MR NIXON’S INFLUENCE IN U.S. POLITICS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28489, 20 January 1958, Page 9

MR NIXON’S INFLUENCE IN U.S. POLITICS

[Specially written tor the N.Z.P.A. by FRANK OLIVER]

(Rec. 7 p.m. WASHINGTON, January 17

ii anyone doubts the rising influence, in political affairs, of Richard M. Nixon, the Vice-Presi-dent of the United States, he has only to read the public prints and see what is oeing said of the man who is regarded as having the 1960 Republican nomination in his pocket. If that election were held today he might win easily, and if illness or worse removes Mr Eisenhower from the* White House he will be Head of State anyway.

Not in living memory has a Republican figure aroused so much controversy, it ’ is being predicted that the 1960 election wul be the most savage in American political history. In the first Eisenho;wer Administration Mr Nixon made his presence felt rather more than most VicePresidents and in the first year of the second Administration he has steadily loomed bigger and bigger. One writer said recently: The American eagle now has three heads. There is Eisenhower, Sherman Adams, and Nixon. Eisenhower is head of State but not head of Government. Adams wasn’t eiected but has the »o,wer; Nixon has only limited s»wer but was 'lected.” Party Influence

Mr Nixon has been steadily gaining influence in the party ranks and influence there represents power of a kind. What Washington is seeing now are occasional glimpses of a battle between Adams and Nixon. Readers of a number of Republican newspapers and magazines are told that harmony prevails in the. official family, and are given the impression that it is practically the * ideal family, everyone loving everyone else and the family as a whole. Washington sceptics are not nearly so sure. Even Republican newspapers during * Mr. Eisenhower’s recent illness printed a cartoon showing Mr Nixon and M Adams playing musical chairs round the official Presidential chair. And some Democratic publications are openly wondering v»ow lons it will before tnt “build-up” Mr Nixon is getting in the Republican press causes “a big break-up within the ranks of

the Eisenhower team.” There is no doubt a widespread belief that Mr Nixon has more power than he actually has. But his executive responsibilities are few. Apart from meetings of the National Security Council and the Cabinet he sees the President rarely—some newspapers say not more than once a month. Mr Adams’s Influence

Mr Adams, as* chief Presidential assistant, is in and out of the President’s office all day, every day. Mr Adams, 1 everyone agrees, exercises more influence than any Presidential assistant anyone can remember. •

Rumour and gossip will have it tl nt Mr Adams and Mr-Nixon are far from being good friends. One Deniot ratic publication f’-ankly charges that the Nixon forces and the Adams forces are being marshalled for a great battle for influence in Governmental affairs this Congressional session.

If the battle were for headlines, the Vice-President would be an easy winner. Whether by design or accident, he cannot keep out of them. Even buying a pair of eye-glasses was a front-page story.

Republican newspapers are talking of the “new” Nixon, the “king-size’ * T ixon; they refer to his “analytical and sternly disciplined mind,” and call him a “seasoned veteran - in public affairs,” and a "more mature man with a rounder, knowledge of the Government and’ its problems.” Barbed Comments In Democratic newspapers he gets almost as many headlines, and almost as many photographs, but the comments are more barbed, such as: “Nixon’s mental equipment is remarkable, whether he has. any convictions noboby knows.”

It is doubtful whether Mr Franklin Roosevelt counted more enemies than Mr Nixon. s Mr Roosevelt certainly counted more friends, but Mi Nixon is on the way up in that regard, and is rapidly becoming the whitehaired boy of large and powerful sections of his party, both inCongress and outside it. He. seems to be the darling of Republican women.

Those who like him and who hate him agree on one thing —he is a man tr be reckoned with in American politics.