Partner to Power by K. Ward Cummings

Author:K. Ward Cummings
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781633883161
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Published: 2018-02-01T05:00:00+00:00

II

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As Eisenhower lay unconscious nearly two thousand miles away in Denver, concerns about how the government would function without him were on the minds of everyone in his cabinet. Vice President Nixon was now in the spotlight in a way that he had never been before. All the eyes upon him must have seemed to ask: “Are you in charge? Are you ready?” Ducking into the president’s shadow was no longer an option. Adams, no doubt, felt a similar pressure looking into the eyes of men who regarded him as Eisenhower’s de facto deputy.

Secretary of State Dulles had much to lose from Eisenhower’s absence. A healthy president meant access, influence and recognition as arguably the third most powerful person in the administration. Now, with Eisenhower gone, Dulles was just another member of the cabinet. Worse still, Eisenhower’s absence might mean foreign policy would be made by consensus, which Dulles, who was intent on maintaining control over foreign affairs, could not countenance.

In the fog swirling around the presidency in those critical first days, Dulles would need to move aggressively if he wanted to protect his power. Because of their authority, he perceived Nixon and Adams as real threats. By virtue of their positions in the administration, Nixon and Adams both had arguable claims to leadership of the cabinet. Like a character in a Shakespearean drama, Dulles would need to act swiftly and carefully if he wanted to marginalize Nixon and Adams and preserve his grip on foreign affairs.

Of the two, Dulles was less threatened by Nixon, whom he knew would be too worried about appearing power-hungry to overtly snatch control of foreign affairs from him. Since Nixon’s only real involvement in foreign policy was his participation in meetings of the National Security Council, ordinarily he posed no major threat to Dulles. But as vice president, no one would question him if he decided to take command of the cabinet on behalf of the ailing president. What if he started poking around in Dulles’s secret affairs?

Adams posed a much larger danger. He was seen as the power behind the throne in the White House, and no one would blink if he decided to assume control, on Eisenhower’s behalf, of the one small area of policymaking that he did not already dominate. If necessary, Dulles could tolerate Nixon’s leadership, knowing that his own vast experience would give authority to his complaints if he decided to push back. But it would not be as easy for Dulles to assert himself under Adams—Adams could be prickly. Twenty years in politics had made him an experienced and particularly vicious knife-fighter whose greatest strength may have been his lack of shame. Unlike most people in Washington, Adams was not burdened by ego. He did not care what people thought of him. If he was perceived as rude or callous or even deliberately mean-spirited in the pursuit of presidential business, so be it.

At fifty-nine, Adams was at the pinnacle of staff power in the White House. Though small in stature, he cast a colossal shadow.

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