Home to the Wars

On the desk of the Secretary of Defense in Washington, one morning last fortnight, a bulky sealed packet plopped down. It was from General Eisenhower's headquarters in France. Inside were three letters: one addressed to the President of the U.S., one to the chairman of the NATO military standing committee in Washington and one to Defense Secretary Robert Lovett. Lovett delivered the other two with top-secret precautions, then sliced open his own.

"Dear Mr. Secretary," wrote Eisenhower, "I request that you initiate appropriate action to secure my release from assignment as Supreme Commander, Allied Powers Europe, by approximately June 1st, and that I be placed on inactive status upon my return to the United States . . ." The letter was dated April 2, the first anniversary of the day Eisenhower formally established SHAPE headquarters in Europe. At Ike's verbal request, the exchange was kept secret until he had an opportunity to tell his NATO fellow officers his basic decision: he has decided to return home to run as a GOP candidate for President of the U.S.

Out the Door. Ike had just finished a critique of NATO's first top-level map maneuver at SHAPE last week, when he turned to the 70 high-ranking officers of NATO's 14-nation armies and made the announcement. "I do not want this to go out of the room," he said. For a moment there was complete silence. Then Britain's temperamental Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery delivered an impromptu eulogy, wound up by locking Ike in an affectionate bear hug, while the others roared, cheered and dabbed at their eyes. Ike broke away and started for the door. At the doorway he paused and clasped his hands over his head in a prizefighter's salute. Then, digging for his own handkerchief, he swung out the door and into U.S. politics.

Next day the White House made a brief announcement of Ike's homecoming, adding that he and the President have exchanged cordial personal letters on the subject. The details were confidential, but reporters heard that Ike 1) assured the President that the basic organizational tasks of NATO are now accomplished and 2) confessed surprise and amazement at the growing political pressures building up beneath him.

"I Was Wrong." Ike seemed unusually harassed and baggy-eyed when he strode into a special press conference at SHAPE to face a full house of correspondents. After wan smiles to right & left, he whipped out his heavy hornrimmed glasses and settled down to the serious reading of a 1,300-word prepared text, forewarning reporters that there would be no questions allowed.

"During the past months, circumstances of my personal life have markedly changed," said he. "I [had] believed that the political movement involving my name and undertaken in America by certain of my fellow citizens would not necessarily impinge on the duties and responsibilities of my present post. Generally, events in the U.S., and their incessant repercussions, have made it evident that I was wrong . . ." He was not resigning from the U.S. Army, he said, but only requesting that he be put back on the same kind of inactive status he held before he took on his NATO job.

"If, however, I should--through the current effort now going on at home--be nominated in July to political office, I shall promptly submit to the President my resignation as an officer of the Army. From that point on, I would be free to act and speak as any other citizen, without any of the limitations imposed by the tradition of the military establishment." Between now and June 1 he intends to make a circuit of NATO capitals "to say farewell to old friends . . ." In the meantime, "I'm not going to discuss any kind of political question."

Reporters would find it useless to ask him who his successor at SHAPE might be, he went on, because "I have not the slightest information on the matter."* As for his plans in the U.S., he had only two: 1) to keep an old date to speak at the dedication of the Eisenhower Foundation in "my home town of Abilene, Kansas" on June 4 and 2) a short vacation with his wife, "if we may be allowed one."

New Footing. Ike's return, however, would put the campaign for his nomination on an entirely new footing. Once he sets foot ashore he will inevitably be subjected to the give & take of press conferences without the protective screen of SHAPE. He will be challenged and baited by political opponents who want to get him to commit himself on controversial, specific issues. (Commented Bob Taft pointedly: "I extend a cordial invitation to him to campaign actively, as I have been doing, so that we may both present to the Republicans our definite views on these issues . . .")

But Ike's well-timed homecoming will be far more of an asset than a liability to his campaign. By the time he speaks in Abilene, the major primaries will be over (the last: California, June 3). Ike will restrict himself to perhaps three major speeches of a general nature, all with a national television audience. For the rest of the time he will be at home on his Gettysburg, Pa., farm or traveling through the U.S., ready & willing to meet politicos who want to shake his hand.

Ike supporters had only one question. Once nominated, would Citizen Eisenhower put up the kind of a fight the GOP needs to win? Last week an Ike friend in New Jersey released one paragraph of a recent personal letter from Ike: "One more word--if, by any chance, it should come about that the Republican Party does name me as its standardbearer, I am determined to lead the entire organization into a fight in which there will be no cessation, no rest and no lack of intensity until the final decision is made."

*Leading contenders: Generals Matthew B. Ridgway and Alfred M. Gruenther.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.