Word: krock
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Before General Eisenhower took off from Paris for the U.S., the New York Times's Washington bureau chief, Arthur Krock, had an inside prediction for his readers. "The American people may as well brace themselves for the heaviest deluge yet of dope stories about [Eisenhower's] political intentions and future," he wrote. "Nor will there be lacking the 'inside story' with details and quotes to force the conclusion that the narrator was under the bed all the time...
Last week, as Ike flew back to Paris, it was Krock himself who furnished the "inside story" that stirred up the greatest amount of controversy. Harry Truman, said Krock, offered Ike the Democratic nomination for President in 1952. Ike didn't flatly say no, but he implied as much by declaring he could never run on the Fair Deal domestic platform...
...Campaign. The offer climaxed a long campaign by certain Democrats to capture Ike from the Republicans, Krock went on. One Democratic emissary had gone to Paris within the last five weeks to promise Ike the unanimous endorsement of the Democratic Convention if he would accept. Ike's quoted reply was: "You can't join a party just to run for office. What reason have you to think I have ever been a Democrat...
...Krock had a shocker for the Republicans, too. "Intimates of the general" say that Ike plans to talk with Bob Taft before the convention to see whether they can't reach a middle-of-the-road agreement on their differences. (Biggest difference: aid to Europe.) If they agree, then Ike might support Taft as the nominee...
Whodunit? The whole story gave Washington the political shakes. Harry Truman virtually called Krock a liar. Said Truman: "There's not a word of truth in it-that's my only comment." Snapped a spokesman at Ike's headquarters: "purely fictional." Krock stuck by his guns and identified his source as an "eminent Northern Democrat" who is "thoroughly reliable and informed...