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By Root 543 0

Dulles faced a tough sell. “Oh, what a Flopnik,” the London Daily Herald laughed. “Spaetnik”—Latenik—the German dailies played off the word. Vanguard should have more aptly been called Rearguard, snickered the French. Kaputnik, Splatnik, Stallnik, Sputternik, Dudnik, Puffnik, Oopsnik, Goofnik, and every other conceivable permutation blared from domestic and international headlines aimed straight at the heart of America’s wounded pride. “This incident has no bearing on our programs for the development of intermediate range and intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are continuing to make fine progress,” the Pentagon immediately rebutted in a press release, stressing that no military hardware had been involved in the Vanguard mission. But the damage had been done. At the United Nations, Soviet delegates were coyly suggesting that the United States qualified for the technical assistance programs the USSR offered to developing countries. In Moscow, a dead-serious Khrushchev was threatening to target any NATO member accepting U.S. missiles with his own rockets, which, he added snidely, actually worked. “The Soviets are playing this for all its worth,” Dulles spat.

“I’m all for stopping such unfortunate publicity.” Eisenhower sighed. “But I’ve no idea how.”

The president glanced around the sparingly decorated conference room—a few old oil paintings, some ship models, lots of long faces—looking for suggestions. But his cabinet secretaries, the CIA director, the head of the U.S. Information Agency, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff all appeared to be hiding behind a veil of cigarette and pipe smoke. Jim Hagerty, the White House press secretary who had prematurely released Vanguard’s launch date, was nowhere to be seen.

Ike was on his own, that much was clear. The brief reprieve he had been granted after his stroke was over. Hope had been dashed, Vanguard Fries had been stricken from the nation’s menus, replaced by Sputnik Cocktails—one part vodka, two parts sour grapes—and the vengeful media, having angrily crowned Vanguard “our worst humiliation since Custer’s last stand,” were searching for scapegoats. Already, the Glenn L. Martin Company, Vanguard’s general contractor, had been punished. Its stock had taken such a beating that it had been forced to suspend trading. Vanguard’s project manager, the affable John Hagen, had been equally assailed at a raucous press conference. “This program has had unprecedented publicity in the development stage, which is not usually the case,” he said as he tried to defend himself. “The fact that it was a test phase was lost sight of,” he added, deflecting culpability from his scientists to politicians, whom he refused to name. The Democrats had no such reservations, eagerly informing voters exactly where to place the blame. “It lies with the President of the United States,” Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson announced haughtily on NBC’s Meet the Press. The president’s lack of vision, obdurate penny-pinching, and baffling complacency, he groused, were directly responsible for the disaster in Cape Canaveral. “How long, how long oh God, will it take us to catch up with the Soviet Union’s two satellites?” wailed Lyndon Johnson, who had hastily reconvened his Preparedness hearings to capitalize on the national fury, and like Jackson he was going to point the finger at the Oval Office.

After only a few days’ rest at his beloved Gettysburg farm—just enough time to regain what he described as 95 percent of his speech and motor skills—Ike had been thrust into yet another maelstrom. Now the Democrats were insinuating that Eisenhower no longer had the strength and vitality to lead the nation and that he should step down. “There were open and widespread suggestions that the President resign,” Time magazine reported in its December 9 issue, noting that NATO leaders were “shaken to the point of dismay” to learn that he might not be able to attend the big Paris summit in mid-December. “It is the whole free world that is sick in bed with Ike, waiting for his recovery,” a French newspaper commented.