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Ike Offers Not to Run for President

Few men or women in public life would turn down an opportunity to become President of the United States. Would you? In 1951, General Eisenhower offered to do exactly that. He told his chief rival in the Republican Party that he could by changing his approach to the nation’s foreign policy bump Ike out of the competition.

In 1951 it was very likely that the Republicans would win the next election. The popularity of Democratic President Harry S. Truman had sunk to a new low because of the war in Korea, the firing of General Douglas MacArthur, and the public unease about the Cold War and the threats to American national security. Soviet nuclear capability was threatening. In Asia, communists had taken over China. In Europe, recovery from the devastation of World War II was slow and there seemed to be many opportunities for additional communist victories in Europe and in the developing world. The empires of the European powers were under pressure everywhere from national and socialist revolutions.

As the 1951 election approached, however, the Republican Party (the GOP) was badly split. A deep division existed within the party over how to deal with the communist menace. The internationalist wing of the GOP, led by Henry Cabot Lodge, believed in rebuilding Europe and developing military and political alliances abroad to provide collective security. The unilateralist wing, led by Senator Robert A. Taft, believed in isolating America from foreign entanglements. Taft wanted to withdraw into fortress America and avoid international conflict. He advocated withdrawing from North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), canceling the Marshall Plan that was funding European economic recovery, and relying on U.S. nuclear capability to defend the United States.

Eisenhower was firmly committed to an internationalist position. As Supreme Commander of Allied forces in World War II, he had seen first hand what a powerful alliance could achieve. Following the war, Ike had served as Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army and then headed Columbia University. At President Truman’s request, he took a leave of absence from Columbia and returned to military service. As commander of the NATO forces, he organized a headquarters and built up the NATO military as a credible force to deter a Soviet invasion of Western Europe.

Ike was an immensely popular leader, but he firmly rejected the overtures of both major political parties to become a candidate for the presidency. Still, the overtures kept coming and the articles speculating on his future kept appearing. Ike knew that in the nineteenth century General Sherman faced a similar situation and replied with the following message: “If nominated I will not run; if elected I will not serve.”

With Senator Robert Taft immediately after Ike's nomination at the Chicago Convention in 1952.                                Photo: Nicholas Georgieff

Should he send such a message and end the discussion? He decided he would if he could ensure that the nation would not abandon collective security and retreat into fortress America. He had to be certain the Republican Party would line up behind a reconstructed Europe, defended by troops from all of the NATO allies. That, he knew, was the best line of defense for the United States. So he set out to maneuver Robert Taft into the internationalist camp.

General Eisenhower wrote out a Sherman-type message and then convened a secret meeting with Senator Taft at the Pentagon. He told Taft that he was ready to declare his absolute refusal to participate in presidential politics if Taft would commit to the principle of collective security for the defense of Europe. But Taft refused. He would not budge from his isolationist, fortress America position. After Senator Taft left the meeting to return to Capitol Hill, Ike tore up his “Sherman” message and dropped the pieces in the waste bin.

Eisenhower went on to win the nomination and the presidency in 1952. We can only wonder what would have happened if Taft had agreed and Eisenhower had quietly withdrawn.


© Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission, Washington, DC, 2004