The Game

Week by week, the opposition between President Eisenhower and Senator McCarthy grows sharper. It is no mere clash of personalities, nor does it arise from the sometimes squalid, sometimes ludicrous irrelevancies of the congressional hearings. It goes to the central issue: Who is going to run the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government?

When this issue was thrust into the center of the stage last week, the President got some support from the three Democratic Senators on the Mundt committee, none at all from the four members of his own party. Illinois' Dirksen, who was making mellifluous pro-Eisenhower noises a few months ago, is now revealed as McCarthy's staunch supporter on the committee: Idaho's Dworshak, who was publicly insulted by McCarthy a few weeks ago, has masticated his pride and does what Dirksen suggests; Michigan's Freshman Senator Potter seems adrift; Chairman Mundt, trying painfully to be impartial, has won himself a new name--The Tormented Mushroom.

It was none of these Republicans, but Arkansas' Democratic John McClellan who took President Eisenhower's side in last week's sharpest and most significant exchange.

Pardon Me? McCarthy Committee Counsel Roy Cohn, on the witness stand, referred to a paper written by a former Communist that, he said, led to McCarthy's investigation of the Army. "Point of order," interjected McClellan, who had never seen the paper. "I want to know if it is a committee document." Astonished, Cohn blurted: "Pardon me?" and glanced toward McCarthy. "I am asking you, not Senator McCarthy," growled McClellan. Vaguely, Cohn answered: "The document was submitted to the staff, sir, and I submitted it to the chairman."

McCarthy hurriedly called for a two-minute recess to confer with Cohn. It lasted 20 minutes. Then McClellan repeated his question. This time Cohn said: "I am sure it is [a committee document], Senator."

McClellan, furious because he had not been shown a committee document, was reminded of something else he was angry about. To McCarthy he said: "You keep talking about 133 Communists that you want to investigate, and I haven't been able to get the name of one of them yet" (although his request had been made ten days earlier).

"You will get it, period," said McCarthy. But McCarthy's "period" was really a dash: he would give the information "except in view of [McClellan's] statement . . . the other day that he would not hesitate to make known the names of informants." McClellan denied McCarthy's version of his statement, but retorted: "I do not believe you can receive information that is obtained by criminal means and hold it in your possession without the probability of you, too, being guilty of crime."

The reference was to McCarthy's assertion four weeks ago that he would not divulge the source of his bogus letter, a document that contained niched security information dressed up with phony letter-like trappings. "I think the oath [of office] towers far above any presidential secrecy directive," McCarthy told McClellan, who rejoined: "I don't know of any oath that any man took for loyalty to his country that required him to commit a crime."

Above the Law. Said McCarthy: "I would like to notify those 2,000,000 federal employees . . . that there is no loyalty to a superior officer which can tower above and beyond their loyalty to their country." If McCarthy could invite Government employees to violate statutes protecting classified information, said McClellan, "You can have no security system in America."

The next day White House Press Secretary James Hagerty issued a statement in the name of Attorney General Herbert Brownell, with the approval of President Eisenhower. Brownell's statement:

"The Executive Branch of the Government has the sole and fundamental responsibility under the Constitution for the enforcement of our laws and presidential orders. They include those to protect the security of our nation which were carefully drawn for this purpose.

"That responsibility cannot be usurped by any individual who may seek to set himself above the laws of our land or to override the orders of the President of the U.S. to Federal employees of the Executive Branch of the Government."

"Beyond Belief." McCarthy quickly answered: "I hope to remain in the Senate and see many Presidents and Attorney Generals come and go.* [Government employees are] in duty bound to give me information even though some bureaucrat may have stamped it secret."

Chairman Mundt, ever the peacemaker, tried to get on both sides of the issue between Eisenhower and McCarthy. Referring to senatorial efforts to get classified information from Federal employees, Mundt said: "If I were President Eisenhower or Brownell, I'd do everything I could to stop it. I'm down here [in Congress] and I do all I can to get [information]. That's the way you play the game."

It was obvious to some Republican Senators (not including the four on the committee) that this game would disrupt the functioning of the U.S. Government. At week's end Senate Republican Leader Knowland defended President Eisenhower's stand and called McCarthy's position "dangerous and doubtful." New Jersey's H. Alexander Smith went further. "Beyond belief" was Smith's label for McCarthy's contention that all federal employees had a duty to report to him any information that, in the employee's judgment, indicated illegality or impropriety in the Executive Branch. Smith also attacked McCarthy's refusal to give his committee's information to McClellan. "Every member of that committee," said Smith, "is entitled to all... information that the chairman is entitled to receive."

McCarthy has said that "no power on earth" will make him name his secret informants, and it would indeed be difficult to conduct an investigation of conspiracy with six Senators looking over the investigator's shoulder. But it is even more difficult to conduct the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government with McCarthy's spies looking over the shoulders of every official and employee.

* This amazing statement suggests that McCarthy is as firmly fixed in his Senate seat as Virginia's Byrd or Georgia's Russell. Such is far from the case. In the 1952 elections McCarthy ran at the very bottom of the Republican ticket in Wisconsin, getting less than 55% of the major party vote, as against 61% for Eisenhower, 62.5% for Governor Kohler, 66% for Secretary of State Zimmerman and a 61.6% average for the ten Republican candidates for Congress.

In his home state, McCarthy in 1952 was a drag on his party even before he began to smear the Republican national leadership. Recently there have been indications that McCarthy's strength in Wisconsin has dropped sharply. The Senator seems aware of that. Almost every weekend since his row with the Army began, he has hurried back to Wisconsin on spcechmaklng and fence-mending trips.

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