Sherman Adams, already acting as a sort of chief of staff, told Eisenhower they regarded it as criticism of McCarthy on his home turf. Without much protest, the candidate agreed to delete the passage—an unwise, or possibly a calculated decision that he and his advisers came deeply to regret. The deletion was discovered by William H. Laurence, a bulldog political reporter for the Times, who featured it the next day in his front-page story. So great was the immediate protest that the incident became the low point of Eisenhower’s campaign and remains a black mark on his record. It also was the
...more
