Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T03:30:27.406Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

CITIZENS FOR EISENHOWER AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, 1951–1965*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2013

ROBERT MASON
ROBERT MASON*
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
*
School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, William Robertson Wing, Old Medical School, Teviot Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9AGrobert.mason@ed.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Founded in support of Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1952 presidential candidacy, Citizens for Eisenhower took on an ambitious mission to revitalize the Republican party by expanding its activist ranks and by supporting the moderation of its conservative policy agenda. The organization proved unable to sustain the impressive momentum that it achieved during the 1952 campaign, however, instead helping to fuel factional opposition that informed the intraparty upsurge of conservatism during the 1950s and afterwards. The Eisenhower administration's efforts to encourage Citizens activists to join the party were flawed, and existing Republican activists often viewed such newcomers with hostility. More significantly, despite recruitment initiatives, in most cases activism in support of Eisenhower did not translate into enthusiasm for the party cause. The history of Citizens for Eisenhower therefore demonstrates the seriousness of Eisenhower's interests as president in boosting the Republican party's fortunes, but also the shortcomings of ‘amateur’ political activity in support of the party cause. It also sheds light on goals and activities of this era's moderate Republicans, together with their role in fostering the conservative resurgence that characterized the post-Eisenhower Republican party.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 56 , Issue 2 , June 2013 , pp. 513 - 536
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

For helpful advice in response to earlier versions of this article, I am grateful to Jonathan Bell, Iwan Morgan, Byron Shafer, Elizabeth Tandy Shermer, David Stebenne, the anonymous reviewers for the journal, the journal's editors, and the participants in an Institute of Historical Research seminar of February 2011. The article draws on research conducted with support from the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland and the Eisenhower Foundation, for which I am also grateful.

References

1 On Eisenhower's popularity as a politician, see Hyman, Herbert H. and Sheatsley, Paul B., ‘The political appeal of President Eisenhower’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 17 (1953–4), pp. 443–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Clayton to unknown, 2 June 1955, Abilene, Kansas, Dwight D. Eisenhower Library (DDEL), Thomas E. Stephens records, box 32.

3 Hall to Roberts, 15 Sept. 1955, West Branch, Iowa, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, Thayer papers, political files, box 5.

4 For James Q. Wilson, a contemporary scholar of political ‘amateurs’, the era's most outstanding example of this amateur spirit in politics was the Goldwater movement within the Republican party. Wilson, James Q., The amateur Democrat (1962; Chicago, IL, 1966), pp. viii–ixGoogle Scholar.

5 Critchlow, Donald T., The conservative ascendancy: how the GOP Right made political history (Cambridge, MA, 2007)Google Scholar; McGirr, Lisa, Suburban warriors: the origins of the new American Right (Princeton, NJ, 2001)Google Scholar.

6 Exceptions include Fitzgerald, Sara, Elly Peterson: ‘mother’ of the moderates (Ann Arbor, MI, 2011)Google Scholar, Kabaservice, Geoffrey, Rule and ruin: the downfall of moderation and the destruction of the Republican party, from Eisenhower to the Tea Party (New York, NY, 2012)Google Scholar, Stebenne, David, Modern Republican: Arthur Larson and the Eisenhower years (Bloomington, IN, 2006)Google Scholar, Rae, Nicol C., The decline and fall of the liberal Republicans: from 1952 to the present (New York, NY, 1989)Google Scholar, and Smith, Richard Norton, Thomas E. Dewey and his times (New York, NY, 1982)Google Scholar. Where scholars have investigated liberal and moderate Republicans, their emphasis has generally remained at the elite level. A book that looks at the conflict between conservatives and non-conservatives within the party, encompassing activists, is Bowen, Michael, The roots of modern conservatism: Dewey, Taft, and the battle for the soul of the Republican party (Chapel Hill, NC, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Notes of press conference, 14 Nov. 1956, DDEL, Dwight D. Eisenhower Records as President: White House Central Files, Official file, box 717.

8 Eisenhower to Alcorn, 30 Aug. 1957, DDEL, Dwight D. Eisenhower Papers as President of the United States (DDEPP), Administration series, box 1. Acceptance of government activism also led to support for infrastructural development, notably including the 1956 act to fund interstate highways.

9 Berry to Alcorn, 19 Jan. 1959, Bloomington, Indiana, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Charles A. Halleck papers, box 43.

10 Pickett, William B., Eisenhower decides to run: presidential politics and Cold War strategy (Chicago, IL, 2000)Google Scholar.

11 Mason, Robert, The Republican party and American politics from Hoover to Reagan (New York, NY, 2012), pp. 151–2Google Scholar, 163, 176–8.

12 Thurber, Timothy N., ‘Goldwaterism triumphant? Race and the Republican party, 1965–1968’, Journal of the Historical Society, 7 (2007), pp. 349–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 Wilson, Amateur Democrat, passim.

14 Over time, the organization's official name was subject to change – adding Nixon to the title, for example, on Richard Nixon's vice-presidential selection. At the national level, variations included the Citizens for Eisenhower Congressional Committee (in 1954) and the National Citizens for Eisenhower-Nixon 1958 Committee. Informally, however, the group remained known as Citizens for Eisenhower throughout the period.

15 Mitchell, Stephen A., Elm Street politics (New York, NY, 1959), p. 26Google Scholar. In longer-term perspective, the clubs exercised a greater influence on the Democrats’ policy direction. Bell, Jonathan, ‘Building a Left coast: the legacy of the California Popular Front and the challenge to Cold War liberalism in the post-World War II era’, Journal of American Studies, 46 (2012), pp. 61–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 Galvin, Daniel, Presidential party building: Dwight D. Eisenhower to George W. Bush (Princeton, NJ, 2010), pp. 41–69Google Scholar. See also Cotter, Cornelius P., ‘Eisenhower as party leader’, Political Science Quarterly, 98 (1983), pp. 255–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 Eisenhower to Roberts, 7 Dec. 1954, DDEL, DDEPP, DDE Diary series, box 8.

18 Masterson to Pyle, 17 May 1955, DDEL, Howard Pyle records, box 28.

19 Stebenne, Modern Republican; Wagner, Steven F., Eisenhower Republicanism: pursuing the middle way (DeKalb, IL, 2006)Google Scholar.

20 Eisenhower to Paley, 14 Nov. 1956, DDEPP, Name series, box 25.

21 Eisenhower and Bridges transcript, 21 May 1957, DDEPP, DDE Diary series, box 24.

22 Eisenhower to Baker and Baker, 7 Aug. 1957, DDEPP, DDE Diary series, box 26.

23 RNC to leading Republicans, n.d., DDEPP, Campaign series, box 3.

24 Dick, Jane, Volunteers and the making of presidents (New York, NY, 1980), p. 13Google Scholar.

25 New York Times (NYT), 8 Feb. 1952, p. 15.

26 Saturday Evening Post, 27 Sept. 1952, p. 53; Leonard W. Hall, foreword, in Mitchell, Elm Street politics, p. i; Dick, Volunteers, p. 110; NYT, 1 Aug. 1952, p. 6. For a rich, detailed exploration of Eisenhower's nomination quest, see David, Paul T., Moos, Malcolm, and Goldman, Ralph M., eds., Presidential nominating politics in 1952 (Baltimore, MD, 1954)Google Scholar.

27 Those with close links to regular Republican activity retained a distance from Citizens, seeking not to undermine that volunteer identity. Herbert Brownell with Burke, John P., Advising Ike: the memoirs of Attorney General Herbert Brownell (Lawrence, KS, 1993), p. 107Google Scholar; Burk, Robert F., Dwight D. Eisenhower: hero and politician (Boston, MA, 1986), p. 117Google Scholar; Allen, Craig, Eisenhower and the mass media: peace, prosperity, and prime-time TV (Chapel Hill, NC, 1993), pp. 16–17, 20–1, 78–81Google Scholar.

28 NYT, 27 Jan. 1952, p. E8.

29 Roberts to Hall, 24 June 1955, DDEPP, Name series, box 27.

30 NYT, 14 Sept. 1952, p. 1.

31 Citizens for Eisenhower pamphlet, n.d., Yorba Linda, California, Richard Nixon Library and Museum, Richard Nixon papers, series 320, box 152; Houghton to Nixon, 22 Apr. 1957, Nixon papers, series 320, box 356; Los Angeles Times clipping, 23 Sept. 1958, Nixon papers, series 320, box 422. Houghton urged the use of the good-government rationale as a way to encourage Citizens to join the Republican party.

32 Corpus Christi (TX) Caller-Times, 22 Aug. 1954, p. 24.

33 Connellsville, PA, Daily Courier, 3 June 1959, p. 7.

34 Creel to Nixon, 4 Oct. 1952, Nixon papers, PPS 10.706.

35 Danville, VA, Bee, 11 Sept. 1952, p. 6.

36 Baker, Paula, ‘“She is the best man on the ward committee”: women in grassroots party organizations, 1930s–1950s’, in Gustafson, Melanie, Miller, Kristie, and Perry, Elisabeth I., eds., We have come to stay: American women and political parties, 1880–1960 (Albuquerque, NM, 1999), pp. 151–60Google Scholar.

37 For example, Citizens leader Clifford Roberts concluded that women sometimes made an important difference to the organization's success in 1956, noting that ‘in some states, the woman Co-Chairman is doing work that in part makes up for the weak [male] Chairman’. Roberts to Nixon, 22 Oct. 1956, Nixon papers, series 320, box 645.

38 Citizens for Eisenhower, ‘Advance’, 16 May 1956, and Citizens for Eisenhower-Nixon, ‘Crusader’, 28 June 1952, Nixon papers, series 320, box 152; McGirr, Suburban warriors.

39 Time, 11 June 1956.

40 Citizens campaign material, n.d., Nixon papers, series 320, box 422.

41 Report on Southern California, 25 Sept. 1956, Nixon papers, series 320, box 157.

42 Report on Nebraska, 23 Oct. 1956, Nixon papers, series 320, box 151.

43 The Deweyites were those associated during the 1940s and early 1950s with support for the moderate agenda of New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey; during the same period, the Taftites preferred Dewey's conservative rival for party dominance, Ohio Senator Robert A. Taft.

44 Bone, Hugh A., Party committees and national politics (Seattle, WA, 1958), p. 31Google Scholar.

45 Notes, 15 May 1957, DDEPP, DDE Diary series, box 24.

46 Minutes, 25 July 1956, DDEPP, DDE Diary series, box 16.

47 Unknown to Kilpatrick, 7 Feb. 1956, Stephens records, box 32.

48 NYT, 15 July 1952, pp. 1, 9; NYT, 20 July 1952, pp. E1–E2; NYT, 23 July 1952, p. 9; Lavine, Harold, ed., Smoke-filled rooms: the confidential papers of Robert Humphreys (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1970), pp. 15–31Google Scholar; Parmet, Herbert S., Eisenhower and the American crusades (New York, NY, 1972), p. 111Google Scholar.

49 Williams to Citizens members, 31 Dec. 1952, Nixon papers, series 320, box 822.

50 Time, 24 Nov. 1952.

51 Cotter, ‘Eisenhower as party leader’, pp. 268–9.

52 Hall to Eisenhower, 20 June 1955, Dwight D. Eisenhower Records as President: White House Central Files, Official file, box 710. On Eisenhower's increasing attention to political matters at this time: Life, 28 Feb. 1955, p. 31.

53 NYT, 27 Jan. 1957, p. E7.

54 Mike Bowen, ‘Purging the Right: moderate Republicans and party factionalism in the 1950s’, paper presented at the 121st meeting of the American Historical Association, Atlanta, GA, 4–7 Jan. 2007.

55 Newsweek, 4 Apr. 1955, pp. 27–30.

56 ‘Kiplinger Washington letter’, 9 July 1955, Stephens records, box 10.

57 Notes, n.d., DDEL, James C. Hagerty papers, box 8.

58 Larmon to Clay, Hobby, Kilpatrick, Roberts, Stephens, Weinberg, July 1956, Stephens records, box 31.

59 Thayer to Nixon, 5 Dec. 1960, Thayer papers, political files, box 7.

60 Clayton to Pyle, 25 Jan. 1957, Dwight D. Eisenhower Records as President: White House Central Files, Official file, box 716.

61 Adams to Hoffman, 22 Nov. 1954, Dwight D. Eisenhower Records as President: White House Central Files, Official file, box 709.

62 Eisenhower to Baker and Baker, 7 Aug. 1957, DDEPP, DDE Diary series, box 26.

63 Knudsen and Cowgill to Nixon, 4 Nov. 1958, Nixon papers, series 320, box 422.

64 Williams to Citizens members, 31 Dec. 1952, Nixon papers, series 320, box 822.

65 Clayton to Stephens, 11 Oct. 1956, Nixon papers, series 320, box 157.

66 Roberts to Eisenhower, 29 Jan. 1959, DDEPP, Name series, box 28; NYT, 4 May 1958, p. 74.

67 NYT, 13 Dec. 1953, p. 61; NYT, 13 June 1958, sec. iv, p. 3; NYT, 17 July 1953, p. 10.

68 Williams to Chotiner, 27 Sept. 1952, Nixon papers, PPS 10.656.

69 Mason, Republican party, p. 150.

70 Clayton to Thayer, 21 Mar. 1955, Nixon papers, series 320, box 151.

71 Lawrence, 4 Jan. 1957, Dwight D. Eisenhower Records as President: White House Central Files, Official file, box 716.

72 Lamb and Clayton to Kilpatrick, 27 Feb. 1956, Stephens records, box 32; diary entry, 5 Mar. 1956, DDEPP, Ann Whitman Diary series, box 8.

73 ‘Stockton – 9–16’, ‘Fresno – 9–18’, ‘Bakersfield, 9–18’, ‘LA – 9–21’, ‘Santa Rosa, 9–23’, ‘Sacramento, 29th Sept’, Nixon papers, PPS 300.313.2.

74 Lamb and Clayton to Kilpatrick, 27 Feb. 1956, Stephens records, box 32; diary entry, 5 Mar. 1956, DDEPP, Ann Whitman Diary series, box 8.

75 Young & Rubicam, Inc., 10 Sept. 1956, Stephens records, box 10.

76 Hall, foreword, in Mitchell, Elm Street politics, p. i.

77 Jones, Charles O., The Republican party in American politics (New York, NY, 1967), p. 67Google Scholar.

78 State field reports, 2 and 11 Oct. 1956, Stephens records, box 31. See also Clayton, ‘National Citizens for Eisenhower-Nixon: Field Organization Department: summary report, 1956’, Pyle records, box 45.

79 Robbins, ‘National Citizens for Eisenhower-Nixon: Vice-Chairman's Office: summary report, 1956’, Pyle records, box 45.

80 Robbins, reports, 25 Sept. and 9 Oct. 1956, Stephens records, box 31.

81 Taubman, report, Sept. 1956, Stephens records, box 31.

82 Clayton to Stephens, 23 Oct. 1956, Nixon papers, series 320, box 151.

83 Eisenhower to Eisenhower, 17 Sept. 1956, DDEPP, DDE Diary Series, box 17.

84 Clayton, ‘National Citizens for Eisenhower-Nixon: Field Organization Department: summary report, 1956’, Pyle records, box 45; Kilpatrick and Burn, ‘National Citizens for Eisenhower-Nixon: Chairman's Office: summary report, 1956’, Pyle records, box 45.

85 Houghton to Nixon, 22 Apr. 1957, Nixon papers, series 320, box 356.

86 Thomson, Charles A. H. and Shattuck, Frances M., The 1956 presidential campaign (Washington, DC, 1960)Google Scholar.

87 Bone, Party committees and national politics, p. 31.

88 Dick, Volunteers, pp. 136–7.

89 Beaver Valley (PA) Times, 24 May 1957, p. 18; NYT, 15 Nov. 1956, p. 1.

90 Clayton to Adams, 10 Dec. 1956, Dwight D. Eisenhower Records as President: White House Central Files, Official file, box 716.

91 Clayton to Kilpatrick, 13 Dec. 1956, Dwight D. Eisenhower Records as President: White House Central Files, Official file, box 716.

92 Mason, Republican party, ch. 5.

93 Eisenhower, Dwight D., The White House years: mandate for change, 1953–1956 (Garden City, NY, 1963), p. 433Google Scholar.

94 Javits to Eisenhower, 27 Dec. 1954, Special Collections, Frank Melville, Jr, Memorial Library, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, Jacob K. Javits collection, series 5, sub-series 2, box 3.

95 Bowen, Roots of modern conservatism, p. 186.

96 Lodge to Eisenhower, 7 Nov. 1956, DDEPP, Administration series, box 24.

97 Williams to Eisenhower, 14 Nov. 1956, DDEPP, Official files, box 708.

98 Eisenhower to Hoffman, 6 Jan. 1953, DDEPP, Administration series, box 19.

99 NYT, 12 Aug. 1952, p. 13.

100 Adamy to Hall, 22 Mar. 1956, DDEL, Republican National Committee Office of the Chairman (Leonard W. Hall) records, box 104.

101 Richberg, 8 Oct. 1952, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, Donald R. Richberg papers, box 24.

102 Pleasants, Julian M., ‘“Call your next case”: H. F. “Chub” Seawell Jr., the gubernatorial election of 1952, and the rise of the Republican party in North Carolina’, North Carolina Historical Review, 76 (1999), p. 88Google Scholar.

103 Dowdy, G. Wayne, Crusades for freedom: Memphis and the political transformation of the American South (Jackson, MS, 2010), p. 56CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

104 Clayton to Citizens supporters, 16 May 1955, Stephens records, box 32.

105 MacMahon to Citizens activists, 15 Oct. 1958, Dwight D. Eisenhower Records as President: White House Central Files, Official file, box 716; see also, for example, ‘Advance’, 6 Oct. 1958, Nixon papers, series 320, box 152.

106 Morgan, Iwan W., Eisenhower versus ‘the spenders’: the Eisenhower administration, the Democrats and the budget, 1953–1960 (London, 1990), pp. 93–126Google Scholar (quotation, p. 123). Eisenhower even grumbled about the reluctance of congressional Republicans to stress adequately the issue of spending: ‘Seemingly the disease of Congressional spending is not taken very seriously by candidates for the Congress’, he wrote. Eisenhower to Burns, 29 Sept. 1958, DDEPP, DDE Diary series, box 36.

107 Human Events, 12 May 1962, p. 343.

108 Jason Crabtree LaBau, ‘Phoenix rising: Arizona and the origins of modern conservative politics’ (Ph.D. dissertation, Southern California, 2010), pp. 253–4, 266.

109 Houghton to Nixon, 22 Apr. 1957, Nixon papers, series 320, box 356.

110 Roberts to Eisenhower, 28 Aug. 1958, DDEPP, Name series, box 28.

111 Human Events, 18 Aug. 1958, News section, pp. 3–4.

112 McWhorter to Nixon, 15 Sept. 1958, Nixon papers, series 320, box 680.

113 Knudsen to Nixon, 23 Aug. 1958, Nixon papers, series 320, box 422.

114 Salt Lake Tribune, 24 Aug. 1960, p. 15; Time, 23 Nov. 1959.

115 Reichard, Gary W., The reaffirmation of Republicanism: Eisenhower and the eighty-third Congress (Knoxville, TN, 1975), pp. 69–96Google Scholar; Pickett, Eisenhower decides to run, pp. 96–7.

116 Campbell, Angus, Converse, Philip E., Miller, Warren E., and Stokes, Donald E., The American voter (New York, NY, 1960), p. 199Google Scholar.

117 Price, Kevin S., ‘The partisan legacies of preemptive leadership: assessing the Eisenhower cohorts in the U. S. House’, Political Research Quarterly, 55 (2002), pp. 609–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wagner, Eisenhower Republicanism.

118 Morgan, Eisenhower versus ‘the spenders’, pp. 74–151.

119 Brennan, Mary C., Turning Right in the sixties: the conservative capture of the GOP (Chapel Hill, NC, 1995)Google Scholar.

120 Gettysburg (PA) Times, 13 Feb. 1952, p. 7.

121 Guylay to Alcorn, 28 May 1957, Pyle records, box 42.

122 Goldwater to Javits, 25 May 1960, Javits collection, series 5, sub-series 2, box 9.

123 It was later renamed the Republican Citizens Committee of the United States.

124 Eisenhower to Thayer, 9 Feb. 1962, Thayer papers, political files, box 5.

125 Tobin, Jr, to Thayer, 4 June 1962, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, William Safire papers, box 18.

126 ‘Republican Citizens Committee of the United States: Progress Report #1’, June 1963, Thayer papers, political files, box 5; ‘Republican Citizens Committee of the United States Progress Report’, Oct. 1963, ‘Political Files National Republican Citizens Committee 1963’, Thayer papers, political files, box 5.

127 Brennan, Turning Right in the sixties, pp. 55–9.

128 Brown to Miller, 12 July 1962, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, William A. Rusher papers, box 155.

129 Goldwater to Miller, 5 July 1962, Arizona Historical Foundation, Hayden Library, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, Barry Goldwater papers, series P&P i, box 4.

130 Von Stade to Sheffield and Thayer, 22 Aug. 1963, Thayer papers, political file, box 5.

131 Thayer to Goldwater, 4 Aug. 1964, Thayer papers, political file, box 5.

132 Rees to Thayer, 10 Nov. 1965, Thayer papers, political file, box 5.

133 Wagner, Eisenhower Republicanism, p. 132.