Picking the Veep

In the midst of President Eisenhower's press conference last week, James Reston of the New York Times reached back into recent political history for a footnote on how Vice Presidents are made. "Could you recall for us, sir, what your role was in the selection of Mr. Nixon for Vice President?" Reston asked the President. "Was he ... your personal selection?"

The President answered the question with typical frankness. "My experience in politics has been a little intensive, even if short," he said wryly. "And the first thing I knew about . . . any presidential nominee having any great influence in the vice-presidential selection was, I think, about the moment that I was nominated." On that instant, Ike recalled, he was asked to name his running mate, and "I said I would not do it--I didn't know enough about the things that had been going on in the United States. I had been gone two years. And so I wrote down the names of five, or maybe it was six, men, younger men that I admired, that seemed to me to have made a name for themselves. And I said, 'Any one of these will be acceptable to me,' and he [Nixon] was on the list."

The President's recollection was correct, except for a few details. Actually his first concern on winning the nomination was for the man who lost. It was not until after he had called at the headquarters of the late Robert A. Taft and had shaken his hand that Ike got around to the subject of vice presidential possibilities. Back in his own suite in Chicago's Blackstone Hotel, Ike sat down with Herbert Brownell, General Lucius Clay and a few other top advisors to discuss the business at hand. Eisenhower said he had only one thought: he wanted a younger man, not a tired figurehead.

Candidate Eisenhower refused to dictate a choice, but he did sit down at his desk and, after a few minutes of reflection, jotted down a list of seven names. As he handed the list to Brownell, Ike made it clear that it was not necessarily binding or exclusive. The list: 1) Richard Nixon, 2) Henry Cabot Lodge, 3) Governor Dan Thornton of Colorado, 4) Governor Arthur Langlie of Washington, 5) New Jersey's Alfred E. Driscoll, 6) Senator William Knowland, 7) Harold Stassen. With the list in hand, Brownell hurried over to Eisenhower headquarters on the eleventh floor of the Conrad Hilton Hotel and called a meeting of some 30 top Ikemen. Among those attending: Tom Dewey, Lucius Clay, Arthur Summerfield (then G.O.P. National Chairman), Henry Cabot and John Davis Lodge, Maryland's Governor Theodore McKeldin, Pennsylvania's Senator Jim Duff.

The meeting, which lasted for three hours, was like a tiny convention, with nominations, arguments for and against candidates, a final vote. A number of the candidates were quickly eliminated: Cabot Lodge could not be spared from the looming battle over his Senate seat (which he lost to John Kennedy); Thornton and Langlie were also needed at home; Alfred Driscoll was a fading political light. Bill Knowland, with both the Democratic and Republican nominations in his pocket, had a sure seat in the Senate and was too closely identified with Bob Taft. Illinois' Ev Dirksen, whose name was also mentioned, was too far to the political right.*

Finally, the conferees agreed on the general profile of their nominee: he must be young, liberal, forceful, and from either the East or West Coast--with West preferred. Only one man filled the outlines. Brownell picked up the telephone and talked to Ike, across the street. Candidate Eisenhower approved the conferees' choice. That evening Dick Nixon was formally nominated by acclamation.

* The abrasive name of Dirksen, who had insulted Tom Dewey in a convention speech, was brought up under a curious circumstance but never seriously considered. Shortly after the meeting began, Senator Frank Carlson got a message that Robert Taft would like to talk to him. Carlson left the conference, and Taft told him that, although he had no right to ask it, he had promised immediately prior to the convention that Dirksen's name would be considered for the vice-presidency. Would Carlson, as a favor, nominate Dirksen so that Taft could honor his promise? Carlson would and did.

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