The Republican Right Since 1945

University of Kentucky UKnowledge American Politics Political Science 1983 The Republican Right since 1945 David W. Reinhard Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Reinhard, David W., "The Republican Right since 1945" (1983). American Politics. 24. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_political_science_american_politics/24 Right SINCE 1945 David W. Reinhard THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY Coypright© 1983 by The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine College, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Club, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of louisville, and Western Kentucky University. Editorial and Sales Offices: Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0024 ISBN: 978-0-8131-5449-7 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Reinhard, David W., 1952- The Republican Right since 1945. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Republican Party (U.S.) 2. Conservatism-United States-Histoty-20th century. 3. United States-Politics and government-1945- I. Title. JK2356.R28 1983 324.2734 82-40460 Contents Preface v 1. If Roosevelt Lives Forever 1 2. A Titanic Ballot-Box Uprising 15 3. The Philadelphia Story 37 4. ANewSetofGuts 54 5. If the Elephant Remembers 75 6. Mr. Republican 97 7. Stick with Ike 115 8. Go Down Grinning with Ike 138 9. A Choice Not an Echo 159 10. Extremism in the Pursuit of Liberty Is No Vice 183 11. An Emerging Republican Majority 209 12. Our Time Has Come 235 Notes 256 Bibliography 277 Index 285 For Mom and Dad Preface The Republican Right. Few terms in American political history have con jured up more meanings, more emotions, and more myths than this one. But more historical understanding is needed, now that a Right Wing Re publican currently presides in the White House over perhaps the most im portant restructuring of American society since the New Deal. This is not to imply that contemporaries failed to analyze or sought to ignore the Republican Right. How could they? In much of the post-New Deal period, hard-line Republicans commanded the Republican party in Congress, often enhancing their power by working with conservative south ern Democrats. Also, GOP conservatives drew attention by bucking the trends of the era, and political observers constantly speculated about their motives-benighted obscurantism? ideological or constitutional scruples? economic self- or class-interest? As for historians, much has been written on certain aspects of the Republican Right-"McCarthyism," foreign policy, and the presidential campaigns of 1948 and 1952-and there are several ex cellent biographies on Right Wing leaders during the period. But an ade quate, full-scale treatment of the Republican Right in the post-World War II era has been conspicuously missing. This book attempts to fill that gap in American political history. The major focus of this work is the period from 1945 through 1965. These twenty years represent a natural and tidy period. The year 1945 was crucial for all Americans. Roosevelt had died and World War II had come to an end. But for Right Wing Republicans that year was especially important. Republican conservatives now faced a national and international world wrought by Roosevelt, but without the intimidating presence of that pop ular figure. By 1965 Right Wing Republicans had confronted this post Roosevelt world, the foreign policy demand of fighting the Cold War against the Soviet Union, as well as Eisenhower's "Modern Republicanism." And, finally, they had nominated their own GOP standard-bearer. Beginning in 1945, the present work investigates the general doctrine of the Republican Right, and the Republican Right's successful and unsuccess- Vl PREFACE ful response to major post-World War II domestic and foreign policy issues. It attempts to show how GOP conservatives controlled important party posts and how during the various political battles within the party, such as the nomination struggles of 1948, 1952, and 1964, they tried to retain the old line conservative faith. It also examines the Right Wing response to Eisen hower's "Modern Republican" administrations, as well as such related sub jects as the postwar conservative intellectual movement and the emergence of the Radical Right. If the current political scene in Washington underscores the importance of an historical understanding of the Republican Right, the existence of many valuable manuscript collections provides the basic material for this first portion of the study. The Robert Taft Papers at the Library of Congress are only the most. important of the available collections. The Hoover Papers and related holdings at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa, as well as manuscript collections at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas, also contain much of value. Besides some rich personal collections, the Olin Library at Cornell University houses the rec ords of the Republican party for part of the period. The papers of important Right Wing figures are found at the Chicago Historical Society, and sections of the Everett Dirksen papers at the Dirksen Center in Pekin, Illinois, were open. These are but a few of the more than thirty-five collections examined during the course of the study. Material found in these collections helped confirm, contradict, and otherwise enhance the accounts and viewpoints found in memoirs, oral history interviews, newspapers, periodicals, govern ment documents, and, of course, works of historical scholarship. The final two chapters cover the period from 1965 to the inauguration of Ronald Reagan. They differ in content and tone from the preceding ten chapters, which make up the bulk of the book. Although these earlier chap ters hardly cover ancient history and may be considered current events by many historians, the contemporary nature of post-1965 America required a slightly different approach. In the last two chapters, therefore, the coverage is less detailed and there is virtually no use of personal papers, which are un available for obvious reasons. Moreover, time and perspective are needed to put the events of this most recent period into clearer focus. Despite the hazards involved in writing contemporary history, it seemed important to bring the history of the Republican Right Wing forward to the beginning of 1981. First, there was the altogether natural desire-a desire I hoped the reader would share-to "complete" the chronological story. Fur thermore, the historiographical limitations, though admittedly significant, were not paralyzing. Finally, even if the implications of many post-1965 events remain unclear, these developments can still be considered in the context of the more fully treated period from 1945 through 1965. Thus, this present work is hardly a definitive treatment of conservative Preface vu Republicanism in the thirty-five years after World War II; not all issues are examined, not all questions answered. It is a necessarily selective, old-fash ioned political narrative that seeks to explain larger social, economic, and political forces and trends by examining the ideas and activities of some of the major political actors. A study of almost any movement presents the problem of definition. Who is included? Who is excluded? And why? These problems are com pounded when one is examining the world of American politicians. Of course, certain common positions, outlooks, or dispositions characterized the Republican Right Wing throughout the post-World War II period and will become obvious during the course of this book. Generally, conservative Republicans stood in arch opposition to the domestic, foreign, and political changes wrought by Franklin Roosevelt and later the Great Society of Lyn don Johnson. They opposed a strong chief executive like FDR and a power ful federal government that overregulated business and meddled in the affairs of state and local governments. They supported only limited govern ment intervention in America's capitalistic economy. Federal budgets should be kept low (and in balance), along with federal taxes. In foreign af fairs, Right Wing Republicans generally favored a strong American defense that relied heavily on air and sea power, and a foreign policy that allowed the United States to "go it alone" in pursuit of its own national interest. Fierce anticommunism was also a hallmark of conservative Republicanism, and this influenced their foreign and domestic programs. Right Wing Re publicans consistently argued that the Republican party had to offer a real choice to Democratic domestic liberalism and internationalism. Yet other Republicans, and indeed other Americans (Democrats in cluded), embraced many of these same conservative positions in the twenty years after World War II. The "Radical Right" of the early 1960s, for exam ple, shared many of these outlooks, yet these ultras are not properly consid ered Right Wing Republicans, despite the fact that many probably gave their support to

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