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No Way. As foot soldiers will, Agnew soon found himself deep in the fray. Speaking in places like York, Pa., and Paramus, N.J., he began striking at rioters and protesters of every persuasion. Before a group of political writers in Washington, he declared: "I don't think every student involved in a protest is a Communist. But in the case of an organization like the Students for a Democratic Society—on their own announcement that they are Marxist and endorse the overthrow of our Govern ment as we know it—what can we conclude?" He continued: "Any civil disobedience must be prohibited by the authorities because there's no way to draw the line between what's responsible and what's irresponsible." Humphrey, he said, seemed to be a "peace at any price" candidate. Then came the "soft on Communism" remark.
Five Somersaults. To those with longer memories than Agnew's, the charge that Humphrey is "soft on Communism" is rather silly. Throughout the '40s and '50s, Humphrey was both a ground-breaking liberal and an anti-Communist of unquestioned zeal. In 1947 and 1948, he helped to purge Minnesota's Democratic Farmer-Labor Par ty of Communists and in 1954 sponsored the provision of the Communist Control Act that outlawed the party. When even the Eisenhower Administration protested that the provisions might be unconstitutional, Oregon's Senator Wayne Morse chuckled: "It now appears that the White House thinks the Senator from Minnesota is a little too hard on Communists."
Editorial writers were quick to accuse Agnew of trying to revive the McCarthyism and "Communist witch hunts" of the early '50s. Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen and House Republican Leader Gerald Ford held a joint news conference to repudiate the charge against Humphrey. Said Dirksen pointedly: "I am rather restrained in the statements I make."
Within the day, Agnew retreated. He acknowledged his intemperance. "Had I ever realized what an effect this phrase would have, I would have avoided it like the plague," he said contritely. "If I'd known I'd be cast as the 'Joe Mc Carthy of 1968,' I would have turned five somersaults. I said 'squishy soft,' and I'm not proud of it."
His retreat, however, was not a retraction. He emphasized that in his view, Communism was enjoying "a renewed life" rather than a decline in the U.S. and that he intended to continue playing that theme. By Communists, he seemed to mean any anarchist, hippie, yippie, McCarthyite, black militant or other dissenter who might disturb the peace, either by bomb throwing, staging a sit-in or marching on the Pentagon. Despite his retreat, Agnew felt that he had been treated unfairly. "If I attack Mr. Humphrey," the Governor told TIME Correspondent Charles Eisendrath, "it's called taking the low road. But if Mr. Humphrey accuses Mr. Nixon, it isn't called that at all."