iopcatholic.blogg.se

• #IS RISE OF THE REDS DEAD SERIES#

Late in his first presidential campaign, Eisenhower excised a defense of General George C. President read my text with great irritation, slammed it back at me and said he would not refer to McCarthy personally-‘I will not get in the gutter with that guy.’ C. In this interpretation, Ike rode above the fray of politics while secretly pulling levers and using White House influence to obstruct McCarthy and his allies. The political scientist Fred Greenstein, for example, argued that Eisenhower’s handling of McCarthy provides evidence of a “hidden hand” approach to government. Ike adopted an “indirect approach.” Instead of going right at McCarthy, Eisenhower worked behind the scenes to undercut and stymie the senator and his attacks. Only a short-sighted or completely inexperienced individual would urge the use of the office of the presidency to give an opponent the publicity he so avidly desires."īy contrast, later scholars working from the documentary record perceived a design in Eisenhower’s strategy with McCarthy. In this letter to his brother Milton, Eisenhower explains, "As for McCarthy. By avoiding the Red-hunting senator, some have argued, Eisenhower allowed McCarthyism to continue unchecked.

Despite his popularity and his enormous political capital, they believed, Ike refused to engage directly with McCarthy.

It has long been a subject of debate among historians: Why didn’t Eisenhower do more to confront McCarthy? Journalists, intellectuals, and even many of Eisenhower’s friends and close advisers agonized over what they saw as Ike’s timid approach to McCarthyism. No one dared tangle with McCarthy for fear of being labeled disloyal.Īny man who has been named by a either a senator or a committee or a congressman as dangerous to the welfare of this nation, his name should be submitted to the various intelligence units, and they should conduct a complete check upon him.

During Eisenhower’s first two years in office, McCarthy’s shrieking denunciations and fear-mongering created a climate of fear and suspicion across the country.

#IS RISE OF THE REDS DEAD SERIES#

This paranoia about the internal Communist threat-what we call the Red Scare-reached a fever pitch between 19, when Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin, a right-wing Republican, launched a series of highly publicized probes into alleged Communist penetration of the State Department, the White House, the Treasury, and even the US Army. Communists could be lurking anywhere, using their positions as school teachers, college professors, labor organizers, artists, or journalists to aid the program of world Communist domination. In the early 1950s, American leaders repeatedly told the public that they should be fearful of subversive Communist influence in their lives.