A Quiet Book Honks Some Political Horns

THE ADMINISTRATION'S PRIVATE LIFE

THE year was 1953, Dwight Eisenhower's first--and un-happiest--in office. At the heart of Ike's troubles were the many Republican Congressmen who, unable to accept responsibility after their long political exile, spent most of their time trying to thwart the Republican Administration. At a Cabinet meeting on May 22, Defense Secretary Charles Wilson said he wished more Republican legislators would realize that they were no longer members of the opposition. Replied the President: "Brother, I heartily agree." When Treasury Secretary George Humphrey, at that meeting, cautioned that the national debt might go above the legal limit, Ike asked: "Who will have to go to jail if that happens?" Replied Humphrey: "We will have to go to Congress." Groaned the President: "Oh, that's worse."

This remarkable episode in the history of Ike's party problems is part of a remarkable book* by the New York Herald Tribune's veteran White House Correspondent Robert Donovan, which became public this week. Tapped by the Administration to write its first history, Newsman Donovan had free access (see PRESS) to superprivate (but nonclassified) papers. Donovan's product, although it deals principally with the unsensational, everyday affairs of state, type-sets both the headlines and the footnotes of the Eisenhower Administration, and is certain to start political horns honking across the U.S.

So disgusted did the President become with the Republican majority in Congress in 1953, says Donovan, that he gave serious thought to forming a third party, consulted intimate friends about it, and even tried to think of a name (he never decided on one, but from his attempts he derived such phrases as "progressive moderates" and "dynamic conservatism"). Finally, Ike, newcomer to politics, realized the two-party system was best for the U.S., and unceasingly turned his energies toward remodeling the Republican Party.

WANTED: BLUE PENCILS

From the outset of his Administration, President Eisenhower made it clear that he did not want yes men in his Cabinet. Before he took office, he met with his Cabinet members-designate in Manhattan's Commodore Hotel and read to them a draft of his inaugural speech. When they applauded (cried Charlie Wilson: "You flew the flag! It was wonderful!), Ike said: "I read it far more for your blue pencils than I did for your applause."

But however much he valued their views, General Eisenhower was no man to let his Cabinet dictate to him. Once, while arguing with Wilson over increased trade with Iron Curtain countries, Ike said: "If you trade with them, Charlie, you have got something pulling their interest your way." Replied Wilson: "I think I am going to be on the tough side of this one." Said Ike patiently but firmly: "Charlie, I am talking common sense." And the Administration's general policy has been toward increased, although selective, East-West trade--with Wilson going right along.

On May 13, 1955, President Eisenhower told his Cabinet that a balanced budget was his great objective. If he achieved that goal, he said, he would consider his task in the White House largely accomplished. In the fiscal year just ending--based on the third budget prepared by the Eisenhower Administration--the U.S. budget has a surplus of $1.8 billion.

A-BOMBS ON BRICKERITES?

Entering the White House, Ike felt sure he could quickly smooth out presidential relationships with Congress. It was not that easy: in 1953 came the thoughts of a third party--and the conflicts with congressional diehards continued in 1954. At a Cabinet meeting, when the furor over Republican Senator John Bricker's proposed amendment (to limit the President's treatymaking power) was at its raucous height. Civil Service Commissioner Philip Young facetiously suggested that perhaps a few A-bombs "could be used now to good effect." Says Donovan: "The President took him to task for this. He said sharply that he did not wish to hear any talk of a 'Pride's Purge.' "* Through patience and persuasion (along with, on at least one occasion, a threat to take his case to the U.S. public), President Eisenhower managed considerable improvements in his relationships with Congress. Despite John Bricker and Joe McCarthy (of whom Ike, when urged to attack McCarthy publicly, snapped: "I will not get in the gutter with that guy"), Congress approved most of Ike's massive legislative program in 1954. In 1955 Congress was Democratic--and the Eisenhower program again met with a large measure of success. Then came the September night in Denver when Mamie Eisenhower called Dr. Howard McCrum Snyder to her husband's bedside.

IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT

"Snyder," writes Donovan, "listened to Eisenhower's chest with a stethoscope and took his pulse and tested his blood pressure . . . It took only two or three minutes for Snyder to come to the grave conclusion that the President of the U.S. was suffering from a coronary thrombosis." Snyder immediately began specific treatment for a coronary.

The doctor, says Author Donovan, did not tell Ike of his diagnosis, but "the President knew he was very ill . . . To avert shock to Mrs. Eisenhower, who has long suffered from valvular heart disease herself, Snyder sent her back to bed without telling her the President's true condition. Also, he put aside the idea of a public announcement because he feared that it would cause great excitement which inevitably would permeate the Doud house and might possibly kill the President. Sitting alone in the dead of night with his slumbering patient, therefore, Howard Snyder was the only man in the world who knew that the President was stricken with a damaged heart."

Twelve hours elapsed before old (75) General Snyder told Acting Press Secretary Murray Snyder that the President had suffered a coronary. After that, says Donovan, the U.S. public was kept informed of the President's condition with "thoroughness and candor."

AN EXTRAORDINARY MEETING

In the weeks after his heart attack, Dwight Eisenhower had not the slightest notion that he would be able to run again for President. But even as he lay in his Denver hospital bed, his thoughts kept turning to problems of Government. "Look," confided Dr. Paul Dudley White to Press Secretary James Hagerty, "he's not so much of an invalid as he is the President of the U.S. lying in there. He wants to do his job." As Ike continued to recover, the question of re-election grew apace until, by the night of Friday, Jan. 13, 1956, it was topic A in the land.

That night an extraordinary White House conference took place. Present were Ike and such close associates as John Foster Dulles, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., Sherman Adams, George Humphrey, Arthur Summerfield, Jim Hagerty and Dr. Milton Eisenhower. The session was originally set for three days earlier, but was canceled when word of it leaked out. This time the President went to such pains to preserve secrecy that he personally brought over the place cards for dinner.

After dinner, the President asked each of his guests to state arguments for or against his running for reelection. Dulles said that the President had a God-given ability for reconciling differences among men and nations, and, if his health permitted, should go on directing this talent against the possibility of a nuclear war. Lodge emphasized the President's importance at home, praising Ike's work in healing divisions among the American people. Summerfield said that the President's work in remodeling the Republican Party was unfinished.

TEMPTING YEARS

Last came Milton Eisenhower. He was asked to sum up all the arguments both pro and con (none of the others had offered any opinions against Ike's running). Writes Donovan: "One of the most telling points he made in favor of a second term was that if Eisenhower was to work effectively for peace, it would have to be from the White House, not from retirement . . . Dr. Eisenhower marshaled forcefully the arguments against running. His brother had already spent more than 40 years in public service. Four more years in the presidency would be a great burden. These were years Eisenhower might enjoy with his family, doing the things he had long wanted to do--reading, writing, playing, traveling extensively and using his influence as a distinguished private citizen for peace.

"In the President's mind, obviously, the arguments for outweighed the arguments against. While he did not say so that night, his guests seemed to sense it."

From that night on, the chances of Ike's running again moved steadily toward certainty. The men who attended the crucial dinner session recall that the President seemed most impressed by the argument that he should continue to work against war. Newsman Donovan finished his book before Ike's recent intestinal surgery. But his account of President Eisenhower's earlier decision puts the question currently facing the President in pertinent terms: Is there any reason to suppose Dwight Eisenhower will let his "big bellyache" interfere with his efforts to achieve world peace--from the White House?

*Eisenhower: The Inside Story (Harper; $4-95).-- On Dec. 6, 1648, when the House of Commons was to vote on bringing Charles I to trial, Colonel Thomas Pride, a Roundhead officer, posted his regiment outside Commons. Using a previously prepared purge list, Pride excluded M.P.s who were expected to vote with the King. Asked his authority, he pointed to his men with their muskets.

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