Robert Cunningham Humphreys - INS Chief

INS Chief

For the years 1937 through 1944, Humphreys transferred to the INS Washington, D.C. branch, becoming chief of the INS congressional staff and the Washington News editor. During this time, while writing a daily column called “Washington-Up-To-The-Minute,” Humphreys established close contacts with many members of Congress. He left INS and Washington in 1944 to become the national affairs editor of Newsweek Magazine. However, following the 1948 campaign and the resulting election of Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, Humphreys was asked by Speaker of the House Joe Martin to return to Washington to establish and direct a public relations office for the Republican Congressional Committee. From this office, Humphreys introduced a variety of visual aid techniques, including television “spots” and 16mm films, in and effort to publicize individual GOP congressmen and to attempt to rid the Republican party of “the depressive atmospheric condition” in America linking Republicans “with the vested interest” and disassociating them “from the ordinary human beings.”

In July 1952, Republican National Chairman Arthur Summerfield arranged for the “loan” of Humphreys to the RNC to serve as publicity director for the duration of the 1952 campaign. For this campaign Humphreys designed a blueprint, known as “Document X,” which “marked the first time a presidential campaign was planned and put on paper to the last detail.” The campaign plan, which covered the who, when, where, and what to do/say for the Eisenhower-Nixon ticket, was, according to Humphreys, followed throughout the campaign “with only a few adjustments to meet political circumstances as they arose.” In addition to being prominent in the initial campaign strategy, Humphreys was also instrumental, along with Summerfield, in keeping Nixon on the Republican ticket following the “expense Fund” affair.