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Show CONTINUED of the work. He also came away from his reading "optimistic" about the future. Lawyers who have known Rogers over the years those who have worked with him and those who have worked against him believe he will find a solution to the war if one is possible. In court as a young prosecutor, as counsel for a Senate investigating committee, as Attorney General and as a partner in a prestigious law firm, Rogers has been a brilliant and skillful advocate. Rogers sometimes describes himself r, the dumb kid as an who has done better than anyone had the right to expect." Statements like that are part of Rogers' manner. Although a tireless worker, he appears relaxed and easygoing. At 55, he still has the physique of an athlete. Like President Nixon, he had to struggle for his education door-to-doselling, washing dishes and doing other odd jobs that paid his expenses through college and law school. Once he had his degrees, he lost little time in putting them to use. In 1937, Thomas E. Dewey was elected as a "clean-up- " District Attorney for New York. To help him with the crusade, he set out on a talent search to find 50 bright, young staff attorneys. Rogers was one of 6000 applicants, but his characteristics stood out. A Dewey aide, who interviewed the applicant, noted: "One of the best prospects I've seen." Rogers began at the bottom, prosecuting misdemeanors for $2500 a year, then advanced to bigger and more demanding cases. By the time he entered the Navy as a World War II officer, his magic with a jury was already well known. top-secr- et "over-achieve- or Trained for the Navy It was in the Navy that Rogers first met Nixon. Both men were trained at the Quonset, R.I., naval station, but the war took them in different directions. When peace came, they were brought together again thanks to the magnetic attraction of Washington. Had Dewey been elected President in 1948, Rogers, as his protege, would probably have assumed a position of importance. As it was, he established a reputation in the capital on his own merits. Rogers as a Senate counsel, uncovered the famous "5 percenter" influencescandals and pointed an -peddling accusing finger at Maj. Gen. Harry Vaughn, a poker playing pal of President Harry Truman, thus badly embarrassing the Democrats. Yet Rogers pursued the facts with such finesse and fairness that the Democrats kept him on the job after they won control of Congress in 1949. It was also Rogers who gave young Congressman Nixon the ammunition that lifted him from the anonymity of the House. Nixon consulted Rogers about the testimonyof Whittaker Chambers, who had accused Alger Hiss of 12 turning over State Department documents to the Communists. Rogers read the testimony, decided that Chambers' story was backed by many details, such as microfilm hidden in a pumpkin, and advised Nixon to go ahead. Like Cinderella, Nixon rode to glory on a pumpkin. Rogers helped put together the Eisenhower convention strategy that defeated Sen. Robert Taft for the GOP Presidential nomination in 1952. For his running mate, Ike chose Nixon,who immediately asked Rogers to accompany him on the campaign trail. Rogers assured friends that "nothing . r happens on a vice presidential train," and climbed aboard, promising to be home in less than a week. The short tour with Nixon turned into a 67,000-mil- e journey. Rogers had hardly settled into his Pullman berth when reporters uncovered the fact that a group of California businessmen had raised a "slush fund" to pa Nixon's expenses as a senator. Republicans, busy pointing at Democratic corruption, were panic stricken, and many party leaders demanded that Eisenhower find a new running mate. In that dark hour, Nixon turned to Rogers for help, and the former prosecutor proposed that Nixon defend himself on a telecast. Rogers spent hours on the telephone selling the idea to his old boss Dewey, who was masterminding the Eisenhower effort. Result: Nixon went on television to say that he had never taken any gift except a cocker spaniel named Checkers, and he intended to keep the dog. He also kept Rogers, who had put the speech together. Rogers never did get back to his law office. Eisenhower appointed him assistant Attorney General, and, five years later, Attorney General. As in his days as a young prosecutor, Rogers won the admiration of almost everyone. In a business-oriente- d Administration, he a developed reputation for prosecuting anti-trucases, but he enforced the law without forgetting to say "please" and "thank you." The charm that had coast-to-coa- st st Rogers has known President Nixon since naval training days in World War II. swayed juries in his youth also made an impression upon official Washington. No matter what the pressures, Rogers has always found time to be with his family in their pleasant but unpretentious home in Bethesda, Md. Their four children are grown daughter Dale, in fact, was born before their parents and these were out of law school days Mr. and Mrs. Rogers like to read and listen to music together or sit around their swimming pool in summer. They don't go out much and have no interest in cocktail parties. But they are reconciled to the fact that Rogers' new job will involve some official entertainment. she hears him The cheery Rogers is a whistle as he nears the door steak and potatoes man but also likes his wife's creamed chipped beef. At Cornell, where they met in October, became engaged in December and wed in June, they loved to go walking over the lovely countryside. They still love to walk it helps the Rogers hold his weight to 170, but last year Mrs. Rogers broke a leg chasing a taxi. For a while she wore a thigh-lengt- h President Nixon signed it when cast. presenting his Cabinet on TV. Later ex- six-fo- ot Don From family album: back, sons Douglas, Anthony, lefirey; front, Marshall and daughter Dale holding Jessica, Cynthia; Mrs. Rogers, Mr. Rogers. son-in-la- w Secretary of State Dean Rusk also signed it and she broke off the autographed piece for a souvenir. "Someday it'll be as famous as a Picasso," quips her husband. Daughter Dale presented a family problem in 1956 that must have prepared Rogers for the student dissent that he is almost sure to face during his days as Secretary of State. In 1956, while her father was an Eisenhower Administration officia1, she announced her support of Adlai Stevenson. Still unrepentant in 1958, she registered as a Democrat. Nevertheless, the Rogers one. Until his three family is a tight-kn- it sons, Douglas, Anthony and Jeffrey, were grown, Rogers frequently played basketball with them and other neighborhood boys on a court he built behind his home. He liked to boast of his only World War II injury a broken finger which he got playing basketball aboard the Carrier Intrepid. The family has an easy, bantering with one another. Doing the dishes has always been a family affair in the Rogers' home. Everyone joins in the cleanup and the kibitzing. Students are super Mrs. Rogers calls her childten "super students," and she is pleased that they take an active interest in the problems of the nation. They are eager to "reform the world and solve the urban crisis," she says. While Tony, a graduate of Harvard Law, works on novels "with a message," Mrs. Rogers speaks elementary French with his bride, Therese, whom he married in Paris last June. Dale, now 31, has given the Rogers two granddaughters and is studying for her doctorate. She recently switched her specialty from international relations to political science. Since his appointment, Rogers has immersed himself in the nation's foreign problems, with particularly heavy reading on Vietnam. He has always been an omnivorous newspaper reader; now he also gets his news out of documents. Although Nixon prides himself on his knowledge of international politics, he will unquestionably listen to Rogers' advice. As the President once said of his friend: "He is more cautious than I am as to what ought to be done in most instances. I will take chances and move aggressively sometimes when he would not. This is good, for I know he can always see the pitfalls." Rogers might be described as the Republican Clark Clifford, another Washington lawyer and Presidential adviser who gave up his practice to become Lyndon Johnson's Secretary of Defense. Both are brilliant, handsome, urbane. Both have bipartisan respect. Their methods also are quite similar, since each works quietly behind the scenes. In the months ahead, Nixon's success or failure rests to a great extent on his close friend Rogers the man he has leaned on most heavily in the past. top-secr- et PARADE FEBRUARY 23, 1969 |