Rocky Pushes On

Though he turned 60 last week, Nelson Rockefeller showed all the ebullience of a conventioneering Jaycee as he bounced from coast to coast in a spurt of razzle-dazzle campaigning. He rode a motorized ricksha and a cable car in San Francisco, a trolley in St. Louis, a stern-wheeler on the Ohio near Louisville, and a pea-green convertible in Wall Street. He still was not riding any bandwagon, but in Miami, at least, he got a surprise present: an endorsement from Florida Governor Claude Kirk--the first Southern Governor to support him to date. Then, Pennsylvania's influential former Governor Wil liam Scranton added his praise, calling Rocky "the only Republican whom young people widely support."

To Save Lives. Finally, at week's end, he became the first presidential candidate to outline a step-by-step plan for peace in Viet Nam. The scheme was forthright and eminently reasonable, if perhaps too optimistic about what could be expected from the Communists. It at least gave the voters a clear insight into the candidate's thoughts on the issue. The plan's four stages:

1) A "mutual pullback." North Vietnamese forces move back toward the frontier, U.S. troops to the populated areas. An international force from neu tral nations steps in and a cease-fire begins. As the North Vietnamese fall back, the U.S. withdraws 75,000 troops as "a sure sign of good faith."

2) North Vietnamese leave the South, and the U.S. withdraws the bulk of its forces. An expanded international force moves into populated areas. Then, "as the National Liberation Front renounces force, it is guaranteed participation in the political life" of South Viet Nam. 3) Free elections are held, supervised by international observers. The U.S. withdraws completely, leaving only the international force. 4) "Through direct negotiation, the two parts of Viet Nam decide whether to unite or remain separate," and the international force is withdrawn.

Pattern of Frankness. Little of what Rocky said was new. Some of it bore the stamp of Henry Kissinger, the international affairs scholar and Rockefeller adviser. What was surprising was that he should say anything so specific about Viet Nam at all. Yet it was a pattern of frankness that Rockefeller clearly intended to follow. As he talked privately with delegates, Rocky found face-to-face candor was making more friends than enemies.

There were rebuffs, notably from Richard Nixon and G.O.P. National Chairman Ray Bliss, on Rocky's suggestion that he and Nixon 1) meet in a debate, and 2) sponsor a state-by-state voter poll to test their Electoral College strength. The setbacks did not shake Rocky. He announced on ABC-TV that he had "decided to go ahead anyhow in undertaking a national survey to break out individual states and key cities," even though it might cost him, according to an earlier--and very conservative--estimate, an average of at least $5,000 a state. Such a figure was no longer of little concern to the Governor, whose family has reportedly set a ceiling on its own contribution to Rocky's bid. With the vigorous campaign beginning to press that limit, his new-found friends may be needed for more than moral support.

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