Eisenhower Decides to Run: Presidential Politics and Cold War Strategy

by William B. Pickett

General Dwight D. Eisenhower's decision to campaign for the presidency in 1952 was a pivotal event in America's cold war years. It influenced almost a decade of policy toward the Soviet Union and the threat of communism abroad and at home. At the time, Eisenhower portrayed himself as the reluctant object of a presidential draft movement, but the truth is different. Based on recently discovered letters and diaries, William Pickett provides the first complete account of Eisenhower's decision to run, tracing it from 1943 when the supreme commander of Allied forces in North Africa first heard his name mentioned as a potential candidate for the presidency, to his victory over Senator Robert A. Taft at the 1952 Republican nominating convention. Mr. Pickett shows how international events and Eisenhower's own sense of duty combined to persuade him to enter presidential politics; how he began exploring the possibility in 1948; and how in 1951, from his post as NATO supreme commander, he secretly authorized his Republican supporters to begin formal campaign activity. He was not dissatisfied with Harry Truman's foreign policy, Mr. Pickett concludes. Rather, he believed by late 1951 that Truman's standing in public opinion polls and Taft's candidacy placed the policy in jeopardy. He ran in an effort to restore popular and bipartisan support for what Truman had set in motion. Mr. Pickett tells this story in a lucid and engrossing narrative, clarifying a previously murky picture. With 8 black-and-white photographs.

384 pages, Paperback

First published August 25, 2000

About the author

William B. Pickett is Professor Emeritus of History at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Reviews

[Bryan Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a careful investigation into how Ike decided to run for president. Pickett debunks the idea that Eisenhower was drafted into the nomination.

[Mack · Rating 3 out of 5]

I discovered this book while read "Ike and Dick," a book I consider to provide the most definitive analysis of the relationship between Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. While the premise of this text is intriguing and does a fine job of illuminating the many reasons and circumstances surrounding Ike's decision to run for the Republican nomination in 1952, it can read extremely dry at times. Mr. Pickett suffers from the professor's desire to cram too many facts and quotes on to a single page and honestly, I found the book to be highly repetitive at times. There were several instances where I felt like I had literally just read the same passage earlier. I think some further editing and a more engaging prose could have helped this book reach another level. Regardless, it is a fascinating look at a very important time in Presidential politics and is expertly researched. I would recommend this book if you are a lover of Presidential politics and/or have an affinity for and interest in Dwight Eisenhower.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Condensed to a sentence: General Eisenhower wanted it to appear he had no interest in running for President, all the while conspiring with key titans of industry and finance to do exactly that.

The details are, of course, more complicated.

Pickett, an Indiana professor of history, makes it plain that Eisenhower might well have been content to retire quietly to his newly purchased Gettysburg farm if not for the narrow, isolationist views of leading Republican candidate Robert Taft. In Taft, Eisenhower saw the possible unraveling of so much the U.S. had achieved with its---and his---World War victory.

Surprising to a 2013 reader is the degree to which the still-in-uniform Eisenhower was coaxed, courted, wooed, and backed by such wealthy, upper crust industrialists as General Motors CEO Alfred P. Sloan and Cities Service Oil Company chairman W. Alton “Pete” Jones, and New York City financial elite, such as John Hay “Jock” Whitney. To some degree, Eisenhower’s “I am not a candidate” candidacy was created and financed by the very military-industrial complex about which he sounded an alarm upon retiring from the presidency.

Perhaps most interesting to a contemporary reader is the book’s heavy reliance on correspondence among the conspirators, especially to and from Eisenhower himself, as they maneuvered to keep up the appearance of Eisenhower’s disinterest. Eisenhower’s letters reveal a philosophy colored by a touch of pre-Reaganism, but overarched by recognition that the nation can stand united only when everyone---including the working class---shares in the benefits of capitalism and when everyone---including the rich---pays taxes and participates in Swiss-style universal military service.

This is an Eisenhower who would be unwelcome in and feel estranged from the Republican Party of 2013.

Two remarkably timely quotes from the author and from Eisenhower, himself:

“But just as important in overcoming the isolationist impulse was, in Eisenhower’s view, resisting the opposite impulse--of attempting to overcome the threat by unnecessary spending on arms and armies, of seeking security in hardware and a continuously mobilized populace, a ‘garrison state.’ Such a society would simultaneously threaten opponents and risk both the nation’s economic vitality and its individual liberties.”---William B. Pickett

[Political freedom for the individual was] “the greatest single characteristic of western civilization,” and depended on the “existence of certain economic rights …the right to work at the place and occupation of one’s choice, to save the fruits of one’s labor, and to obtain some return on one’s investment of the capital thus saved … [Government should be] “the most disinterested and impartial authority available for the development and enforcement of needed regulations” to keep those who control the capital of production from having “unwarranted or dictatorial influence over the opportunities and livelihood of the great masses.” ---Eisenhower in a letter to General Motors CEO Alfred P. Sloan

The more I read of Eisenhower, the more impressed I am. To paraphrase Archie Bunker, "We could use a man like Dwight Eisenhower now." But he probably wouldn't get elected.