To no one's astonishment, the Republican National Convention named Vice-President Richard M. Nixon last night as its Presidential candidate.

Even Arizona's nomination of her favorite conservative son, Senator Barry Goldwater, was meant more as a "symbol of an open convention"--like the playful nomination of Joe Smith in 1956--than as a serious attempt to stall the inevitable Nixon victory.

Although Louisiana, perhaps dismayed at the convention's approval of the Nixon-endorsed civil rights plank, held on to ten Goldwater votes to the last, the Vice-President was nominated by acclamation immediately after the calling of the roll.

Governor Mark O. Hatfield of Oregon, who nominated Nixon, was just as business-like, cutting loose the demonstration for his candidate after an address only 287 words long. Hatfield stressed Nixon's experience as his principal qualification for the Presidency.

Goldwater Withdraws

Goldwater withdrew his name from the convention as soon as Arizona Governor Paul Fannin had nominated him. "We are conservatives." Goldwater told the delegates. "The Republican Party is our historic home." He called the Democratic platform a "blueprint for socialism" and its supporters "those who by their every words have lost faith in America."

The Democratic Party is no longer the party of Jefferson, Jackson and Wilson, Goldwater alleged, "but the party of Bowles. Galbraith and Reuther."

Dewey Hits Kennedy

The rest of last night's session was devoted to giving the party's old-timers a chance to have their say. Former Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York, blasting the acceptance speech of Senator John F. Kennedy '40 at the Democratic Convention two weeks ago, said that it made him "wonder whether he's grown up enough to be President." He criticized Kennedy for his "smart-aleck attack on the President and Vice-President of the United States," and charged that Kennedy had "associated himself" with Lincoln, Alexander the Great, etc., in his reply to former President Truman.

Nixon, according to Dewey, "has a degree of maturity and experience rare in American history."

Early in the evening, Charles H. Percy presented the platform, which was approved by voice vote. A threatened floor fight to protest the civil rights and federal aid to education planks never materialized.

Unlike the Democratic platform movie Percy's film concentrated on Norman Rockwell-like aspects of American life.