Nixon v. Kennedy

The two heavyweight candidates squared off last week, as if the preliminaries were all over and the main event were well under way. Dick Nixon and Jack Kennedy measured their own and each other's weaknesses, and began to run against each other.

Kennedy. Kennedy's weakness, in the public image, was foreign policy. Since the summit breakup in Paris, he has been bruised by the suspicion that he is too young to handle the man-sized diplomatic problems confronting the U.S. To erase that impression, he put on a statesmanlike dark suit, white shirt and sober, figured tie to deliver a major Senate speech on foreign policy. He laid down a twelve-point program that few could quarrel with (buildup of U.S. strength, closer relations with Latin America, new muscles for NATO, increased aid for underdeveloped nations, etc.). He pleased liberals with a proposal to "improve our communications with mainland China.'' And since foreign policy is Nixon's strength, Kennedy let fly with some blows at the foreign policy of the Administration--and Dick Nixon.

"As a substitute for policy,'' said he, "Mr. Eisenhower has tried smiling at the

Russians; our State Department has tried frowning; Mr. Nixon has tried both. As long as Mr. Khrushchev is convinced that the balance of power is shifting his way, no amount of either smiles or toughness, neither Camp David talks nor kitchen debates, can compel him to enter fruitful negotiations." What the U.S. needs, he said, is strength to prove to the Russians that negotiation is their only hope.

Nixon. Nixon's weakness, for strategic reasons, is farm policy. Republican strategists believe that Kennedy's main voting strength lies in the industrial states. Taking the gloomiest view, they are prepared to write off New England and possibly even New York and New Jersey. They concede a close fight in Pennsylvania and Michigan, perhaps even in Nixon's own California. Hence anti-Kennedy insurance requires that Nixon score at least as well in the Democratic South as Ike did against Stevenson in 1956, and fight hard to carry the restive farm states.

Accordingly, Nixon took off, at week's end, on a four-day flight to Texas, the Dakotas and Missouri. Although his official campaign kickoff is scheduled for Sept. 19, Nixon winged into Fargo* with a formal speech in his briefcase. Subject: farm policy.

"This," said he, "is the toughest and biggest domestic problem confronting America today . . . Beating Secretary Benson around the head or damning the Democratic Congress will not help the farmer." In his specific proposals he then: P: Blamed the "majority" in Congress for blocking Administration efforts to modernize farm programs. P: Acknowledged that the Government helped get the farmer into trouble, should share the cost for getting him out.P: Hinted that the parity price program is obsolete--"at its best it treats the symptoms and not the cause"--but postponed discussion of the problem of parity "since it is now before the Congress." P: Listed as "our major aim" an effort "not to reduce production but to expand the markets." One solution offered by Nixon (with a bow to Rockefeller, who had suggested it first): "A year's supply of food for the nation [should] be set aside against the eventuality of an atomic attack ... A research program should be undertaken to find economically feasible ways to convert surplus grains into storable form." Others included increased "re- search for expanding the commercial uses of farm products," and broadening of the President's program to provide food for the hungry overseas.

Though nothing very earth-shaking came out of either of the major speeches, they proved that each candidate-presumptive had a campaign battle-plan up his sleeve before a single convention delegate had yet cast his vote.

*The occasion for the North Dakota trip was next week's special election of a new U.S. Senator to fill the seat of the late "Wild Bill" Langer. The contestants--Republican Governor John E. Davis and Democratic Congressman Quentin Burdick--were all but lost in the throng of their supporting casts. Jack Kennedy and Stu Symington got out of town as Nixon arrived, and Nelson Rockefeller, House Republican Leader Charlie Halleck and Senate Campaign Director Barry Goldwater have all taken their turns on the stump.

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