A Book I've Been Wanting to Read, and One Other 

A Book I've Been Wanting to Read, and One Other

Borrowed The Eisenhower Diaries (ed. Robert Ferrell) from the public library.

In the last few days I came across the line I remember from the reviews of the book. Senator Knowland, a Republican, weighs in on the question of whether Ike should be the candidate again in 1956. Ike is pretty much doing what he did before 1952: giving the strong impression he would rather not serve, but being willing to respond to his duty. Ike's supporters wanted to make his choice as much of a coronation as possible to heighten the sense that he was the only possible candidate. Knowland, who had apparently had a good working relationship with Ike, "announced that the Republican party did not want a reluctant presidential candidate in 1956 and said he would not join in a 'draft-Eisenhower' movement."

Ike in his diary, Jan. 10, 1955: "Morning papers carry Senator Knowland's 'nondraft' statement. In his case there seems to be no final answer to the question 'How stupid can you get?' Why he has to talk about such things I wouldn't know--unless he's determined to destroy the Republican party."

In general there is a harder-edged and more intelligent Eisenhower here, thinking more strategically, than you would see from the stereotype of the grinning Ike. Domestically he has problems both with the "reactionary" Republicans, emphatically including McCarthy, and with the ADA (Americans for Democratic Action)-type Democrats, emphatically including Adlai Stevenson and Hubert Humphrey. He saw a need to ensure that the Republican party was progressive, in the main stream, in order to keep "socialists" and their sympathizers out of office.

In foreign policy: in the immediate post-war period he hoped to find a "modus vivendi" with the Soviets. Beyond this he hoped to reduce all kinds of government spending, including defence spending, or at least reduce its rate of growth. He thought if there was a meaningful treaty with the Soviets, and inspections of weapons, both of these goals could be achieved. He was confronted by people who basically said the threat posed by Communism was limitless, so defence spending should be more or less limitless as well. Ike thought this was crazy, and at one point he reflects that he has lived through a lot of crises that some important people were convinced were going to be terrible or decisive, and were not. The Korean War complicated things: it showed China to be a threat in addition to the Soviet Union; it caused an increase in U.S. defence spending, which in contrast to the late 40s never went back down again; and it gave some support to the fear mongers.

He tends to think American "businessmen" (few women in Ike's world) have been generally stupid--especially in demanding tariffs, subsidies and other special benefits. Ike sees a need to protect industries which are truly strategic (a short list), but in general it is clear to him that free trade will benefit everyone.

He comments on journalists (Jan. 18, 1954):

On the whole, the press group violates the old adage, 'Always take your job seriously, never yourself.' This old saw they largely apply in reverse. As a result, they have little sense of humor and, because of this, they deal in negative criticism rather than in any attempt toward constructive helpfulness.

I suspect that most of these men took up writing as a career for a peculiar purpose. Everybody loves distinction....

If any or all of these things are true, it could account for the extraordinary amount of distortion and gross error that characterizes so much of what appears in the newspapers....Rarely is such writing accurate.