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It is very risky, very risky. I think maybe he felt that there were so many people, including Hubert Humphrey, that wanted it, that he felted indebted to in one way or another, that this was the only solution he could think of. I must ask him about this.

Shortly after this he started to begin to make a very intensive campaign all over the country while Eisenhower was doing nothing at all, as you recall. He campaigned beginning in late August and in the middle of September he was in Washington for some reason and was staying in Dr. Magnusson's house and asked me to dine with him there one evening, about the 19th of September. I remember he said then that he thought he would win, but Eisenhower hadn't begun to campaign yet, had done nothing up till that point. And on the 19th of September, 1956 Stevenson's chances probably did look better than they ever had before and ever would again.

At that point it was impossible to gauge the extent of Eisenhower's popularity as a national hero, wasn't it?

That's right. And also the Suez Crisis came up, which made people feel insecure about our military capabilities, and they were certainly more sure of Eisenhower as a military man than they were of Stevenson, and that, I think, helped Eisenhower, too.

I remember at this dinner, when we dined alone, I felt that, although he was very charming, in human relationships he lacked insight. However, he's mextraordinarily strong physically and has enormous nervous energy; he was able to go through more