The Home Front:
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn Rockefeller and the Nixon Campaign THE BEST THING about democracy is that every now and then a man pops up, a Roosevelt (either one), a Churchill, a de Gaulle....
...He went straight to the top, to the President of the United States, told him he was about to make a statement about the Republican party and "told him its substance...
...The mess in Washington" would be cleaned up in no time...
...I am talking, of course, about Nelson Rockefeller...
...The exuberantly successful millionaires who supported the Republican party would quickly put the country on the way to peace and prosperity...
...He had proved, in short, that he is a real executive, that he knows how to get things done, that he doesn't stand about and complain because legislators have failed to cooperate...
...We should take a little time off to feel a little sympathy for Dwight D. Eisenhower...
...He did not say what he had to say at a $100-a-plate dinner at the Waldorf...
...Stevenson and Bowles are our top-notchers...
...He did not even want to run for the Presidency...
...He has written and spoken widely and freely about many of our great domestic and world affairs...
...Rockefeller was in the middle of his successful term as Governor of New York...
...And Eisenhower did listen...
...But no one pretends he is the Democrats' best man...
...He went down to Washington as the great hero who had commanded the armies which stormed the coasts of Europe and brought the hosts of Hitler to utter destruction...
...Governor Rockefeller concluded his declaration with this sentence: "The people want and need one thing above all others: a leadership of clear purpose, candidly proclaimed...
...The President had given him a not-too-enthusiastic commendation, hundreds of convention delegates had been tied up and the man was practically nominated...
...Operating under a similar system, the Democrats would name either Adlai Stevenson or Chester Bowles...
...There are cries of confusion and surprise...
...There will be a tremendous fuss about this Rockefeller interference with the smooth-running Republican campaign...
...But he was out of the race...
...But I am willing to bet 100 to 1 that that is not what will happen...
...He was Governor of New York...
...Now, after seven-and-a-half years in office, after having appointed scores of prosperous and successful Republicans, Eisenhower had to sit and hear what must have seemed to him the bitterest words in the dictionary, from one who had no special business to be dealing with national and international affairs...
...But that is not so much in these days...
...then, suddenly, there is an upheaval like the surfacing of a whale...
...If we lived in a country where affairs were run with even an approximation to perfection, one or the other of them would be chosen to run against Rockefeller...
...Here is a man...
...And then Rockefeller sent a message to the Republican party and to the American people...
...Nixon will run—and he will be defeated by Kennedy...
...In the face of this urgency, the Republican candidate for the Presidency refuses to reveal his program until after he has been nominated...
...He had not confided it to the party committeemen...
...He is a citizen, like anyone else...
...He made his announcement in a perfectly characteristic way...
...Oh yes, he is a multimillionaire...
...I wait with deep interest to see how the country and the Republicans reply to this challenge...
...All evil forces anywhere, even little Democratic crooks, would flee before him...
...If, in the end, he is elected President, he will lead the country much more effectively than it has been led these past two terms...
...He had stood the Republican legislature on its head and forced it to do things it did not at all want to do...
...We need a Government with a program which will call out the best in the American people...
...He is fully aware of our weaknesses and the dangers confronting us, and is prepared to meet them with effective measures...
...We are supposed to lead the democratic world but are too weak to defend ourselves...
...I am not turning against Senator John Kennedy...
...But this particular millionaire had something to say and had the nerve to believe that it was important enough for the head man of the Republic to listen to...
...Eisenhower has been smothered in millionaires and must know by this time that millions don't impart either courage or wisdom...
...The top spot was spoken for and he definitely did not want second place...
...A lot of people try to pretend nothing has happened, but it is no go: This is a new play with a new hero and a new theme...
...Everything has been going along more or less smoothly...
...He merely wanted to tell Richard Nixon how he ought to go about the business of running...
...the little men have been doing their best...
...In a nation with an effective elective system, Rockefeller would be nominated on the Republican ticket...
...Vice President Richard Nixon was proceeding quietly and smoothly...
...And he did not utilize the regular political methods...
Vol. 43 • June 1960 • No. 25
