University of Virginia Library

By Rod MacDonald

Nixon's Press

The literary and journalistic
roasting of President Nixon has
begun, and the honeymoon is over.
Now even Time and Newsweek
have noted the growing unrest of
Washington with the Nixon leadership,
joining such publications as
the New Republic in questioning
both the policy and tactics that are
the staples of this administration.
Perhaps Hubert Humphrey summed
it up when he said Monday "The
Nixon administration is rewarding
its friends and ignoring the rest of
us." And the President's unpopularity
is his own doing.

The war is the particular bugaboo
of Presidents. Both Presidents
Johnson and Nixon seem to agree
that we cannot leave until Hanoi
makes significant concessions, i.e.
leaves South Vietnam. In other
words, for us to quit North
Vietnam must first end the war,
which would be defeat for that
Nation. So the American policy of
"South-Vietnamizing" the war is
to little avail, just another sop
thrown to the public to keep it
from organizing against the present
regime.

No 'Bugging Out'

In fact, as Rowland Evans and
Robert Novak reported in yesterday's
Washington Post, the President
said he was keeping the
"military option" open, a statement
that "scared hell" out of one
senator at the conference. Mr.
Nixon reportedly added he "would
never sacrifice the nation's long range
interests by 'bugging out' no
matter how far he went down in
the polls — even down to 5 per
cent." Such a statement may seem
to hawks a courageous affirmation
of the Nixon zeal for martyrdom,
but it certainly says little for the
President's belief in popular democracy.

Certainly his statement that he
will not be affected by the
Moratorium is nothing short of
blockheaded; no President has the
right to ignore the cries of his
people. But to top it off with the
present administration crusade to
silence criticism of the war (it
strengthens Hanoi's bargaining position,
according to Nixon apologist
Stewart Alsop and Melvin Laird) is
sheer political folly. President Johnson
tried it in his term and got
nowhere, but President Nixon supposedly
is an intelligent politician.
A smart politician listens to his
followers if they protest his actions;
he does not tell them to shut up.

The President's stubbornness and
lack of acumen is seen again in the
appointment of Judge Clement
Haynesworth to the Supreme
Court. After the Fortas Affair (in
which this columnist said liberalism,
not ethics was the chief cause
for the moralist-conservative attack
on the Justice) the President
appointed a conservative who
makes Mr. Fortas look like a saint.
Each day a new instance of the
Judge's decision-making on firms in
which he held stock is revealed,
disgusting even the President's own
Senate minority whip, Robert P.
Griffin. Yet the President and his
would-be Justice roll on, making
the struggle a test of Presidential
loyalty and strength.

Polluted Air

Down the line the "establishment"
air of the administration is
polluted. The President has made
himself a friend of the military in
the most controversial way, successfully
ramming the ABM through
the Senate. But the military, which
asks only obedience and not criticism,
continues to abuse its exalted
position. Green beret agents kill a
Vietnamese civilian, and escape
without a trial because the matter
may have involved national security.
A general sells guns for private
profit. The highest ranking noncommissioned
officer is exposed for
illegal takeoffs from serviceman's
clubs, and his own superiors tried
to cover the case up to protect
themselves for appointing him.
Public condemnation will rub off,
as one is known by the friends he
keeps.

And then there are the blacks. It
appears that even now, 15 years
after "separate but equal" was
ruled illegal it is officially tolerated
by a supposed "law and order"
administration. Blacks are still, to
the federal government, just
another issue to be used for
bargaining with Southern leaders,
while the administration pursues its
"Southern strategy" built on winning
over the reactionaries of the
south and west. Such a political
motivation stinks; it is nothing
short of a cynical sellout to a small
political group by an administration
that seeks to govern all the people.

Last comes money. A few
people have a great deal, but it's
been no secret for some time that
many people have a truly inadequate
amount of it. The President's
welfare proposals made some sense
but have gotten nowhere, white the
official policy is to curb inflation.
So we are told that added unemployment
is a good thing because it
means business is cooling off; yet
the administration fights hard for
its privileged friends, opposing
added corporate taxes because they
would cut into investment power.
In other words, curbing inflation
requires lowering the buying power
of millions of Americans who are
practically starving anyway, rather
than cutting into the excess funds
stockpiled by fat cats on Wall
Street. While unemployment had its
biggest hike this month since
1960-61, Congress cannot even cut
the oil depletion allowance because
it provides oil Senators such as
Russell Long with their wealth.

Then along comes an expected
reaction: David Broder, in another
sobbing column Tuesday, said the
diabolical group that ousted Lyndon
Johnson is using the same
tactics to oust President Nixon.
Protest, rhetoric, refusing to adhere
to the administration's call for
silence, all fill the same mold —
dump Nixon. Mr. Broder and Mr.
Nixon do not recognize that the
President is being dumped on
because he deserves it.

Kennedy Quotation

The SDS literature in Newcomb
Hall has a quotation from John F.
Kennedy: "There must be a peaceful
revolution or there will be a
violent revolution." Professor
William Harbaugh calls it the
"sophisticated conservative" viewpoint
— reform if you would
preserve. The Nixon administration
has shown little inclination to do
anything of either; indeed, in a time
of immense upheaval and popular
awareness of political rights, millions
of people feel deprived of any
Presidential leadership at all. The
press criticism and public disapproval
of the present administration
will probably not end until some
substantial things are done about
America's problems. That is the one
fact the administration has not
faced.