All Up To Ike

The day came and went when President Eisenhower, by his doctors' glowing post-operative estimate, was to leave Walter Reed Hospital to convalesce. Instead, Ike was advised to stay another week. Though Republicans made cheerful assertions that he was still their man, that the convention would still be short, that he and Vice President Nixon would win by acclamation, the continued hospital stay pointed up their private problem: Dwight Eisenhower might not be available at all.

The extra week in the hospital was ordered partly to help Ike gain back some of the 7 lbs. stripped away by his illness, partly because he was still short of full recovery. He is down to 162 lbs., is thin around the face. After a diet that progressed from broth and water to cereal and innumerable chopped-beef patties, he was at last getting some rib-filling steaks and vegetables. But the longer stay also is conducive to serious thinking. After his heart attack, Ike made a careful assessment of the future before agreeing to run again. Now, with a heart condition and ileitis (whose incidence of recurrence has medical kibitzers at loggerheads), he was assessing once again.

The Man Who Knows. Vice President Nixon implied as much after his first visit to Ike's hospital quarters. Nixon flatly announced there had been no discussion of politics and explained why: "The man who should speak concerning the President's future plans, the man who knows best what the requirements for leadership are in the international field and in the national field, and who knows the burdens of this office, and who knows his own physical condition best is the President of the United States."

Some of the burdens were back on Ike already. He spent 45 minutes a day with Presidential Assistant Sherman Adams and White House aides signing bills, dictating a few letters, getting out of the way other routine but essential paperwork of his office. Through Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, he kept up with the international field. But the executive branch was not in the apple-pie shape Ike would like, e.g., he could see French Foreign Minister Pineau only briefly; the conference of American Presidents in Panama, postponed because of his illness, awaited rescheduling.

As the week progressed, the President took big strides towards recovery. He climbed out of bed to enjoy meals at a table. For the first time, he walked in the corridor outside his suite. He made his first telephone call (to Dulles) from Walter Reed. One evening, younger brother Milton dropped by; Ike stayed out of bed an unusual 90 minutes to chat and have dinner. The superficial stitches were removed from his abdomen. Later deeper wire stitches also were cut; 24 hours later they were withdrawn, and the President walked the 80 ft. to Mamie's room to tell her so himself.

Party Matters. Daily, Press Secretary Hagerty emphasized that no visitor had talked politics with the President. Finally, Ike did take up party matters; during a one-hour visit, Sherman Adams reported on the preparations by the convention-arrangements committee for a short three-or-four-day convention, noting, to Ike's satisfaction, that Washington's Governor Arthur Langlie, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, will be the keynote speaker. But the tacit ban on politics by all hands until the chief himself broached the subject jarred sharply with optimistic Republican organization insistence on the status quo. The indication: a realistic Chief Executive once again was testing himself against the job ahead.

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