Back to Life

Richard Nixon arose from the wreckage of his political career--and found that life, after all, is not just a bed of razor blades. Last week, in his first public appearance since last November, he got warm applause after question-and-answer sessions in private clubs in New York and Chicago, held a jovial press conference in Chicago, and appeared on television with Jack Paar.

Insisting that he would "never again run for any public office," Nixon spoke out as "an individual citizen." Most particularly, he criticized the Kennedy Administration's handling of Cuba, and the failure to provide sufficient air cover over the Bay of Pigs. Said he: "When the suggestion is made that President Eisenhower may or may not have planned air cover, I would only suggest this: I cannot imagine the General, who planned the greatest invasion in history, the invasion of Normandy, allowing those 1,500 brave Cubans to go into the Bay of Pigs there without having first destroyed the enemy air power or providing air cover." Nixon also offered his current solution for Cuba: throw up a "partial blockade" to cut off oil shipments to Castro, which would "have the effect, probably, of bringing the Communist government down."

Aside from Cuba, Nixon said that New York's Nelson Rockefeller looks most likely for the 1964 Republican presidential nomination, that President Kennedy can be defeated next year if G.O.P. leaders "learn to enjoy fighting the Kennedy Administration as much as they seem to enjoy fighting each other."

For Nixon it was an immensely pleasant week. At New York's University Club, he appeared before 500 persons, the largest turnout since Winston Churchill spoke there 17 years ago. On the taped Paar show, Nixon joked easily and played an original tune on the piano. Said he to Jack: "You asked whether I had any future political plans to run for anything. If last November didn't finish this, this will, because believe me, the Republicans don't want another piano player in the White House."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.