasten it better and faster with "I would put him down as the man least and then a commission as a Navy supply woods, had foreseen that the fund might likely to succeed in politics." officer, with some months in the Pacific. be a political booby trap. The fund was Most Americans think of a politician In the fund speech, Nixon described his never a "secret"—the treasurer, Dana as a backslapper, and Nixon was, and war career as "not particularly unusual." Smith, had publicly solicited contribu- still is, anything but a backslapper. That It was unusual in only one way—Nixon tions up and down the coast—and Nixon BOSTITCH is another note his contemporaries re- became an unusually brilliant poker STAPLERS AND STAPLES and Chotiner regarded it as no different peatedly strike in their letters about player, and came back with a useful nest from any other political-campaign fund. Nixon. "He was personally somewhat egg of poker winnings. Earlier, (Continued on Page 62) THE SATURDAY EVENING POST 62

(Continued from Page 60) when col- flicting pressures. Then on Sunday night, umnist Pete Edson had asked about the while Nixon was in Portland, the call at fund, Nixon had given him Smith's tele- last came through from the general in phone number and suggested that Smith City. Auto glass lets all could give him all the details. Nixon must have given a lot of thought But Nixon soon realized that he was to what he, a mere junior senator, thirty- the wonder in in desperate trouble, especially when nine years old, would say to the revered the , the paper conqueror of Hitler. An ordinary man of his closest newspaper friend and col- might have adopted a meek and defen- A world of wonder awaits her wherever laborator in the Hiss case, Bert Andrews, sive tone, giving his side of the fund story she goes . . . and the magnificent auto called for his withdrawal. "That was the with much self-justifying detail. But safety glass areas by Plate worst shock," Nixon has recalled. There Nixon is not an ordinary man, and he Glass Company in the whole 1958 Chrysler were other shocks. wired hardly mentioned the fund. Corporation line give her a front row seat. him, asking him to withdraw for the good (The Imperial on the opposite page is a of the party. Thomas E. Dewey tele- He started the conversation by saying phoned him to say ("I hate to tell you flatly that he would withdraw if the striking example.) Do you realize that this, Dick") that the consensus among his general—and the Republican National in just 10 years the glass area in a powerful New York friends was that Committee—so wished. The general re- typical Chrysler Corporation car Nixon should step aside. General Eisen- plied that "this is not my decision—it is has increased an average of hower said only that Nixon must be as yours." Nixon answered immediately 76%? And every inch of this "clean as a hound's tooth," and Nixon that he would be glad to take exclusive glass is PPG SAFETY GLASS was well aware that a number of those responsibility for the decision, either way. who had the general's ear were urging But first, he said, the public, and the —glass which measures up him to dump his controversial running general himself, ought to have a chance on every count to the mate. to "hear my side of the story." He warned rigid specifications set Nixon himself thought briefly but the older man against listening to "some by the American seriously of withdrawing. But his wife of those people around you who don't Standard Safety Pat repeatedly said two things. "If you know a damn thing about it." And he Code for strength withdraw under fire," she said, "you will concluded by giving the head of the ticket carry the scar for the rest of your life." a small lecture about practical politics. and optical clarity. And she said: "If you withdraw, Ike will The longer there remained any doubt lose." Chotiner also maintained that about whether or not he was to stay on Nixon's withdrawal under fire would de- the ticket, the more harm it would do, feat Eisenhower, and he insisted from the not only to himself but to the whole first that the crisis could be turned de- ticket. In a situation of this sort, a de- cisively to Nixon's advantage. "I did cision had to be made; it had to be made what I always do," Nixon has said. "I firmly, and it had to be made as quickly as considered all the worst alternatives, as possible. And, according to at least three cold-bloodedly as I could, and reached an people who should know—not including analytical conclusion—that if I withdrew, Nixon—and who recall Nixon's words General Eisenhower would probably with a certain retrospective awe, he con- lose. So I decided to make the effort to cluded with a bluntly worded admoni- stay on, if possible with honor." tion which can be delicately paraphrased Although he has not said so, it is clear as follows: "General, in politics a time from the events which followed that comes when you have to fish or cut bait." Nixon's analysis led him also to the con- It was an extraordinarily bold and clusion that the key to his situation lay aggressive line for a young man in with Dwight D. Eisenhower. If his per- Nixon's position to take. But it worked, sonal reputation and his political career as Nixon knew it must; Nixon could not were not to sustain a mortal wound, the possibly be dropped from the ticket with- general must exonerate him completely out being given a chance to defend him- and on his own initiative. Nothing less self. Before that night ended, the money would do. Moreover, Nixon must at all to put Nixon on a nationwide television costs avoid being summoned to judg- hookup, which had hitherto been lack- ment, like a naughty little boy, to be ing, was quickly found. punished or excused by an indulgent Nixon's famous broadcast the next parent. Tuesday night, September twenty-third, On Friday, September nineteenth, was his most decisive political triumph, while the storm was still gathering force, transforming him from a youthful would- Nixon accordingly issued orders—quickly be Throttlebottom into the really major conveyed to the general's train—that he political figure he has been ever since. would under no circumstances speak to It is also still in some ways a millstone anyone in the general's party except round his political neck; those who dis- Eisenhower himself. Friday, Saturday, like Nixon often explain their dislike by and the daylight hours of Sunday passed pointing to that "tear-jerking soap opera without the expected telephone call from about the fund." Yet it is interesting to the general, who was under heavy con- read the (Continued on Page 66)

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THF: SA tritDAY EVENISG POST "Hi, folks!" THE SATURDAY EVENING POST 66 (Continued from Page 62) speech now, of Eisenhower's telegram over the radio, all passion spent. Bar a few frills and and what he had heard sounded chilly furbelows, it is not at all hard to imagine and equivocal. Moreover, the general's Nixon making much the same sort of summons to Wheeling represented pre- speech a decade and a half earlier, fresh cisely the summons to be judged which out of law school. Nixon was determined at all costs to There is that instinct for telling political avoid. symbolism, of course, in the "respectable So again. Nixon took a remarkably Republican cloth coat," and there is the bold and aggressive line. And again it touch of the ham, in his daughters' "little worked, as Nixon knew it must. At dawn cocker-spaniel dog, Checkers." Nixon the next day, Summerfield reached got the idea of Checkers from Franklin Chotiner in Missoula with a message for Roosevelt's famous Fala, and he has Nixon; he had reached the general by confessed that it gave him a certain telephone on his way across to pleasure to hoist the Democrats on their Wheeling, and had the general's promise own canine petard. There is the old mas- that Nixon would be welcomed on the tery of debating techniques, in the series ticket with all honor. So Nixon emplaned of telling debating points, some wholly for Wheeling, and the rest is history— specious, against the Democrats. how the general welcomed him with a And there is the high moral tone, the "Dick, you're my boy," how Nixon cried air of injured innocence—"I come before on Senator Knowland's shoulder, and all you tonight ... a man whose honesty and the rest of it. integrity have been questioned"—which But clear away the sentimental under- infuriated the passionate partisans of brush, and what do you see? You see a Adlai Stevenson more than anything else young man of thirty-nine, undergoing a in the speech. And yet Nixon did in fact terrible personal crisis which could well consider that he was wholly innocent, and it did in fact come as a genuine shock • • • • • • • • • to the Quaker boy with the "very high • • • • • • • • • • • • morals" to have his "honesty and in- tegrity questioned." Nixon's emotion Scarecrow may have been conveyed in a hammy way, but as in the college play, "he really By Richard Armour felt it." There is, in short, nothing particularly The scarecrow in our garden surprising about the speech, once you scares understand the boyhood and background The crows away, would of the man who made it. What happened after the speech, like what happened frighten bears before it, tells a lot more than the speech And wolves, no doubt. But itself about the kind of man Richard what I need Nixon, at thirty-nine, had become. To save results of toil and Eisenhower heard the speech in Cleve- seed land, and immediately wired Nixon ask- ing him to come to Wheeling, West Is one that would, to spare Virginia, to help him "complete the my plants, YOUR DENTURE BREATH CAN'T BE BRUSHED OFF. When you brush false teeth, you risk formulation of my personal decision." Scare off the aphids and soaks into places no From Cleveland, Republican Chairman offensive Denture Breath. You're safe with Polident! It the ants. brush can reach, to keep plates odor-free. and his public- relations expert, Robert Humphreys, to- • • • • • • gether called Nixon's Los Angeles head- • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Unless you face these facts about quarters to make the necessary arrange- ments. have destroyed him, and reacting with re- They were in a jubilant mood, for markable toughness and coolness. You they already knew the Nixon speech had also see a young man with only six years been a political triumph. They finally in politics behind him, with a sure, in- reached Murray Chotiner. The conver- stinctive grasp of the political realities, FALSE TEETH sation which ensued went approximately and a bold willingness to act upon them. as follows: Nixon, in short, was already a thor- ...you may be in trouble! "Well, Murray, how are things out oughgoing professional politician at there?" thirty-nine. He is a professional politi- "Not so good." cian still—and proud of it. For when he You can't clean false teeth the same way you Polident soaks into crev- ices, removes denture "What in hell do you mean, not so says that it is "the function of the politi- clean natural teeth and expect them to be natu- breath—as no toothpaste good?" cian to make a free society work," he is rally white ... and odor-free ! can. "Dick just wrote out a telegram of speaking a simple truth which many peo- But it's so easy to clean dentures properly with resignation for the general." ple have forgotten. But there are different Polident. This wonderful denture cleanser dissolves "WHAT? My God, Murray, you tore kinds of professional politicians; Lincoln film - sweetens your mouth as no toothpaste can. it up, didn't your' was a professional politician, and so were With Polident, you're never embarrassed or self- "Yes, I tore it up, but I'm not so sure Aaron Burr and Boss Tweed. What kind conscious because of denture breath or dingy film! how long it's going to stay torn." of politician had the Quaker boy, Rich- Polident purifies plates. A horrified pause. Easy to use...Instant Action... Just mix Polident gets rid of odor-breeding ard Nixon, become in 1952, at the age of bacteria and food particles. "Well, Dick's flying to Wheeling to see thirty-nine? powder with water. Slip your plates into this No more Denture Breath! amazing "bath." Stubborn stain loosens. Film dis- the general, isn't he?" To ask that question is to pose the case solves. Clinging food and odor-breeding bacteria "No; we're flying tonight to Missoula." against Nixon. As this reporter told the are washed out of cracks and crevices no brush can Missoula, Montana, was Nixon's next Vice President in the interview accom- reach. Your false teeth start looking naturally scheduled speaking engagement. panying this article, I have amassed a white again ... and no more Denture Breath! "WHAT? My God, Murray, you've vast dossier of anti-Nixon material, cour- got to persuade him to come to Wheel- ing." tesy of the Democratic National Com- mittee and Nixon's numerous enemies in "Arthur, we trust you. If you can give California. What is striking about this us your personal assurance direct from dossier is that it is based not on the kind the general that Dick will stay on the of Vice President Nixon now is, but on the ticket with the general's blessing, I think kind of professional politician he was; it POLIDEnT Thousands of dentists rec- I can persuade him. I know I can't other- is based on the past, not the present. ommend safe. scientific wise." Polident. Get it today ... at Moreover, it is based not on anything any drug counter ... Recollections differ as to whether Nixon has done, but on the kind of things Nixon actually wrote out a telegram of he has said. resignation. But the above conversation Polident Denture Cleanser . To understand the case against Nixon, is accurate in substance, although it is it is only necessary to quote a few words Denture Bath of course not verbatim, and there is no from his own mouth. The words were doubt at all that the line Chotiner took spoken, moreover, not in one of Nixon's accurately reflected Nixon's mood and "rocking, socking" California campaigns intentions. Nixon had heard only a part but in 1954, (Continued on Page 70) THE SATURDAY EVENING POST n

(Continued from Page 66) when he was the implication is grossly misleading and hard to understand why Nixon, even as it is a matter of fact, provable on the rec- already Vice President. In that year, Nixon essentially untrue. To make his implica- late as 1954, was the kind of politician ord. made a telecast defending the Eisenhower tion, Nixon used a rhetorical question, who could ask that rhetorical question. In the anti-Nixon dossier, the case Administration's foreign policy and prais- which is an old and rather sleazy de- Remember that "competitive instinct" against Nixon ends rather abruptly in ing Secretary of State . bater's trick. which almost always carried Nixon off- about 1954. In 1956, it was an essential In an aside, he asked this question : "And Other items from the anti-Nixon dos- side in football games. Remember the part of Adlai Stevenson's campaign incidentally, in mentioning Secretary sier might be cited, but that rhetorical strong influence of the brilliant Murray strategy to drive Nixon to extremes by Dulles, isn't it wonderful finally to have a question is the most damaging item. It is Chotiner, to whom the essential function brutal attacks on his integrity. The strat- Secretary of State who isn't taken in by also the most typical, in its use both of an of politics is, quite simply, to win. Re- egy failed. Nixon followed the advice he the Communists?" old debating trick and of an essentially member also, in fairness, Nixon's part in now gives younger politicians, and built In so saying, Nixon did not say that specious "Communist issue." But the the Hiss case, his first important political his campaign around the ticket's "posi- Dean G. Acheson and George Marshall, purpose of this report is not to make the experience, which led him to equate the tive" asset—President Eisenhower's per- Dulles' predecessors, were "taken in by case for or against Nixon. It is to try to internal Communist danger with the sonal popularity. The change in Nixon's the Communists." But he implied it, and understand the man. And it is not really infinitely greater external danger. And political style has been even more obvious remember, perhaps especially, Nixon's since 1956. And the change is not really at years as a champion college debater, all surprising. Nixon, after all, is a highly which formed his speaking style. The ob- intelligent politician, quite intelligent jtct of college debating, after all, is sim- enough to see that the use of specious de- ply to win the debate, without regard for bating tricks is very bad politics indeed in the merit of the issues, using against the a potential Presidential candidate. opposition whatever debating points Does the change go deeper than that? come to hand. Nixon's recent record, as cited earlier in The case against Nixon, in short, is this report, is clear evidence that it does. that he was, even as late as 1954, the kind Nor is this at all surprising either. For his of politician who regarded winning as a whole history suggests that an ability to politician's first function, and who was absorb and understand hard facts, and willing to use to that end the debating then to face them squarely, is one of Nix- tricks he had learned as a boy and young on's most conspicuous qualities. Nixon man. has had his ski-jump nose rubbed in a lot Nixon is still in some ways the kind of of hard facts, in the years in high office politician he was in the past. He still has, that have passed since he regarded Alger for example, the inner toughness, the in- Hiss as the chief threat to the security of stinct for the political realities, the ability this republic. And although the old lady to seize control of a political situation, which he displayed in the great fund crisis. He displayed all these qualities, in- deed, as recently as 1956, in a second great crisis in his life, which very few peo- fficiency expert: A man who ple know about. In February of that year, E just before he announced his own deci- kills two birds with one stone sion to run again, President Eisenhower and gets the stone back. called Nixon to the for a FRANCES RODMAN fatherly chat. He pointed out that no Vice President in modern history had succeeded a living President. Nixon, moreover, lacked administrative experi- in Whittier will never believe it, the evi- ence. Might it not be better for Nixon to dence is clear that Nixon has become, consider a Cabinet post—perhaps De- rather gradually, a different sort of poli- fense—rather than run again for the Vice tician—the sort of politician who regards Presidency? effective government, capable of facing The implication was clear—that the up to the facts of the national situation President was at least seriously consider- and dealing with those facts, as the best ing finding a less controversial running kind of politics in the long run. mate. Nixon was dismayed. This time, Three questions remain to be asked moreover, his wife Pat did not provide an about Nixon, each progressively more OLD SPICE SPRAY DEODORANT OLD SPICE STICK DEODORANT extra backbone; she had grown tired of difficult to answer. What are his chances NOW IN PLASTIC! the stings and poisoned arrows of poli- of being the 1960 Republican candidate tics, and in 1954 Nixon had promised her for President? If nominated, what are his that he would not run again. For weeks, chances of being elected? And if elected, Nixon was moody, depressed and un- what kind of President would he be? characteristically undecided. Among political writers, it is currently Men! The two fastest deodorants fashionable to assume that Nixon is al- Then two things happened. In a press ready as good as nominated. Unquestion- conference, the President said that the ably, he has a better chance for his party's Vice President should "chart his own nomination than any other Vice President in the world! course." And Nixon's old mentor, Mur- since Van Buren. The reasons are obvi- ray Chotiner, came under investigation ous. Nixon is a better politician, and an by a Senate committee. Thus, at least at abler and more experienced man, than The speediest spray — the quickest stick - second hand, Nixon was again under any other now visible on the Republican fire, as in the fund case. On April twenty- horizon. But circumstances change, as for safe, positive, all-day protection! sixth, Nixon took matters into his own Nixon himself is very well aware. The hands. He went to see the President, re- President, who could have, if he wished, a minded him of his press-conference state- applies and dries fast! Bellows- lot to say about the identity of the 1960 Old Spice Spray Deodorant ment, and said that he had decided to run candidate, has described himself as action plastic gives dripless spray that spreads on skin more rapidly. again, if the President agreed and the Nixon's "warm friend," and he unques- A fine anti-perspirant, too: non-irritating, non-sticky, non-staining! convention approved. The President said tionably admires the guts Nixon has dis- he was delighted by Nixon's decision, and 1.00 plus tax. played both on the domestic political Nixon promptly announced it then and scene and in such episodes as the South Old Spice Stick Deodorant is built for speed in new, unbreak- there to the White House press corps. American riots. But they are two very able plastic case! No pushing, no pulling. No foil, no fuss. Remove the After that White House announcement, different men and, especially in view of there was no way on earth to force Nixon cap and it's ready! Applies and dries faster than any roll-on, cream, certain episodes described in this report, off the ticket, as Harold Stassen and one wonders just how warm the friend- ordinary stick! 1.00 plus tax. Nixon's other enemies should have been ship really is. sensible enough to realize. It was, again, The President has angrily said that CHOOSE STICK OR SPRAY, BUT BE SURE YOU CHOOSE REAL SOCIAL SECURITY WITH... the bold move of a brilliant professional under no circumstances will he step aside politician. to make Nixon the incumbent—which Nixon will remain a bold and brilliant would of course copper-rivet Nixon's professional politician to the end of his claim to the nomination and greatly in- days. But at the same time, he is in cer- crease his chances of election. The Presi- tain importanti ways a different kind of dent has also made it clear that he will not politician from what he was eight, or six, by sHui.. -roN actively support Nixon for the nomina- PiCe or even four years ago. This is not a mat- tion. If the public-opinion polls, which ter of opinion. At least in a narrow sense, most (Continued on Page 72) THE SATURDAY EVENING POST 72 (Continued from Page 70) politicians doctrinaire right-wing Republican in do- take too seriously, continue to show mestic matters, but he was increasingly Easterner Westerner Nixon trailing the leading Democratic flexible in his second term, and in the candidates, it is not impossible that some Senate. There is nothing doctrinaire yet unnamed but glamorous nonpolitical about his conservatism now. figure, like Wendell Willkie in 1940, will It is a safe guess that, if he became emerge to challenge Nixon for the nom- President, Nixon would be a conservative ination. But it is hard to see who this only within the limits permitted by the faceless man might be, and the odds are existing economic and political situation, certainly very heavy that Nixon will be the for, besides being a conservative by in- candidate. stinct, Nixon is above all an intensely As for the election, there are of course practical man. On the issue of national too many imponderables, from the state defense, Nixon's record has been wholly of the economy to the identity of the consistent, from his first year in the Democratic candidate, to justify even a House to last year's hidden debate within wild guess. Most Democrats agree with the Administration on defense policy. Senator Jack Kennedy, currently the And one can be absolutely certain that in Democratic front runner, that Nixon will a Nixon Presidency American foreign be a very formidable candidate indeed. policy would be bold, perhaps even ad- But Nixon does have two visible political venturous; above all, active rather than weaknesses. There are still a good many passive. people who share the violent prejudices For the rest, it is not possible to predict of the old lady in Whittier, and many what effect the enormous office of the more who still have at least a small pea Presidency would have on Nixon, or of doubt about Nixon buried in their what effect Nixon would have on that minds. On this point, Nixon himself be- office. There are those—Nixon's old ad- lieves, probably quite rightly, that time versary, Dean Acheson, is one of Southerner Northerner and his own course of action will change them—who firmly believe that Nixon, in the minds of those whose minds are sub- his ambition, would pervert the great ject to change. powers of the office to his own political Nixon's second weakness as a Presiden- ends. But those who hold to this extreme tial candidate is something intangible, view are a dwindling minority. It is true but something of which he himself is very that Nixon, as he himself has said, is a well aware, as the interview accompany- "political animal." It is true that, like ing this article suggests. It is that lack of Caesar in Mark Antony's speech, he is easy human warmth, that withdrawn ambitious, and always will be. But there quality which his contemporaries felt in is a difference between a President's am- his college days, and which led many of bition and that of a lesser politician. For them to put him down as "the man least the Presidency is the pinnacle of any likely to succeed in politics." That same man's political ambition, and in that quality makes Nixon today a remote and office a man's thoughts tend to turn more impersonal figure, even to many of his ad- to the history books than to the next elec- mirers. tion. And certain qualities Nixon has dis- But the fact remains that Nixon did played as a politician—the boldness and succeed in politics, back in his college decisiveness, the sure instinct for the days, and he has been succeeding ever realities of power, the strong intelligence, since. And in times like these the lack of the cool toughness in a time of crisis— easy bonhomie may not be such a politi- would also be markedly useful in a Presi- cal weakness after all. "You've got to be dent. what you are ; you can't pretend to be An English statesman was once asked something different" is a good rule in by an American lady for his definition of politics as in life. And if 1960 is anything a great man. "A man to be reckoned like the present, that inner toughness with," he replied without hesitation. In They Travel by Air. which Nixon has so conspicuously dis- this respect at least, Richard Milhous played, coupled with a first-rate intelli- Nixon qualifies for greatness even today. gence and an instinct for seizing the initi- It remains to be seen whether this com- why don't you? ative, may prove greater assets than back- plex and interesting man, this coolly bril- slapping geniality. liant practitioner of the ancient and nec- North . . . South . . . East or West . . . wherever you live, chances Those are certainly qualities which essary political arts, will qualify in time are you're near one of 553 U.S. cities having direct airline serv- Nixon would take to the Presidency. in other ways as well. It would certainly ice. In less than a day you can fly to fascinating cities, to There are also attitudes of mind of which be interesting to see how a man so bold glamorous vacation spots and famous places . . . even to many one can be reasonably certain. Since his and able, with his instinct for the realities foreign lands. And thanks to air travel speed, you will have college days, Nixon has been an instinc- of power and his cool decisiveness in a added hours or days more time to spend at your destination. Air tive conservative, with a conservative's time of crisis, would conduct the unend- travel speed, plus comfort, dependability and overall economy respect for things as they are. In his first ing contest with those "very, very able term in the House, Nixon was a rather are some of the reasons why more than 45 million passengers men" in the Kremlin. THE END travelled on U.S. scheduled airlines last year.

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