European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 16, 1968, Darmstadt, Hesse                              The stars and stripes log 9 Nixon keeps his Cool for new crisis by Max Lerner the lost pre Elaml stretch the Prosl i Campaign which cd Ltd off lne i Brt Kennedy s death May pc of up again. Of nor if Richard a tort am wilp it. To hat wined Oil through Iho Yar from a to Pena. I tool it i " a Herf a from what a colled in we of Phy the the Erines of i lift thou Thoro a r danger in too intense a Light to or other baling in on him. Up Coful attention carefully organized wherever he goes a. A succession of quiet orderly Fri Mph in Tho primaries with i " on Fth h""1 in solitary splendor yes. But none of thu Tate by state Law poll that Nelson Rockefeller has taken to see How each would pull state wide against Hubert Humphrey and Eugene Mccarthy. No hot intense confrontation not at least until after the Conven Tion have picked who will confront whom. H. L. Mencken who both despised poli tic in a democracy and delighted in it used to say that he preferred politicians to professors. The politicians to said sweated More. It depends on the politicians and on the life phase they Are in. Nixon used to sweat and bleed Deal heavy blows with Cudgel or rapier inflict scars and suffer them lose his temper go off on a ranting rage As he did with the press after his 1962 California defeat for governor. But that wait six crises and six lives ago. Now in his seventh incarnation Nixon is super humanly Cool. No blood no scars no tears no sweat. Mencken would t like the seventh Nixon. I confess i used to work up More of a sweat about the first six Nixon than was Good for my own Cool. In a Way it was a tribute to him or them. I took Nixon very seriously on his own terms As a his tory shaper. I have changed too. I now see the new Nixon not As history but As documentary about the state of America. If it is True As a current commentary puts it that the Case against Nixon has been made so repeatedly that it belongs in the smithsonian it is also True that Nixon s survival through his successive deaths and lives proves something about the republicans if not about the whole american people. My Friend Carl Bode at the University of Maryland puts it Best in formulating a third Law of politics error crushed to Earth will Rise again. Nixon himself would doubtless revise this Law Back to its original banality truth crushed to Earth Etc. I have forgotten and forgiven Nixon Many things that belong in the smithsonian. But i find it hard to Over look his preference for Tho banal at against the paradoxical and his Reading of history not As tragedy nor even As farce but As something he reduces to his own personal crises just As he reduced his de feat by John Kennedy to the dimension of to gimmickry and his California defeat to the malevolence of the press. Nixon has succeeded almost miraculously in overcoming the loser image that he sought to vanquish so much so that a natural Ronald Reagan supporter like William Buckley now quotes Nixon reverently As if the Man who had presided Over the unmaking of a mayor was now confident that he is through with being an attendant lord at the unmaking of a presi Dent. I think that Bill after All those lean years of defeat finally catches the scent of the fat oxen of Victory. Political theorists have Long been fascinated by the cyclical theory of presidential history that Public opinion despite minor fluctuations moves in Large cyclical arcs. By this theory after two democratic presi dents if is time for the Republican Cycle. Waiter Lippmann for example seems to feel that the country is Bent on punishing the democrats for the vietnamese War Blunder and while Rockefeller would beat Humphrey More resoundingly Nixon too would squeeze through. This is i suspect the kind of widespread attitude that Nixon is depending on to carry him to Victory. I Don t share it but that in t the Point. The Point is that a majority of the republicans do. They Are a minority party one poll shows Only 27 per cent declared republicans 27 per cent independents the rest Democrat but they feel that 1968 is their year. If they Felt in a tighter squeeze the re publicans might take to Rockefeller who offers them a big Independent and even democratic vote. But because they smell Victory they won t open their minds hearts or wallets to Rockefeller. They feel he is not truly a Republican while Nixon through All his lives and deaths and rebirths has been one of their own. Their calculation might work. But the fact that there is so much rapport today Between Nixon and the republicans does t move me. It May just be the particular Way that a perverse history has chosen to reas Sert in 1968, the Long standing suicide impulse of the Republican party. Violence panel wasted finish it by All Means then put it away for four years.1 by Clayton Fritchey Washington at the conclusion of its first week of hear Ings it is obvious that the presi Dent s new commission on the causes and prevention of violence has no coherent idea of what it is supposed to do or rather what there is left for it to do. Or. Milton Eisenhower the chairman invited a brain Bank of experts in sociology history and Law to Washington and told them that we must rely on you to direct us to the important work that has already been done in the Field of violence and to fell us what work Stilt needs to be  if he instead had summoned Princeton prof. Eric f. Goldman a former special assistant to presi Dent Johnson he could have got All the answers the commission needs in one Brief letter that Goldman wrote for the president four years ago on june 12, 1964, to be exact. The letter addressed to a Friend of Johnson a read As follows the president has asked me to thank you for your memorandum in which you propose a presidential commission to study Vio Lence in the United states. Of course he shares your con Fern and agrees with your objective but he does not feel that he establishment of such a com a Mission at the present time would y Wise. For one thing there is danger in establishing too Many commissions because that lends to dilute their effectiveness in Public opinion. For another thing we already know so much about be Root causes of violence that � � difficult to see How such a commission would add a Groat Eal to our knowledge. The problem seems to be less o need for further study than for action to get of in causes of viol poverty inadequate education Etc " if the president View was then and it wait it eve we Vollda today for he has done much in the intervening years to amplify our knowledge of crime and violence and their cause and cure. The exhaustive report of the president s National commission on crime 1966 is an incomparable study of its kind. The More recent 1968 report of the presi Dent s National advisory commis Sion on civil disorders is equally comprehensive and forthright. They have left the new commis Sion on violence Little to do. Since the panel is now in be ing however it could Render a service by trying to discover Why most of the constructive Intelli gent recommendations of the other commissions have not been implemented and it could Render a further service by trying to arouse fresh support for them. Russian system of Rule shaken by czechs in Honlon b. � a column Wewt a tie by the  it vew mint. By Flora Lewis Prague the inner Story of the sudden czech lunge for liberalism is enlightening but not Only for what is happening in Prague. The questions being asked Here make it no wonder that Moscow is deeply shaken. On the surface it would seem that the russians Are overreacting. Prague is doing everything to show that it has no intention of challenging the soviets no intention of abandoning communism. On the contrary the leaders forcing change say and doubtless believe that All they Are doing is trying to make communism really work. But in saying it they also admit openly that it never has worked. That in itself it a heresy of course. More important is the Way Tho czech communists arrived at that heresy because unlike the challenges that have com to Moscow from Yugoslavia Romania and Hungary and from Poland 12 years ago the czech pattern foreshadows developments in Side Russia. The russians Are about where we were two or three year ago an observant Csech communist told a. He did t mean that mos cow will be transformed in two or three years. I Don t know How Long it will take them to cover the same ground maybe 10, maybe 20 year. But they Art having the same kind of arguments and fooling the tame kind of internal  the immediate roots of the quiet czech re Volt go Back to 1963. That Wai when the communists admitted to themselves though secretly that their economic plans just weren t working. Czechoslovakia has the capacity to be one of the world s highly advanced Indus trial societies but it was sliding backwards. The first really effective impulse for change came not from intellectuals seeking Freedonia for themselves nor from the resigned Popula Tion but from the economists. The economists convinced the rulers and Reform was Pio claimed. But it still did t Woik. Nothing much changed. Three years later at their 13th party Congress the czech communists Drew t h e conclusion. There would have to be political reforms to create the framework in which the Economy could work successfully. Still nothing much happened. All the proclamations remained empty words like Khrushchev s we will overtake the  every time Concrete change came up the communist analyst told me the hard liners in Power would Block it or distort it or dilute it. There were plenty of programs but meager results compared to expectations. Last december the communists took an other cold look at themselves again in secret. We asked where we were going who we Are. Can there be such a thing As socialism in Freedom because if not the Only alternative is Ever More  a determined minority Drew a new conclusion if economic Reform in theory can t be put into practice alone and if political Reform in theory can t be put into practice then it wit moan thai the people who Are running the country Are doing it wrong. The third try was a Reform of personalities. It in t finished. Tough handed Antonin nov Tony was ousted As party Leader. The Effort now is to Jettison his Crew. If that succeeds the crucial moment will be the Patty Congress in september then a far reaching Reform program will be launched. Meanwhile the writers the press the to have been unleashed for the first time since the 1948 communist takeover to serve As watchdogs against the hard liners attempts to recover their Power and privileges. It is now More apparent than Ever that the same kind of self questioning though doubtless not anywhere near so profound has been going on in Moscow for several years. Soviet prime minister Kosygin is the most visible among those who want conclusions drawn from facts not just from doctrine. Transferred to the Moscow scene the czech analysis of what is wrong would menace most of the soviet upper crust. Prague is insisting that it does t want to Export its ideas just to give them a Chance at Home. But regard less of the answers it May eventually find just to ask whether there is a Way to make communism work in peace and Freedom is the most profound Challenge communist Lead ers have yet faced. The one obvious answer is no not without becoming a very different kind of system. It in t Only their Imperial Power but their own Way of ruling that Tho russians be questioned in Prague. 1c 1w8, Neuy inc