Breakfast at the Waldorf

As he loped toward the finish line in his high-stakes campaign to win New York's governorship, Republican Candidate Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller knew that he was winning sizable blocs of New York City's normally Democratic liberals away from Democrat Averell Harriman. He also was aware that New York liberals constitutionally have no use for Vice President Richard Nixon. Day before Nixon was due in Manhattan to boost the campaign of G.O.P. Senatorial Candidate Kenneth Keating and G.O.P. candidates for Congress, Rockefeller's campaign adviser, State Chairman L. Judson Morhouse, got Nixon on the phone in New England, asked him to cancel his scheduled statewide telecast from Manhattan lest he rock the Rockefeller boat.

Nixon was taken aback. He told Morhouse that the TV time was booked, that it would look strange to cancel his TV broadcast at the last minute without explanation. Nixon added that he would be willing to call off the telecast if Morhouse insisted but would have to explain publicly just why. The point: loyal G.O.P. voters in upstate New York might well resent the cancellation, not to mention the slight to national party unity. Morhouse hurriedly called back to say go ahead with the telecast. Right on schedule, Nixon delivered his TV speech--which even stony-hearted critics ruled as the best of his political career.

By this time newspapers were smoking with gossip stories that the two potential 1960 presidential rivals were trying to cold-shoulder each other. Rockefeller landed in town from a conspicuously far-from-Nixon upstate campaign swing, got on the phone to Nixon's suite in the Waldorf-Astoria Tower, suggested an appointment. Nixon left it to his staff to set up a breakfast date at 7:45 next morning, let it be known that he was delaying his scheduled departure from New York to keep the date. The upshot: Nixon and Rockefeller got together for breakfast (oatmeal for Nixon, ham and scrambled eggs for Rockefeller), cordially posed for photographs over the coffee cups (Nixon pouring).

Said Rockefeller afterward: "Mr. Nixon is going to be a tremendous help in New York. He has brought in a fresh point of view." What about the rift? "Bunk." What about 1960? "I have no other plans but to become Governor of New York. I have every expectation to serve a four-year term as Governor, if elected." Dick Nixon, asked about 1960 prospects too, added: "I'm concerned enough about 1958. We have enough to do in 1958."

It was left to Democrat Harriman to mutter ominously about a Nixon-Rockefeller "deal or understanding . . . It appears to be New York delegation support for Nixon in 1960." said he, "with Mr. Rockefeller playing some part in the Nixon campaign, to tend to give Nixon respectability."

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