THE PRESIDENCY
President Johnson was home from the hospital, but still spending most of his time in bed. Newsmen, summoned to a bedroom press conference, found him propped up on a pillow, steam from an electric vaporizer swirling around his head. He looked disheveled, coughed, blew his nose, and complained: "I still have some of my cough and a throat irritation and some discharge from my nose. I don't have the bouncy feeling that I usually have."
The President went on to explain that he would not be able to attend the fu neral of Sir Winston Churchill. His doctors had told him it would be "inadvisable for me to undertake a long trip where I would be exposed as I would be on a London trip at this time." To be members of the official U.S. delegation to the funeral Johnson named Chief Justice Earl Warren, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, and David Bruce, U.S. Ambassador to Britain.
The makeup of the delegation set off a round of speculation. There was comment that the President could and should have made a gracious gesture by naming former President Dwight Eisenhower as one of the U.S. representatives; instead, Ike flew as a private citizen to pay his last respects to his old wartime comrade.
More particularly, why had Johnson left Vice President Hubert Humphrey off the delegation? Fulfilling ceremonial functions in place of the President has become almost a prerogative of vice presidents. Was Lyndon deliberately trying to keep Humphrey out of the limelight? Or, as seems more likely, was he genuinely concerned about the Vice President's being out of the country at a time when the President himself was ill?
Reporters asked President Johnson if there was any special reason that he did not send Humphrey to London. His answer: "No."
Suggestions for Succession
While we are prepared for the possibility of a President's death, we are all but defenseless against the probability of a President's incapacity by injury, illness, senility or other affliction. A nation bearing the responsibilities we are privileged to bear for our own security —and the security of the free world—cannot justify the appalling gamble of entrusting its security to the immobilized hands or uncomprehending mind of a Commander in Chief unable to command.
So wrote President Johnson to the Congress last week in recommending a constitutional amendment to provide for the transfer of power in the event of presidential incapacity.
As Johnson noted, the Constitution is distressingly vague on the subject. It provides that, "In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President."