GLEAM IN THE ELEPHANT'S EYE
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By Joseph Hansen
"The day after the 1964 presidential election, political cartoonists in the United States outdid each other on the theme of the Republican elephant, bruised and battered, on crutches and obviously out of the running for a long time to come. Today some of the cartoonists are showing the elephant perking up; the rogue animal even has a gleam in his eye.
What has given hope to the Republicans is Johnson's continued escalation of the war in Southeast Asia. Republican strategists are recalling how the American people reacted after Truman plunged the “country into-the Korean conflict and how the Republican party capitalized on it in 1952. Some Republican aspirants are even. sending up trial balloons labeled "Peace Candidate." aot A good example is. John V. Lindsay, Republican winner of the November: mayoralty contest in New York City, a Democratic party. stronghold. The photogenic mayor was quoted in the January 30. New York Times on the situation.in ‘Vietnam: "The most-unwanted war™ in: American history. :
This was his first: statement on _ foreign policy since last: April when he expressed doubt about the advisability of bombing. north Vietnam. oo
"I've never thought these long-range bombings should be the ‘solttion. at all," he added. "I never thought they would necessarily improve: the situation." . me a pe
“Not to get too far in front of the crowa,: indsay told the Times that he was opposed to withdrawal from Vietnam. "You can't pack your bags up and sneak out..We're committed too deeply." His proposed solution is "solid diplomacy" -~ whatever that means.
“The wheels clicking in Lindsay's ambitious mind. are almost audible. "I have absolutely no interest whatsoever: in running for President...none at all," he assured the reporter of the most influential newspaper in. ‘the: country. , =
This is the conventional opener made by: all prospective can- “didates of both the Democratic and Republican parties when + they set their sights on the White House.
That even the right wing of the Republican party -- notorious in recent years for its warmongering -- is willing to back a "peace candidate" has been indicated by no one less than Vice- President Richard Nixon himself. Lindsay, said Nixon on January 29, ~Wwill be "a national political figure in 1968 or 1972, whether he > likes. it or not.
“Nixon, the hero of the Republican. machine politicians, who.
lost to-Kennedy only by.a hair-line vote in 1960, offered his-.con-sidered judgment of Lindsay: "He'’s.a winner." -- -j.. aoe
The congressional strategists of the Republican party, who | “voice the party's public. positions most authoritatively in.the years when it does not hold the White House, are thinking. along.similar. lines. Tom Wicker, -Washington correspondent of the New York. Times... reported February es that they believe "divisions within the Democratic party and the’ prospect of an expanding land war in Vietnam: may. be giving then a winning political issue against President. Johnson. "
Looking forward hopefully, they. calculate: that the country. may turn against a president "whose party does not fully support him and whose war policy may produce long casualty lists without military victory or a negotiated settlement." Political as well as .con- Stitutional responsibility | for the war will then lie "squarely". on Johnson. , ; oe oo "By 1968, they velieve, Mar - Johnson 3 may..be ‘in political. trouble as a result of bearing that responsibility and the ‘country may be ready to turn to a Republican, just as it turned to General of the Army Dwight ‘Ds _ Eisenhower in i952 ‘during the Korean War.
"In that event, some Republican strategists ‘do not rule, “out the possibility that their party might run a Presidential candidate who would promise to end the~ war. by negotiations, as did- General Eisenhower."
But how ‘could the party ‘that. ran ‘the bomb-— them-now" Goldwater switch to a "peace candidate"? The cynicism of the machine _ politicians of both the Democratic and Republican parties is perhaps even greater than their contempt for the American voter -- which is close to bottomless. The right wing will be blamed for the illstarred | ‘Goldwater. ‘and the liberal wing will be pushed to. the fore, "peace" ‘banners flying. i
Its ‘was with such a contingency in ‘mina that figures like Lindsay remained aloof.from Goldwater and even avoided using the name -of their party as the Arizona senator campaigned for escalating the war in Vietnam. . The liberal Republicans, moreover, are capable of marshaling plausible arguments. Whatever Goldwater said, it was Johnson, after all, who carried out Goldwater's platform, “they can contend; and they are against "Goldwaterism" no matter where. it raises its ugly head. Johnson tan as a "peace candidate" but. proved to:be a war-. monger. That is completely in the tradition of the Democratic party. Woodrow Wilson,, probably the greatest "peace candidate” of them all, set the pattern. He ran on the slogan, "He kept us: out of war." That was in 1916. The following year Wilson took the country into the world's first. great slaughter. ar
Roosevelt, 00, was a "peace: candidate. " Running for his: uunprecedented third term in 1940, he promised the mothers of America
"again and again and again" that he would not send their boys to die in any foreign wars. Nonetheless, he sent quite a few to die in World War Il.
Truman aid not’ run as a "peace candidate" in 1948. He espoused the cold war against the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, out of fear of the- third-party threat represented by Wallace, who favored continu- ~ing Rocsevelt's deals: with Stalin, Truman veered far.to the left, _making demagogic appeals to. the workers and farmers. He looked like ‘a real man of the people; yet he became. the first president to take the country into a major war without first submitting the question to Congress as is required by. the constitution.
Now Johnson, the Democratic "peace candidate" of. 1964, has” followed Truman's example in Korea, maneuvering the United States into the civil war in Vietnam in violation of both the constitution he took an oath to uphold and the United Nations charter. Isn't this pretty decisive proof that the Democratic party is the "war party," no matter how solemnly its. candidates. swear to keep the country out of: war if elected? a re
So. far, the only "peace candidate" to carry out a campaign promise on the war issue has been a Republican -- Eisenhower, who brought the bloody conflict in. Korea to an end.
Such, one may, well imagine, will be the line of argument of the "peace candidates" of the Republican party. It is difficult to see how a Democratic "peace candidate" could put up a stronger case in the vote-snaring contest unless he were to maintain that the Democratic party can be counted on to.take Over - -the Republican platform and really carry it out. Didn't Johnson do it. to perfection in the case -of Goldwater? . .
The schemes and counterschemes of the Republicans and Democrats with regard to the 1968 presidential election are not .of much interest, it must be admitted. They are engaged in nothing but the well-worn fraud of serving as alternatives to each other. As parties committed to maintaining the capitalist system, both are 7 equally responsible for the imperialist aggression in Vietnam. Through Goldwater, in fact, the Republicans greatly facilitated Johnson! Ss belligerent foreign policy.
What is of real. current interest is the antiwar mood of the American people which was registered in a distorted way in the overwhelming vote against Goldwater in 1964 and which stands behind the phenomenal rise of opposition .on a coast-to- -coast scale’ against Johnson’ s escalation of the: war in Vietnam.
‘The Republican machine politicians would, of course, like to take advantage of this. Their immediate interests coincide, moreover, with wider interests which they share in common with ‘the Democrats. A rise in popular opposition to either party, if it is ~extensive enough, potentially threatens the stability of the setup whereby the Democrats: and Republicans periodically relieve each
other when the image they create for themselves by their conduct. in. office becomes too badly tarnished.
To divert dissatisfied voters, ways and means must be found for them to express their discontent within the two-party system. If that is not done, third-party formations or even worse can.arise -an independent labor party or a mass revolutionary-socialist movement .
That is why candidates in either party are capable at times of speaking quite radically. Like the Madison Avenue hucksters, they know their trade. For instance, if "peacé candidates" must be deployed to block formation of an antiwar movement that could achieve genuine péace and much more besides, the Republicans can: be Silane ake on to. loyally do their share.
a Today the Republican elephant, standing - anidst discarded splints and bandages, is trying on "Deace- style" suits for size and looks. And the Democratic donkey, still wearing Goldwater's clothes, now splotched with blood, is looking apprehensively at his. vival. Perhaps he, too, should switch - to. a “Peacenik" outfit?