The Cold War and Civil Rights 257With the Korean War continuing, despite the beginning of peace
talks in 1951 , which wearied and frustrated many Americans, the esca-
lation of wholesale prices, which hurt those living on a fixed income or
on Social Security, the repeated assaults by Senator McCarthy on the
administration’s inability to prevent internal subversion, and the evi-
dence of corruption by some members of the administration, caused
Truman’s rating in popular opinion polls to plummet to unprecedented
lows and gave Republicans renewed hope that they could win the 1952
presidential election.
In an effort to block the nomination of the conservative and anti–
New Dealer Senator Robert Taft, who swept the South and Midwest
in the early primaries, moderate Republicans such as Senator Henry
Cabot Lodge, the grandson of Woodrow Wilson’s nemesis of the same
name, Thomas Dewey, and Governor Earl Warren of California per-
suaded General Dwight Eisenhower to run for the presidency. He re-
ceived the nomination on the first ballot at the Republican National
Convention in Chicago on July 7. Senator Richard Nixon of California
was chosen for Vice President, having won national attention for his
exposure of Alger Hiss and for his attacks on the loyalty of Democrats,
attacks that won him the nickname “Tricky Dick.”
Truman chose not to run for reelection, knowing that his unpopu-
larity was so widespread it would defeat the ticket. Actually, he had
been an outstanding chief executive, and later historians generally rated
him a near- great president. The Democratic convention, also meeting
in Chicago, passed up Vice President Barkley and Senator Estes Ke-
fauver of Tennessee, and on July 27 drafted Governor Adlai E. Steven-
son of Illinois to run for President, along with Senator John Sparkman
of Alabama for Vice President.
Stevenson was probably the most gifted public speaker since FDR,
and in a series of addresses he promised to advance the programs of the
New Deal and Fair Deal and win civil rights for African-Americans.
But Eisenhower was a pop ular and genuine war hero who exuded per-
sonal magnetism that captivated his audiences. He promised to clean
up the mess in Washington, and he won over both senators Taft and
McCarthy, along with their supporters. But Eisenhower remained quiet
while McCarthy called General George Marshall a traitor, despite the
fact that Marshall was chiefly responsible for raising Eisenhower to