Ike's Health (different than D4 with same name), C2, Drew Pearson Films, Washington Merry-Go-Round.

[music] >> Today, ladies and gentlemen, I want to report to you on the connivance of certain politicians to deceive the American public about the health of our presidents and the custom of picking a successor to a president out of a political grab bag. Today, the US government is such a complicated machine and our power in the world is so great that if a president dies or his health fails, it can affect the lives of millions. It can mean the difference between prosperity and a stock market crash, between peace and war. Nevertheless, we pick the man who takes his place, the vice president, almost by sheer accident. The voters have almost nothing to say about who he should be. Yet, we have to face the awesome fact that seven of our presidents out of 34, 1/5, have died in office. Furthermore, they now die younger. While the average American today lives longer, the average American president dies younger as a result of the crushing burden of directing the most powerful nation in the world. And while the Secret Service has developed an efficient technique of protecting the president from bodily harm, the politicians have been equally efficient in deceiving the public about the state of his health. To illustrate in detail, I'll be back in just a minute. Now, both political parties have erred grievously in concealing the true facts about the health of our presidents. When Woodrow Wilson was first stricken, Mrs. Wilson and Joe Tumulty concealed the facts for weeks. Tumulty even used to walk into the presidential office in front of the newspaper men on the pretense that Wilson was at his work at his desk. Later in 1944, one of the most tragic deceptions in history was put across when the big Democratic city bosses sent Franklin Roosevelt on a cruise to Alaska so no one would realize how sick he was. And then nominated their man, Harry Truman, as the vice president sure to take his place. They knew that Roosevelt could not possibly last his term. Now the men who did that were Democrats. But let's see what the Republican politicians did to conceal the true facts about Eisenhower. In the first place, it was known before Eisenhower became a definite candidate that he had high blood pressure. John Gunther in his very favorable book tells about it on page 29. And Kay Summersby, the British wife who watched Ike's health so carefully during the war, describes the same thing in her book, Eisenhower Was My Boss. She tells how Ike always had to be careful about his health even during the war. And in Paris in 1952, just before he was to leave his command of SHAPE to campaign for the Republican nomination, the men around him began their first minor deception of the American public. 10 days before General Matthew Ridgway was to relieve him, Eisenhower was taken sick. And his American Army doctor gave him antibiotics. Ike, however, got worse. He developed pinkeye, became delirious, and talked about moving troops and calling emergency meetings of the General Staff. A group of Republican leaders were in Paris waiting to talk to him about his campaign. They were told that he was in highly secret conferences with NATO nations regarding the defense of Europe. Meanwhile, the French government wanted to arrange an official farewell. The newspaper men wanted a final press conference. The public was expecting him to turn up at the airport to welcome General Ridgeway, the hero of Korea. Finally, Ike's military advisers were served notice by Arthur Vandenberg Jr. that no excuse was valid. And unless the general could be present at a farewell press conference, he, Vandenberg, would cable Senator Henry Cabot Lodge to withdraw Eisenhower's name from nomination. Well, at this point, a French specialist was called in who diagnosed the case as an overdose of antibiotics. And shortly thereafter, Eisenhower began to improve. Though very weak, he was finally able to meet General Ridgeway at the airport. Though his car was rushed into the privacy of a nearby airplane hangar immediately to let him rest and relax. Well, that incident began a long chain of deliberate deceptions regarding the president's health. The only man who was frank during this period was Eisenhower himself. He repeatedly talked about his bursitis, about the erosion of health, and emphatically made it clear that he did not want to run again. And that Mamie insisted that he not run. Now, no one could have been more candid. But the more candid he was, the more the men around him became desperate to counteract the president's frankness. On August 4, 1953, 2 years ago, in explaining why the president had to take long weekends and get away for golf and fishing, I reported that he had a heart condition. Well, that brought an immediate official denial from the White House, issued by press secretary James Hagerty. He didn't want the public to know the true facts. Again, on November 21, 1953, General Snyder, his personal doctor, gave a similar denial before the New York Heart Association. He said, "The president's cardiovascular system has been thoroughly examined by specialists at approximately annual intervals. In all these examinations, the findings indicate that our president shows less evidence of the ravages of time and stress than is anticipated in a man of his age." Nevertheless, the president continued to indicate the truth. In December, 1954, he made it very clear to friends at a White House stag dinner that he was not going to run again. Vice President Nixon was there, together with Attorney General Brownell, Republican Chairman Leonard Hall, and others. They argued with Eisenhower at great length, urging him to run. But he indicated very strongly that he would not, that he wanted to go up to Gettysburg and relax. Yet, a day or two later, Vice President Nixon inspired a newspaper story exactly to the contrary. It said quite categorically that Eisenhower had met with friends at a White House dinner and agreed to run. A deliberate deception of the public. At the dinner, Eisenhower had even discussed certain promising young men in the Republican Party who should be built up as candidates to take his place. But Republican Chairman Leonard Hall, who was at the dinner, did nothing about following the president's advice. On the contrary, he made repeated statements that the president was definitely going to run. And when he was asked quite recently what he would do if I didn't run, Hall replied, "I'll jump off that bridge when I come to it. Well, Chairman Hall, of course, was joking, but it is no joke to leave one political party completely unprepared. The essence of the American way of life, of the American political system, is competition. Competition between two strong political parties, and the chairman of one does it and the American public a great disfavor when he lets it get weak and unprepared. Well, finally, Eisenhower took steps to have said publicly what he'd been saying privately, that he wanted to go up to Gettysburg and relax with his grandchildren. When a delegation of Ohio politicians came to see him, he pointedly reminded them, including Senator George Bender, of the erosions of the president's health and the fact that he would be the only president ever to reach the age of 70 in office if he ran. Then he suggested that they tell this to the press as they left the White House. But the Ohio politicians did not tell the press, at least at first. They didn't tell the press until the White House secretary reminded them of Ike's wishes. Like Chairman Hall and the other Republican politicians, they did not want the public to know the politically unpalatable truth. Finally, in Denver, as the 48 Republican National Committeemen met to receive a supposed pep talk from Ike for the next campaign, a chill fell over them when he warned them not to depend on him. Again, the president was being honest. The politicians were being dishonest. I'll be back in a minute to report on what can be done about these political deceptions. As I noted a few minutes ago, 1/5 of our presidents have died in office. Yet we continue picking our vice presidents not for ability, but by pure luck or the whim of a few politicians late at night in a smoke-filled room. Nothing could be more unfair to the American people. Some vice presidents, such as Jack Garner and Charley Dawes, were at odds with their chiefs. Some vice presidents are much too young and lack the confidence of the American people. Mr. Nixon, when only 39 years old, was picked because it was thought he could swing the big block of California delegates over to Ike, which he failed to do. Eisenhower at that time had scarcely met him, had no idea that Nixon had an $18,000 personal expense fund, which was to cause serious embarrassment later. Now, the vice president usually is picked not for ability to run this complicated government of ours, but for the purpose of balancing the ticket politically. With Adlai Stevenson from the north, the Democrats picked Senator Sparkman of Alabama from the deep south. They passed over Senator Kefauver, a much stronger candidate, because Harry Truman was then sorted. Now, the national convention, in its haste to get home, doesn't realize that the man it selects for vice president in one case out of five, I repeat, one case out of five, may end up running our intricate machinery of government. So, here are my predictions. First, I predict that legislation will be introduced by Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon requiring every candidate for president to take a thorough examination by public health doctors, so as to give the voters the truth, regardless of the politicians. Second, I predict that the next Congress will consider very carefully a resolution by which the nominee for vice president must be debated and scrutinized by the national conventions for at least 24 hours before picking the man who, in case of tragedy, steps into the all-important job of running this nation and making democracy live. >> [music] [music]