Mr. Harris Cries Foul

In the June 21, 1974 issue of national review, Professor James Payne took me to task for asking a series of allegedly loaded questions on former President Nixon and Watergate and also on the late, unlamented Vietnam War. The thrust of Professor Payne’s argument, alas, was that the Harris Survey had consistently loaded questions on these subjects with an anti-Nixon bias on impeachment and an anti-Thieu and pro-coalition-government bias on the Vietnam question.

On the impeachment question, which has now been settled, if not forgotten, in the pardon granted by President Ford, Professor Payne and national review would undoubtedly have felt better about the balance of the Harris Survey had we asked projective questions about former President Nixon which read as follows:

LH

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Louis Harris

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In the June 21, 1974 issue of national review, Professor James Payne took me to task for asking a series of allegedly loaded questions on former President Nixon and Watergate and also on the late, unlamented Vietnam War. The thrust of Professor Payne’s argument, alas, was that the Harris Survey had consistently loaded questions on these subjects with an anti-Nixon bias on impeachment and an anti-Thieu and pro-coalition-government bias on the Vietnam question.

On the impeachment question, which has now been settled, if not forgotten, in the pardon granted by President Ford, Professor Payne and national review would undoubtedly have felt better about the balance of the Harris Survey had we asked projective questions about former President Nixon which read as follows: