H0170 Rls Vlooewirria 17 HAROLD NEISBERG al RT 8 FREDERiCK MD 217111

C Paz Pit m cp= ca „r a SP1R AGNEW: THE KING'S TASTER self-starter anyhow: "You don't have E'RE FOR YOU AND AG W TOO man. Now Agnew is out walking the Wread a telegram that arri ed in the point, flailing at "ideological eunuchs," to say 'Sic 'em, Ted.' " There have White House last week after the Pres- "merchants of hate," "parasites of pas- been times, says a Nixon adviser, "when ident's Viet Nam speech. In e rlier Ad- sion" and campus protesters who "take the President has cringed at Agnew's ministrations it might have se med odd their tactics from Castro and their mon- choice of words," but in general Nixon to tack on the name of the ice Pres- ey from Daddy." thinks of him as a "gutsy guy." On his of- ident of the United States, o is tra- There is, however, a fundamental dif. fice wall in the Executive Office Build- ditionally almost an official n-person ference in the reactions to the two men. ing, Agnew has hung a portrait of Nixon in Washington. Spiro Theodo Agnew, Nixon tended to enrage his opponents inscribed: "To Vice President Ted Ag- however, is turning the vice- residency and the targets of his venom; Agnew's new, who has demonstrated his character into something like an orato ical hap- thrusts are more often met by amuse- in the ultimate tests of political com- pening, raising the No. 2 1 ce to a ment or disdain. Nixon and Agnew came bat. From his friend, ." level of visibility and contr rsy UP- to the vice-presidency with very dif- During a Cabinet meeting last week. known since the days of, we , Richard ferent intellectual and educational equip- the President dished up the warmest Nixon. ment; Nixon in 1953 was a young but compliment he has yet paid Agnew. He Agnew is not merely seek ' political consummate politician with far more wanted everyone to know, said Nixon, capital in the South, nor is h s rhetoric practical savvy than Agnew brings to that he thinks the Vice President is aimed only at Moratorium marchers his job. Moreover, the present Vice Pres- doing a good job and that he likes and other opponents of the ar. Rath- ident has a dual mission that was not nec- what Agnew is saying. Further, what er, he is emerging as a ki d of im- essary in the less ambiguous days of Agnew is saying is in keeping with ■ -.AI. N.11 11111V1,915-Clili/.40 IVIt•THIC C01.1 4-4.011 ANGEL,5

"IT'S A HOUSEHOLD WO • "AFTER SPIRO WARMS THE AUDIENCE, ANYTHING I SAY SOUNDS GREAT" JUST AIM AT EFFETE SNOBS AN• SPRAY" "FOOTPRINTS"

probable mandi of Middle A erica. His Nixon's vice-presidency. His task is not what Nixon believes should be said. "Ag- often odd, occasionally clo nish locu- only to attack the President's foes but new's not just yapping when he yaps," tions, rendered in a W. C. ields sing- also to probe the body politic's mood says a White House aide. Agnew put it EpW song, are abristle with nost gias and and temper for the cautious Nixon. Says another way to a reporter three weeks assumptions of what America life ought Massachusetts' Republican Senator Ed- ago: "The President and I have an to be. Armored in the certitu es of mid- ward Brooke: "Agnew is the King's test- understanding." dle-class values, he speaks th the au- er"—sampling the public's ideological That understanding centers on the thentic voice of America who are moods. Vice President's franchise to rouse the angry and frightened by wh t has hap- "great silent majority" to verbal sup- pened to their culture, wh view the Nixon's Agent port of the Administration, specifically '60s as a disastrous montane of por- To what extent is Agnew speaking to drown out anti-war dissent. Simul- nography, crime, assaults on .atriotism. for Nixon in his choked-bore blasts taneously, Marylander Agnew is a chief flaming ghettos, marijuana an occupied against dissent? The President himself agent of the President's Southern strat- colleges. If he speaks with Ri hard Nix- is not about to acknowledge as his own egy. During the presidential campaign, on's tacit approval—and e does— every word that Agnew speaks. To do he was dispatched to help capture the Agnew does his duty glad) , bringing so would vitiate the point of the strat- Southern and Border states for the missionary zeal and a sense if• genuine egy, which is to let the Vice President G.O.P. The effort was markedly suc- moral outrage to his oratory. absorb the heat of controversy while cessful; George Wallace took Georgia, In effect, as Eugene M arthy ob- Nixon, in imitation of Eisenhower's ex- Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Ar- serves, Agnew is acting a "Nixon's ecutive mode, seems to take a loftier kansas, but Nixon and Agnew emerged Nixon." Just before the 19 congres- course. The White House has done noth- with the electoral votes of four out of sional elections, Richard ixon said: ing to censor Agnew's speeches, and five Border states, along with North "Ninety-five percent of the mmunists. does not demand to review them in ad- and South Carolina and Florida. fellow travelers, sex perve , dope ad- vance. Nor has Nixon muzzled Agnew, Now Agnew is concentrating upon dicts, drunks and other secur ty risks re- despite the outcry from the left and turning the Deep South into a Re- moved under the Eisenhow r security even from some fellow Republicans. publican enclave. Of the 25 political program" were hired under arry Tru- Agnew, says an aide, is pretty much a speeches he has delivered since the In-

TIME, NOVEMBER 14, 1969 17 auguration, nine were made in the ly tough vocabulary. M.I.T.'s Noam otism these days,' you get an idea how South. it is also significant that It was Chomsky, a prominent antiwar critic, wide the gap is," Another California in the South—in New Orleans and Jack- has a habit of making slightly hyster- pollster, Don Muchmore, agrees: "What son, Miss.—that Agnew detonated his ical comparisons between the U.S. today Agnew is telling the public is precisely biggest rhetorical hangatores to date. and Hitler's Germany, For months, pro- what the man in the middle has been say- "He came through like Gangbusters," testers have chanted: "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi ing to his neighbor for the last six says Louisiana's G.O.P. State Chairman Minh/Viet Cong is gonna winl" Ear- months. What Agnew is saying isn't Charles De Gravelles. "If you'd run a lier. the chorus was "Hey. hey, L.B.J./ new; what's new is that the Vice Pres- poll. he'd get 98%: support." In Jack- How many kids did you kill today?" In ident of the U.S. is saying it." son, Agnew told fellow Republicans at adopting equally simplistic phrases, Ag- How resonant is the note that Ag- a $100-a-plate fundraising dinner: ''The new contributes to a sort of verbal to- new is striking? "People in the New principles of most of the people of Mis- talism. And, of course, there is the York/Washington axis read their Times sissippi are the principles of the Re- difference that the protesters are not and Washington Post every morning, publican Party. South Carolina's Judge highly placed officials who publicly rep- and what they say is critical," says a Clement Haynsworth is not guilty of resent the U.S. Government. White House adviser. "But when you any impropriety. unless that impropriety get out into the country, the feeling is his place of birth and residence." The Gut Chord changes." Liberals—including many ed- For too long, the Vice President added. Agnew's canon is a pastiche of Ron- itorial writers and columnists—mock the South has been "the punching bag ald Reagan, Norman Vincent Peale and Agnew. Even the White House staff is di- for those who characterize themselves American home truths. "Parental dis- vided between those who regard the as liberal intellectuals." cipline is the gateway to knowledge," Vice President as "hopeless" and those Speaking in New Orleans of the Oct. he has said. "The family alone can pro- who think him "educable." A moderate 15 Moratorium. Agnew delivered his vide the bedrock security of the soul." Republican Senator said recently: "The most notable line of the season, one Stressing the need for civil order in an- man's a laughing stock, even among that instantly became part of American other speech, he asked: "Do 'we the peo- other Republicans. When I speak to a political history: "A spirit of national ple' enjoy uproar? Obviously. the an- Republican group, I don't have to tell masochism prevails, encouraged by an swer is no. Civil rights are balanced by a joke to get a laugh, I just say 'Spiro effete corps of impudent snobs who char- civil responsibilities. People cannot live Agnew.'" acterize themselves as intellectuals." The in a state of perpetual electric shock." Yet in many parts of the nation. Ag- line sounds like Gebrge Wallace armed One of the Vice President's favorite new's voice is vox populi. Barry Gold- with Rogers, but Agnew is no George words is "Establishment." "It is time," water allowed last week that Agnew's Wallace, despite their common streak he has urged, "for the Establishment of attacks on the peace movement leaders of anti-intellectualism. The Vice Pres- this country—governmental, education- express "the sentiment of the vast, over- ident is neither a racist nor a dem- al, industrial. religious—to revitalize whelming majority of the American peo- agogue and, curiously enough, he seems themselves, to he proud that they are in- ple." He even suggested that Agnew little driven by political ambition. Says tegral and vital components of the great- might find himself being touted for the Carl Paolozzi, an aluminum-plant su- est nation this world has ever produced. White House before his time. Says Fred pervisor in Southern California, "Wal- 1 am not ready to run up a white flag Nemeth, a printer in Phoenix, Ariz.: lace is an extremist just like those guys for the United States of America." "We all want this war to end, but we on trial in Chicago. Wallace is against "Make no mistake about it." says Cal- don't like to see those demonstrators in our system of government; Agnew is try- ifornia Pollster Mervin Field. "Agnew the streets. No matter how much we dis- ing to preserve it." is strumming a real gut chord. The agree with each other, we don't like to In many ways, Agnew means simply issue is much more than Viet Nam. see this country ridiculed and torn down, to fight fire with are, to counter the ex- When the President of the U.S. has to and we think Agnew's tight." Arizona treme "Up Against the Wall" rhetoric say in his speech, 'I know that it may Boxing Manager Al Fenn adds om- of the American left with his own equal- not be fashionable to speak of patri- inously: "I can't help but feel there's going to be a revolt against the pro- 1.119 testers in time, and it's not going to be I a silent majority any longer. Instead, • it's going to be an outspoken majority." Questions of Style Even those who agree with Agnew's views frequently find it difficult to take him very seriously as a leader—and many Americans wince at the thought that he might be thrust abruptly into the presidency. Says Ray Caponigro, a Chicago pressman: "I think its good he's corning down on those hippies, but I wouldn't like him as President. He's too temperamental." A Houston house- wife, Mrs. R. W. Hirsch, places herself squarely in Middle America, but Ag- new makes her nervous. "While the man is definitely honest in his opin- ions, he is anything but tactful," she says. Jake Johnson, a garage owner in At- lanta, applauds Agnew for "speaking his mind." But to the thought of Ag- new in the White House, he says, "Not yet." A reaction that is common among many other Americans: a you-can't-be- AGNEW AMONG CROWD AT COLTS FOOTBALL GAME serious grin. The Vice President's campaign bi- Improbable mandi of Middle Americo. ography, a 116-page document called

13 TIME, NOVEMBER 14, 1969 The President Giveth and Taketh Away

Probably no one is better able to testify to the frus- did anything to upstage Ken- trating. mostly unrewarding burden of the vice presi- nedy. So Johnson decreed dency than Hubert Humphrey, who served the most de- that no reporters would be manding—some would say tyrannical—President of mod- allowed to accompany me ern times. Lyndon Johnson. In a relaxed interview last week in my travels around the with Tim Correspondent Leo Janos. Humphrey, now country. Sometimes before teaching at the University of Minnesota and Macalester Cabinet meetings, Johnson College, explained his seeming subservience to L.B.J. and would ask me to give some offered some insights into 's behavior: member particular hell. For one reason or another, he TS like being naked in the middle of a blizzard with did not want to do the job I no one to even offer you a match to keep you warm himself. —that's the vice presidency. You are trapped, vulnerable The first year in office I and alone, and it does not matter who happens to be Pres- spent most of my time on ident Anyone who thinks that the Vice President can Capitol Hill pushing the take a position independent of the President or his Ad- Great Society programs. EX-VICE PRESIDENT HUMPHREY ministration simply has no knowledge of politics or gov- Damn it, I was good at it, ernment. You are his choice in a political marriage, and and my office was a popular spot with the Democrats. he expects your absolute loyalty. So the Democratic leadership got a wee bit jealous, and The public is often misled about what the Vice Pres- I was told to close down my Capitol Hill office. The Pres- ident can or cannot do. Friends used to complain: "Hu- ident giveth and he taketh away. My role in helping to bert, what's got into you? Why are you talking this way get this legislation passed has never been made public. about Viet Nam?" What could I say? Absolutely noth- And that's another of the Vice President's frustrations —the President gets the credit. ing. Why. could you imaeine what would happen to a • Vice President who publicly repudiated his Adminis- tration? Man, that's political suicide. Before the nomi- The American people expect the Vice President to be nation, I told Johnson that I would express my views fully capable of taking over the presidency. They don't privately, but once a decision was made—that was it. want a Throttlebottom in the job. But you can't make pol- For better or worse, I was a loyal Vice President icy or propose new solutions—so what is left to talk • about? Pretty soon you're sounding like the Administration I think it's tougher to serve under a President who him- cheerleader, and the public ridicule sets in. I became pret- came up with a really innovative idea self has been a Vice President. Johnson prided himself ty disgusted, so I on total loyalty to Jack Kennedy, so he stressed the loy- in a speech for creating a Marshall Plan for the cities. The public response was overwhelmingly favorable, but alty aspect with me. Now, Nixon served Eisenhower as the bare-knuckle fighter playing the role of a contro- in the White House it was something else. The day of versial partisan. That seems to be Agnew's role—and my speech, the Administration announced budget cuts in don't think that he's not acting under orders. A Pres- several urban programs. ident who has been a Vice President knows all the tricks You know, the operational budget for the Vice Pres- about how to manipulate his number-two man. That was ident does not come out of Executive Department funds. true of Johnson; I'm sure that it's true of Nixon, and it It's part of the congressional budget—you're literally might even have been true of me had I made it. paid as President Pro Tem of the Senate. That tells a Some examples? Well, Johnson made sure he never great deal about the nature of the office, doesn't it?

"Civil disobedience," he says, "leads in- Where He Stands: The Life and Con- cerous technocracy, Agnew's audiences victions of Spiro T. Agnew, records are suggestible to his appeals to a "Love evitably to riots, and riots condoned that as a boy in Baltimore, he used to It or Leave It" America. In Harrisburg, lead inevitably to revolution." Agnew's delight in locker-room bon- help his Greek-born father prepare talks Pa., two weeks ago, Agnew attacked before local groups. "While the Gov- the more militant dissidents as "vultures" homie also leads him astray. Last week, ernor's best subject was English," writes and declared: "We can afford to sep- for example. Agnew attended a black- Author Ann Pinchot, "this is how he arate them from our society with no tie stag dinner at the White House for Prince Philip. With remarks from the learned to perfect and polish the el- more regret than we should feel over dis- oquence and clarity for which he is carding rotten apples from a barrel." diplomatic Deans—Acheson and Rusk now known." Alas, it is precisely his What did he mean by separation? Ex- —the evening proceeded with a certain prose style that frightens off so many, in- pulsion? Concentration camps? urbanity. Then the Vice President rose to propose a toast to the guest of hon- cluding some who are sympathetic to Black and White his basic message. Columnist William or. Some people. Agnew began, found F. Buckley Jr., while concurring in Ag- Other times, the sayings of Spiro are his manner of speech alarming, but there new's description of an "effete corps of merely camp—howling violations of po- was no need to worry about that now: "All of you with tightened sinews and impudent snobs," felt impelled to de- litical politesse. "If you've seen one liver an explication de texte: "The rhe- slum," he declared during the campaign, constricted sphincters can relax." A dis- torical arrangement is extremely un- "you've seen them all." The odd thing tinct chill settled on the room. One satisfactory," wrote Buckley. "The word is that the line makes a certain cock- White House adviser slowly dropped 'snob' should rarely be preceded by an eyed sense: there is a miserable mo- his head to the table and cupped both adjective. An 'effete corps' has its stress- notony about urban slums. If Agnew hands over his ears. es wrong, which is itself distracting." had made the point with any sensitivity, Agnew personally is a talkative, gre- There are more serious criticisms. Ag- the effect would have been the opposite garious and kindly man, but he keeps of the one he achieved. slipping unwittingly into crudity. As new delivers a sort of .45-cal. prose Sun's —heavy, highly charged, often inaccu- A strong tendency to verbal excess re- when he branded the Baltimore rate and dangerous. If students and lib- flects the essential Agnew. He sees things Gene Oishi "the fat Jap" during the cam- erals are disposed to an apocalyptic in black and white, and has an ab- paign. Or when he told a Chicago press vision of America as a runaway, can- solute passion for oversimplification. conference: "When I am moving in a 19 TIME, NOVEMBER 14, 1969

crowd, I don't look and say, 'There's a Agnew witnesses the decision-making Negro, there's a Greek, there's a Po- in such areas as Viet Nam or the ABM, lack.'" Or when his aide. C. D. Ward. but he does not really participate. Asked barreled through a glass door at San Cle- to name a major contribution the Vice mente and ended up with permanent fa- President has made to policy, a White cial scars; for fun, Agnew started call- House adviser modified Ike's reply re- ing him "Wolfgang." garding Nixon: "If you give me ten min- The counterbombardments that his utes. I might think of something." Ei- speeches have triggered have left Ag- senhower said that he wnuld need a new baffled and somewhat defensive. week, and Agnew could thus be con- He now limits most of his interviews sidered a considerable improvement. to sympathetic publications, such as U.S. Nonetheless, the Vice President has com- News & World Report, or to columnists plained to friends that he feels like like Holmes Alexander. It is not only art errand boy. Says one of his aides: the criticism that is troubling Agnew. "He misses the authority of a top ex- His friends describe him as "unhappy, ANTI-AGNEW SUTTON ecutive. When he was Governor of disappointed and frustrated" by the job Maryland, he had full control of his of Vice President. Vice Presidents in the decision-making schedule." Now his weekends and eve- Occasionally in recent months he has processes. But quite often the respon- nings as well as his days are at the dis- gone on campaigns of self-depreciating sibilities are simply chores that the Pres- posal of the President. Although he humor that debunk the nature of his of- ident wishes to avoid. Nixon wants dislikes parties, he attends about four fice—usually with the aid of Paul Keyes, Agnew on the political line, giving them receptions a week, for foreign visitors, a former writer and co-producer for hell. He also wants Agnew to handle for example, or party leaders. Lough-ln. Two weeks ago at a meeting such ceremonial chores as Boy Scout Senate Failure of the American Bakers Association, awards, embassy breakfasts and Medal Agnew excused himself by remarking: of Honor presentations. The first Vice President in 24 years "The President needs me at the White Agnew's only constitutionally mandat- with no Senate experience, Agnew has House. It's autumn, you know, and the ed job is presiding over the Senate, but not had an easy time on the Hill. In leaves need raking." Earlier, at a Grid- his highly fragmented duties include the early months after the Inauguration. iron Club dinner, he described the joys heading the Space Council, the Presi- he conscientiously courted Senators, at- of the vice-presidency. "I have my own dent's Council on Youth Opportunity, tending each noon's opening of business, plane—Air Force 13. It's a glider." the Office of Intergovernmental Re- presiding in the chair to learn par- lations and the National Council on In- liamentary procedures and school him- The Awful Office dian Opportunity. White House business self in Senate ways. He lunched with As every Vice President since John occupies up to 15 hours of his week members in the Senators' dining room. Adams has known, the nation's second —meetings of the National Security Most important, he flattered Senators highest office is a dispiriting post only Council, the Cabinet, the Urban Af- by his deference, thereby convincing slightly preferable to a rural postmas- fairs Council, the Environmental Quality them of his wit and discernment. He tership (see box preceding page). "The Council, plus a weekly gathering of worked so hard at his homework dur- Vice President of the United States." the Republican congressional leadership. ing those first months that he burst a said Thomas R. Marshall, Vice President The Vice President is most influential blood vessel in his eye. under Woodrow Wilson, "is like a man with the President in dealing with state Last summer, however, perhaps feel- in a cataleptic state: he cannot speak; and local governments. Specifically as- ing overly buoyant about his good na- he cannot move; he suffers no pain: signed to coordinate the three levels of tional press, Agnew began lobbying and yet he is perfectly conscious of ev- government, Agnew has established ex- clumsily for Administration programs. erything that is going on about him." cellent communications with the Gov- He started with the ABM, buttonholing Agnew on the subject: "It's a sort of an- ernors, although many mayors are un- members on the Senate floor, then re- cillary job where you're not in the main- happy with his efforts to channel fed- peated the mistake in an attempt to get stream of anything. The job itself cre- eral funds to cities through the states. the income-tax surcharge extended for ates some sort of debility." Still, Nixon listens to Agnew on do- a year. As a wheeler-dealer, he failed in- Beginning with Eisenhower, Presi- mestic matters; the Vice President has gloriously and provoked a curt civics les- dents have tried to activate the office traveled 77,091 miles in the U.S. since son from Majority Leader Mike Mans- by adding responsibilities to involve their January, observing at each stop. field: "A Vice President should not in- terfere in Senate affairs regardless of his party. He is not a member of the Sen- ate. He's a half-creature of the Senate and a half-creature of the executive." In recent weeks, perhaps as a result, Agnew has displayed little interest in the Senate. The pattern worries some Republicans, since it has occurred be- SPIRO AGNEW- fore: Agnew has a tendency to give up and turn away when rebuffed. "An ounce of wit lti worth Li-Fe Styles pOund of sorrow," He is defensive about the press. "Now it seems to be fashionable to make out Agnew to be some kind of goof," he tells friends. "I don't think I'm a brain. I've got an I.Q. of about 135 when it was last tested. I think that's pretty fair." He has been known to remark un- happily: "I'm still fighting the idea of being a rather ill-equipped, fumbling, ob- AS SENIOR IN HIGH SCHOOL YEARBOOK (1937) tuse kind of person." And on IQ of 135 when last tested. For all the limited opportunities of

20 TIME, NOVEMBER 14, 1969 the vice-presidency, Agnew, at 51, has ington's Sheraton Park Hotel. The cap- family lawyer who presides over the displayed small capacity for develop- ital has transformed the family's do- Agnew family assets of some $100,000. ment. Ten years ago, he was president mestic life, which in years past con- Although his weekends are always sub- of the P.T.A. in Loch Raven village sisted largely of lawn sprinklers, pizza, ject to interruptions, Agnew has man- near Baltimore. Five years ago, he was pingpong in the basement rec room, aged to trim off 15 lbs. by playing the Baltimore county executive, presid- Sunday afternoons watching the Bal- tennis, often with G.O.P. National Chair- ing over a horseshoe-shaped suburban timore Colts on color television. As Gov- man Rogers Morton or Postmaster Gen- community that knew little of the ur- ernor, Agnew could even have the Colts eral Winton Blount. One thing that ban agonies on which he is now sup- over for dinner from time to time. Agnew has not sacrificed is his pro foot- posedly an Administration expert. Now the Vice President's schedule be- ball: this season he has made it to five Today, as Vice President, he retains his gins about 7:30 a.m. with breakfast and Colts games, usually ducking into the earlier prejudices. keeps him shuttling between White locker room before kickoff to wish the The Agnew life style has changed con- House, Executive Office Building and team luck. siderably, however. Last January the Ag- Capitol until 7 p.m.—or much later if Agnew's wife Judy, who admits that news moved from the handsome 54- there is an official reception to attend. "every once in awhile I think to my- room Governor's mansion in Annapolis He still sees his Maryland friends of- self, what am I doing here," must also to a nine-room apartment in Wash- ten, especially George White Jr., the sacrifice considerable domestic time ("I

Spiro, Won't You Please Come Home?

Whatever detractors the Vice President may have in His new-found fame by association with the American the U.S., there is a tiny corner of the earth where Spiro Vice President has also brought some disappointment. An- Agnew can do no wrong—the Greek town of Gar- dreas, who owns the town's hardware store, was invited galiani, Agnew's father emigrated from there to America to attend the National Hardware Show in New York 72 years ago, changing his name from Anagnostopoulos City. It was an exciting prospect, but once the all-expenses- and becoming a U.S. citizen. As a first-generation native paid invitation was offered, there was suddenly no fur- American, Spiro never spoke his father's native tongue ther word from any of his prospective hosts in America, (his mother was American) and is more attuned to Law- and he did not go. rence Welk than to the bouzouki. But in Gargaliani, Andreas' son Democritas, whose short hair and well- blood, not tongue, is what matters: the Vice President is re- pressed neatness would certain- vered as a local boy who made good. TIME Corre- ly appeal to Agnew, has been spondent Bonnie Angelo visited Gargaliani and filed this deeply affected by his cousin's report: fame. "Now he has a name," sS4 says his father, "a dream to HE Vice President's ancestral village lies eight hours live up to." Democritas is a T away from Athens over a narrow, bumpy country high school senior and has am- road. It sits in the sunshine on the western slopes of the bitions to be an accountant. Greek division of Peloponnesus, six hairpin curves above He hopes to win the $1,000 the ink blue Ionian Sea, an immaculate whitewash of stuc- scholarship that Agnew estab- co structures with red tile roofs. lished in his grandfather's mem- To the 7.600 residents of Gargaliani, Spiro Agnew is ory for the youth of Gargaliani. one of their own. His portrait hangs in a place of honor • in the town hall, larger than that of Greece's Prime Min- Among the town's hierarchy, ister or of the exiled King Constantine. Acting Mayor Nich- few rank higher than 85-year- olas Horaites produces with a flourish copies of con- old Andrew Chyrsikos, another gratulatory notes sent by the town council to Agnew of Spiro's cousins. He is what —each cable misspelling his name in a different way. the Greeks call a "Beenamer- ican," meaning that he lived In the town square, men gather beneath plane trees to in America and returned home sip retsina. a resin-flavored wine. They see a photog- again. He sailed away, in fact, rapher and nod knowingly to each other: "Spiro." At the with Spiro's father, and they corner of Aristotle and Socrates streets stands is house shared a room in Schenectady, built some 200 years ago by an earlier Anagnostopoulos. N.Y., before Theodore Anag- Spiro's cousin, Andreas, a quiet, naturally dignified man, nostopoulos moved to Balti- lives on the second floor with his family. more. Now, sunning himself Andreas recalls that "Spiro's grandfather was rich by outside the town library. Chyr- Gargaliani standards." He was a notary public, which car- sikos likes to one-up Andreas ried legal duties and status in 19th century Greece. "But by boasting that his sons in during the Balkan Wars of 1912-13," recalls Andreas, America have visited with Ag- "there was a financial crisis." Without a trace of self- new—and even had their pic- pity, Andreas explains that "though the family was finan- tures taken with President cially broken, our pride and honor kept us from making Nixon. crooked deals. Therefore we are poor." Of course, the most pressing A few pieces of furniture from the grandfather re- question in Gargaliani—other main in the house, which is kept spotless by Andreas' than the outcome of the olive harvest—is when Spiro wife. She is a perfect Greek counterpart of Judy Agnew will come home. He has promised in letters to Andreas —bright, outgoing, hospitable, gay. As the man who re- to visit the town, but the townspeople are beginning to won- vived the family ties by writing to Agnew, Andreas has der, in the shrewd fashion of peasants, why he waits so become the spokesman for the Anagnostopoulos family. long. The delicacies of international politics that must con- "We have become known figures." says Andreas proudly. cern their American cousin—the presence of a military "I receive letters from Greeks living in Paris, Venezuela, junta in Athens. the absence of a constitutional Parliament Australia, who are pleased that a Greek was elected to —are not easily explained to the good people of sunny such a high office." Gargaliani,

TIME, NOVEMBER 14, 1969 21 majored in marriage") for such chores in the next three years. It seems clear Among those who are to gather this as entertaining the wives of foreign vis- that Nixon did not select Agnew be-. week at the cape to watch the blast-off itors or chamber of commerce officials. cause he thought him the one man best is Richard Nixon, who will be the first Judy Agnew has two bouseboys and a qualified to succeed him in the pres- President to witness a launching, It will live-in housekeeper, Mrs. Ann Leer, who idency. Agnew's value to Nixon is as a be Nixon's second space first as Pres- used to manage the Governor's mansion front man, mixing with and speaking ident. In July, he was aboard the car- at Annapolis. But the Agnews do not en- to the public as the President cannot. rier Hornet to welcome back the Apol- tertain often at their own quarters, which As such, he is doing his job, playing lo 11 astronauts. can accommodate a parry of only 20 the Middle American calliope, trying The scheduled flight of Apollo 12 is or 25. For larger groups, they use the to get a grip on what is happening to no less complex or hazardous than the State Department reception rooms his society. earlier moon shots. This attempt will in- downtown. At root Spiro T. Agnew is, like so clude a number of dangerous innova- many of the people he speaks to and tions. The trickiest is a free-flying ap- Parental Discipline for, a political innocent of fundamentally proach to the moon that, if it is marred Two of the four Agnew children still decent impulses, a "normal" American by an engine malfunction, could send live at home—Kim, 13, and Susan, 22. in the old sense who is grappling with the spacecraft into a deadly sun orbit. Susan is now dating Maryland State the puzzlements of what may be sim- Lonely Day. If the flight goes accord- Trooper Colin Macindoe, an old friend ply an evil time. That, of course, is ing to plan, the all-Navy crew will ride from Annapolis. The Agnews were al- part of his appeal, but it is also his the nautically named Yankee Clipper ways close to the state police, who curse in the television age, when every into moon orbit after 83 hours in space. were assigned to guard the Maryland malapropism and mistake by a public Then Skipper Charles ("Pete") Conrad, Governor's mansion. One of the first din- man is caught and magnified. It is clear 39, and Space Rookie Alan Bean, 37, ner parties that the Vice President held that Agnew is not comfortable in the will board the module Intrepid for their in Washington was for the state troop- stratosphere of Washington's sophisti- trip to the moon's surface, While his ers from the old palace guard. Noble cated politics. As his wife Judy ob- fellow astronauts explore the Sea of o Collison, a state cop with whom Judy serves, perhaps with a touch of wist- Storms 69 miles below, Gemini Veteran Agnew used to play pool in the Gov- fulness: "He is a very good lawyer. He Richard F. Gordon Jr., 40, will spend a ernor's mansion, has joined Agnew's can always go back to practicing law." lonely day and a half in orbit. Washington staff. During their 32-hour moon visit, Con- There is something akin to touching SPACE rad and Bean will take two walks, each poetic justice in Agnew's parental trou- lasting about four hours. Back on earth, bles with his daughter Kim, who would Off to the Moon Again television viewers will see all this in be a handful for any father of the In a bow to exploratory tradition, color. Following the advice of the Apol- Ozzie Nelson school. Kim, who has the Apollo 11 astronauts planted the lo 11 crew, the two astronauts will per- been known to experiment with mar- American flag on the moon during their form their own moon dance to get the ijuana, wanted to wear a black arm- epic visit last July. The Apollo 12 as- feel of one-sixth gravity. Then they will band for Moratorium day last month. tronauts, who are due to lift off this go about collecting rocks and carrying Agnew said no and twice went through week, will do the same. The gesture out a series of sophisticated experiments. a laborious historical explanation of the will soon become more than a matter One of the astronauts will be lowered Geneva Accord and American involve- of tradition. Last week, when the Sen- into a crater by his teammate to look ment in the war. Kim shrugged: "All ate approved the $3.7 billion space au- around and to gather samples. right, but why not just get out of there?" thorization bill for 1970, congressional After the crew returns to the mother Finally, Agnew invoked parental pre- chauvinists had the final word. The bill ship, the moon module Intrepid will be rogative and forbade her to demonstrate. orders U.S. astronauts to raise the flag sent hurtling back to the moon's sur- "They need authority at some point," as one of their initial acts on reaching face, and the Yankee Clipper will be- he said, "and when they don't get it, firma beyond terra. gin the return lap of its ten-day trip. they're unhappy." UPI The Agnews and the Nixons maintain a formal, distant relationship. They meet at receptions, but have never entertained one another exclusively. and Judy Agnew exchange surface gossip about their children or their schedules. Dick and Ted meet in conference; Ag- new has rarely sought out the Pres- ident for a private audience. Their re- lationship is businesslike—but then so are nearly all Nixon's relationships. Thus Agnew's life has divided like that of a closet poet or weekend preach- er. His office hours are occupied with rustling in a midden of executive trivia. But when he takes to the lectern, he is transformed into what might be a car- toon character called "Suburbanman." The combination doesn't really work very well for the Vice President. Says a good friend: "He is not happy. An am- bitious man would eat it up, but he is not an ambitious man." There has been talk that Nixon might drop Agnew as his running mate in 1972, although such a move would be out of character for the President. Ul- timately, that question will depend main- APOLLO 12'S CONRAD, GORDON & BEAN ly upon Agnew's usefulness to Nixon This time a free-flying approach and a crater walk,

22 TIME, NOVEMBER 14, 1969