The Fifties

by David Halberstam

Or a ten-minute speech? Or a five-minute speech?” “No.” “Then what’s wrong with a one-minute speech or a fifteen-second speech?” Reeves replied. “‘You can’t say anything in a fifteen-second speech,’” Reeves quoted Cleveland as saying. Then Reeves dissented: “As a man who had been responsible for five hundred million dollars’ worth of advertising I know more about this than you do.” There was a pause in their conversation; Reeves was sure he had his man now. “Harlan,” he asked. “Do you remember that old radio speech of Franklin Roosevelt—his first acceptance speech?” Cleveland said he remembered it. “And the phrase about the only thing we have to fear is fear itself?” Again Cleveland assented. “Harlan,” Reeves said, locking the trap. “That’s a fifteen-second spot.” Now he pushed forward. “Do you remember the speech that Churchill gave at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri? What did he say there?” “That an Iron Curtain had descended on Europe,” Cleveland said. What else did he say? Reeves pushed. Cleveland could not remember. “That was a fifteen-second spot from Churchill,” Reeves said, “just like the one during the war about ‘never have so many owed so much to so few.’ That was a Churchill spot, too. He was very good at spots.” Reeves remembered Cleveland as being very uncomfortable. “This can lead to demagoguery,” Cleveland said. “An uninformed electorate can lead to demagoguery faster,” Reeves said, confident that what he was doing was helping to inform the electorate.