Senator Eugene J. McCarthy arrived in Cambridge--where he started his campaign for the presidency--yesterday for a one-day visit. He was met at Logan Airport by John Kenneth Galbraith, Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics, then whisked off to Cambridge for meetings.

The subject of those meetings and the people involved in them remained undisclosed. The entire visit is shrouded in secrecy. The presidential candidate's only public appearance after arriving at the airport was at a party given by Martin W. Peretz, assistant professor of Social Studies, at Peretz's home at 20 Larchwood Drive.

Big Bodyguards

McCarthy got off his regularly-scheduled American Airlines flight from Washington flanked by Secret Service bodyguards. Members of the press were not allowed outside the terminal building, the security was so tight. Galbraith's car picked up the Senator as he de-planed and hustled him off.

There is speculation that McCarthy may be conferring here with members of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy's Harvard brain trust.

Earlier, there had been reports that McCarthy would be conferring with Senator Edward M. Kennedy '54, but Kennedy flew back to Washington yesterday.

While McCarthy was in Washington earlier in the day, he resumed his presidential campaign, looking tired and emotionally drained. He said that "the issues remain essentially the same," and "the political picture is the same as it would have been had Senator Robert Kennedy not been assassinated."

"Very Difficult"

The Senator added that it would be "very difficult" for him to support the nomination of Vice President Humphrey if Humphrey continues to hold to his present views.

At the Washington press conference he said he would continue to campaign by going both to the voters and to the delegates and raising questions about "our military policy in Vietnam and also a broader examination of the militaristic thrust of American policy."