McCarthy's Yes for HHH Disappoints H-R Backers

Harvard's McCarthy supporters have accepted the senator's last minute endorsement of Hubert Humphrey with surprise and disappointment, but no anger.

Most students said they had hoped McCarthy would "stick it out to the end," but the students also insisted that "he has not compromised himself, he hasn't given up his principles."

No one accused McCarthy of selling out, but some stated they thought stopping Nixon is not reason enough to support Humphrey, as McCarthy said in his endorsement speech. "It's not a question of the lesser two evils," one student said, "they're both too evil to vote for."

But others stated that they would grudgingly support Humphrey as the only alternative to Nixon. Several students said Nixon's call for arms superiority had convinced them to turn to the Vice President. "I'll vote for Humphrey, but only because of what Nixon said about more military spending," one senior said.

Most students said they thought the endorsement would not influence many McCarthy backers to vote for Humphrey. "Everyone has made up his mind already," one student said, "and I don't think this will change anything." Another student said he thought that McCarthy made the endorsement so late in the campaign with the conscious intention of diluting its effect.

Martin H. Peretz, instructor in Social Studies and a leading worker in the McCarthy campaign, said it was "an unenthusiastic, resentful, grudging endorsement and I don't think he expects it to influence many people." Peretz said he had spoken with McCarthy several days before the endorsement. It was "just fear of Nixon" that made McCarthy endorse Humphrey, Peretz said.

Peretz added that he told McCarthy he did not agree with the decision to give the endorsement. "I told him I disagreed, and he said he understood. He wasn't angry," Peretz said.