The Word from Washington
THE WORD FROM WASHINGTON The Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution, providing for the circumstances of presidential succession in the event of death, disability, or resignation, is not the...
...In an era of sophisticated electronic wiretapping and eavesdropping, so overt a device as a "subversive list" seems utterly superfluous...
...If, on the other hand, the removal from office of President Nixon—whether by impeachment or resignation—were to be put off until after next January 20, Ford would be eligible for two full elected terms...
...arsenal is being augmented by four weapons a day, against an estimated Soviet output of less than one a day...
...The Senators emerged from their huddle to cast a vote that could turn out to be one of the more costly and catastrophic of our time: They voted, 48 to 37, to give the Pentagon the green light to develop a more powerful and accurate "generation" of intercontinental missiles—weapons capable of mounting a first-strike attack against Soviet missiles in their underground silos...
...It is one of history's little ironies that Nixon should abolish the List...
...The Amendment goes on to state that "no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once...
...Little by little the Federal Government is dismantling the obsolete repressive machinery of yesteryear, even while it devises formidable new techniques of political surveillance and manipulation...
...The only purpose it ever served was to intimidate dissenters and hound them from their jobs...
...The World's Greatest Deliberative Body went into one of its infrequent secret sessions last month to debate the state of America's strategic arsenal...
...And so, last month, President Nixon quietly signed an executive order abolishing the twenty-seven-year-old Attorney General's List, which still contained the names of some 300 organizations deemed "totalitarian, fascist, communist, or subversive...
...The U.S...
...THE WORD FROM WASHINGTON The Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution, providing for the circumstances of presidential succession in the event of death, disability, or resignation, is not the only one being pondered in connection with President Nixon's uncertain tenure in office...
...We have been unable to establish what compelling changes since 1971 have brought about the Pentagon's —and the Senate's—change of mind...
...It served no useful purpose, of course, even before the courts held, long ago, that its maintenance violated constitutional guarantees of due process...
...Suddenly there is much interest in the Twenty-second Amendment, which stipulates that "no person shall be elected to the office of President more than twice...
...At that point, perhaps even Senator Henry Jackson will be able to sleep well—if he, or anyone else, is still around...
...Potomacus...
...Just think of it—ten more years...
...Are these the fruit of detente...
...In simplest terms, this means that if Vice President Gerald Ford were to succeed to the presidency before noon on January 20, 1975, he would be eligible to run for only one full elected term...
...In a rare resort to understatement, Attorney General William Saxbe conceded that the List "now serves no useful purpose...
...All this may seem like remote woolgathering, but it is being seriously discussed by some congressional Republicans whose ultimate decision on removing or retaining Nixon could hinge on reaching an understanding with Democrats about the departure date...
...it was established by President Truman (who seems to have become a hero to nostalgia buffs of late) at a time when such "liberals" as Senator Hubert H. Humphrey were proposing legislation to outlaw the Communist Party and prepare detention camps for its members...
...Our hasty calculations suggest that at this rate, the United States will be able to deploy some 46,000 warheads by the year 2000, and the Soviets about 12,000, give or take a few megadeaths either way...
...It was only three years ago that the Defense Department itself opposed the acquisition of such weaponry on grounds that it "might provide an incentive for the Soviets to strike first...
...Ford's deft attempts to manifest "support" for Nixon while putting a decent distance between himself and his embattled chief have reinforced the judgment of many of his congressional supporters that he would make a formidable Republican standard bearer...
...The Center for Defense Information reports that the United States now possesses 7,940 strategic nuclear warheads, as opposed to the Soviet Union's 2,600...
Vol. 38 • July 1974 • No. 7
