Ike's Fourth Week

Backstage at Denver's Coliseum one night last week, Dwight Eisenhower ran a hand over his bald head. "I want to be sure everything is on straight," he quipped. Then, as Colorado's Governor Dan Thornton boomed out an introduction, blue velvet curtains opened and the green Chevrolet convertible in which Ike sat rolled out on to the floor of the arena, made a half circle and came to a stop. Stepping briskly up the steps to the podium, Eisenhower began a speech which foreshadowed the kind of presidential campaign he hopes to make.

Changing Trains. Addressing himself primarily to the Eisenhower clubs which were rallying throughout the country in honor of "Eisenhower Day," Ike made a ringing appeal to America's youth whose support he believes essential to a revitalized Republican Party. "The meaning and satisfaction of your lives," said he, "are bound up with America's future . . . All that I have to say tonight is based on my strong conviction that the sooner you begin to translate young America's hopes and aspirations into effective political action, the better it will be for all of us ...

"Countless Americans want to change political trains . . . You young people both in and out of these Eisenhower clubs are helping to get that train ready and on the right track. It is a Republican train on a Republican track."

His lip curled in contempt, Ike lambasted the governmental corruption uncovered during Harry Truman's Administration. "We have had corruption before," he declared, "but never before has it reached such epidemic proportions . . . In little more than twelve months of this year and last, 117 persons in the Bureau of Internal Revenue alone were fired for dishonesty or other improper activities." That number does not include those who were allowed to resign "because of ill health." Laughter rolled through the crowd of 11,000 and, for the only time during the speech, Ike smiled.

Black Monuments. Without naming either F.D.R. or Harry Truman, Eisenhower by implication accused them of having been too soft toward the Communist threat, both at home & abroad. "We have been too ready for too long to trust a godless dictatorship," he said grimly. "Think of the places that stand as black monuments to this misplaced trust. Our loss of China, a divided and almost naked Germany, the enslaved countries of the Baltic and the Balkans, the long and bloody struggle in Greece." That morning, Ike had said goodbye to his son, Infantry Major John Eisenhower, who is soon to leave for service in Korea. "Today," he said, "the consequences of this misplaced trust come home to everyone of us in the war in Korea." A sense of identification with the people as well as the policies of the U.S., a dynamic tone, long missing from Republican speeches, sounded in Ike's final words: "For many years, I have been a commander of American youth. In the cause of America's youth, I am now theirs to command."

Ike's speech at the Coliseum was the climax of a week that otherwise largely focused on meetings with Republican Convention delegates from Louisiana, Nebraska, New Mexico and North Dakota. It was the climax, too, of Ike's attempts to sell Republicans on the basic proposition of his campaign: it is not necessary to agree with Harry Truman in order to disagree with Robert Taft.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.