THE NATION: I Need Him

In three words President Eisenhower stretched the point about his Administration that had made it one of the cleanest in U.S. political history. He permitted an exception to his principle that any member of the White House staff involved in improper conduct in office, however minor, should be kicked out. He decided instead to stand behind a man—his able chief of staff Sherman Adams—on the arguable but shifting ground that the man at the heart of the White House staff system was not only a valued friend and loyal associate but was indispensable....