The Election Of 1952: Dwight D. Eisenhower vs. Adlai Stevenson II
Intro: Hello and welcome back to another edition of the presidential election series as I'll be discussing the election of 1952; It's been 20 years since the Republicans took control of the White House and now their looking to get back in with the help of a decorated military war hero, but first his gotta go through the Governor of Illnois to make that happen..let's get into it.
Truman's Time in Office
As you may recall from the 1948 election article, we last left President Harry S. Truman pulling off one of the greatest upsets in election history in order to keep his job as the commander and chief, however things haven't been so easy for Truman following the election as it was discovered that his administration was involved in corruption along with other federal employees.
Meanwhile, Truman's approval numbers were taking a tumble during his second term following the 1952 steel strike with Truman using executive action to handle the situation but these actions were soon struck down thanks to the supreme court ruling in the court case, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer which found the president's actions in dealing with the strike unconstitutional.
Perhaps the biggest thing that Truman was dealing with at the time was the Korean War, which saw communist North Korean forces invade South Korea in 1950 and after getting permission by the newly created United Nations to proceed, the conflict didn't really go in either direction as neither side was able to get the upper hand.
Truman's firing of MacArthur further lead to the president's numbers plummeting to a 66% disapproval rating and despite successes in implementing his 'Fair Deal' policies, creating the CIA, supporting universal healthcare and pushing for racial intregation things weren't looking good for the incumbent president who was thinking about running for another term as the newly created 22nd amendment (which made it clear that all future president's could run for only two terms) didn't apply to the current commander and chief.
Another name running for the Democratic Party's nomination was Tennessee Senator, Estes Kefauver who became famous for his investigation into organized crime with the 'Kefauver Committee' unfortunately, his habit of discovering scandals in politics also led to him exposing the previously mentioned corruption that was going on in the Truman adminstration which made him a traitor to many party bosses.
Governor Adlai Stevenson
With Truman's numbers taking a hit and announcing that he wouldn't be seeking another term, this resulted in the president looking for someone to run as the Democratic nominee for president in the up-and-coming 1952 election.
Hubert Humphrey, Ricard Russell, Robert Kerr and Averell Harriman just to name a few ran for the nomination and even Alben Barkley (Truman's Vice President) made a run for it but many found the VP too old to become president as he was only 73 years...however there was one man Truman looked at as a likely contender to win the nomination mostly due to his oratory skills and his record of pushing for reforms.
That person was Adali Stevenson II and he was the then Governor of Illnois and the grandson of Adali Stevenson I who was Grover Cleveland's running mate in the 1892 election, unfortunately for President Truman the man he saw as the party's soon-to-be nominee refused the offer and instead wished to focus his efforts on getting re-elected governor.
Following his success in cracking down on corruption and managing to beat the incumbent party president in the New Hamsphire primary, Kefauver for a time appeared to be the front runner, this lead to Truman again trying to convince Stevenson to go for the nomination. By the time of that year's Democratic National Convention (which just so happened to take place in Illnois), the party bosses pushed to get Stevenson to run especially after a well received speech he gave earlier on.
Ultimately, Stevenson would announce that he would go for the party's nomination and he won it quite handily with his running mate being Alabama Senator, John Sparkman who was selected by the party bosses thanks to his Southern roots and political record which some saw as a way to balance out the ticket and maybe even get some of those Southern voters to remain within the Democratic Party.
With that being said, Sparkman was a big supporter of racial segregation in the South and while this decision to have the senator on the ticket might convince some Southerners to stay with the Democrats, it's also going to alienate many Northern states especially those that support civil rights for African Americans...So Stevenson has finally accepted his party's nomination for president, now it's time to see who the Republicans will chose as their candidate.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower
The GOP was divided when it came to nominating their candidate for president as two war factions within the party had been going on for quite some time with many of the more moderate Republicans located in the Northeast being refered to as the "Eastern Establishment" with their policies centering more on involvement with foreign affairs, supporting social welfare, education, the business community and basically supporting ideals that were considered liberal back then.
This wing of the party was led by former District Attorney and New York Governor Thomas Dewey who had lost the previous two presidential elections; In order to make sure the GOP didn't completely fall into the hands of the conservative wing of the party, Dewey and many other influential Republicans tried to get the Military Commander and famous World War II General Dwight D. Eisenhower to run in the 1948 election but Eisenhower (also known as Ike) refused to run, however with the nomination almost certainly looking like it'll end up in the hands of the conservatives a push was made to get Eisenhower to run in 1952.
Called the Draft Eisenhower Movement and Citizens For Eisenhower, these grassroot groups were designed by both liberal Republicans, independent voters, celebrities and regular folk to get Ike to run for president with names like Henry Cabot Lodge Jr and Thomas Dewey pushing heavily to get the general to run and much like Adali Stevenson with the Democrats, Eisenhower finally accepted to run as an establishment type of Republican but he wouldn't get the nomination without first having to go through the conservative wing of the party.
Heading into the Republican National Convention it was a back and forth fight between the Taft and Eisenhower supporters to get the most delegates to their side, but Taft and his team where accused of not allowing Eisenhower delegates from Southern states to be involved and instead replaced them with those who favored the Ohio Senator. Whether these claims are true or not is unknown but it's due to the wake of these claims and much more that leads to Eisenhower narrowly escaping the convention as the nominee.
Nixon and The Checker's Speech
While Eisenhower may have won the Republican Party's nomination for president, the conservative wing are not going to let the Eastern Establishment dictate the rest of the proceedings unless a compromise is made and that comes in form of having a rising Senator from California be on the ticket as Ike's running mate and that senator was none other than Richard Milhous Nixon.
Nixon in the early stages of of his political career was known for his 'slash and burn' tactics which basically means it's not about making yourself look good, but it's about making your opponents look worse and this tactic helped him in defeating poilitical opponents like Jerry Voorhis and Helen Douglas by labeling them as being "soft on Communism" and with these tactics, plus his anti-communists beliefs which led to him revealing that politician Alger Hiss was a former Russian spy resulted in Nixon getting the infamous nickname "Tricky Dick".
By the time of the Republican convention, Nixon was associated with the conservative wing of the party and when he was chosen to be Eisenhower's vice presidential candidate the conservatives were pacified with this decision, however Ike would go on to have a major problem with Nixon when it was discovered that the California Senator had a slush fund and was being given around $18,000 worth in gifts leading to Ike considering the idea of dropping Nixon off the ticket.
When word of Eisenhower talking about dropping Nixon off the ticket was made known to the Senator, he decided to give a speech on national TV which seems cliche by today's standards, but worked wonders back in 1952 as he attempted to disprove these charges against him while mentioning his modest upbringing and even mentioned that a gift he did get was a cocker spaniel dog that named Checkers and that the his children loved the anminal and had every intention of keeping it.
The now famous 'Checkers Speech' saved Richard Nixon's political career and his position on the GOP ticket with many American's and even Eisenhower himself throughing their support behind the young Senator...So the two major candidate have been discussed, now it's time to get into the campaigns and the way both sides marketed themselves in this election.
The Campaigns
Due to his popularity as the war hero who helped lead the United States to victory in World War II, Eisenhower had the momentum for most of the election and his promises to clean up the corruption in Washington, fighting back against Communism, and pulling American Soldiers out of the Korean War made even more people excited about the idea of an Eisenhower Presidency.
As Ike uses his charm to win over the people, his running mate meanwhile becomes the general's political attack dog as Nixon is using the same slash and burn tactics his known for to plant the seeds of doubt in the minds of many voters when comes to the affectiveness of Stevenson as a leader thus leading to the Illnois Governor having to clap back at Nixon for criticizing his judgement.
Stevenson campaigns on the idea of continuing the New Deal policies while also attempting to distance himself from the very unpopular Harry Truman; His also attempting to capitalize on the division's within the Republican Party by describing the GOP as a two head elephant unsure which direction it will go or who's actually in charge.
Republicans attempt to call out Adali Stevenson for being an "Egghead" and not just because of his baldness, but for the fact that he sounded too intellectual and at times out of touch with most suburban and rural voters.
Eisenhower's biggest problem occurs when he heads to Wisconsin to drum up support and plans to give a speech criticizing hometown senator, Joseph McCarthy who was infamous for causing major hysteria in the 1950's due to his crusade in finding individuals who were suspected of being members of the Communism Party, however instead of giving that speech and potentially risk pissing off the conservative wing of his party, Eisenhower decided to have a photo op where his seen shaking hands with the radical senator which was used as a way to unite the party more around Ike.
This moment angered many voters and president Truman who felt that McCarthy's witch hunt like mentality was actually causing more harm then good, so the fact that Eisenhower would ever want to be in the same room as McCarthy or shaking his hand none the less was shocking with even George Marshall, then Secretary of State, target of McCarthy's rhetoric and army friend to Ike being stunned by the whole thing.
Politics Moves To Television
Perhaps one of the most important apsects of this election would have to be the fact that political ads could now be seen on TV right in the comfort of your own home, which helps to get the campaign message across to more people in places without ever having to travel far and both Eisenhower and Stevenson both use this media to get their points across albeit with varying degrees of success.
In the case of Adali Stevenson, most of his ads used cartoons and sing-a-longs to get his ideas of supporting laborers and farmers, expanding social security and political experience across, however his appearances on TV where his seen explaning his plans for the country come of almost stilted and uncomfortable to those watching at home, but for those listening to him on the radio Stevenson's ortary skills appeal to many.
For Eisenhower, he was lucky enough to have the skills of a major advertising executive, Rosser Reeves help produce his commercials while also making the general look and sound more relaxed on TV compared to his Democratic rival. Many of these ads would see regular people asking Eisenhower questions or explaining their presence situation before he gave his response and ending with the line "It's Time For A Change", but by far the most famous political ad would be the cartoony 'I Like Ike' commerical which has become of the most famous ads in US political history.
Now it's time to go over the results and see who will this race.
The Results
As you can see from the electoral map above, Dwight D. Eisenhower easily won to become the 34th president in US History; Ike received 442 electoral votes and 55.2% of the popular vote compared to Adali Stevenson's 89 electoral votes and 44.3% of the popular vote.
Eisenhower became the first Republican since 1928 to be elected president in a landslide as he won 39 out of 48 states including Southern states that had previously voted for the Democrats like Texas, Virginia, Tennessee and Florida.
This election would also be the last time in which the GOP won the presidency without winning the states of Kentucky or West Virginia and the first since 1924 in which the Democrats didn't carry the state of Massachusetts.
And that was the election of 1952, the Democrats have been ousted from the White House for the first time in 20 years as Eisenhower is heading to Washington as the new commander and chief.
Be sure to follow me on Twitter @FullertonHakeem for more articles just like this and I will catch you all later.
The Election of 1948: Harry Truman vs. Thomas Dewey vs. Strom Thrumond vs. Henry Wallace
The Election of 1944: Franklin D. Roosevelt vs. Thomas Dewey
The Election of 1940: Franklin D. Roosevelt vs. Wendell Willkie
The Election Of 1940: Franklin D. Roosevelt vs. Wendell Willkie (blogofwrestling52.blogspot.com)
The Election of 1936: Franklin D. Roosevelt vs. Alf Landon
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