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The parallel paths of Nixon and Rogers continued as both made names for themselves as investigators in the big scandals of the Truman Administration.
Nixon, a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee, became known primarily because of the Alger Hiss case, while Rogers pursued the five-percenters and saw some of them sentenced to jail. Rogers had earned so good a reputation for the way he conducted investigations that when the Democrats took control of his reconstituted committee after 1948, he was kept on as chief counsel of an investigating subcommittee. At the 1952 convention, both men worked for Eisenhower's nomination. The Vice Presidentelect recommended his friend for the No. 2 spot in the Justice Department, and when Attorney General Herbert Brownell resigned in 1957, Rogers, then 44, succeeded him. Rogers was best known for vigorous prosecution of antitrust cases and for his part in drafting the 1957 civil rights bill and pushing it through Congress.
The Republican defeat in 1960 sent both men back to private law practice. Rogers rejoined the New York-Washington firm now known as Royall, Koegel, Rogers & Wells, practicing general corporate law. He is now a senior partner, with an income of about $300,000 a year, clients such as 20th Century-Fox, the Associated Press and the International Herald Tribune, a home in Bethesda, Md., and a New York apartment overlooking the East River. Yet his life-style is not pretentious. His Washington office is smallish. His home is roomy but not luxurious; the swimming pool in back is a small one. After learning that he would be the next Secretary of State, he dined in the kitchen on his wife's cooking.
Resisting the Draft
Unlike Nixon, Rogers enjoyed private life. Urbane, tall (6 ft. 1 in.), affable and attractive, he is known around Washington as a kind of Republican Clark Clifford. "But," says Jack Javits, "he's got even more cool than Clark, and that's saying a lot." "I didn't want to get back into public life," Rogers said last week. "I didn't seek it. I thought there are others certainly better qualified. But when the President-elect asks, you have no choice."
Rogers did resist the draft, but only feebly. Nixon gave him his greetings personally in a conversation on Dec. 1. The next day Rogers saw his physician for the first checkup he has had in several years. "I'm not able to handle a tough job like that, am I, doctor?" he joked. But in his own mind there was little question about his health. He feels fine, is a frequent golfer and squash player, drinks little and does not smoke. "I'm sorry to say," the doctor said after the examination, "that you're in A-l condition." On Dec. 3, Rogers told Nixon that he would take the post.
Another key post for which Nixon wanted a man he knew intimately was that of Attorney General. He settled on John Mitchell, the dour-looking lawyer whom Nixon once called "the heavyweight" because of his acumen and administrative talents. Mitchell had sworn vehemently to anyone who would listen that he would take no post in the Administration. Nixon surprised many who remembered his 1960 campaign by heeding most of his manager's