How Did Truman and Eisenhower Affect the Cold War? How Were They Different as Presidents? (2001)


The 1948 presidential election is remembered for Truman’s stunning come-from-behind victory. About the book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684853558/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0684853558&linkCode=as2&tag=tra0c7-20&linkId=cce091d711def7fc1fca61062f2c0a8f

In the spring of 1948, Truman’s public approval rating stood at 36%, and the president was nearly universally regarded as incapable of winning the general election. The “New Deal” operatives within the party—including FDR’s son James—tried to swing the Democratic nomination to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, a highly popular figure whose political views and party affiliation were totally unknown. Eisenhower emphatically refused to accept, and Truman outflanked opponents to his nomination.

Truman was a strong supporter of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which established a formal peacetime military alliance with Canada and democratic European nations that had not fallen under Soviet control following World War II. The treaty establishing it was widely popular and easily passed the Senate in 1949; Truman appointed General Eisenhower as commander. NATO’s goals were to contain Soviet expansion in Europe and to send a clear message to communist leaders that the world’s democracies were willing and able to build new security structures in support of democratic ideals. The U.S., Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Portugal, Iceland, and Canada were the original treaty signatories. The alliance resulted in the Soviets establishing a similar alliance, called the Warsaw Pact.

Charges that Soviet agents had infiltrated the government were believed by 78% of the people in 1946, and became a major campaign issue for Eisenhower in 1952.[144] Truman was reluctant to take a more radical stance because he feared that the full disclosure of the extent of the communist infiltration would reflect badly on the Democratic Party. It was a time of the Red Scare. In a 1956 interview, Truman denied that Alger Hiss had ever been a communist, a full six years after Hiss’s conviction for perjury on this topic.[145] In 1949 Truman described American communist leaders, whom his administration was prosecuting, as “traitors,” but in 1950 he vetoed the McCarran Internal Security Act. It was passed over his veto.[146] Truman would later state in private conversations with friends that his creation of a loyalty program had been a “terrible” mistake.

At the time of the 1952 New Hampshire primary, no candidate had won Truman’s backing. His first choice, Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson, had declined to run; Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson had also turned Truman down, Vice President Barkley was considered too old,[171][172] and Truman distrusted and disliked Senator Kefauver, who had made a name for himself by his investigations of the Truman administration scandals. Truman had hoped to recruit General Eisenhower as a Democratic candidate, but found him more interested in seeking the Republican nomination. Accordingly, Truman let his name be entered in the New Hampshire primary by supporters. The highly unpopular Truman was handily defeated by Kefauver; 18 days later the president announced he would not seek a second full term. Truman was eventually able to persuade Stevenson to run, and the governor gained the nomination at the 1952 Democratic National Convention.

Eisenhower gained the Republican nomination, with Senator Nixon as his running mate, and campaigned against what he denounced as Truman’s failures: “Korea, Communism and Corruption”. He pledged to clean up the “mess in Washington,” and promised to “go to Korea.”[171][172] Eisenhower defeated Stevenson decisively in the general election, ending 20 years of Democratic presidents. While Truman and Eisenhower had previously been good friends, Truman felt betrayed that Eisenhower did not denounce Joseph McCarthy during the campaign.[174] Similarly, Eisenhower was outraged when Truman, who made a whistlestop tour in support of Stevenson, accused the former general of disregarding “sinister forces … Anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, and anti-foreignism” within the Republican Party.[175] Eisenhower was so outraged he threatened not to make the customary ride down Pennsylvania Avenue with the departing president before the inauguration, but to meet Truman at the steps to the Capitol, where the swearing-in takes place.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S._Truman


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