The Swamp Fox

World War I was raging in Europe, the Panama Canal had been open only a few months, and John F. Kennedy was not yet born, when a countryish, 30-year-old Georgia lawyer named Carl Vinson was sworn in as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. The date was Nov. 3, 1914. All of the other men who were members that day have since departed from the House, but Vinson remains. On his pinnacle of seniority, he is, at 79, a wielder of vast power and influence, one of the most formidable old lions in Congress.

From the start, Congressman Vinson was keenly interested in national defense. His first speech in the House (in 1916) was a call for greater military preparedness, and he still fondly regards that as one of the best speeches he ever made. He early asked for and got a seat on the old Naval Affairs Committee, and in 1931 the workings of seniority made him chairman. When the House military committees were united in 1947, Vinson became chairman of the new Armed Services Committee, the Representative with the most to say about national defense. His interest in the military brought him one of his several congressional nicknames: as a friend of the Navy he was early dubbed "the Admiral." For his skill in cloakroom maneuver, he won the admiring handle "the Georgia Swamp Fox," after the Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion, who harried the British as a guerrilla leader in the Carolinas.

Vinson is an autocratic chairman, can fell a tiresome or haughty witness with a single saber slash ("What did you say your name was, General?"). Once when a witness started off by saying he had nothing to add to previous testimony, Vinson cut him off with a curt "Thank you. Next witness!" To friends who ask him why he is not Secretary of Defense, his stock reply is: "I'd rather run the Pentagon from up here."

One day last week Congressmen, generals and admirals trooped to pay tribute to the Swamp Fox. Speeches lauding him resounded in the House. Thousands of congratulatory telegrams torrented into his office. Air Force Chief of Staff Curtis LeMay came by to present him with an inscribed silver and wood plaque. The Navy held a reception for him, complete with a Marine parade. Occasion: he had reached a durability mark of 48 years, 8 months and 13 days as a member of the House, one day more than Texas' late Speaker Sam Rayburn. Vinson thereby attained a towering new distinction that grows with each day: he has served in the House of Representatives longer than any other Congressman in the nation's history.

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