Ike Says Goodbye

"There's not going to be any stuffy goodbye to the troops," said retiring Chief of Staff Ike Eisenhower. Accordingly, the ceremony in the Pentagon was brief. President Truman drove over from the White House. In Army Secretary Royall's unpretentious office Ike stepped forward, administered the oath of office to his friend & successor, homely, homespun General Omar Bradley. Then the President pinned a Distinguished Service Medal (his third) on Ike's chest. "I'm highly honored," said Ike. "It gives me more pleasure than you," replied Truman.

Two days earlier, at an informal lunch at Washington's Press Club, Ike had been jaunty, relaxed, full of charm and wit. He realized, he said, that "in the last two weeks I've lost whatever news value I ever had," but he wanted to talk about a few things. And, he added emphatically, all his remarks would be "on the record."

He spoke of the necessity for the Marshall Plan, of his hopes for real unification of the armed services. Did his renunciation of presidential aspirations apply to 1952? "I made no limitation on time," said Ike. What were the chances of war with Russia? "Not now, that's certain. She's not ready." What would he do before he assumed his duties as president of Columbia University? Ike laughed. His ideas were like those of General Brehon Somervell, he said: "Find a cottage with a rocking chair on the porch and sit there for six weeks or so. After that I'll begin to rock--slowly." (Actually, Ike is going to write his war memoirs.)

Reporters got up from the littered table shaking their heads in admiration. More than ever, they realized that Ike had not only renounced politics but the presidency of the U.S. as well. As they walked out the door, one newsman said what almost everyone was thinking: "What a candidate he would have made." No one disputed him.

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