Word: dirksens
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Medusaean Tanqle. The White House was deeply disturbed by the Republicans' rising criticism of the war, but no more so than was Senate Minority Leader Everett M. Dirksen. Aside from the fact that he approves of the Administration's policies, Dirksen believes that it is good politics for the G.O.P. to sit back quietly while Democrats cut one another up over Viet Nam. Thus, when the White House asked him to see whether he could rein in the rampaging Republicans, the Senator from Illinois was more than willing...
Armed with a fact sheet supplied by the State Department, Dirksen rose last week before 33 colleagues-an exceptional turnout-to begin Capitol Hill's most heated Viet Nam debate in months. He began, as he almost always does, in a barely audible rumble, praising the 30 nations that are helping in Viet Nam, reminding his fellow Senators that their dissent gives American G.I.s the feeling that they are "forgotten men." Without naming him, he rebuked Morton for remarking that the President had been "brainwashed" into seeking a solely military solution to the war. "It don't sound...
Warming up, Dirksen waved his arms and pounded his desk. He leaned so close to Assistant Republican Leader Thomas Kuchel that the Californian was practically horizontal at his desk. He shook his head so emphatically that his carefully coiffed mane soon flew askew in a Medusaean tangle of curls. "Our outer defense perimeter started in Korea and went to South Viet Nam," he said. "That is our outside security line. Suppose it fails. It will run from Alaska to Hawaii." Thundered Dirksen, his voice now at full volume: "Let me say that I was not made a Senator to preside...
Yelping Dogs. After Dirksen had finished, Foreign Relations Committee Chairman J. William Fulbright rose, three seats away. For more than an hour, the two men exchanged caustic rhetoric...
...Dirksen conceded that Viet Nam, like any war, had created "stresses-spiritual, moral and emotional." But, he added, "we are up against a decision of some kind. Do we quit? Do we retreat? Do we go ahead to a victory? Do we descalate?" His answer to the last was negative. "If we do, I think that we throw away whatever leverage we have," he said. "I learned long ago that it is the hit dog that yelps. They are being hit. They are being hurt, and they are beginning to yelp...