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Summaries of Meetings Between
Milton Katz and President Eisenhower
from the
Milton Katz Papers
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Credit:
Hessler Studio, Wash., DC. |
April 27, 1956
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During this 1956 meeting, as summarized by Katz, Eisenhower
spoke about his recent heart attack and the danger of a recurrence:
"From a purely personal point of view, he was not in the least
disturbed. On the contrary, he rather inclined to the view that an
abrupt death while in harness was by all odds the most satisfactory
way to go." But the President admitted that the question of succession
was his "constant anxiety." He spent much of the meeting
discussing Vice President Richard M. Nixon and his qualifications
for the Presidency. In response to a question from Katz, the President
acknowledged that "he was not entirely sure just what made Nixon
tick." He went on to say that if Nixon had voluntarily withdrawn
as a candidate for reelection, Governor Christian Herter of Massachusetts
would have been his first choice for a running mate in 1956. |
January 21, 1960
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Katz's handwritten memorandum of their 1960 meeting
relates how Eisenhower discussed the leading candidates to succeed
him in that year's election. Nixon, he thought, was "a decent
man" who could be counted upon to continue the major foreign
and domestic policies of the Eisenhower administration. However, the
President stated that it was impossible to tell how Nixon would respond
to "real responsibility." Nelson Rockefeller, he believed,
lacked Nixon's experience, but could make a good President in the
future. Of the Democrats who might be elected President in 1960, Eisenhower
said that he would "feel least unhappy about [Adlai] Stevenson,"
who "might make a pretty good President," although he was
overly addicted to "phrase-making." He dismissed John F.
Kennedy as "a man of no real stature or weight." Lyndon
Johnson he regarded as "an able man in a number of ways, but
almost never direct and forthright, typically devious." At the
mention of Hubert Humphrey's name, the President "shrugged and
threw up his hands in a gesture of mock horror," adding "that
he felt the South would never accept him." Eisenhower also expressed
little enthusiasm for the candidacy of Senator Stuart Symington.
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