The President and the Apprentice

Irwin F. Gellman

Published by Yale University Press 2015

The President and the Apprentice

Eisenhower and Nixon, 1952-1961

Irwin F. Gellman

https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300182255

Overview
Contents

About this book

Based on twenty years of research, a book that rewrites the history of the Eisenhower presidency

“Irwin Gellman has emerged from years in the archives to tell the fascinating story of President Dwight Eisenhower and his relationship with his vice president, Richard Nixon. Gellman dispels the fog that has long enveloped this subject and casts new light on a critical Cold War presidency. Masterfully written, The President and the Apprentice is a must-read for anyone who, like me, loves good political history.”—Allen Matusow, author of The Unraveling of America

More than half a century after Eisenhower left office, the history of his presidency is so clouded by myth, partisanship, and outright fraud that most people have little understanding of how Ike’s administration worked or what it accomplished. We know—or think we know—that Eisenhower distrusted his vice president, Richard Nixon, and kept him at arm’s length; that he did little to advance civil rights; that he sat by as Joseph McCarthy’s reckless anticommunist campaign threatened to wreck his administration; and that he planned the disastrous 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. None of this is true.

The President and the Apprentice reveals a different Eisenhower, and a different Nixon. Ike trusted and relied on Nixon, sending him on many sensitive overseas missions. Eisenhower, not Truman, completed the desegregation of the military. Eisenhower and Nixon, not Lyndon Johnson, pushed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 through the Senate. Eisenhower was determined to bring down McCarthy and did so. Nixon never, contrary to recent accounts, saw a psychotherapist, but while Ike was recovering from his heart attack in 1955, Nixon was overworked, overanxious, overmedicated, and at the limits of his ability to function.

Based on twenty years of research in numerous archives, many previously untouched, this book offers a fresh and surprising account of the Eisenhower presidency.

“Irwin Gellman’s superb research and plausible reconstruction of the Eisenhower-Nixon relationship may well revolutionize the meaning of historical revisionism. The President and the Apprentice is an unsettling tour de force.”—David Levering Lewis, author of King: A Biography and W.E.B. Du Bois: A Biography, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography

Author information

Irwin F. Gellman is an independent scholar. His books include The Contender, an account of Richard Nixon’s time in Congress.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
Introduction: Changing the Story Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part One: 1952–1957
1. The Nominees Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
2. The Fund Crisis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
3. To Victory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	55
4. The General as a Manager Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	69
5. The Worst Kind of Politician Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
6. The Collision Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
7. Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon, and Civil Rights Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
8. Eisenhower and Civil Rights: The First Term Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	136
9. Ike, Nixon, and Dulles Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
10. Nixon in Asia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	170
11. The Battles over Asia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
12. Trouble with Good Neighbors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	206
13. The U.S. Response to Neutralism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	222
14. Incumbent Politics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	232
15. The Ill- Will Tour versus the Big Lie Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	240
16. The Incapacitated President Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	259
17. The Hutschnecker Fiction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
18. Ike’s Decision to Run Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	285
19. Nixon’s Agony Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	302
20. Stassen’s Folly Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	314
21. The Land of Smear and Grab Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	331
22. The Hungarian Revolution and the Freedom Fighters Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	348
Part Two. 1957–1961
23. Ike and Dick Return Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	363
24. Prelude to the Struggle Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	372
25. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	379
26. Little Rock and Its Consequences Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	402
27. The Implosion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	425
28. The Steel Solution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	448
29. Nixon in Africa Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	462
30. Ike’s Cold War Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	483
31. A Near- Death Experience Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	494
32. Inside and Outside the Kitchen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	514
33. Ike’s Hopes Collapse Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	536
34. Ike, Nixon, Kennedy, and Castro Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	543
Conclusion: Ike and Dick Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	563
Appendix: Eisenhower’s Notes on the “Checkers Speech” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	571
List of Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	577
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	579
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	711
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	777

Language: English
Publisher: Yale University Press
Pages
- Main content: 448
Illustrations
- Other: 30 b-w

eBook

Published: July 28, 2015
ISBN: 9780300182255