Eisenhower Decides to Run: Presidential Politics and Cold War Strategy [Hardcover]

William B. Pickett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 22, 2000 | ISBN-10: 1566633257 | ISBN-13: 978-1566633253

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This monograph covers the 1952 Republican Party presidential nomination, but its real topic is Ike's political reputation. Was he, as traditional biographers have presented him, the apolitical military man who succumbed to a presidential draft or a visionary political strategist, as claimed by recent revisionists like political scientist Fred I. Greenstein (The Hidden-Hand Presidency)? Pickett (history, Rose-Hulman Inst. of Technology; Dwight David Eisenhower and American Power) sides with the revisionists. In fact, the author goes so far as to argue that Ike violated army regulations to promote his presidential aspirations. Skeptics are likely to remain unconvinced. Even if he was interested in presidential politics because of his dislike for Douglas MacArthur and Robert Taft, Ike was primarily a modern military man who needed a mission; performing a duty rather than resolving public policy issues remained his primary motivation. To transform a military man into a latent political talent, Pickett would need to provide comparative data rather than a case study. He also ignores the roles of Earl Warren and Wayne l. Morse, who were progressive Republicans at that time. Nonetheless, this is a readable account that contrasts Ike with conservatives MacArthur and Taft. Recommended for specialized collections on Cold War presidents.DWilliam D. Pederson, Louisiana State Univ., Shreveport
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Comprehensible, balanced, and, above all, believable. (Divine, Robert A. )

Exquisite and extraordinary. (Robert H. Ferrell )

Professor Pickett teaches us again that what everybody knows to be true rarely turns out to be true. We now have an answer for the provocative 1952 nomination political puzzler. (Joseph E. Perisco )

A valuable contribution to our knowledge and understanding of one of the pivotal decisions in the history of the modern presidency. (Geoffrey Perret )

With vivid prose, analytical savvy, and a cache of recently found documents, it is impossible not to admire this landmark study. (Douglas Brinkley New York Review Of Books )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Ivan R Dee (August 22, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566633257
• ISBN-13: 978-1566633253
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,882,563 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #98 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( E ) > Eisenhower, Dwight D.

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