The Press: Lippmann: Philosopher-Journalist

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A more serious weakness was Lippmann's detachment from the mire of human affairs. Comfortable in the company of statesmen and scholars, he did not always comprehend popular emotions or their impact on public policy. Lippmann derided the cold war, arguing reasonably that the Soviet Union and China would inevitably dominate their "orbits" as the U.S. did its own. This view is now grudgingly echoed in U.S. foreign policy, but Lippmann's refusal to give weight to the explosive emotions of the cold war drew much criticism when tensions were at their peak. His writing style was elegant and correct to the last comma, but his artful convolutions sometimes trapped readers between unresolved propositions. Press Critic A.J. Liebling once called Lippmann "perhaps the greatest on-the-one-hand-this writer in the world today."

Whatever Lippmann's gaffes, they were but a small fraction of the 10 million words he committed to print. His column was ultimately syndicated in more than 200 papers; it brought him wealth, honors and worldwide fame. His lean, dignified presence was another of Washington's monuments. An invitation to the home he and his vivacious wife Helen had on Woodley Road, near the National Cathedral, was a command performance (Mrs. Lippmann died in February). Lippmann—called "the autocrat of the dinner table" by awed guests—would lead evening companions through Socratic questions on an encyclopedic range of subjects.

Presidents coveted Lippmann's approval and usually felt obliged to respond to his criticism. Both F.D.R. and Truman lashed out bitterly when Lippmann opposed them. John F. Kennedy and his advisers invited Lippmann's advice and political imprimatur. But when a Lippmann column scolded J.F.K.'s policies, the President fumed and asked intimates why he should bother reading press criticisms of his actions. "Well," he answered himself, "it's still Walter Lippmann."

Never Again. Lippmann's most famous public feud was with Lyndon Johnson. L.B. J. had courted Lippmann's support on the Viet Nam War in the belief that Lippmann could swing the nation's liberals and academics into line; the vilification heaped on Lippmann for his opposition prompted Washington Post Cartoonist Herblock to write of the Johnson Administration's "War on Walter Lippmann."

At the height of public acrimony in 1967, Lippmann gave up his Washington home and moved back to New York. Journalist Marquis Childs recalls Lippmann's dejection at the time: "He was saying 'Never again, never again.' " But he continued to speak out as a contributor to Newsweek and in interviews.

Richard Nixon's diplomatic moves toward China and the Soviet Union won Lippmann's praise, but he lamented the Watergate morass as "the worst scandal in our history."

Crises, however, did not panic him. In a speech 40 years ago he said: "The world will go on somehow, and more crises will follow. It will go on best, however, if among us there are men who have stood apart, who refused to be anxious or too much concerned, who were cool and inquiring, and had their eyes on a longer past and a longer future." He was such a man to the end.