Come Nineveh, Come Tyre: The Presidency of Edward M. Jason

by Allen Drury

  The Congress was united. The people, if not entirely united, were generally for him, and when the Help America Act began to have a real impact, would be even more so. He was still the leader of his country. No one would, or could, take that away from him.

  He stood up at last, feeling somewhat better, and was about to turn out the lights and go along to the Lincoln Bedroom when the intercom buzzed beside his chair.

  Walter Dobius, they said, was at the East Gate and wanted to see him; and after a moment, startled and once more disturbed and uneasy for reasons he could not quite define, he told them to let him in and bring him along to the solarium. He called the pantry and ordered coffee for two. Then he sat slowly back down in his chair while the storm, taking a yet more savage turn, snarled and tore at the beleaguered old building.

  “This is Walter,” he said abruptly, and in the Sheraton-Park William Abbott, once again roused abruptly from sleep, said sharply,

  “Yes? You’ve seen him?”

  “I’ve seen him,” Walter said slowly.

  “And—?”

  “Nothing,” Walter said, in a tone heavy with unhappiness and disbelief. “Nothing … except that he has it, but he can’t release it because it would offend the Russians and he doesn’t dare do that.… His own wife,” he said unbelievingly. “His own wife.”

  “So what are you going to do?”

  “I already have a column written. I’m at the Post and I’m going to send it out on the syndicate wire right now. He asked me not to, for his sake ‘and the sake of the country.’ The sake of the country, my God! I don’t feel I have any choice.”

  “Walter,” William Abbott said, “be very careful. You know what they can do, now.”

  “I know what they can do,” Walter said bleakly, “but somebody’s got to be brave, Bill. Somebody’s got to be brave. It’s so late. So awfully late.”

  “Can’t we all do it together tomorrow?” Bill Abbott suggested.

  “No, we can’t. We can’t because I got hold of it and I feel it’s up to me to decide what to do with it, and to take the consequences, whatever they may be. I feel I owe it to myself. I feel I owe it—” he paused and then went on—“I owe it to a lot of people who were probably right … when I was wrong. This is the least I can do for them, now, I think … the least I can do.”

  “Be careful,” the ex-President urged again.

  Walter uttered a wry little sound, somewhere between laughter and desolation.

  “The admonition we used to utter in casual joking farewell, back in some other world before Ted Jason—‘be careful.’ But it’s real now, isn’t it, Bill? It’s real now.”

  “Let me know if there’s anything I can do,” the ex-President said earnestly.

  “I will,” Walter Dobius said, “but don’t wait up, because I don’t really think there is.”

  He snapped off the Picturephone, turned back to his typewriter, picked up his column and read it through one last time. He knew it was the most fateful piece of writing he had ever done, both for the country and for himself. He had wasted no time on what his colleagues called “typical Dobius touches,” but had reported it straight as it had come to him—in one quick, anonymous, frightened moment in a crowd, and in one quick, anonymous, frightened telephone call of the type that historically had provided the inspiration and basis for much of Washington’s investigative reporting.

  “This correspondent has learned from sources he believes to be reliable that the President has received an official report linking the deaths of President Harley M. Hudson, Secretary of State Orrin Knox, Mrs. Knox and Mrs. Edward M. Jason to—” (Yes, he had thought wryly, he would have to use the funny words he and his colleagues had scorned and derided so many times over the years, for they were true) “—a Communist conspiracy whose implications and tentacles stretch directly to domestic and international enemies of the American Republic.

  “This correspondent has also learned that there is extremely strong presumptive evidence that the death last night of Justice Davis of the Supreme Court was also caused by this group. It was not, as the Bethesda medical panel pronounced, precipitated by ‘absolutely nothing but natural causes.’

  “This information, in official form, is on the President’s desk.

  “If these allegations are true, and this correspondent is convinced that they are, the country has entered upon a time in which political assassination as a method of influencing United States policy to suit Russian purposes is no longer a fantasy. It has arrived, with the grimmest possible implications for all Americans.

  “The information concerning the Hudson, Knox and Jason deaths is contained in the report of the official commission appointed by President William Abbott following the assassination of President Hudson. The commission’s authority was subsequently extended to cover the deaths of Secretary Knox, Mrs. Jason and Mrs. Knox.

  “This reporter received a copy of the top-secret report from an anonymous donor who placed it in his hand last night as he was leaving the Supreme Court after Justice Davis’ death and the Court’s vote on the ‘Help America’ Act.

  “The donor fled. His action was so hasty that this reporter was unable to see his face or otherwise identify him. But this reporter is convinced, on the face of the report, its language, manner of presentation, certain words and turns of phrases—plus the signatures of commissioners and the experience of a quarter of a century of Washington correspondence—that it is completely authentic.

  “Similarly, this reporter is convinced that the anonymous telephone call which he received concerning Justice Davis was also completely authentic. Certain internal evidence in the conversation verified this.

  “What the commission report says, in essence, is this:

  “The death of President Hudson in the crash of Air Force One at Andrews Air Force base eight months ago was not an accident. The craft’s altimeter had been tampered with and there was at least one crew member, more likely three, under instructions to divert the pilot’s attention and, if necessary, use force upon him to cause a crash. A companion assassin was waiting at the gate in case this plan failed. The latter individual died in the flaming wreckage along with the President, the crew, several members of Congress, and members of the media.

  “The assassinations of Secretary Knox and Mrs. Jason at the Washington Monument Grounds in August were planned and executed by the same group responsible for the death of President Hudson. This group is composed of native America fanatics of the left, some of them in very high positions in the National Anti-War Activities Congress—NAWAC. These native fanatics of the left are working in close conjunction with members of the Russian secret police, the KGB, posing as staff members of the Soviet Embassy in Washington.

  “The names of these Americans are known to the FBI.

  “So far, the Justice Department has not acted on this information. There is reason to believe it is being restrained from doing so, on the ground that punitive action would be regarded as ‘hostile to the Russians’ and ‘upsetting to the cause of world peace.’

  “The commission report further states that the assassination of Mrs. Jason, far from being an accident as most assumed, was in fact a deliberate move to affect severely the morale of President Jason, to make him less able to withstand Russian pressures and more vulnerable to psychological and other moves to weaken his leadership of the United States in the face of a determined Russian challenge.

  “It is this correspondent’s belief, based upon direct personal observation, that this goal was achieved.

  “The murder of Mrs. Knox was part of the same pattern of deliberate terror, in this instance designed to shatter the morale of those who oppose the President’s appeasement policies toward the Soviets as expressed in his inaugural address and as implemented by him in the days since.

  “The essence of the information received on Justice Davis is this:

  “There was found on the inside of the Justice’s left ankle a tiny oval lesion which experienced medic
al examination recognized as the insertion of a syringe into a vein. Blood analysis revealed no trace of poison or other foreign element in the body. Therefore there is a strong conviction among members of the medical panel, even though they suppressed their misgivings because they believed silence to be in the best interests of national stability—” (and also, he could have said but did not, because they were terrified of reprisals)—“that there very likely was injected into the Justice’s blood stream the simplest yet most effective of killers—air.

  “Well-documented reports over many years from Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, the Soviet Union itself and many other places confirm this as a favored Communist method of inducing so-called ‘heart attacks’ and ‘fatal seizures.’

  “This correspondent has seen the President and has urged him personally to release this information to the country. The President, while not questioning or denying the essential facts set forth herein, has refused to do so.

  “Therefore this correspondent is releasing them on his own responsibility.”

  Which, given all the circumstances, was really an extraordinarily brave thing for Walter Dobius to do. But no one, however critical, had ever said that Walter was not a good reporter, or that he lacked personal courage. He had, as many saw it, his faults of interpretation and bias. Inaccuracy and cowardice had never been included among them.

  It was a time to be brave, and Walter was. Indeed he felt he had no choice, for he believed he really was witnessing, and participating in, the last days of the American Republic.

  As he had foreseen, the consequences were immediate, vast and far-reaching.

  COLUMNIST RELEASES SECRET PRESIDENTIAL REPORT ON RECENT POLITICAL DEATHS. DOBIUS CLAIMS PRESIDENT SUPPRESSING DOCUMENT CHARGING COMMUNISTS PLOTTED HUDSON, KNOX, JASON DEATHS. ALLEGES MEDICAL PANEL KNEW JUSTICE DAVIS’ DEATH NOT DUE TO NATURAL CAUSES. WORLD SENSATION. WASHINGTON IN UPROAR AS NEW CRISIS HITS JASON ADMINISTRATION.

  But though the headlines were cautious—“claims” and “alleges,” those two down-putting, skeptical, subtly mocking favorites—that was simply a matter of legal protection. There was no doubt that Walter’s colleagues accepted his story completely, and there was no doubt that they were as alarmed by it—and as brave about it—as he.

  “The sensational disclosures by world-famous columnist Walter Dobius this morning,” the Times wrote soberly in an unprecedented front-page editorial accompanying Walter’s column, “can only shed a most appalling light on the present domestic state of the country.

  “We believe every word of what he says, for we have known and admired Walter Dobius as a stouthearted liberal seeker after truth for more than a quarter of a century. And we believe that he acted nobly and courageously in releasing this shocking material on the tragic deaths of President Harley M. Hudson, Secretary of State Orrin Knox, Mrs. Knox, Mrs. Edward M. Jason and Supreme Court Justice Davis.

  “We also believe, though it saddens and disturbs us dreadfully to have to say it, that Mr. Dobius is telling the truth when he says that he has discussed this information with President Jason, and that President Jason has refused to release it officially. We suspect, on the evidence of recent days, as Mr. Dobius does, that this Presidential decision is due to some desperate last-minute fear of ‘offending’ or ‘upsetting’ the Soviet Union, thereby jeopardizing what he may still regard as a valid chance for peace.

  “Sadly but finally, we must say that we do not agree with this. We have supported Edward M. Jason consistently in his drive to reach the Presidency. We have supported, though with deep concern and misgivings, his idealistic attempt to deal with the Russians on a generous-minded, generous-hearted, truly Christian basis of concession and withdrawal.

  “But we can go with him no longer.

  “His partisans in the Congress yesterday successfully and overwhelmingly beat back an attempt to remove him from office. We doubt that the outcome would have been any different even had the material released by Mr. Dobius been generally available to the legislators before they voted. It is also highly unlikely that another attempt could be made to impeach him, or that it would be any more successful than that of yesterday. Nor is there anything in the material released by Mr. Dobius which would warrant impeachment. It is only the way the President is handling it which has a bearing; and we doubt if that would be compelling, except with the most astute and perceptive students of men.

  “Not too many of those, we are afraid, can be found in the ranks of the generally youthful and inexperienced new members who now, apparently, dominate the Congress.

  “But we can, insofar as it lies in our humble power and influence, attempt to stand forth as bravely as Mr. Dobius has done against the President’s methods and against his policies.

  “We are desperately saddened to have to say it, but we believe Edward M. Jason has failed already as President of the United States; and we believe that all patriotic Americans must now oppose him, as the last means of saving the Republic his policies have already come close to destroying.”

  Equally emphatic and, at last, equally courageous, was the Post:

  “The revelations of political assassination and conspiracy by Columnist Walter Dobius would be suspect, if not utterly laughable, coming from any other source. From America’s most distinguished political commentator they must command belief, respect and action.

  “We have known Mr. Dobius as a great reporter, concerned human being and truly liberal journalist for more than a quarter of a century. We have implicit faith in his accuracy, his integrity and his courage. Although it goes against all of our past convictions and experience, we believe him when he says that a Communist conspiracy was behind the five violent deaths which have disfigured and tortured American politics over the past year.

  “We also believe him when he says the President has refused to release this material to the public, for reasons that can only be surmised—in order, we suspect, not to ‘antagonize’ or ‘upset’ the Soviet Union. This reason seems to us fundamentally and terribly mistaken. It also seems something more.

  “It seems pathetic.

  “No political leader, no public institution, no member of the media has been more outspoken, more consistent or more devoted in support of Edward M. Jason than we. No one, we think, has therefore a better right to deplore and criticize when we see him, as it seems to us, abandoning the courage, the decisiveness and the force which may be the only way we can survive in the face of the Russian threat.

  “We did not wish to see him impeached yesterday. We do not wish to see him removed from office now. We only wish to see him the strong, fearless, farseeing leader we have always believed him capable of being. But we are finally convinced that he cannot do it alone. We are convinced that his friends do him no favor when they refrain from the criticism and opposition he so obviously needs if his balance, and the nation’s, is to be restored.

  “For ourselves, we cannot travel further with Edward M. Jason along the path he has chosen for himself and for the country. We accepted his inaugural concessions to the Soviet Union with great misgivings, because they seemed to us too swift, too one-sided, too unprotected by any kind of quid pro quo. We admired the liberal spirit but we were deeply worried about the too-liberal execution. And basically, we were worried about Edward M. Jason himself.

  “It makes us grimly unhappy to have to say it, but we have come to the reluctant conclusion that Edward M. Jason is simply not measuring up to the demands of his office. We think he has already made errors which could be fatal to the very survival of the United States. We think he desperately needs the help of his friends. We think that such help can best be given, at this unhappy juncture of his career, not by support but by opposition.

  “We call upon all his friends to openly and strongly oppose, as we do, his policies and his methods of handling the crisis—indeed, the whole complicated web of crises, both foreign and domestic—that has grown out of past national errors and his own wishful and we
ll-meaning actions.

  “Being wishful and well-meaning is not enough. He has failed us and we must help him. Now. By mobilizing public opinion, by bringing pressures to bear upon Congress, by a constant drumbeat of concerned and emphatic opposition.

  “He must not lead us one step further down the road of drift. The country simply cannot stand it.”

  In similar fashion and similar mood wrote many another distinguished journal as the day wore on. In similar mood spoke Frankly Unctuous and his major colleagues of tube and airwave.

  It was all very indignant and very brave; and it was all, of course, years too late.

  During that day NAWAC and the IDF found themselves swamped with new applications for membership as the national mood turned even more disturbed and ugly.

  During that day Edward M. Jason, locked away in his unapproachable house, did not act.

  Others did.

  It might have been entitled, had there been a wry historian to record it, “The Day They Took the Times and the Post”; and it posed for many Americans—who did not then have, and would never again have, the opportunity to answer them—many questions:

  How would you react, for instance, if you were walking down a street in New York or a street in Washington, and suddenly you saw some sort of disturbance going on at the doors of two distinguished newspapers? Not a big disturbance, you understand, just a minor sort of scuffling, a quick coming and going, a few frightened people, a flurry, a fuss?

  Just the sudden arrival at the doors at the same moment in each city, of a couple of police vans … the sudden entry into both buildings of small groups of armed and uniformed men … a pause of perhaps ten minutes … and then the emergence of the uniformed men, hustling along between them a handful of other men, handcuffed or with guns at their backs, obviously angry, terrified, protesting, some dressed in business suits, some with coats off and sleeves rolled up, some, perhaps, crying with a bitter irony, “But this is the Times! (or the Post!) You can’t do this to us!” … and then a swift clanging and locking of doors, a sudden roaring of engines, a sudden disappearance down the crowded street … and then, just visible from the sidewalks, a momentary cluster and swirl of frantic people inside … and then their abrupt, hurried, almost furtive dispersal, so that all is quiet again … and the streets returning immediately to their normal hustle and bustle, the uncaring rush and hurry of life, after an elapsed time of perhaps a quarter of an hour.…