Under the Eisenhower Administration, the Korean War ended and a proposal for an international pool of atomic energy for peaceful use, Eisenhower’s “atoms-for-peace” program, was introduced. Foreign policy dealt with the middle East and Asia, and the first Summit Meeting was held in Geneva in 1955.
Progressive domestic legislation was introduced and the budget was cut by $6.5 billion. The social security program was expanded with the addition of ten million persons. The Department of Health, Education and Welfare and the Small Business Administration were established.
The Eisenhower Administration moved to end segregation of federal military posts, in civilian employment and in veterans’ hospitals. In 1954, the Supreme Court declared “separate but equal” school accommodations to be unconstitutional.
The President, himself, commented on the progress of the first two years by saying: “There were 64. . . legislative projects submitted to Congress. Now, 54 of them were enacted into law. We did not always make home runs. But we did have 54 hits. Some of them aren’t quite what we wanted. But, that, after all, is a batting average of .830 and any baseball fan will tell you that is pretty good in any league.”
The President’s policies were supported by most members of the Party, wit his most outspoken critic being Senator Joseph McCarthy. Senator McCarthy continued his Communist accusations, including both Republicans and Democrats in his tirades; he was finally reprimanded by his colleagues.
In 1954, the Republicans lost both houses of Congress, due in part to the usual anti-administration trend of off-year elections and also dues to the loss of two interim appointments. In addition, Wayne Morse, the lone Independent, turned Democrat, and the Republicans began the 84th Congress with 47 Senate seats to the Democrats 49. The House stood at 203 Republicans and 232 Democrats.
The people continued to support the President, and he was elected again in 1956. Campaigning on the slogan of “Peace, Progress and Prosperity,” Eisenhower defeated the renominated Stevenson by 58% of the vote, the most decisive presidential victory since Roosevelt’s defeat of Landon in 1936.
However, the Democrats still controlled both house of Congress. In the Senate, the pre-election margin of 29-47 seats remained and in the House it was changed to 234 to 201, a total gain of two for the Democrats. At the State level, the Republicans won 14 of 30 gubernatorial contests and in 1957 there were 19 Republican and 29 Democrat governors.
During his second administration, Eisenhower continued his support of civil rights programs. After Russia’s launching of man’s first space satellite in 1957, national emphasis was placed on space technology and the American educational system. The space race began and in the next year, the United States successfully launched four satellites and began its probe for the moon.
By the time of the 1958 elections, there was much dissatisfaction. The foreign situation had worsened with the breakup of colonial empires. Republicans were also blemished by a scandal within the Administration and suffered the worst defeat since the early New Deal years. The Democrats widened their two vote margin to 30 in the Senate and broadened their majority from 235 to 283 in the House. A comparison with earlier congressional elections revealed that Democrat votes had increased by about 4.5 million with the Republican total remaining almost the same as in the election of 1950. The number of Republican governors was reduced to 14 and the Republicans lost over 600 seats in state legislative bodies.
By 1960, there was dissension within the Party between liberals and conservatives with the conservatives accusing the liberals of “Me-too-ism” or trying to copy Democrat philosophy. New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, who had won a brilliant victory as a liberal in 1958, was discouraged from seeking the Presidency and the nomination went to Richard M. Nixon on the first ballot. His running mate was Henry Cabot Lodge, the United States delegate to the United Nations.
The campaign saw the first televised debates between presidential candidates. Critics thought the debate detrimental to Nixon and favorable to the more photogenic Democrat candidate, 43 year old Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy. Kennedy won the election by a mere 113,000 votes out of 6.8 million cast, the narrowest percentage margin in history. He especially attracted Catholics and Black Americans; estimates credit him with receiving at least 70% of these votes. He became the youngest elected President and the first Roman Catholic elected. However, Republicans did gain seats in both houses of Congress, in governorships, and in state legislatures.
President Kennedy found himself confronted with the growing threat of Communism. Neighboring Cuba was already an avowed Russian satellite, and the President underwent both the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the Cuban missile crisis. Domestic problems centered around civil rights and a delineation between conservative and liberal viewpoints.
On October 22, 1962, President Kennedy made what was then considered a strong stand against Communism in the Cuban missile crisis. The elections were held shortly afterwards and despite the timing and support of the President’s actions, Republicans continued a steady rise upward. The only losses were four in the Senate. The number of Republican Governorships stayed the same, and two Representatives were gained. On the State level, 159 state legislators were added to the Party.
President Kennedy was assassinated in November of 1963, and Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson, former Senator from Texas and Senate Majority Leader, assumed leadership. Johnson had been placed on the 1960 Democrat ticket to win Southern votes, and he had a reputation as a practiced politician.
At election time in 1964, the nation had undergone the tragedy and shock of President Kennedy’s assassination. The campaign that year centered around liberal and conservative viewpoints. The Democrats opted to continue the leadership of Johnson and selected Senator Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota as his running mate.
When Republicans convened in San Francisco, most delegates had already expressed their support of “Mr. Conservative,” Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. The primaries included people like New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton, Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, and Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith. Goldwater did receive the nomination and ran with Congressman William E. Miller of New York.
The elections of 1964 were a serious setback to the Party In the Presidential race, the Republicans only won 52 electoral votes and suffered losses in all other areas -- two in the Senate, 38 in the House, and 493 in state legislatures. The only gain was a single Republican governor. The campaign itself was primarily noteworthy for the misuse and brandishing of conservative and liberal labels.
The Johnson years saw much domestic spending on welfare programs which were often well-intentioned but ill-planned and the deepening of the U.S. commitment in Vietnam. In 1966, the public expressed its growing disillusionment with the Johnson Administration by helping to elect Republicans. The Party was on its way up again.
Republicans retained control of all 15 Senate seats contested and were elected to succeed Democrat senators in Illinois, Oregon and Tennessee for a net gain of four in the Senate. In the House, Republicans totaled a net gain of 47 seats, gaining 52 Democrat seats and only losing five Republicans. Eight governors and 503 state legislators were also added to the Party.
The Republican gain was nationwide with the Party controlling statehouses in five of the seven largest states. For the first time since Reconstruction, Republicans won statewide contests in Florida, Arkansas, and Tennessee. A Massachusetts Republican became the first popularly elected Negro Senator, and the GOP invaded such traditionally Democrat strongholds as Maryland, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Texas.
Four issues were of prime importance during the 1968 elections -- the war in Vietnam, which despite peace talks called immediately before the election, was still dragging on with no end in sight; growing inflation and increased government spending on projects whose worth was doubtful; the rise in crime and decline in law and order as evidenced by racial riots which swept the Nation in that and previous summers; and, increasingly more liberal Supreme Court decisions.
At the Republican convention in Miami Beach, Florida, former Vice-President Richard M. Nixon and Maryland Governor Spiro T. Agnew were chosen as the Party’s ticket. Michigan Governor George Romney had campaigned for the nomination but withdrawing in the spring while Governor Rockefeller had entered the contest in the summer. Governor Ronald Reagan of California was also a contender for the nomination.
President Johnson surprised the Nation by announcing he would not run again, and the Democrat Party was split between supporters of Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, Massachusetts Senator Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the late President, and Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota. Senator Kennedy was assassinated after making his victory speech following his winning of the California Democratic Primary, and Senator George McGovern of South Dakota then entered the Democrat contest. Humphrey won the nomination but not without bitter infighting and after bloody, violent demonstrations involving the Chicago police and young protestors during the Democratic Convention. Democrats left the Convention with the ticket of Humphrey and Senator Edmund S. Muskie of Maine but there was still considerable dissension and division.
The campaign was further flavored by the emergence of a third party, the American Independent Party, which ran former Democrat and past Governor of Alabama George C. Wallace and retired Air Force General Curtis LeMay for President and Vice President. Calling himself a law and order candidate, Wallace projected the image of a segregationist, states-righter. The Wallace political movement did directly challenge the two party norm in American politics, although it achieved only limited success: nine million voters, slightly better than 13% of the total vote and only five states which were all in the Southern region. His percentage share of the vote was below that of other major third party movements in 1912 and 1924, but his total raw vote was the third largest ever received by a third party candidate. The Wallace brand of “states rights,” consisting mainly of almost complete autonomy for the states, appealed more to farmers, independents, male voters, and Protestants.
Nixon who had lost his campaign for the California Governorship in 1962, made a remarkable comeback. A more relaxed and personable candidate came across on television and supporters insisted “Nixon’s The One.” The election was close, with the results not finalized until the next day. Nixon was indeed the one, carrying 32 states to Humphrey’s 14 and Wallace’s five.
The presidential victory was complemented by wins in all other categories. In the Senate, there was a net gain of five and gubernatorial appointments to fill vacancies brought the Republicans two more Senate seats.
The GOP made relatively small gains in the House, but did solidify gains made previously by losing only one of the 52 freshman Congressmen in the 90th Congress and holding all but one of their 40 marginal districts. There was a net gain of four seats.
Once in office, President Nixon acted swiftly, beginning with a reorganization of the executive branch to make it more efficient and responsive to the needs of the Nation. A major change was the elimination of patronage within the Post Office. He proposed a “New Federalism” -- a complete revamping of the welfare system.
Other domestic legislation centered around the control of crime and narcotics, tax reform, the draft, and defense spending. In foreign affairs, President Nixon spelled out a new Asian Doctrine, reaffirming our desire to help our allies but placing the majority of the burden for defense on themselves. With troop withdrawals and increased “Vietnamization” of the war, the President took steps toward a solution.
In the 1969 off-year elections, the voters strongly endorsed the President’s policies. With the election of A. Linwood Holton as Governor of Virginia (the first Republican Governor of Virginia since 1885) and William G. Cahill as New Jersey’s Governor (ending 16 years of Democrat rule), the GO held 32 statehouses, the highest number of Republican governors since 1920. Republicans held governorships in all major industrial states and in nine of the ten largest states.
Republican victories also extended to the cities. The first elected Black American major in Kentucky was Republican Luiska J. Twyman who won election over a Democrat in Glasgow. The GOP also took the lead in Detroit, Michigan; Youngstown, Ohio; Springfield, Massachusetts; Paterson, New Jersey; Scranton, Pennsylvania; Hartford, Connecticut; and won the district attorney’s seat in Philadelphia.
The second session of the 91st Congress began in January of 1970 with Democrats leading Republicans 248 to 187 in the House and 57 to 43 in the Senate.
A strong base was laid for the 1970 elections.
Nixon won a landslide victory in 1972, carrying every state except Massachusetts. In 1973, Spiro Agnew resigned as Vice President while under investigation for corruption during his term in the 1960s as county executive of Baltimore county, Maryland. Using provision of the 25th Amendment, President Nixon appointed House Republican Leader Gerald R. Ford to the Vice Presidency. When Nixon resigned in the wake of the Watergate scandal in 1974, Ford assumed the Presidency, selecting former Governor, Nelson Rockefeller as his Vice President.
Under the Ford administration, the United States regained its confidence in politics and in the integrity of national government. At the same time, America’s double-digit inflation rate was cut in half, taxes were cut significantly and the role of municipal and state governments was enhanced by reducing federal government expansion. However, the country’s first appointed President was denied election by a narrow loss to Jimmy Carter.
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