Feb. 29, 1964 - Former Vice President Richard M. Nixon (pictured in 1958 as Vice President with then Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson) says President Johnson “is weak in devotion to principle” and “tricky” and that Republicans must make their stand against him on traditional party principles and unity. Mr. Nixon is quoted in an article in The Saturday Evening Post as saying: “Nobody really can say where Johnson stands because he has been against civil rights as a Senator and for civil rights as President. He was for heavy spending as a New Deal Congressman, and now he’s against heavy spending. He’s not only tricky, but he’s good at it.”
The article, by John Bird, also quotes Mr. Nixon as saying: “Johnson is a master politician who works hard at it — that’s the secret of his success. He has pre-empted the field when it comes to wheeling, dealing, fixing, and picking the political situation that will satisfy everybody. If the Republican party gets into that kind of a game with him, he’ll kill us because he’s better at it.”
Mr. Nixon also says the responsible position for the Republicans “is not to outliberal Johnson nor to ignore the great problems of the people by turning to reaction.” “We have to make our stand on our traditional Republican principles,” he says.
