Nixon Advisor on Faculty Seeks to Unite U.S. Scholars for Support of Candidate

Being a Harvard professor for Nixon--seemingly a contradiction in terms--does not worry Lon L. Fuller, Carter Professor of General Jurisprudence. But enlisting support among academic communities for the Vice-President's candidacy, as Fuller has been doing this fall, involves several complications.

Fuller, a Nixon advisor in a Faculty full of Kennedy supporters, organized "Scholars for Nixon" last summer in an effort to encourage support for Nixon among professors and to forward to him their thoughts on national problems. Because of the established success of the Democrats' use of academic advisors, any move by the Republican Party to organize a similar group was bound to be hit with charges of "reactionary" or "imitative."

Although Fuller denied the "reactionary" charges, the chronological order of each party's initiative in seeking professorial advice is revealing. The Scholars group stems from concern by Nixon and men like Fuller over the lack of academic participation in the present administration. "There has been a dropping off of the use of academic people under Eisenhower and we wanted to do something about it," according to Fuller. Democrats will go on to say that the GOP was mostly concerned with the prestige gained by the Demarcates through rubbing elbows with college professors and that the move was a reaction to existing "brain trusts."

Partly Took Initiative

The chairman of the Scholars for Nixon attributes the growth of the group of the group to positive moves by the scholars themselves, by Nixon and by the Republican National Committee. "It has nothing to do with the Democrats' advisory boards," Fuller declared.

More than a campaign gimmick to list prominent names for the candidate (which it is), the Scholars are an indication that Republicans will now make more use of academic advice--whether or not they credit the opposition with the idea. Regardless of the outcome of Election Day, some similar group will remain in the GOP. Whether Fuller remains active on such an academic advisory board is another story. A one-time Democrat, he has aligned himself only with Nixon and not necessarily with the Republican Party. "If the Democrats come up with another platform like the 1960 one, I'll stay with the Republicans," he added.

At Duke University Law School Fuller taught young Nixon in class, but his alliance with the Vice-President as a political associate and advisor dates back only two years. When Nixon was visiting the Harvard Business School to speak Fuller met him and asked the Vice-President to address the Law School faculty. Since then the traditional Democrat has been for Richard Nixon.

Fuller began to rally scholars around Nixon early last spring when "I was assured that the Vice-President was eager to draw academic people back into the government." Academic participation will be stepped up if Nixon is elected, Fuller predicted.

Several Republican scholars, called together by Fuller, met in Washington August 13 and announced that they were organizing to support their man. A letter to thousands of professors around the country and a brochure describing the group has been the only formal actions taken by the members as a group.

'America's Best Minds'

The propaganda literature claims that the professors took up the Nixon cause after witnessing "his persistent use of, and reliance upon, America's best minds--irrespective of party or political affiliation." Citing an example, Fuller said that Nixon influenced the appointment of an academic figure to a position in the Justice Department over the objections of some colleagues.

The Scholars membership includes fewer social scientists than would be found in a Kennedy list, and has no concentration of Nixon support comparable to that at Harvard for Senator Kennedy, Scholars for Nixon at the University include Roscoe Pound, University Professor Emeritus, and former dean of the Law School, and Herold C. Hunt, Charles William Eliot Professor of Education. William Y. Elliot, Leroy B. Williams Professor of History and Political Science, is another member of the Republican minority at Harvard and a member of the Republican Advisory Group, but not of the Scholars for Nixon.

One basic purpose set by the group was to invite other scholars to join the ranks, but the list has not exactly swelled to great extents. Fuller attributes this to the usual reluctance of many conservatives to speak out enough. He also thinks that many academic people support a new administration in hopes of seeing their new ideas become reality.

The second purpose--to advise the candidate on policy--has not been as prominent in the campaign as commentators like to have people believe, Fuller maintained. "Nixon and Kennedy aren't able to listen to professors during the heat of a fast moving campaign. On a whistle-stop tour, each candidate, if he has any time at all to consult others, seeks advice from those who surround him every day."

"Of course, there is some sort of frustration for us professors," Fuller stated, "when our candidate--Republican or Democratic--doesn't speak as forthrightly as we would like him to on certain issues, because of political necessity. We would surely like to deal with the campaign differently, but we would probably lose it too."

Several Democratic professors have taken leaves of absence to be with their man during the fall or have constant pipelines open to Washington headquarters. Fuller prefers the relaxed approach, watching the campaign from Cambridge and giving advert when sought. He thinks that the political overestimates the influence of academic people in the campaign. The distance between practical political and learned scholar increases easily.

An indication of Fuller's view of the professor-politician relationship would be the surprise he expressed when the Vice-President publicly gave him credit for his contribution to Nixon's acceptance speech. "I heard the speech on television and liked the ideas, "Fuller is quoted as saying, "but I didn't recognize them as mine.