The Fifties

by David Halberstam

the general had said. That, as far as Reeves was concerned, proved his point. In September, as he sat in the St. Regis Hotel reading Ike’s clips from newspapers across the country, he concluded Ike was as bad as MacArthur. He was doing a terrible job of packaging and selling himself. He had the advantage of a popular, recognizable name, but he was letting it all slip away, talking in all kinds of directions about too many different things. This was a disaster. “You don’t do that in advertising,” he said. “You lose penetration.” Reeves zeroed in on three essential themes: Ike cleaning up corruption; Ike the soldier who was, in truth, a man of peace; or Ike who would clean out the Communists in government. Then he went to the Reader’s Digest, which had what were considered the best mailing lists for middle-of-the-road, mainstream Americans. He did three mailings of ten thousand each, asking the subscribers to say which theme would be most effective. Most people responded to Ike as a man who knew war but who would now bring peace. Reeves also met with George Gallup and had him do some polling. The results were similar: The American people were worried about Korea above all. With that, Reeves thought he had his USP, so to speak: “Eisenhower, the man who will bring us peace.” That slogan was brought to the general for his approval, and much to the surprise of Reeves and his group, the general demurred. He, no more than anyone else in the world, could guarantee peace. So the