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STEVENSON, ADLAI EWING 1900-1965

DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, 1952,1965

Democratic Presidential Hopeful

In the 1950s Adlai Stevenson came into the national limelight as a successful Illinois governor who battled the excesses of McCarthyism and as the Democratic heir apparent to President Harry S Truman.

Reluctant Candidate

The Democratic presidential candidate in 1952 and 1956, Stevenson ran campaigns that became famous for his eloquent stump speeches and for the candidate's emphasis on issue-oriented substance rather than on style and image. In early 1952 Truman asked Stevenson to run for the nomination, but Stevenson refused. Instead, he wanted to return to the governor's mansion in Illinois and finish the programs he had started. Despite his many statements that he did not want the presidential nomination, even with Truman's support, Stevenson was drafted on the third ballot.

Intellectual Campaigner

Often hailed as one of the most intellectual men ever to run for the presidency, Stevenson, according to one biographer, conducted a campaign that raised "American political thinking to a high plane." The majority of voters, however, seemed to find highbrow traits irrelevant in a candidate. Indeed, the more educated the voter, the less likely he was to have voted for Stevenson. High-school-educated voters favored Dwight D. Eisenhower 55 to 45 percent, while college-educated voters more overwhelmingly approved of the Republican candidate 66 to 34 percent. Part of Eisenhower's appeal may have been his war-hero reputation and folksy demeanor. The vote also indicated a partial rejection of Truman's foreign and domestic policies; Truman, in the eyes of the public, had gotten the United States into another war and did not appear to give the generals the authority to win it. When combined with a shaky domestic economic program, Stevenson's intellectual capabilities hardly mattered to the Middle American voter.

Working Toward Another Campaign

Undaunted, Stevenson concluded that he would get his turn in the White House in four more years, after Eisenhower discredited himself. Stevenson already had impressive foreign experience, having worked on the founding of the United Nations with the U.S. delegation under Edward Stettinius and having served as a troubleshooter for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Gen. George C. Marshall from 1941 to 1947. Further enhancing his image as the world sophisticate, he embarked on a six-month trip to Asia and the Middle East in 1953 to bolster his foreign policy experience and to see firsthand the newly emerging nations. While on that trip, he recounted his experiences in articles written for Look magazine and in a book published in 1954, Call to Greatness. He then returned to America to build the party machinery that he thought would carry him to victory in 1956. During the 1954 congressional campaigns, he launched an attack on the Eisenhower administration, calling Vice-president Richard Nixon a "white-collar McCarthy." By 1955 Stevenson had announced his candidacy, and he won the 1956 Democratic nomination from Estes Kefauver. Stevenson called upon the convention to name the vice-presidential nominee. It gave him Kefauver.

The Rematch

In the rematch with Eisenhower, Stevenson tried to emphasize the importance of establishing nuclear-test bans—at times calling for a unilateral ban—and decreasing U.S.-Soviet tensions. He also campaigned for increased federal spending on poverty, education, and the elderly. After his defeat, he blamed the media for failing to cover the issues: but it had covered the issues that the public thought relevant, including a stronger defense against worldwide Soviet aggression and a tighter rein on federal government spending. Americans did not favor massive poverty relief programs; nor did most Americans see nuclear tests as a greater threat than Soviet expansionism.

Democratic Elder Statesman

Stevenson remained the voice of Democratic liberalism through most of the 1950s and, after the 1956 election, traveled and rejuvenated his legal work. Under the Kennedy administration, Stevenson served as ambassador to the United Nations. He would later advise President Lyndon B. Johnson.