Ike, Dick and Barry

(When Eisenhower and Nixon meet Goldwater, it's news. As the three conferred in a Manhattan hotel room last week a CRIMSON reporter hid between the slats of the radiator to produce this transcript of the conversation.)

GOLDWATER: Hello, Mr. President.

EISENHOWER: Hello, uh, uh, Senator Goldwater. Did you have a nice vacation?

GOLDWATER: Yes indeed, thank you. How's the law practice, Dick?

NIXON: The...? Oh, fine, thank you, Barry, just fine. You know, I hate to be the first to get down to business, as it were, but I think we ought to get started on this topic of unity. As I see it, Barry and I differ not as a matter of ends, but of means. It's my opinion, and I mean this sincerely, that I have great respect for you, Barry. And I want to add that Pat does too. It's my feeling too, that the party should not be led by extremists of the right or the left, but that we should lend it from the middle. I hasten to a ld, and I hope this remark will not be misunderstood, that I have always considered my position a middle ground.

EISENHOWER: Well, that's an interesting question, this one of unity. I won't answer this question, but I will say this: there are many fine people in this party and a good many of them have their own opinions about things. There are many approaches that could be taken to this problem; essentially this business of unity is a pretty diverse one.

GOLDWATER: Uh huh.

NIXON: You know, Barry, I find it difficult to phrase this quite the way I want to, and I know that words often fail us at times like this. I have the greatest respect for you, and for Peggy too, and I hope you'll come over soon and have dinner with Pat and me. But--and of course there are many different points of view, of which mine is only one--you really got clobbered, didn't you?

GOLDWATER: Well, we just don't look at it that way, Dick. We on the team looked it over, and we've decided that we really had quite a little success. Now you know, Mr. President, we got 26 million votes. That's as many as you got, give or take a few million. Then, we carried six states, which is quite a lot when you consider that we might not have carried as many...

EISENHOWER: Well, I'm not sure I get all of that, Senator, but it certainly sounds interesting. That campaign... I just couldn't figure it out. There were-issues... but they just didn't seem clear to me. My brother...

GOLDWATER: I remember. Yeah, how is your brother?

EISENHOWER: Fine, thanks. My brother said he didn't understand the issues, and I've always considered him the intellectual in the family.

NIXON: Yes, I think this all ties in with this business of unity. It was much easier back when we simply could call on our members to take a stand for an against aid to education, for an against foreign aid--or both.

EISENHOWER: I have trouble picturing one aspect of all this, I should say. There is this difficulty that the formulation of this presents: I wonder if any of you could tell me what kind of leader would best personify the kind of unity we need? I know we have many fine, capable young men in the party...

GOLDWATER: Well, I should say that obviously we need someone who is a resident of a basic Republican center of power: Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, Georgia, or Arizona.

NIXON: Well, now I'm not sure I agree with that. Of course I have great respect for your position, Barry, but I wonder if we aren't a little off in our estimate. This was, after all, an unusual year. Johnson is a popular President and I think it can be said that the country didn't want three Presidents within 11 months. In a more normal year, perhaps the center of power--from where we should, I think with all respect, draw our candidate--will shift back to, say, California and New York.

GOLDWATER: There's another important thing, Dick. I'm sure you realize that except for the President here, we Republicans haven't had a winning candidate since Hoover. Now I'm sure of why that is: it seems to me that because we have put up "me-too" candidates, the voters who are our real strength, the conservative backbone of the nation, stayed home and didn't vote. These people are a majority of the country. Now last time, unfortunately, a bit of bad weather here and there kept some of them away from the polls. And of course the press kept some of them from realizing that a real conservative was running this time: they just didn't let on. But nonetheless, of course, it was a great tribute to a great cause that we did as well as we did.

NIXON: Gee, Barry, I'm not sure our candidates have all been me-too types. I mean Landon was a fine fellow, a fine Republican, and Willkie, and Dewey, and the President here and (pause) I suppose a few others, too.

GOLDWATER: We seem to have reached a stalemate here, Mr. President, uh... (At this point he leaned over and shook Eisenhower gently).

EISENHOWER: Yes. Now as I was saying, this is a difficult question, and one we all ought to study further. Why don't we say so in a press release and stop now?

GOLDWATER: But what shall we say about Dean Burch?

EISENHOWER: Let's just say we had a full discussion, but we haven't made up our mind.