Private Citizen, Public Views

Manhattan Lawyer Thomas E. Dewey, insistently a private citizen, slipped into the White House for an hour-long talk with President Eisenhower last week, chatted with newsmen on the way out, and unfolded some highly public opinions.

In reply to the long-bouncing rumor that he would soon succeed John Foster Dulles* as Secretary of State, Dewey said: "Secretary Dulles will be here for the duration. We've got a fine Secretary of State. He's going to stay until 1960, so far as I know."

Turning to 1960 Republican presidential possibilities, Dewey saw Vice President Richard Nixon as a "superb" candidate. He protested that this was no presidential endorsement for Nixon ("they're all good men"), but he gave notably shorter shrift to others. Said he of retired General Alfred Gruenther: "I don't know him well." And of California's Senator William Knowland and Hardy Perennial Harold Stassen: "I haven't seen them campaigning."

As for himself, there was "not a scintilla of a possibility" that Tom Dewey would be trying again for the White House in 1960. Said Lawyer Dewey. slipping away: "I'm an empty barrel."

* Who last week, just a year after surgery for intestinal cancer, returned to the Walter Reed Army Hospital for a checkup, was released with an "excellent" bill of health.

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