The Fifties

by David Halberstam

Among some who thought Stevenson the superior candidate there was a feeling that the country needed to elect Eisenhower in order to make the Republican party accept responsibility for McCarthy. Others feared that if the Republicans remained out of power very much longer, the two-party system would be in jeopardy. No one articulated it better than the columnist Joe Alsop in a letter to Isaiah Berlin. The campaign had convinced him that Stevenson was admirably qualified to be President and Eisenhower was not, and yet, Alsop added: “I find myself constantly blackmailed by the virtual certainty that we shall have a first-class fascist party in the United States if the Republicans don’t win. The real need for a change in this country arises, not from the decay of the Democrats, but from the need to give the Republicans the sobering experience of responsibility.” If Stevenson had thought he had even the smallest chance of winning, he might have been more tempted to compromise. Right after he gained the nomination, he was told by his advisers to make some kind of accommodation with Texas conservatives on the issue of offshore oil rights; otherwise, he was warned, he would probably lose Texas and the election. “But I don’t have to win,” he answered. Instead, he went