Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-05-14

pg with the Senator. He re-
fused then, as he did consistent
" thereafter, to discuss Senator
Mccarthy personally in public.
He took the position that as
chairman of the Senate Per-
manent Investigations Subcom-
mittee. the Senator had right
to investigate and that public
opinion would serve to keep in
peStigations within the bounds
Of propriety and justice.
AS the Mccarthy problem be-
came more acute. the President
discovered that many people
we're critical of him because he
didn't crack down on the SEN
ator. On March 81. 1858, he
opened a cabinet meeting by
reading q letter which implied
that Senator Mccarthy had
psurped the national leadership
hom Mr.. Eisenhower. and urged
that the President wrest it back
again.
Laying the letter aside, the
President told the cabinet that
he thought it would be alto
gether wrong for him to chal-
lenge a single individual. Sena-
tor McCarthy's activities, he felt,
were the responsibility of the
constituted leadership of Con-
gresS. What he and the execu-
tive branch could and should do,
he said, was to give all encour-
agement possible to established
leaders like Senators Taft. Milli-
kin and Saltonstall to help them
in their dealings with extremists.
Patience Is Watchword
The President said he did not
consider it his function to battle
Congressional figures in the
arena of the press conference.
The thing that was needed in
coping with the problem raised
by Senator Mccarthy, he con-
cluded, was patience.
4 This attitude, however much
his liberal critics deplored it, was
a key to his approach to Senator
Mccarthy, at least during his
flrSt several months in the White
House.
The President hoped that with
a conservative Republican adj
ministration in power and obvi-
ously determined to deal with
any internal Communist prob
lem, Senator Mccarthy would
drop the tactics he had used
against President Truman and
Secretary of State Acheson and
60 along on a live-and- let-live
basis. Trying to get along rea-
sonably with Senator Mccarthy
became, therefore. one of the
early rules Of the administration.
a The Senator, however, was not
content to remain quiet. On No
vember "a. 1858, he made a Ma
tion-wide radio television speech
In which he first attacked the
Truman administration for har-
boring allegedly subversive per-
sonnet, and then turned his guns
on the Eisenhower administra-
ton. 1t had failed. said Senator
Mccarthy, to liquidate the foul
est bankruptcy" of the Truman
era-the continuance of mutual
assistance to Britain while the
British traded with Red China,
jailer of American troops cap
tured in the Korean War.
Seeks Declaration of War
On November 81, C. D. Jack
son. then one of Mr.. Eisenhow-
er's close advisers, sent a men,
orandum saying that watching
the Mccarthy telecast had been
an exceptionally horrible expe-
rience," Here, he said, was an
open declaration of war by a
Republican Senator upon a Re-
publican President. Mr.. Jackson
maintained that the Senator was
an irresponsible politician with
whom it was impossible to come
TO terms, and any attempt at ap-
peasing him was useless. Mr.. Ell
senhower should repudiate Sena-
tor Mccarthy as a Republican at
his next press conference on
December 2. Mr.. Jackson as
serted.
Among others on Mr.. Eisen-
,hower's staff who were in favor
of his blasting Senator McCar-
thy were Press Secretary James
G. Hagerty, Robert Cutler and
Henry Cabot Lodge, jr. On the
opposite side were White House
staff members whose task 1t was
to get along with Congress. They
wanted Mr.. Eisenhower to keep