Dan Quayle

Surprisingly, your detailed analysis of Dan Quayle’ (“Against His Own Image,” Aug. 1) fails to mention what could become his most serious problem: the origin of his vice presidency. If and when his presidential campaign seems to pose a credible threat to any of his rivals, we will almost certainly see a revival of the tantalizing charge by Kevin Phillips and other commentators that George Bush chose him as insurance against his own impeachment.

Bush’s choice of Quayle was a disappointing shock to many Republicans, but it had a perverse logic. Contrary to his claim to have been “out of the loop,” Bush and his staff had been deeply involved in the illegal aspects of the Iran-Contra scandal. (Bush himself would have been hard put to explain his trips to Israel and Honduras.) Obviously learning from the fiasco of Richard Nixon’s Watergate tapes, Bush became a master of secrecy and “plausible deniability.” Would any Congress dare to dump him and install the naive and inexperienced Quayle?

Lending weight to this thesis is the fact that, once elected, Bush paid scant attention to Quayle and did little to enhance his political fortunes.

MARSHALL PHILLIPS

Long Beach