ELECTION #42, 1952. The NASTY-METER Iis 4.

QUOTE from Harry Truman: "I've said many a time that I think the Un-American Activities Committee was the most un-American thing in America."

Truman's second term was dominated by the Korean War and Senator Joseph McCarthy, the Republican senator from Wisconsin. McCarthy was a fire-breathing conservative who accused the Truman Administration of being infiltrated by communists. In the process of his Communist witch hunt he ruined countless careers and lives. He was a loud-mouthed opponent of Truman and constantly repeated his charge that the Democrats were responsible for "twenty years of treason." After twenty years of Democratic rule it was going to be an uphill battle for a Democrat to win, especially when the Republicans nominated a very popular WWII hero.


The CANDIDATES in 1952.

DEMOCRAT: ADLAI STEVENSON.

Stevenson came from a famous Democratic family. His grandfather was VP under Grover Cleveland in 1892 and William Jennings Bryan's running mate in 1900. Adlai himself had been assistant secretary of the navy during WWII and was now governor of Illinois, a populous and important state. And he was Harry Truman's choice to beome the next Democratic president. Stevenson chose Senator John Sparkman of Alabama as his VP running mate.

REPUBLICAN: DWIGHT EISENHOWER.

Eisenhower, known as IKE, had been a brilliant commander-in-chief during WWII and later served as Columbia University's president and a NATO commander. The Republicans had convinced Ike to be their candidate and they had a winner on their hands. He chose a young California senator named Richard Nixon as his VP running mate.

The CAMPAIGN in 1952.

Stevenson had his problems in this campaign. First of all he hesitated over whether or not to accept the Democratic nomination; people saw him as weak and indecisive - not the person to fight Communism and bring the country out of a nasty war in Korea.

Second, this was the first time television would play a big role in a campaign. Stevenson did not do himself a favor when speaking on television. The Democrats would buy thirty minutes of TV time and Stevenson would talk for all thirty minutes and put people to sleep - they simply tuned him out. He spoke in elegant compound sentences which was the wrong thing to do. (We've learned that people like short simple answers.)

Third, Stevenson was divorced and Americans had never voted for a divorced man in the White House. (That would have to wait until Ronald Reagan in 1980.)

Eisenhower's ad men were much wiser when it came to television time. Ben Duffy, his chief ad man, knew that people liked shorter and simpler answers. So he prepared a series of twenty-second spots entitled "Eisenhower Answers the Nation." The cameras would go to a person or a married couple who had a concerned question and Ike would answer in twenty seconds. They were very effective.

But Ike did make mistakes. He was photographed shaking hands with Senator Joseph McCarthy, whom many people of both parties now considered to be a national disgrace. And McCarthy did not help Ike by endorsing him (on TV) and referring to Stevenson as "Alger." Alger Hiss was the convicted State Department spy.

But with the world looking more and more like a dangerous place,(the USSR had just acquired nuclear weapons), the American people were forced to choose between a plain-spoken modern man of action or a long-winded "egghead" who couldn't end a speech on time.

One ugly piece of Republican campaigning was they spread the rumor that Adlai was gay. Stevenson loved women and dated many of them, but that didn't stop the Republicans from spreading the rumor, especially since, as the campaign began, a friend and aide named Bill Blair moved into the Illinois governor's mansion with Stevenson. Truman was so concerned that he sent an aide to Illinois to investigate. The aide reported back that Stevenson was straight. There were even rumors that Stevenson's former wife, Ellen, left him because he was gay. But the divorce had mainly been caused by Stevenson's devotion to his career and lack of attention to her.

The American people were ready for a change. The catchy "I Like Ike" slogan was rampant throughout America and when he said "I shall go to Korea" it was another winner. He was implying that he would stop this unpopular war - and he did - the fighting stopped on July 27, 1953.

The WINNER was DWIGHT EISENHOWER and he became the 34th president of the United States.

Eisenhower got 34,936,234 popular and 442 electoral.

Stevenson got 27,314,992 popular and 89 electoral.

Ike nearly didn't get the nomination at the Republican Convention in July of 1952. The favorite was Senator Robert Taft of Ohio. Eisenhower had decided to run as a Republican in 1952 because Taft was opposed to NATO. As commander of NATO in the previous two years Ike was convinced that NATO was necessary for the survival of a free Europe. Eisenhower announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination in 1952 in an effort to prevent Taft from becoming the nominee. However, the Republican Party bigwigs favored Taft so it was not going to be easy to get the nomination. At the convention, a junior senator from California saved the day for Ike. This senator put pressure on the California delegation, leading them to cast all of their 70 votes for Eisenhower. It saved the day for Ike and he got the nomination. That junior senator was none other than Richard Nixon, who received the VP nod for his deeds. Nixon also balanced the ticket nicely: He was a conservative Republican, while Eisenhower was a moderate. (Oh, how I wish the Republican Party had some Eisenhowers in it today.)