Oh Come All Ye True Doves

In his own version of the twelve days of Christmas, Eugene McCarthy racked up one campaign manager, two college triumphs, three promising states, four yeasty issues, five announced primaries, at least six supporting groups, and visions of a dove in a pear tree.

As his manager the Minnesota Senator named onetime CBS Executive Blair Clark, 50, who once served as public relations chief for Averell Harriman. In New Hampshire, where he made two speeches and checked his primary prospects, McCarthy was heartened by a poll of 21,000 students, faculty and staff members of 19 Northeast universities, which showed 75% "would not express confidence" in the way L.B.J. runs the war. Atop that, 1,271 Cornell signers sent McCarthy a telegram of good cheer. Of the five state primaries he has promised to enter, he was credited with solid strength in three: California, Oregon and Wisconsin. He has also announced that he will run in Massachusetts and Nebraska.

When Hubert Humphrey called him a "one-issue candidate," McCarthy responded by hitting hard on housing, unemployment and civil rights, linking these three issues into a plea to integrate the suburbs and get Negroes into the U.S. mainstream. Discussing Viet Nam, he reiterated his opposition to bombing north of the DMZ, but saw "no quick or easy steps" for settling the war. McCarthy rejected the notion of a precipitous pullout, observing that the U.S. should draw back to a somewhat vague point "where you can expect the South Viet Nam government to assume major responsibility."

While his contest with Lyndon Johnson brought him the support of a variety of dissident elements, including the Nobel-laden "Scientists and Engineers for McCarthy"--many of whose members populated "Scientists and Engineers for Johnson and Humphrey" in 1964--scholarly Gene McCarthy last week got a taste of life beyond the fringe and found it disturbing. At a University of New Hampshire symposium, when Black Power Advocate William L. Strickland purred ugly platitudes labeling the U.S. "fundamentally a racist nation," the usually imperturbable Senator snapped: "I just don't agree." It was clear already that one problem he faces will be to shake off the extremist groups that will try to exploit him as they did Henry Wallace 20 years ago.

The Administration takes McCarthy's challenge seriously enough to plan a full-scale campaign of Johnsonian electors and stand-in candidates in New England. And, in fact, now that McCarthy is in the lists, he may actually benefit L.B.J. by turning unfocused discontent into a contest between visible opponents, solidifying strength behind the President.

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