Nation: WHAT NIXON SAYS ABOUT NIXON

Manhattan Attorney Richard Nixon, 50, relaxed, settled back on his office sofa, and for some 50 minutes talked freely to TIME’S New York Correspondent Nick Thimmesch about the 1964 Republican presidential nomination.

CONTRARY to what the pundits say and write,” he said, “it’s what others have done which has caused this Nixon talk. The others [Goldwater and Rockefeller] are active and running. I’m not. And it’s because there is disillusionment with Kennedy. The election results in the major cities are a storm signal. So there is the possibility Kennedy could be beaten, and this is an increasing possibility. As this possibility increases, so does the interest in getting a Republican who can win. I find there is a correlation between Kennedy’s failures and interest in me. As he goes down, the stock of any potential Republican candidate goes up.

“Then there’s the fact that Romney has refused to become a candidate because of heavy pressures on him to concentrate on Michigan’s problems. And Scranton, until now, has taken a similar position, but he could still get off the ground and be the logical compromise candidate in the event Goldwater and Rockefeller knock each other out. These dark horses, though, must start now. It’s poppycock to say someone can be dragged in at the last moment from the wings. It just isn’t done that way. If Romney or Scranton would move, the attention would go to them, and the interest in me would drift away.”

“Now as to polls, anyone who was Vice President eight years and ran for President should run well in polls. I should.* Nothing unusual about that. This business about me stepping up my schedule is bunk. My schedule was set in June. I’m making one speech a month. I have time for only very few press interviews. But I’m turning down literally hundreds of invitations to speak, and I hate to turn down the ones from colleges. I’ve gone to no political meetings in 1963 at all. If I was really interested in running, would I turn down invitations in such states as Oregon, Wisconsin, West Virginia, California and New Hampshire? Well, I’ve had invitations from all those, and I’ve turned them down.

“It isn’t what I say about running, but what I do that counts. I have no pollster. I have no political adviser, no speechwriter, no press aide. I am going to no political meetings. I say if a man doesn’t run now, he won’t be running later. One man you should watch is Scranton. He is the most likely dark horse at this time, but he needs national identification, and now.

“Long ago, I said I would speak on issues involving the security of the nation and that I would criticize the Kennedy Administration. I’m not going to change that just because people charge me with trying for the nomination. Some people write in a challenging fashion. What’s wrong, they ask, are you afraid of Kennedy? No one knows better than I what a formidable candidate he is. I’m not afraid of him. Running against him next time will be running against all his money, the federal treasury and all kinds of public relations. Kennedy will shoot the works.”

As just one example of the type of issue that could render Kennedy vulnerable next year, Nixon cited the recent U.S.-endorsed military coup in South Viet Nam. “If this Viet war goes sour, Viet Nam could be a hot issue next year. If it goes well, it won’t be. It’s strange to me, when we are fawning over Tito, catering to Kadar, accommodating Khrushchev, we don’t even have the decency to express our sympathy to a family which was a real foe of Communism. There is a human factor here in Mme. Nhu’s losing her husband and brother-in-law, and we didn’t show decency.”

How about the theory that Nixon is actually more interested in the 1968 election? “It is wrong to think in terms of 1968, or of letting some patsy run in 1964, or of giving someone an undertaker role next year. I look at every election as it comes along.”

* A recent Gallup poll reported Republicans would prefer Nixon to Goldwater 52% to 48% if there should be a showdown between the two.