They Liked Ike: Pro-Eisenhower Publishers and His Decision to Run for President

Abstract

Historians have portrayed Dwight D. Eisenhower as a reluctant candidate for president, one requiring persuasion from friends and advisers before undertaking a campaign for the Republican nomination in 1952. Lending their voices to the effort were several newspaper publishers and a few reporters. Drawing from correspondence in the Eisenhower Library, this study analyzes how the information they provided, from early poll results to analyses of opponents, may have helped persuade the general to seek the nomination. It also explores the nature of press partisanship of the era.