Eisenhower in War and Peace

by Jean Edward Smith

  58. DDE, At Ease 354.

  59. DDE to Louis Johnson, April 20, 1949, 10 Columbia 560.

  60. DDE to Everett Hazlett, April 27, 1949, DDE, Ike’s Letters to a Friend 53–54.

  61. DDE to Milton Eisenhower, May 13, 1949, 10 Columbia 580–81.

  62. Albert C. Jacobs, interview by Travis Beal Jacobs, February 5, 1965, quoted in Travis Beal Jacobs, Eisenhower at Columbia 172.

  63. Lionel Trilling, interview, February 4, 1958, COHP.

  64. Eli Ginsberg, interview by Travis Beal Jacobs, December 11, 1990, quoted in Jacobs, Eisenhower at Columbia 205.

  65. Jacques Barzun, interview, April 5, 1979, COHP.

  66. David B. Truman, interview by Travis Beal Jacobs, February 4, 1958, quoted in Jacobs, Eisenhower at Columbia 199.

  67. Harry J. Carman, interview, December 1, 1961, COHP.

  68. Cliff Roberts, interview, September 12, 1968, COHP.

  69. DDE to Hazlett, February 24, 1950, DDE, Ike’s Letters to a Friend 68–76.

  70. DDE diary, November 25, 1949, 10 Columbia 839–41.

  71. Quentin Reynolds, “Mr. President Eisenhower,” Life 144–60, April 17, 1950.

  72. Richard H. Rovere, “The Second Eisenhower Boom,” Harper’s 31–39, May 1950. Ike noted the article in his diary. “This week another article came out—this time in Harper’s which castigated me, on the ground that here the students and faculties hate me—and I return the sentiment with interest.” Diary, May 2, 1950, The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, vol. 11, Columbia 1096–97. Cited subsequently as 11 Columbia.

  73. Grayson Kirk, interview, July 22, 1987, COHP.

  74. DDE to Philip C. Jessup, March 18, 1950, 11 Columbia 1014.

  75. Jacobs, Eisenhower at Columbia 229.

  76. DDE diary, October 13, 1950, 11 Columbia 1382–83.

  77. DDE diary, October 28, 1950, ibid. 1388–92.

  78. Ibid.

  79. Columbia Spectator, November 10, 1950.

  80. HST, 2 Memoirs 258. The unanimous request of the foreign ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty nations, meeting in Brussels on December 18, was flashed to the White House by Secretary of State Dean Acheson. United States Department of State, 3 Foreign Relations of the United States: 1950 Western Europe 594–95 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950).

  81. John Krout, interview by Travis Beal Jacobs, July 22, 1963, April 27, 1977, quoted in Jacobs, Eisenhower at Columbia 251–52.

  82. DDE, At Ease 361.

  83. Jacobs, Eisenhower at Columbia 252.

  84. Columbia Spectator, December 20, 1950.

  85. Time, February 12, 1951.

  86. DDE, At Ease 372.

  87. Ibid.

  88. DDE, Mandate for Change 14.

  89. C. L. Sulzberger, A Long Row of Candles: Memoirs and Diaries, 1934–1954 702 (New York: Macmillan, 1969).

  90. James T. Patterson, Mr. Republican: A Biography of Robert A. Taft 30 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1972).

  91. Minutes, Columbia Board of Trustees, February 8, 1951.

  92. Carl W. Ackerman manuscript collection, Library of Congress.

  93. Eric Foner, interview by Jean Edward Smith, April 20, 2010.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: “I LIKE IKE”

  The epigraph is General Clay’s comment pertaining to Ike’s indecision over whether to seek the GOP nomination in 1952. Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay 591.

  1. DDE, Mandate for Change 14.

  2. Sulzberger, Long Row of Candles 614.

  3. Quoted in Korda, Ike 631.

  4. Sulzberger, Long Row of Candles 686.

  5. Of the 250 Allied officers at SHAPE, 150 were either British or American. Ibid.

  6. Lyon, Eisenhower 424.

  7. Quoted in David Halberstam, The Fifties 209 (New York: Villard Books, 1993).

  8. Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay 591–92.

  9. Richard Norton Smith, Thomas E. Dewey and His Times 578 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982).

  10. Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay 584.

  11. The sentiment was that of Ruth McCormick Simms, one of Dewey’s aides at the 1940 Republican National Convention. Charles Peters, Five Days in Philadelphia 19 (New York: Public Affairs, 2005).

  12. Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay 584.

  13. DDE to LDC, September 27, 1951, The Papers of Dwight D. Eisenhower, vol. 12, NATO and the Campaign of 1952 580. Cited subsequently as 12 NATO.

  14. LDC to DDE, September 29, 1951, ibid. 607n5.

  15. DDE to LDC, October 5, 1951, ibid. 605–7. (Eisenhower’s emphasis.)

  16. Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay 586.

  17. The story of President Truman’s offer to Eisenhower was first reported by Arthur Krock in The New York Times, November 8, 1951, and subsequently mentioned in Krock’s Memoirs: Sixty Years on the Firing Line 267–69 (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1968).

  18. Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., interview by Jean Edward Smith, May 5, 1971. “Lucius’s father and my grandfather served together in the United States Senate,” said Lodge, “and Lucius became absorbed in politics at a very early age. Lucius can be extremely blunt. In a rough-and-tumble political fight … a man like Clay can be extremely useful. He scared some people to death.” Smith, Lucius D. Clay 585.

  19. LDC to DDE, December 7, 1951, DDE Personal File, EL. Also see LDC to DDE, December 13, 1951, ibid.

  20. DDE to LDC, December 19, 1951, 12 NATO 796–97.

  21. DDE to LDC, December 27, 1951, ibid. 817–18.

  22. Ibid.

  23. DDE to Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., December 29, 1951, ibid. 829.

  24. HST to DDE, handwritten, December 18, 1951, in David McCullough, Truman 888 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992). Mr. Truman’s letter was not delivered to Eisenhower until December 28, 1951.

  25. DDE to HST, January 1, 1952, 12 NATO 830–31.

  26. For the text of Lodge’s letter to Adams, see The New York Times, January 7, 1952.

  27. Ibid.

  28. Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., interview by Jean Edward Smith, May 5, 1971.

  29. DDE to LDC, January 8, 1952, The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, vol. 13, NATO 860–61. Cited subsequently as 13 NATO.

  30. For the text of Eisenhower’s statement, see The New York Times, January 8, 1952.

  31. The transcript of President Truman’s press conference is in The New York Times, January 11 1952. Truman sent Eisenhower a recording of his remarks. “I am grateful for your thoughtfulness,” Eisenhower replied on January 23. “It is difficult to understand why any individual should want to produce irritation or mutual resentment between us.… I deeply appreciate your determination to avoid any such thing—a purpose which does and will govern my own conduct.” DDE to HST, January 23, 1952, 13 NATO 907–8.

  32. The New York Times, February 8, 1952. Hoover’s “Gibraltar of freedom” metaphor derived from a speech he made to a national television and radio audience on January 27. For the text, see The New York Times, January 28, 1952.

  33. DDE to LDC, February 9, 1952, 13 NATO 962–64.

  34. Ibid.

  35. Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay 593.

  36. DDE, Mandate for Change 20.

  37. Jacqueline Cochran, interview, EL.

  38. DDE to LDC, February 12, 1952, 13 NATO 974–75.

  39. Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay 591.

  40. All primary figures are from Congressional Quarterly’s Guide to U.S. Elections 334–35 (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1975).

  41. DDE to LDC, March 28, 1952, 13 NATO 1139–41.

  42. LDC to DDE, March 29, 1952, ibid. 1141n1.

  43. HST, 2 Memoirs 492. George Allen, a close friend of both the president’s and Ike’s had confided to Truman that Eisenhower intended to run.

  44. Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay 595. Also see Richard N. Smith, Thomas E. Dewey 582.

  45. DDE to HST, April 2, 1952, 13 NATO 1154–56. Also see DDE to Secretary of Defense Robert Lovett, April 2, 1952, ibid. 1157–59. Eisenhower was pla
ced on the Army’s retired list on May 31, 1952 (ibid. 1238).

  46. HST to DDE, April 6, 1952, ibid. 1156n10.

  47. Lord Alanbrooke to DDE, May 17, 1952, EL.

  48. Marquis William Childs, Eisenhower: Captive Hero 134 (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1958).

  49. Halberstam, Fifties 211.

  50. The New York Times, June 5, 1952.

  51. Ibid. June 15, 1952.

  52. Richard N. Smith, Thomas E. Dewey 586.

  53. Ibid. 593.

  54. Thomas C. Reeves, The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy 426 (New York: Stein and Day, 1982).

  55. Herbert Brownell, interview by Jean Edward Smith, April 7, 1971, quoted in Smith, Lucius D. Clay 597–98.

  56. Ibid. 599.

  57. Richard N. Smith, Thomas E. Dewey 590.

  58. Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay 599.

  59. Ibid.

  60. The New York Times, July 12, 1952. Also see Patterson, Mr. Republican 563.

  61. Herbert Brownell, interview by Jean Edward Smith, April 7, 1971.

  62. Ibid.

  63. Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., interview by Jean Edward Smith, May 5, 1971.

  64. Quoted in Halberstam, Fifties 213. Also see Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay 602.

  65. Ibid.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN: THE GREAT CRUSADE

  The epigraph is from Eisenhower’s acceptance speech to the Republican National Convention, July 11, 1952. George L. Hart, Official Report of the Proceedings of the Twenty-fifth Republican National Convention 432 (Washington, D.C.: Republican National Committee, 1952).

  1. Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay 603.

  2. GCM to DDE, July 12, 1952, EL.

  3. DDE to GCM, July 17, 1952, 13 NATO 1277–78.

  4. DDE, Mandate for Change 50.

  5. DDE to Cliff Roberts, July 29, 1952, 13 NATO 1283–85. (Eisenhower’s emphasis.)

  6. Roberts to DDE, ibid, note 7.

  7. DDE to Roberts, July 29, 1952, ibid. 1283–85.

  8. DDE, Mandate for Change 54–55. Labor Day in 1952 fell on September 1.

  9. DDE, Mandate for Change 318n. Also see Lyon, Eisenhower 448–49.

  10. The New York Times, August 15, 1952. I have reported the official Democratic explanation of why Eisenhower was not invited to the White House. It is conceivable that Truman messed up, did not think to invite Eisenhower, and Bradley took the fall.

  11. Ibid. August 13, 1952.

  12. DDE to HST, August 14, 1952, 13 NATO 1322–23.

  13. HST to DDE, August 16, 1952, 13 NATO 1327n1.

  14. Gary Wills, Nixon Agonistes: The Crises of the Self-Made Man 118 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970).

  15. Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay 603–4.

  16. The New York Times, September 10, 1952.

  17. Herbert S. Parmet, Eisenhower and the American Crusades 128 (New York: Macmillan, 1972); Emmet John Hughes, The Ordeal of Power: A Political Memoir of the Eisenhower Years 41 (New York: Atheneum, 1963).

  18. DDE, Mandate for Change 64.

  19. The New York Times, September 16, 1952.

  20. Lyon, Eisenhower 449.

  21. Parmet, Eisenhower and the American Crusades 129.

  22. New York Post, September 18, 1952.

  23. Quoted in Wills, Nixon Agonistes 95–96.

  24. Quoted in Earl Mazo, Richard Nixon: A Political and Personal Portrait 101 (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1959).

  25. Robert Cutler, No Time for Rest 284–85 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1966). Also see Milton S. Eisenhower, The President Is Calling 251–52.

  26. Roger Morris, Richard Milhous Nixon: The Rise of an American Politician 770–71 (New York: Henry Holt, 1990). The document is also reprinted in vol. 13 of the Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower at page 1358. The editor of the Papers suggests the message was not sent. I have gone with Morris, who as Nixon’s biographer was in a better position to know.

  27. Lyon, Eisenhower 456.

  28. New York Herald Tribune, The Washington Post, September 20, 1952. The early editions of the Saturday papers were available Friday evening, September 19, 1952.

  29. Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay 605.

  30. Ibid. 606.

  31. Wills, Nixon Agonistes 102.

  32. Lyon, Eisenhower 457–58. Nixon’s side of the conversation was monitored by Murray Chotiner, his campaign manager; James Bassett, his press secretary; and William P. Rogers, his close friend and later secretary of state.

  33. Morris, Richard Milhous Nixon 816.

  34. William Robinson to DDE, September 22, 1952, Robinson Papers, EL.

  35. Paul Hoffman Papers, Truman Presidential Library, quoted in Morris, Richard Milhous Nixon 816.

  36. Morris, Richard Milhous Nixon 818; Richard Norton Smith, Thomas E. Dewey and His Times 601–2. Herbert Browell, interview by Jean Edward Smith, April 7, 1971, COHP.

  37. Morris, Richard Milhous Nixon 822–23; Richard Norton Smith, Thomas E. Dewey and His Times 601–2.

  38. Morris, Richard Milhous Nixon 827.

  39. Variety, September 14, 1952.

  40. Parmet, Eisenhower and the American Crusades 138.

  41. For the text of Nixon’s speech see The New York Times, September 24, 1952.

  42. Ibid.

  43. Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay 606.

  44. Ibid.

  45. For Dewey’s comments, see The New York Times, September 26, 1952. For Knowland and Stassen, see Morris, Richard Milhous Nixon 845.

  46. Halberstam, Fifties 242.

  47. Wills, Nixon Agonistes 117.

  48. Perret, Eisenhower 416.

  49. DDE, Mandate for Change 317.

  50. Hughes, Ordeal of Power 42.

  51. Ibid. (Eisenhower’s emphasis.)

  52. DDE, Mandate for Change 318.

  53. The New York Times, October 9, 1952.

  54. Halberstam, Fifties 230.

  55. Lou Cowan, interview by David Halberstam, quoted in ibid. 232.

  56. David Halberstam, The Powers That Be 236 (New York: Knopf, 1979).

  57. Halberstam, Fifties 232.

  58. Robert J. Donovan Oral History, EL.

  59. Informal Memo, New York SAC Edward Scheidt to FBI Director Hoover, April 17, 1952; Informal Memo, FBI Assistant Director Milton Ladd to FBI Director, June 24, 1952; Informal Memo, FBI Supervisor Milton Jones to Assistant FBI Director Louis Nichols, July 24, 1952; Memo, FBI Assistant Director Milton Ladd to FBI Director Hoover, August 15, 1952. All reprinted in Athan Theoharis, From the Secret Files of J. Edgar Hoover 284–86 (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1991).

  60. David K. Johnson, The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government 122–23 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004); Curt Gentry, J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets 402–3 (New York: Norton, 1991); Marquis William Childs, Witness to Power 67–68 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1975).

  61. The New York Times, October 17, 1952.

  62. Ibid., October 25, 1952. In his memoirs, General Bradley dismissed Eisenhower’s pledge as “pure showbiz. Ike was well informed on all aspects of the Korean War and the delicacy of the armistice negotiations. He knew very well that he could achieve nothing by going to Korea.” Bradley and Blair, General’s Life 656.

  63. Quoted in Sherman Adams, Firsthand Report: The Story of the Eisenhower Administration 43–44 (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1961).

  64. Quoted in McCullough, Truman 912.

  65. Herbert Brownell, interview by Jean Edward Smith, April 7, 1971, COHP.

  66. The New York Times, November 5, 1952.

  67. Congressional Quarterly’s Guide to U.S. Elections 294. The Republicans won the House 221–211, and the Senate 48–47–1, the one independent being Wayne Morse of Oregon, who voted with the GOP to organize the Senate. In Kentucky, Stevenson received 495,729 votes to Ike’s 495,029—less than one-tenth of one percentage point separating them.

  68. HST to DDE, November 5, 1952, in 13 NATO 1412–13, notes.

  69. DDE to HST, November 5, 1952, ibid
. 1412.

  CHAPTER TWENTY: EIGHT MILLIONAIRES AND A PLUMBER

  The epigraph is from Eisenhower’s speech “The Chance for Peace,” delivered to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953. Public Papers of the Presidents: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953 179–88. Cited subsequently as Public Papers.

  1. Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay 606–7.

  2. Ibid. 607.

  3. Ibid. 609.

  4. Murray Kempton, “The Underestimation of Dwight D. Eisenhower,” Esquire, 108–9, September 1967.

  5. Paul Cabot, interview by Jean Edward Smith, December 12, 1970.

  6. Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay 610–11. Clay was on the board of directors of General Motors.

  7. Ibid.

  8. Childs, Eisenhower 167.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay 612.

  11. DDE diary, February 7, 1953, Eisenhower Diaries 227.

  12. Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay 612.

  13. The New Republic, December 15, 1952.

  14. For Stevenson’s comment, see Alden Whitman and The New York Times, Portrait: Adlai E. Stevenson: Politician, Diplomat, Friend 108 (New York: Harper and Row, 1965).

  15. Carl M. Brauer, Presidential Transitions: Eisenhower Through Reagan 22 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986).

  16. Lyon, Eisenhower 470.

  17. Korda, Ike 658.

  18. DDE, Mandate for Change 95.

  19. Bradley and Blair, General’s Life 658.

  20. James F. Schnabel and Robert J. Watson, History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, vol. 3, The Korean War 932–34 (Wilmington, Del.: Glazer, 1979).

  21. Mark Clark Oral History, COHP. In his memoirs, From the Danube to the Yalu 233 (New York: Harper, 1954), Clark inexplicably says he was not given an opportunity to present his plan to Eisenhower. I have adopted Clark’s version in his oral history.

  22. DDE, Mandate for Change 95.

  23. Quoted in Brauer, Presidential Transitions 23.

  24. I am indebted to Stephen Ambrose for this summary of the Helena voyage. Ambrose, 2 Eisenhower 34.

  25. The New York Times, December 15, 1952.

  26. John S. D. Eisenhower, Strictly Personal 156. News reports at the time suggested that both John and Ike were offended that John was ordered back. That was not the case.

  27. Quoted in McCullough, Truman 921.