Page 4
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, November 15, 1972
THE BATTALION
[HE
McGovern Aides Knew Of Eagleton’s Problem Before Selection
WASHINGTON (A?) — Sen.
George McGovern’s top aides
learned that Thomas F. Eagleton
had been hospitalized for exhaus
tion even before the Missouri
senator was selected as the vice
presidential nominee, interviews
with The Associated Press dis
closed Tuesday.
Within hours of Eagleton’s
nomination, two top McGovern
aides, Gordon Weil and Frank
Mankiewicz, received confirma
tion from Douglas Bennett, Ea
gleton’s administrative assistant,
but failed to pass the word to
McGovern until a few hours later.
At that point, “it wasn’t a seri
ous problem,” Mankiewicz said.
Mankiewicz and Bennett agree
that Eagleton never mentioned
that he had undergone electric
shock treatments until nearly a
week later, after an anonymous
tipster gave that information to
a Knight Newspapers executive
and to two McGovern aides.
Bennett said, however, “there
was never any effort to conceal
the shock treatments.” Eagleton,
however, omitted mention of
them on July 25 when he detailed
his medical history for reporters,
though subsequent questioning
brought it out.
The interviews, conducted in
the wake of McGovern smashing
election defeat, confirmed for the
first time the extent to which
the McGovern camp knew of Ea
gleton’s medical history, both be
fore and immediately after he
was nominated as the No. 2 man
on the Democratic ticket.
Those involved put blame for
the incident, from which McGov
ern says his campaign never re
covered, on Eagleton’s eagerness
for the nomination, the haste
with which he was picked and
the initial feeling, in both Mc
Govern and Eagleton camps, that
his medical history did not pre
sent a serious problem.
As early as the Wednesday
night of the convention, before
McGovern himself was even nom
inated, Mankiewicz and Kirby
Jones, the senator’s deputy press
secretary, received word in the
candidates’ trailer of a report
circulating on the convention
floor that Eagleton had been in
the hospital with a mental prob
lem.
Cal Tech Prof
To Speak On
Learning Centers
Dr. James Olds of the Califor
nia Institute of Technology will
present the Sigma Xi-RESA Na
tional Lecture, “Learning Cen
ters of the Brain,” Thursday at
A&M.
The TAMU Sigma Xi chapter
presentation will begin at 5 p.m.
in lecture room 102 of the Zachry
Engineering Center, according to
the chapter president, Dr. James
G. Teer.
Dr. Olds is the Bing Profes
sor of Behavioral Biology at Cal
Tech. He also taught and con
ducted research at Harvard, Mc
Gill University, UCLA and Mich
igan. The Sigma XI speaker was
educated at Amherst College and
Harvard.
The lecture deals with his in- j
vestigations disclosing four dif-1
ferent “learning centers” in the i
brain. Dr. Olds localized them j
by implanting fine-wire micro- 1
electrodes and recording action
potentials from individual neu
rons during Pavlovian condition
ing.
His data suggest that different
kinds of learning, obeying dif
ferent laws of learning, go on
at the same time in these cen
ters. To some degree this repre
sents a division of labor and a
redundancy that supplies the
brain a safety factor.
Dr. Teer said the lecture is
open to all interested persons.
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David Schoumacher, a televi
sion correspondent now with
ABC, said the McGovern aides
dismissed it as “one more of the
nutty things you hear around the
convention,” but that Mankiewicz
said it had better be checked.
Jones said he circulated around
the hall and in the press galleries
but never heard any more.
Weil, who was unavailable for
questioning this week, was de
tailed to check reports that Ea
gleton had a drinking problem,
and according to Mankiewicz and
legislative assistant John L. Hol-
un reported back that the Mis
sourian had been hospitalized for
exhaustion, not drinking.
“It was an answer to the alco
holism charge. That’s what we
were looking for,” Holun re
called. “No one really thought
of it on its own.”
Mankiewicz said he doubts that
McGovern was told. “Why
shouldn’t the senator go into the
hospital for exhaustion?” he
asked. “So have a lot of people.
That’s like saying he had polio
when he was a kid.”
Later that afternoon, after
White was considered, and ac
cording to some accounts, Ken
nedy again indicated interest, Ea
gleton was selected and McGov
ern phoned him with the news.
After a brief conversation, in
which the Missouri senator said
he would accept, McGovern
turned the phone over to Man
kiewicz, who said he asked “if
there was anything in his rec
ord” that would present a prob
lem.
Jones, who was seated next to
Mankiewicz, agreed that Man
kiewicz asked a follow-up ques
tion indicating he meant “booze,
dames” or anything such as
legal difficulties.
“It was pretty black and white
what Frank was asking about,”
Jones said, adding “he was ask
ing for any specifics without
mentioning hospitalization or ex
haustion.”
Eagleton has said his negative
answer was based on the fact
that he didn’t regard his past
treatments as a problem since
his health has been excellent
since the last hospital stay in
1966.
Early Friday morning, July 14,
just hours after the convention
ended, Bennett said Weil ap
proached him at a victory party
to report that McGovern’s
had picked up rumors of
pitalization for drinking, that l,
didn’t believe them but that tb
might have to be faced.
“I told him, ‘Those rumors at(
false. What he was hospital
for was exhaustion and de
sive tendencies’,” Bennett
Weil told Mankiewicz, who c
tell the nominee before he ] e f t
Miami Beach to return to V
ington.
An of
to sU P
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