THE ADMINISTRATION'S PRIVATE LIFE
THE year was 1953, Dwight Eisenhower's first—and un-happiest—in office. At the heart of Ike's troubles were the many Republican Congressmen who, unable to accept responsibility after their long political exile, spent most of their time trying to thwart the Republican Administration. At a Cabinet meeting on May 22, Defense Secretary Charles Wilson said he wished more Republican legislators would realize that they were no longer members of the opposition. Replied the President: "Brother, I heartily agree." When Treasury Secretary George Humphrey, at that meeting, cautioned that the national debt might go above the legal limit, Ike asked: "Who will have to go to jail if that happens?" Replied Humphrey: "We will have to go to Congress." Groaned the President: "Oh, that's worse."
This remarkable episode in the history of Ike's party problems is part of a remarkable book* by the New York Herald Tribune's veteran White House Correspondent Robert Donovan, which became public this week. Tapped by the Administration to write its first history, Newsman Donovan had free access (see PRESS) to superprivate (but nonclassified) papers. Donovan's product, although it deals principally with the unsensational, everyday affairs of state, type-sets both the headlines and the footnotes of the Eisenhower Administration, and is certain to start political horns honking across the U.S.
So disgusted did the President become with the Republican majority in Congress in 1953, says Donovan, that he gave serious thought to forming a third party, consulted intimate friends about it, and even tried to think of a name (he never decided on one, but from his attempts he derived such phrases as "progressive moderates" and "dynamic conservatism"). Finally, Ike, newcomer to politics, realized the two-party system was best for the U.S., and unceasingly turned his energies toward remodeling the Republican Party.
WANTED: BLUE PENCILS
From the outset of his Administration, President Eisenhower made it clear that he did not want yes men in his Cabinet. Before he took office, he met with his Cabinet members-designate in Manhattan's Commodore Hotel and read to them a draft of his inaugural speech. When they applauded (cried Charlie Wilson: "You flew the flag! It was wonderful!), Ike said: "I read it far more for your blue pencils than I did for your applause."
But however much he valued their views, General Eisenhower was no man to let his Cabinet dictate to him. Once, while arguing with Wilson over increased trade with Iron Curtain countries, Ike said: "If you trade with them, Charlie, you have got something pulling their interest your way." Replied Wilson: "I think I am going to be on the tough side of this one." Said Ike patiently but firmly: "Charlie, I am talking common sense." And the Administration's general policy has been toward increased, although selective, East-West trade—with Wilson going right along.