WHAT THE PLATFORM SAYS

As carefully and deliberately as an architect planning a skyscraper, the Republican Convention drew its 1964 platform design to the political and philosophical specifications of Barry Goldwater.

The Platform Committee was chaired by Wisconsin's Representative Melvin Laird, himself an unannounced Goldwater backer. It struck out against costly, deficit-creating federal paternalism in a way that went well beyond the 1960 Republican platform. It approved a platform of conservatism in the word's dictionary sense, promising tightfisted fiscal policy, deploring pervasive federal influence, and urging local action to deal with local problems. Foreign-policy planks have a distinctive hard-line look about them, promising staunch stands against Communist threats, expressing general skepticism of the idea that the Soviet Union has relaxed in any way in its ideological aim of worldwide Communist dominance, insisting on much harder bargains with the U.S.S.R. as the price of any East-West "accommodation." Principal planks:

GOVERNMENT SPENDING. Charging that Democrats have "burdened this nation with four unbalanced budgets in a row," the platform promises "a reduction of not less than $5 billion in the present level of spending" and "an end to chronic deficit financing." The 1960 Republican platform, in contrast, made no promise of a spending cut, even acknowledged the desirability of deficit spending in time of "economic adversity."

TAXES. In order that "each individual may keep more of his earnings," the G.O.P. pledges a removal of wartime federal excise taxes on such items as jewelry, cosmetics and luggage. Moreover, it promises further reduction in individual and corporate tax rates as "fiscal discipline is restored."

CIVIL RIGHTS. In a brief plank, the platform promises "full implementation and faithful execution of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and all other civil rights statutes" and "improvements of civil rights statutes adequate to changing needs of our times." It commits the G.O.P. to helping "assure equal opportunity and a good education for all." At the same time, the platform takes advantage of the burning issue popularly known as "bussing" by placing the G.O.P. on record as "opposing federally-sponsored 'inverse discrimination,' whether by the shifting of jobs, or the abandonment of neighborhood schools, for reasons of race."

MEDICARE. Unlike the 1960 platform, the plank summarily rejects a medical-aid plan financed and administered through social security. The G.O.P. favors "full coverage of all medical and hospital costs of needy elderly people, financed by general revenues through broader implementation of federal-state plans, rather than the compulsory Democratic scheme covering only a small percentage of such costs for everyone regardless of need."

REDISTRICTING. Taking issue with Supreme Court decisions ruling that representation in state legislatures must be apportioned on the basis of population alone rather than area or geographic interests, the plank pledges "support of a constitutional amendment, as well as legislation enabling states having bicameral legislatures to apportion one house on bases of their choosing, including factors other than population."

REGULATORY AGENCIES. The G.O.P. promises "an end to power-grabbing regulatory actions, such as the reach by the Federal Trade Commission for injunctive powers and the ceaseless pressing by the White House, the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission to dominate consumer decision in the marketplace."

ETHICS IN GOVERNMENT. Taking its cue from the Bobby Baker case, the platform charges in a recital of Democratic misdeeds that "this Administration has impeded investigations of suspected wrongdoing which might implicate public officials in the highest offices in the land. It has thus aroused justifiable resentment against those who use the high road of public service as the low road to illicitly acquired wealth."

OBSCENITY. In one interesting plank, the G.O.P. pledged "enactment of legislation, despite Democratic opposition, to curb the flow through the mails of obscene materials, which has flourished into a multimillion-dollar obscenity racket." In October 1962, John F. Kennedy pocket-vetoed a District of Columbia obscenity bill, explaining that its search-and-seizure provisions seemed to him unconstitutional.

THE COLD WAR. Calling for a new "get-tough" policy, the platform charges that the Johnson Administration has "sought accommodations with Communism without adequate safeguards and compensating gains for freedom" and "in general pursued a risky path such as began at Munich a quarter-century ago." Demanding a "dynamic strategy aimed at victory," the platform says: "We reject the notion that Communism has abandoned its goal of world domination or that fat and well-fed Communists are less dangerous than lean and hungry ones. Republicans will make clear to any hostile nation that the United States will increase the costs and risks of aggression to make them outweigh hopes for gain."

SOUTHEAST ASIA. "We will move decisively to assure victory in South Viet Nam." In an obvious reference to the Viet Cong habit of taking refuge in bordering Cambodia, the G.O.P. pledges to "make clear to all Communists now supporting or planning to support guerrilla and subversive activities, that henceforth there will be no privileged sanctuaries to protect those who disrupt the peace of the world."

CUBA. "We Republicans will recognize a Cuban government in exile; we will support its efforts to regain the independence of its homeland; we will assist Cuban freedom fighters in carrying on guerrilla warfare against the Communist regime."

TRADE WITH COMMUNIST NATIONS.

Arguing with the Democratic Administration's position that both East and West would benefit from increased trade, the plank says that "trade with Communist countries should not be directed toward the enhancement of their power and influence but could only be justified if it would serve to diminish their power."

FOREIGN AID. "Republicans will recast foreign-aid programs. We will see that all will serve the cause of freedom. We will see that none bolster and sustain anti-American regimes. American tax revenues derived from free enterprise must never be employed in support of socialism."

THE UNITED NATIONS. "We will press for a change in the method of voting in the General Assembly and in the specialized agencies that will reflect population disparities among the member states and recognize differing abilities and willingness to meet the obligations of the Charter."

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