Evening star., 1961-09-03

-OIlly OF ulCll llofC A4AOWh Az
is to wake up one morning and
realize you are now President OF
the United States.
Even rarer and as full of i'm
pact-fewer men have known this
When a man has held the
biggest Job in the world for
eight years, retirement is not
without its problems. But Dwight
ID. Eisenhower has come to
terms with them in the peace
full setting Of his Gettysburg
home. Here's. the former Presi-
dent, caught life-SiZe in an
intimate portrait.
feeling-is to wake up one morn
ing and realize you are no longer
President of the United States.
Suddenly it is over. Suddenly
it is January 20 and you are
riding down Pennsylvania avenue
with the new man and they swear
him in and they say goodbye and
you're gone. Suddenly you're sup
posed to pick up your life. How
does it feel?
It feels, William Howard Taft
once said, like a giant locomotive
pulling a toy wagon" The mo-
mentum remains. The payload
is gone.
For seven months, Dwight David
Eisenhower has been gearing
down, seeking a new rhythm. He
is not, of course. lonely old man
turned out and forgotten in a
distant pasture. He remains very
much in demand, active, produc-
tive and interested. Politically, in
the phrase of a former associate,
he is still "the Fort Knox of the
Republican Party"
But the big job is gone and
that takes adjustment.
Misses Responsibility
Like other men in retirement,
he both enjoys the absence Of
heavy responsibility and at the
same time misses it. After 20
years Of vast power and glory in
the main current of great events,
the human system does not sud-
denly adapt to a beach chair,
however comfortable.
While he still corresponds with
Harold Macmillan and Charles
de Gaulle and other important
people around the world, the cor
respondence now has a single
tone-old friends writing. It lacks
the office behind the man.
While he still retains a deep
interest in national and world
affairs, Dwight Eisenhower has
had to learn to sublimate his lack
of authority. This is one way he
does it:
Reading of some new national
issue or problem, he picks up the
telephone and calls several friends,
usually experts in the appropriate
field. To each, he presents the
problem and asks what the other
fellow would do about it. And
then they match judgments and
seek an accommodation and de-
eide, If they can, on a solution
and then they hang up.
That's as far as it can go. It's
. dry run, poker for matchSticks.
An old Eisenhower friend in
Wall Street, who used to be sum-
moned frequently to the White
House, recently received four let
tiers from the former President
in one day. Only one letter con-
cerned a subject on which either
could act. The others were typi-
fled by one which said: Have you
seen this editorial on the
problem? Here it is. Please give
me your comments" Even in re-
tirement. the Eisenhower staff
system still operates.
A Cabinet Reunion
In Gettysburg recently, Gen.
Eisenhower held a reunion with
most of his former cabinet. 1t
began as one would expect 1t to
begin, with an exchange of pleas
antries. "reminiscences and an ef-
fort by old associates to catch Up
But before anyone quite realized
it, the reunion began to resemble
a meeting of a President and q
cabinet still in office. The gen.
eral had brought up assorted ma
tional problems and was going
down the table soliciting the views
Of each man there, and for a time
January 20 hadn't arrived.
Dwight Eisenhower misses the
big job in many ways. He misses
the power and ability to affect
events which deeply concern him
He misses the direct contact with
unfolding history. He misses thu
vast convenience of the office, the
huge machinery geared to hi.
wishes, the experts who kept hin
informed, the planes that flew
him. the Secret Service men whc
cleared his path.
But the shock of transition from
the White House to the farm.
house in Gettysburg has, friends
agree, been heavily cushioned by
one fact. He left Washington
trailed by the affection of hi
countrymen. He had his critics
His country had refused to elect
the man he hoped would succeed
him. His own place in history il
still to be weighed. But he, him.
self, remains widely loved and, or
the record books, the biggest vote.
getter Of all time. This is a com,
forting annuity in retirement.
Demond for Eisenhower
Also, he was surprised to fine
that out of office there was still
a great demand for Eisenhower
More people than he can ever SCI
want to see him, talk with him, ge
his advice, seek his help, get hin
to speak or pose just once for {
picture with man running TO!