National Affairs: The Strain of Waiting

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While Marshall was still Secretary of Defense, he sometimes brought up the subject during his transatlantic telephone calls to Eisenhower. Last July his trusted aide, Assistant Defense Secretary Anna Rosenberg, took off for Europe on a quick "inspection trip" and talked the matter over personally at SHAPE headquarters. On another occasion, Connecticut's Fair-Dealing Senator Brian McMahon, a White House favorite, carried Ike the same tempting message. Harry Truman himself may have told Ike in Washington last November that he could have house with the Democrats (TIME, Nov. 12). To all such urgings, even the most hopeful Democrats admit, Ike has thus far answered with a firm no. But could he refuse the call if the Democratic convention drafted him to run against Robert Taft?

How Long? Duff, Lodge & Co. were as certain as ever that things would never reach that pass. But the strain of waiting was beginning to tell. In Kansas, which claims Ike as a favorite son, one Eisenhower pillar said last week: "If Ike is not available, we will move over to Taft. The important thing to do is to win the election." Said another: "People come to me and ask, 'How long can we wait?' "

The fact was that they could wait a lot longer than they thought they could. There was still nothing wrong with the Ike campaign that couldn't be soothed with one little yes. But as 1952 unrolled toward convention time, all the logic in the world couldn't keep a politico from getting jumpy.