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Race relations wasn't the only issue in the presidential election of 1952. It was an era when Cold War tension between the United States and the Soviet Union was escalating. In the Senate, Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin had become a national figure after chairing congressional investigations into the issue of Communist spies within the U.S. government. McCarthy's so-called "witch hunt", combined with nervousness about potential war with the Soviet Union after two years of bloody stalemate in the Korean War, the Communist Revolution in China, the 1949 Soviet acquisition of nuclear weapons, and the early-1950s recession, set the stage for a hotly fought presidential contest.
Unpopular incumbent President Harry S. Truman decided not to run. The Democratic Party nominated Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois as their candidate. Stevenson had gained a reputation in Illinois as an intellectual and eloquent orator. The Republican Party countered with popular war hero General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Eisenhower campaigned on a platform of "Korea, Communism and Corruption", subjects that the Republicans considered to be the failures of the outgoing Truman administration. Eisenhower accused the Truman administration of neglecting Latin America and thus leading them into the arms of Communist agents waiting to exploit the locals and spread communism to the western hemisphere. Charges that Soviet spies had infiltrated the government plagued the Truman Administration and was also a major campaign issue for Eisenhower. The Republicans blamed the Democrats for the military's failure to be fully prepared to fight in Korea.
In return, the Democrats criticized Senator Joseph McCarthy and other Republican conservatives as "fearmongers" who were recklessly trampling on the civil liberties of government employees. Democrats expressed outrage when Eisenhower, on a scheduled campaign swing through Wisconsin, decided not to give a speech he had written criticizing McCarthy's methods, and then allowed himself to be photographed shaking hands with McCarthy. Truman was especially upset with Eisenhower over the incident.
Eisenhower had retained his enormous personal popularity and credibility from his leading role in World War II. Huge crowds turned out to see him around the nation. His campaign slogan, "I Like Ike", was one of the most popular in American history. Stevenson concentrated on giving a series of policy driven speeches across the nation. He also drew large crowds. While his style thrilled intellectuals and academics, many believed that he was taking over the heads of most of his listeners, and his critics called him an "egghead". Eisenhower maintained a comfortable lead in the polls throughout most of the campaign.
A memorable event of the 1952 campaign concerned a scandal that emerged when Richard Nixon, Eisenhower's running mate, was accused by several newspapers of receiving $18,000 in undeclared "gifts" from wealthy donors. Nixon was able to disprove the allegations, but found himself on the defensive. Eisenhower and his aides considered dropping Nixon from the ticket and picking another running mate. Nixon saved his political career with a dramatic half-hour speech on live television. In the speech Nixon denied the charges against him and gave a detailed account of his modest financial assets. Nixon mentioned that a supporter had given his daughters a gift: a dog named "Checkers" and that he would not return it, because his daughters loved the dog. The speech became known as the "Checkers" speech and it caused hundreds of thousands of Americans to wire the Republican National Committee urging the GOP to keep Nixon on the ticket.
Both campaigns made use of television ads. A notable ad for "Ike" Eisenhower was an issue-free, feel-good animated cartoon with a soundtrack song by Irving Berlin called I Like Ike. For the first time the candidates' personal medical history was released publicly, as were partial versions of the candidates' financial histories, because of the issues raised in Nixon's speech. Near the end of the campaign Eisenhower, in a major speech, announced that if he won the election he would go to Korea to see if he could end the war. His great military prestige, combined with the public's weariness with the conflict, gave Eisenhower the final boost he needed to win.
On election day – November 4, 1952 – Eisenhower won a decisive victory. He won 55.2% of the popular vote (compared to 44.3% for Stevenson) and won 39 of the 48 states. He took three Southern states that the Republicans had won only once since Reconstruction: Virginia, Florida, and Texas. The electoral vote count was 442 to 89 for Eisenhower. This election was the first in which a computer (the UNIVAC I) was used to predict the results.
Eisenhower, at 62, was the oldest man to become President since James Buchanan in 1856. This election was the first since 1928 in which the Republican presidential nominee was elected. It was also the last election until 2008 in which neither the incumbent president nor the incumbent vice president was his party's general election candidate.
Following are YouTube videos of the TV ads of the day from the respective campaigns:
Stevenson:
Eisenhower: