McCARTHY'S BID

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000500010004-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 2, 2004
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: November 14, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

STAT
DC,S i+:C':1tE , LOVA
~tQ~ ed For Release. 2004/04/08 : CIA-RDP75-00149tR000500010064-5
NOV141867
E-117,582
McCarthy`s Bid
Senator Eugene McCarthy has given gusto to the
hopeful talk by Vietnam war critics of "President
dumping." The Minnesota senator has told colleagues
he will enter four Democratic primaries. His candi-
dacy could coalesce the vigorous and volatile opposi-
tion to President Johnson's war policies within his
own party.
The McCarthy challenge would hit the President
right where it hurts - in his intra-party consensus,
in the popularity polls and in the 1968 ballot boxes.
The Minnesotan is an intelligent, articulate vote-"
getter. His background as a high school and college
teacher gives him a rapport with the growing'
number of young voters. Four terms in the U.S.
House and 10 years in the Senate have given him a
depth of governmental experience. Through mem-
bership on the important Senate Finance and For-
eign Relations committees, he has gained an in-
formed, mature judgment on such issues as taxation,
trade and foreign affairs.
He offers a view of U.S. foreign relations sharply
different from that of the President. "Our foreign
policy should he more restrained and, insofar as
prudent judgment can determine, more closely in
keeping with the movement of history," McCarthy
wrote in his recent book, "The Limits of Power.'"'
The Minnesota senator thus challenges many of
the basic premises of the Johnson Administration. If
he enters the hustings, he can be expected to state
his positions forthrightly and well. Many Democrats
undoubtedly would be swayed by McCarthy's argu-
ments.
Despite the hopes of the opponents of the war, we
see little likelihood of the Democratic Convention
"dumping" the incumbent President. McCarthy's
candidacy, however, should bring pressure on the
President to work even harder and more sincerely
for a peaceful settlement of the war. Win or lose;
McCarthy would force a confrontation of the war
issue within the Democratic Party. Through such
political pressures and confrontations, a democracy
makes decisions.
He would rely more on the United Nations and
other multi-national agencies, less on the "dirty
tricks" of the Central Intelligence-Agency. He wants
sharp restrictions and controls on the sale of arms.
Greater reliance should be placed on the Foreign
Relations Committee in the formulation and conduct
of foreign policies.
The reasons given by the Johnson Administration
for U.S. policies in Vietnam are criticized by McCar-
thy. "In the early phase of this war, no one ever
accepted that our defense perimeter extended as far
as Vietnam," he writes. The "China-containment
men" of a few years back didn't argue that this
required the commitment of a half million troops to
Vietnam. South Vietnam never has requested action
under the SEATO treaty. If it did, joint action would
be impossible because of the positions of other
signers - France, Pakistan and possibly Britain.
Communist China is not seen by McCarthy 'as a
great danger to international security. With a popu-
lation estimated at between 750-and 895 million,
growing at a rate of 2 per cent a year, China will be
concerned primarily with internal development, not
military expansion,! he thinks. McCarthy cites a study
of China's potential progress which assumes a high
average annual economic growth of 51/7 to 71/x per
cent, a 2 per cent birth rate and concludes that by
1985 China will have reached the level of per capita
income attained in Russia in the 1930s.
With Chairman Mao 73 and the average age of the
Politburo nearly 70, McCarthy foresees a period of
continuing instability similar to those which con-
vulsed the Soviet Union at the deaths of Lenin and
Stalin.
Approved For Release 2004/04/08 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000500010004-5.