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The Ideal America(N): Dwight Eisenhower's Elusive Search

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The Ideal America(n): Dwight Eisenhower’s Elusive Search by Lisa Couacaud BA (Hons.) Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Deakin University March 2018 Acknowledgements It is merely to state the facts as they are when I write that without the financial support of the Australian Postgraduate Award scholarship these acknowledgements would have gone unwritten, for this thesis would simply not exist. I remain indebted to Deakin University for seeing the value in this work of American history. I am grateful also for the research and conference grants Deakin makes available to their postgraduate students. The funds provided enabled me to travel to Abilene, Kansas, and conduct invaluable archival research in the Eisenhower Presidential Library. I admit to feeling like a “proper” historian only after I had sifted through scores of original documents from Eisenhower’s presidential years. I was fortunate also to visit the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, and the Columbia University Oral History Archives in New York. Today, a little more than three years after embarking upon this project, my commitment to this thesis and my belief that this work is worthy of the investment Deakin has made, persists. This has been an exciting, terrifying, challenging, anxiety-ridden and nerve-wracking process. Yet, had I the opportunity to reset the clock, I would make always the same decision. It has been nothing short of a luxury to be able to devote myself to the task of unravelling Dwight Eisenhower’s idealist imaginings of the United States for these past three years. Never could I have imagined when I took my first history unit, in my first trimester as a university student in July 2011, that I would ever have travelled so far down this road. I had meant to gain a Bachelor of Arts with majors in literary studies and history, go on to complete a Diploma of Education and embark upon a career as an English and History teacher. And, perhaps, that is how my story would have unfolded were it not for the influence of Dr. Tony Joel who, in a multitude of ways, has guided my growth and development as a historian. His commitment to grammatical correctness brings always to mind how those who worked for Eisenhower must have felt and ensures that even as I remain eternally grateful for the constant corrections and understand now, finally, what oxford commas and split infinitives are, I echo the words of a former Eisenhower speechwriter: “Absolute pedant with the English language. Insufferable.” But, were it not for your green pen and your willingness to accompany Ike and I on this journey, this thesis would not be as it is today. To Professor David Lowe must go also my heartfelt thanks. I cannot tell you how much I appreciated your commitment to this project. Your consistently calm and steadying presence, practical insight into the PhD process, constructive feedback on my chapters and willingness to give your time so generously also has been invaluable to me and to the work presented here. And, to Professor Jim Cullen, whose optimism and encouragement (what I have always thought of as your innate “Americanness”) came often at just the moment when I had decided that I was mistaken in my belief that I could, in fact, complete this thesis, I will be forever in your debt for agreeing to be part of an Australian student’s attempt at American history. I am quite certain that my family, my friends and my colleagues know more now than they ever cared to know about Dwight Eisenhower, the 1950s or myths of Americanism. Yet, for years I have been surrounded by people who have (mostly) listened with grace and, more often than not, feigned the interest and enthusiasm in my topic simply because it was important to me. I do not know how I will ever be able to adequately convey the depth of my appreciation for the support I have received. The PhD process can be a lonely one, yet I consider myself fortunate to have shared this challenging, exciting and uncertain journey with some wonderfully motivated and motivating colleagues. In particular, a heartfelt thank you goes to Sarah Coates who has always been there to lend an ear, dish out sage words of advice and inspire me to keep putting one foot in front of the other when the going got tough. Finally, to my family, who never indulged me in my bouts of self-doubt, who pushed me to complete this project on time and who simply assumed I would achieve my goal because they believed I could, I owe a heartfelt debt of gratitude. Table of contents ABSTRACT vii INTRODUCTION: The Ideal America(n) President: Dwight Eisenhower’s Elusive Search 1 Chapter One The All-American (Republican) President: Above the Political Fray? 36 Chapter Two With a Fiscal Head and a Liberal Heart? The Dilemma of Modern Republicanism 60 Chapter Three “The President Must Not Be Deprived”: The Bricker Amendment and the Attack on Executive Authority 85 Chapter Four The President Must Uphold the Constitution: Idealism in the Civil Rights Debate 106 SECTION ONE CONCLUSION: The Presidential Ideal 129 Chapter Five “The Great Fundamental of our National Life” For Eisenhower, Spiritual Faith is the Core of Democracy 133 Chapter Six To Defend the “Flame of Freedom”: Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Attack on an American Ideal 155 Chapter Seven The Misperception of American Intentions: Principle in the Hungarian and Suez Crises 177 Chapter Eight Waging Cold War in Search of “True” Peace 200 SECTION TWO CONCLUSION: The National Ideal 223 CONCLUSION: The Ideal America(n)? 227 BIBLIOGRAPHY 232 Abstract Dwight Eisenhower believed in what Scott Nearing defines as “the meaning of America [and] the promise of 1776.” This historically grounded study investigates the idealism that defined Eisenhower’s presidency and asks what an exploration of his idealist understanding of the United States as he believed the Founding Fathers imagined it can tell us about the man, the presidency and the nation. Eisenhower assumed the presidency in the midst of what he considered an apocalyptic struggle for survival with the Soviet Union. For Eisenhower, this conflict of ideologies was a battle for the hearts and minds of humanity. In his determination to (re)construct his idealised vision of the United States, led by an ideal president, Eisenhower merged historic myths of Americanism with contemporary issues to persuade Americans that their victory against godless communism was possible only as they embraced and embodied the nation’s foundational myths and traditional principles. Keenly aware of the power of words, Eisenhower is, however, rarely held up as an exemplar of oratorical ability. Scorned for his garbled syntax and grammatical errors, the persistent under-appreciation of Eisenhower’s language has obscured the ability of historians to properly analyse the nostalgic and mythologised view of the United States he constructed during his eight years as leader of the free world. Adopting a thematic approach, this thesis probes how Eisenhower constructed, perpetuated, and justified his idealised vision, domestically and internationally. Divided into two sections, the first focuses on Eisenhower’s efforts to represent himself as the ideal American president, above politics, committed to the preservation of the Constitution and the survival of the two-party system. The second examines the way Eisenhower engaged traditional American principles of freedom, principle, religion and peace. Within the framework of superpower conflict, re-evaluation of Eisenhower’s rhetoric and presidency based on his commitment to a mythic ideal will prompt another revision of Eisenhower’s position in the history of the Cold War and the American presidency. 1 INTRODUCTION The Ideal America(n) President: Dwight Eisenhower’s Elusive Search The United States of America has been marked to wear the burdensome but glorious mantle of world leadership. Today’s great opportunity… is to make that leadership a moral, intellectual and material model for all time. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Commencement Address, Columbia University, 8 June 1950. To be dedicated to a single purpose – the freedom, strength, prosperity and peace of America – and to strive with all that’s in us to advance the welfare of her citizens – that is the way forward we must seek for America. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Address Recorded for the Republican Lincoln Day Dinners, 28 January 1954. I have spent my adult life in public service. This I have been proud to do because of my unshakable belief in America's great destiny as the world leader for freedom, and because America represents the mightiest temporal power that has ever been developed here on this earth. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Remarks at a Republican Rally in the New York Coliseum, 2 November 1960. “I like Ike.” More than 50 years have passed since Dwight Eisenhower left the White House, yet this simple three-word presidential electoral slogan still can be considered a concise explanation of how an apparent political novice swept to victory in 1952 and maintained an average approval rating any president would envy.1 His role as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in the Second World War catapulted Eisenhower into the public sphere, captured the people’s admiration and reverence and transformed him into a cultural hero.2 For columnist Marquis Childs, in the aftermath of war Eisenhower became the symbol of a “warmhearted, friendly, simple America, personifying the mighty rush, the Niagara, of American power coming into being.”3 Known affectionately by his childhood nickname, “Ike,” it was his possession of these qualities – sincerity, warmth, humility and his famous grin – that cemented his position in the hearts of the American people.
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