Richard Nixon's Morale Booster

By Hugh Sidey

THE PRESIDENCY

They call him Dr. Happiness. He is in charge of giving Richard Nixon a fortnightly fix of cheer.

Bruce Herschensohn, 41, is an engaging and talented deputy special assistant to the President, the man in charge of handling support-the-President petitions, phone calls and team members.

He was up the street in the Old Ebbitt Grill the other day, eating his way through one of their succulent cheeseburgers, when a Nixon enthusiast tracked him down and poured out the litany of presidential loyalty. Herschensohn is used to such intrusions. He has been pursued into his home after hours. At hotel stops there are often lists waiting for him -- names of the Nixon hard core who are rising to do battle in this time of the impeachment crunch. He loves it. He loves Nixon.

Last week the former film director phoned up two California housewives, Mrs. Bernice Pantell and Mrs. Beverly Acker: "The President would like to visit with you tomorrow noon," said Herschensohn. "He realizes the time is short, and he will understand if you cannot come." By 11 p.m. the two Lafayette ladies had arranged for the care of their families, dipped into personal accounts for the $384 plane tickets, jammed 48,000 signatures of presidential support into three valises and were on the red-eye flight to Washington.

By 11 a.m. they were being revived with executive coffee. Just before noon they walked into the White House west wing. The door to the Oval Office opened. "I remember the tulips in bloom through the windows and one of the most direct I-don't-have-anything-to-hide looks I've ever encountered," said Mrs. Pantell. They thanked one another, chatted, posed, all in a few minutes. "Keep the faith," Nixon told them as they left. They will.

"It's a morale booster for the President," says Herschensohn. "Last October he said that when he had time, he would like to see and thank some of the people doing so much for him." In this time when the usual run of White House news is poor to dismal, those brief interludes are more frequent.

"We do nothing for the people except talk to them," insists Herschensohn. "If we did anything else we would be accused of orchestrating the effort. We are not. It is virginal." Those who phone and write and see the President are convinced that they may be a national majority unnoticed by the media.

For the presidential audiences, Herschensohn taps those who have put out the greatest effort. He brings them first to his high-ceilinged chamber in the Executive Office Building. It sets the tone with its elegant blue-gray walls, view of the White House, and medallions, statuettes and busts of Herschensohn's heroes: Nixon (several), Lincoln (two), Churchill, Washington, Moshe Dayan, Beethoven and a miniature Mt. Rushmore. If he can, Herschensohn takes his delegations first to the Cabinet Room. The moment is profound, rising to fortissimo on Nixon's blue and gold oval rug with the woven Presidential Seal.

Four men from Missouri, including retired Ad Executive W. Marshall Giesecke, dropped off four cartons of 34,000 responses to their national campaign for support that included ads in 69 newspapers. "The New York Times got the worst damned response of all of them," reported Giesecke with a distinct twinge of pleasure. The visitors handed Nixon a letter from a 72-year-old lady imploring the President to "stay in there and fight." Nixon beamed. "Well, what do you know about that."

Sometimes the folks just come to Herschensohn's office with their signatures even if they cannot see the President. Last week Herschensohn was looking at a large carton left by Richard Vail of San Diego. Vail told him to log in the 22,000 names supporting Nixon, then send them for double impact to Congressman Peter Rodino's Judiciary Committee, which is studying impeachment. "Oh, no," said Herschensohn. "I can't do that."

"For the next couple of weeks," mused Herschensohn, "I will be thinking about the problem of how to move 85 pounds of support 1 1/2 miles up the Hill and do it ethically. I'll come up with something."

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