As the time for the 1952 election approached, the writing was on the wall. Some of us die-hards were with Truman who, in the unsteady post-war climate, had really done a respectable job. I admired this unassuming man's plain-spokenness. When he said "The buck stops here", he meant it. The war-weary country however, yearned for heroes. The Republican nominee for president was Dwight Eisenhower and as former commander of all forces in the European war theater, he was a genuine one.
At the GOP convention young Richard Nixon was named as the General's running mate. He was now the junior senator from California, having defeated Helen Gahagan Douglas in a rancorous contest where he had insinuated that she had pro-Red sympathies. The second Red Scare had begun and its fire was being stoked by the rhetoric of Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin who claimed that the Truman State Department had been infiltrated by subversives.
Almost immediately after Eisenhower's nomination "I Like Ike" bumper stickers began to appear everywhere. It was plain that he would be a formidable candidate especially with his pledge to end the unpopular Korean war. At the Democratic convention of 1952 the silver-tongued Adlai Stevenson was nominated for president. As governor of Illinois he had hosted the event in Chicago. He was not interested in becoming the nominee but was literally drafted. Witty and charming, with a gift for diplomacy, he was a fine candidate.
Senator John Sparkman of Alabama, picked to balance the ticket and to placate Southern Democrats was less ideal. He was a segregationist. I agreed with many others that he was a poor choice. The party was in a bad position. The unfounded allegations of pro Soviet sympathy had further damaged Truman's already abysmal approval rating. Stevenson's brilliant oratory and charismatic personality had much appeal and Democrats found it easy to be "Madly for Adlai." They liked the party platform which called for the repeal of the the Taft-Hartley ["slave labor"] Act and an end to nuclear proliferation. Both candidates campaigned vigorously but the outcome was predictable. Eisenhower was the winner.
All during the campaign, the fear of subversive elements was simmering in the background. In the spring of 1954 it reached the boiling point. McCarthy's "blacklist" which carried the names of many Hollywood celebrities had been published and hundreds of reputations forever damaged. Hollywood, said Mr. McCarthy, was a hotbed of pro-Red, anti-American propagandists. Screen writers in particular, were seeking to destroy the country. The ACLU was a dangerous organization. The CIA, even the U.S. Army needed to be investigated. The result of this was the Army-McCarthy hearings. Television had come into its own and millions of people who had time, could and did sit and watch them. They had lasted for six weeks with McCarthy's accusations becoming wilder and wilder.
Finally when without warning, he said that one of Army Counsel Joseph Welch's staffers had belonged in law school to the Lawyers' Guild, a left leaning group and gave the young man's name, Welch could stand it no longer. He brought the foundationless house of cards tumbling down with the the words "Mr, McCarthy, have you no sense of decency? You have been reckless and cruel. Have you no sense of decency?"
Eisenhower had kept his promise: the Korean War had ended but Soviet aggression continued; the Cold War had begun. At home with the excitement of the McCarthy business over, something new took its place. Truman's decision to desegregrate the armed forces had been a major step.
The Brown vs. Board of Education case came before the Supreme Court and the members, led by the admirable Chief Justice Earl Warren, unanimously declared segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional. This was in 1954. On December 1, 1955 African American Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus to a white passenger. She was arrested and jailed.
A door long shut was opening. The Civil Rights movement, the battle for racial equality had started at last. An unknown young minister named Martin Luther King, Jr. was to be its spokesman and champion.