Visiting Hours

All week Richard Nixon went steadily about the task of being considerably more than a Vice President but substantially less than a President. Again he presided at meetings of the National Security Council and the Cabinet; every day he visited the White House executive offices to confer with presidential aides on day-to-day business; pointedly he announced that the Eisenhower team was carrying on cooperatively without any sign of "internal disputes and jealousies." Time and again he waved away questions on politics, insisting that he would not discuss the political situation until the President is back on the job. But steadily and inevitably, more and more politics began to revolve around him.

Word from the Voters. In Pollster George Gallup's first G.O.P. sounding since President Eisenhower became ill, Republican voters gave Nixon a slim lead for the G.O.P. presidential nomination next year. Gallup's question: "Here is a list of men who have been mentioned as possible presidential candidates in 1956 for the Republican Party. If Eisenhower is not a candidate, which one would you like to see nominated?" The top runners:

Nixon 28%

Earl Warren 24%

Thomas E. Dewey 10%

Harold E. Stassen 10%

John Foster Dulles 9%

In the Vice President's home state there was a growing uproar about his new political position. California's Republican Governor Goodwin J. Knight, irrepressible as ever, made the blatant announcement that he will head a favorite son delegation to the Republican National Convention next year if President Eisenhower does not run, even if that means an open fight with Nixon. This was too much for California's Republican Representative Carl Hinshaw, a friend of Nixon, who said that he was appalled at Knight's "amazing antics" and "fantastic pretensions." Roared Hinshaw: "Except in the ambitious dreams of Mr. Knight, he is something of a political joke in national politics, and it will prove most unfortunate for the Republican Party in California and in the nation if this unseemly and almost indecent haste to exploit the unfortunate illness of President Eisenhower should result in creating a false impression of his real standing."

Letter from Denver. With every development being watched for political implications, a letter that arrived in the Vice President's mail one morning caused political antennas to throb all over the U.S.

"Dear Dick," it began. "I hope you will continue to have meetings of the National Security Council and of the Cabinet over which you will preside in accord with the procedure which you have followed at my request in the past during my absence from Washington. As ever, Dwight D. Eisenhower." Some of Nixon's detractors took a long reach and said this was merely the President's way of keeping Nixon in his place. But two days later there was another announcement from Denver: the President had called the Vice President to a bedside conference.

At week's end the Vice President flew out of Washington's National Airport on a military plane to visit his chief. When the plane landed at Lowry Air Force base, Nixon stepped into a waiting sedan and was whisked off to the hospital. Less than two hours after his arrival, after a talk with the physicians, he walked into the President's room.

Report to the Chief. The visitor took a hard-backed hospital chair and moved it near the foot of the bed so that the patient, whose head was slightly elevated, could see him without strain. For 15 minutes the two talked quietly about how the Administration was functioning in the President's absence. Later Nixon explained to reporters: "I told him that no action had been taken that would not have been taken if he had been present, and that the business of government was going forward--in my opinion, and in the opinion of his close associates in the Cabinet--in exactly the same manner it would have gone forward if he had been present. I also told the President that he, as the man who had selected those who served in his official family, would have been gratified by their performance during this period."

The Vice President reported on the meetings of the National Security Council and the Cabinet, discussed such matters as the forthcoming White House conference on discrimination in employment and the planned visit to the U.S. of Guatemalan President Carlos Castillo Armas. There was one subject they did not talk about, said the Vice President. "There was no discussion of the future as far as political problems were concerned."

How did the President look? "Well, frankly, I was surprised to see how well he looked. I had heard from Sherman Adams and from Jim Hagerty and also the doctors that I would probably be very pleasantly surprised by what I saw. And I certainly was. He not only looked good, but in addition his spirit was tops. As I see it, speaking just as a layman, I think the major problem with the President in his recovery is to hold him down."

Next day the Vice President sat in on the medical consultations with the President's physicians. After that, with Sherman Adams, he again visited the President to discuss what problems and what Government officials Mr. Eisenhower wants to deal with personally in the coming weeks. Then Richard Nixon flew back to the job in Washington. In his second week as the acting captain of the Eisenhower team, he had performed with a tact and a sureness that added substantially to his growing stature on the U.S. political scene.

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