Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Keeping Promises

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Eisenhower and American Public Opinion on China

  • 289 Accesses

Abstract

During the 1952 presidential campaign, Eisenhower had skillfully tailored his opinions to meet the voters’ desires and at the same time appease the Republican Party right wing. Setting aside his views on foreign policy, he had endorsed the harsh GOP rhetoric in accusing the Truman administration of having abandoned millions of people to Communism in favor of a Europe-first policy and having involved the country in a stalemated war against the People’s Republic of China. Fully aware of the American public’s frustration regarding the Korean conflict, he had promised not only to bring peace but also to stand firm against the Chinese Communist threat and restore US prestige and credibility in the Far East. When he entered the White House on January 20, 1953, however, he made it clear that he was no longer willing to be a pawn of the party or the bureaucratic machine. Rather, he would be in full control of the policymaking process and its public relations management. Unlike his predecessor, he would make full use of the National Security Council which would be chaired by the President and would meet regularly every week. A firm believer in the necessity of support of public opinion for any foreign policy to be successful, he was also keen on establishing a public relations strategy capable of generating and maintaining popular support for the administration’s policies. This chapter explores the Eisenhower administration’s first year in the White House. First, it considers President Eisenhower’s and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles’ sensitivity to and perception of public opinion. It then examines the opinion-tracking channels they developed, the credence they gave to them, and the information they conveyed. Finally, it looks at the impact that those mass attitudes had on the administration’s formulation on foreign policy toward Communist China and the extent that domestic public opinion determined the choices Eisenhower and Dulles made in 1953.

Parts of this chapter were originally published in Mara Oliva, “Beaten at Their Own Game: Eisenhower, Dulles, US Public Opinion and the Sino-American Ambassadorial Talks of 1955–1957,” Journal of Cold War Studies 20 (2018): forthcoming.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Steven Casey, Selling the Korean War: Propaganda, Politics and Public Opinion in the United States, 1950–1953 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 340; Robert Bowie and Richard Immerman, Waging Peace: How Eisenhower Shaped an Enduring Cold War Strategy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 84–92; Minutes of Cabinet Meetings, May 17, 1953. Dwight D. Eisenhower Papers, Cabinet Series, box 1, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene, Kansas (hereafter DDE Papers, followed by file reference, box number, DDEL).

  2. 2.

    “Popular Expectations on the new Administration’s Foreign Policy”, December 1952, Records of the Office of Public Opinion Studies, Department of State, 1943–1975, AI568J, box 1, National Archives II, College Park, Maryland (hereafter survey title followed by date, DOS, file number, box number, NAII).

  3. 3.

    China Telegram, November 6 through 18, Records of the Office of Public Opinion Studies, Department of State, 1943–1975, AI568P, box 28, National Archives II, College Park, Maryland (hereafter CT, followed by date, DOS, file reference number, box number, NAII).

  4. 4.

    Letter from Henry Luce to president-elect Eisenhower, November 10, 1952, DDE papers, Diary Series, box 25, DDEL; CT, November 6 through 18, DOS, AI568P, box 28, NAII.

  5. 5.

    Letter from Eisenhower to Clarence Dillon, January 8, 1953, DDE Papers, Name Series, box 7, DDEL; Memorandum of Conversation with Sigurd Larmon, September 2, 1955, Sigurd Larmon Papers, Administration Series, box 20, DDEL.

  6. 6.

    Eisenhower to Hughes , December 10, 1953, DDE Papers, Diary Series, box 4, DDEL; Eisenhower to Humphrey, Summerfield, Lodge, Adams, Hall, and Stephens, November 23, 1953, DDE Papers, Diary Series, box 3, DDEL.

  7. 7.

    Douglass C. Foyle, Counting the Public In: Presidents, Public Opinion and Foreign Policy (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 33–40.

  8. 8.

    Dulles ’ Speech “On Unity”, February 27, 1952, John Foster Dulles Papers, box 306, Seely G. Mudd Manuscripts Library, Princeton University, New Jersey (hereafter JFD Papers, followed by record reference, box number, ML).

  9. 9.

    Eisenhower to Dillon, January 8, 1953, DDE Papers, Name Series, box 7, DDEL.

  10. 10.

    Eisenhower to Hughes , December 10, 1953, DDE Papers, Diary Series, box 4, DDEL.

  11. 11.

    Dwight D. Eisenhower, A Mandate for a Change, 1953–1956 (London: Heinemann, 1963), 232–234; Craig Allen, Eisenhower and the Mass Media, Peace, Prosperity and Prime-Time TV (Chapel Hill: North Carolina University Press, 1993), 43–54; Stephen E. Ambrose, Eisenhower, The President, 1952–1969 (London: Allen & Unwind, 1984), 292–306.

  12. 12.

    Hagerty, James C. President’s Press Secretary, Eisenhower Administration Project: Oral History, 1962–1972, Columbia Center for Oral History, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York (hereafter DDE Oral History, followed by CUNY); Berding, Andrew H. Director of the State Department’s Bureau of Public Affairs, John Foster Dulles Oral History Project, Seely G. Mudd Manuscripts Library, Princeton University, New Jersey (hereafter JFD Oral History, followed by ML).

  13. 13.

    Hagerty, DDE Oral History, CUNY; Berding, JFD Oral History, ML; for more details on press working routine in the 1950s see also Chap. 1.

  14. 14.

    Berding, JFD Oral History, ML; Crowe, Philip, Department of State Public Relations Assistant, JFD Oral History, ML.

  15. 15.

    Ambrose, Eisenhower, The President, 292–306; Fred Greenstein, The Hidden-Hand Presidency: Eisenhower as a Leader (New York: Basic Books, 1992), 25–38; Minutes of Cabinet Meeting, January 12, 1953, DDE Papers, Cabinet Series, box 1, DDEL.

  16. 16.

    Emmet J. Hughes , The Ordeal of Power: A Political Memoir of the Eisenhower Years (New York: Atheneum, 1963), 66.

  17. 17.

    “Notes on Monitoring American Public Opinion”, December 1953, Hagerty Papers, box 3, DDEL. Allen, Eisenhower and the Mass Media, Peace, Prosperity and Prime-Time TV, 37–38.

  18. 18.

    “Department of State Criteria for Public Opinion Surveys”, DOS, AI568L, box 12, NAII; Berding, JFD Oral History, ML.

  19. 19.

    Snyder, Murray, White House Assistant Press Secretary, DDE Oral History, CUNY. Allen, Eisenhower and the Mass Media, Peace, Prosperity and Prime-Time TV, 50–51.

  20. 20.

    Berding, JFD Oral History, ML; McCardle, Carl, Department of State Public Relations Assistant, JFD Oral History, ML.

  21. 21.

    Hagerty, DDE Oral History CUNY.

  22. 22.

    Berding, JFD Oral History, ML; Macomber, William B. Special Assistant to Secretary of State, JFD Oral History, ML.

  23. 23.

    Eisenhower’s Inaugural Address, January 20, 1953, Public Papers of the Presidents: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953–1961, ed. Galambos Louis and D. Van Ee (Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press, 1996), 6 (hereafter EPP followed by page number).

  24. 24.

    Ibid.

  25. 25.

    “Press Reaction to President Eisenhower’s Inaugural Address”, February 1953, DOS, AI568K, box 6, NAII.

  26. 26.

    “Dulles’ Radio and Television Address to the Nation”, January 27, 1953, Department of State Bulletin, 18, February 9, 1953, 212–217 (hereafter DBS followed by issue number, date and page).

  27. 27.

    Ibid.

  28. 28.

    “Press Reactions to Secretary Dulles’ first report to the Nation”, January 27, 1953, DOS, AI568J, box 1, NAII.

  29. 29.

    Ibid.

  30. 30.

    Eisenhower’s State of the Union Address, John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, The American Presidency Project [online] Santa Barbara, CA: University of California (hosted) Gerhard Peters (database). Available from World Wide Web: http://www.presidency.ucsab.edu/ws/. Retrieved: July 4, 2011 (hereafter The American Presidency Project followed by retrieved date).

  31. 31.

    CT, February 4 through 16, 1953, DOS, AI568P, box 28, NAII.

  32. 32.

    Ibid.

  33. 33.

    “Special Spot-Check Report of the Nation”, February 8, 1953, DOS, AI568J, box 1, NAII.

  34. 34.

    CT, February 17 through 23, 1953, DOS, AI568P, box 28, NAII.

  35. 35.

    Memorandum of Conversation with the President, May 31, 1953, Karl Lott Rankin Papers, Administration Series, box 7, DDEL; Department of State Telegram to US Ambassador to Taipei Rankin , February 3, 1953, FRUS, XIX, 1952–1954, 135–145.

  36. 36.

    Ibid.

  37. 37.

    Ibid.

  38. 38.

    Notes on NSC Meeting, March 2, 1953, DDE Papers, NSC Series, box 13, DDEL; Memorandum to President Eisenhower from Dulles on Dulles’ meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yeh , March 2, 1953, JFD Papers, Subject Series, box 8, DDEL.

  39. 39.

    Eisenhower’s press conference, February 18, 1953, The American Presidency Project, [retrieved June 8, 2009]; Dulles’ press conference, February 18, 1953, DOS, AI568X, box 5, NAII.

  40. 40.

    “Approval of State Department’s Job”, February 15, 1953, DOS, AI568N, box 20, NAII.

  41. 41.

    Casey, Steven, Selling the Korean War, Propaganda, Politics, and Public Opinion, 1950–1953, 344; Stueck, William Jr. The Road to Confrontation; American Policy Toward China and Korea, 1947–1950 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1981), 308–309.

  42. 42.

    Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, undated, JFD Papers, Telephone Conversations Series, box 1, DDEL.

  43. 43.

    Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, April 9, 1953, JFD Papers, Telephone Conversations Series, box 1, DDEL.

  44. 44.

    CT, April 16 through 22, 1953, DOS, AI568P, box 28, NAII.

  45. 45.

    CT, April 22 through May 17, 1953, DOS, AI568P, box 28, NAII.

  46. 46.

    Monthly Survey of Public Opinion, May 1953, DOS, AI568K, box 13, NAII.

  47. 47.

    CT, May 14 through 20, 1953, DOS, AI568P, box 28, NAII.

  48. 48.

    CT, May 27 through June 3, 1953, AI568P, box 28, NAII; Memorandum for the Secretary of State from President about meeting with Congressional leaders on Recognition of Red China , June 2, 1953, JFD papers, White House Memoranda Series, box 1, DDEL.

  49. 49.

    CT, May 27 through June 3, 1953, DOS, AI568P, box 28, NAII.

  50. 50.

    Ambrose, Eisenhower, The President, 328–331; Casey, Selling the Korean War, 365.

  51. 51.

    Gordon Chang, Friends and Enemies: The United States, China and the Soviet Union, 1948–1972 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1982), 89.

  52. 52.

    “Notes on NSC Meeting”, July 16, 1953, DDE Papers, Subject Series, box 9, DDEL.

  53. 53.

    Ibid.

  54. 54.

    Ibid.

  55. 55.

    Mayers, David, “Eisenhower and Communism: Later Findings”, in Richard, Melanson, and David, Mayers, Re-Evaluating Eisenhower: American Foreign Policy in the 1950s (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987), 89–90.

  56. 56.

    “Notes on NSC Meeting”, August 24, 1953, DDE Papers, Subject Series, box 9, DDEL.

  57. 57.

    Ibid.

  58. 58.

    “CIA Special Estimate on Probable Consequences of the Death of Stalin and the Elevation of Malenkov to Leadership in the USSR”, CD Jackson Papers, March 10, 1953, box 1, DDEL; Memorandum of Discussion at 169 meeting of NSC, November 5, 1953, FRUS, XIX, 1952–1954, 347–369.

  59. 59.

    Memorandum of Discussion at 169 meeting of NSC, November 5, 1953, FRUS, XIX, 1952–1954, 347–369.

  60. 60.

    NSC152/2 “Economic Defence”, July 31, 1953, FRUS, XIX, 239–240.

  61. 61.

    Ibid.; NSC122/1 Economic Defence Policy Toward Hong Kong and Macao, FRUS, XIX, 1952–1954, 267–277.

  62. 62.

    Ibid.

  63. 63.

    “Popular Attitudes on Allied Trade with Communist China”, June 10, 1953, DOS, AI568J, box 1, NAII; Memorandum of Discussion at 160 meeting of NSC, August 5, 1953, FRUS, XIX, 1952–1954, 290–306.

  64. 64.

    Ibid.

  65. 65.

    NSC 166/1 “US Policy Towards Communist China”, November 6, 1953, FRUS, XIX, 1952–1954, 308–334.

  66. 66.

    Ibid.

  67. 67.

    Ibid.

  68. 68.

    DBS, September through December 1953; DDE Papers, Speeches Series, box 3–4, DDEL; JFD papers, box 49–50, ML.

  69. 69.

    170th Meeting of the NSC, November 6, 1953, FRUS, XIX, 1952–1954, pp. 308–334.

  70. 70.

    Ibid.

  71. 71.

    DBS, September through December 1953; DDE Papers, Speeches Series, box 3–4, DDEL; JFD papers, box 49–50, ML.

  72. 72.

    Ibid.

  73. 73.

    Ambrose, Stephen E. Nixon: The Education of Politician, 1913–1962 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987), 319–327.

  74. 74.

    Ibid.; CT, November through December 1953, DOS, AI568P, box 28, NAII.

  75. 75.

    Memorandum for the President, October 23, 1953, DDE Papers, Dulles-Herter Series, box 1, DDEL. Letter from Eisenhower to Judd , October 24, 1953, DDE Papers, Diary Series, box 3, DDEL.

  76. 76.

    Ibid.

  77. 77.

    Ibid.

  78. 78.

    “Drive Against Red China: Hoover Asks Signatures to Plea to Bar Nation from UN”, the New York Times, January 25, 1954, 3; Letter from Howard to Judd , Roy Howard’s Private Papers, box 263, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, DC (hereafter Howard Papers, LoC); “The Petition Against Admission of Red China in the UN”, Newsweek, November 17, 1953, 7–10.

  79. 79.

    Stanley Bachrack, The Committee of One Million, “China Lobby” Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976).

  80. 80.

    Shawn J. Parry-Giles, “The Eisenhower Administration’s Conceptualisation of the USIA: The Development of Overt and Covert Propaganda Strategies,” Presidential Studies Quarterly 24 (1994): 263–276; Kenneth Osgood, Total Cold War: Eisenhower’s Secret Propaganda Battle at Home and Abroad (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2006).

  81. 81.

    “Public Attitudes Toward the Administration’s China Policy”, December 1953, DOS, AI568K, box 1, NAII.

  82. 82.

    Ibid.

  83. 83.

    Luce had a regular correspondence with Jackson from January 1953 to December 1954, when Jackson left the White House. They discussed the unleashing of Jiang Jieshi and Luce’s disappointment with Eisenhower’s views between February and November 1953. Evidence of this correspondence can be found among Henry R. Luce Papers, Private Correspondence, box 33, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, DC (hereafter Luce Papers, LoC).

  84. 84.

    “Public Attitudes Toward the Administration’s China Policy”, December 1953, DOS, AI568K, box 1, NAII.

References

  • Allen, Craig. Eisenhower and the Mass Media, Peace, Prosperity and Prime-Time TV. Chapel Hill: North Carolina University Press, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ambrose, Stephen E. Eisenhower, The President, 1952–1969. London: Allen & Unwind, 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bachrack, Stanley. The Committee of One Million, “China Lobby” Politics. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowie, Robert and Richard Immerman. Waging Peace: How Eisenhower Shaped an Enduring Cold War Strategy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Casey, Steven. Selling the Korean War: Propaganda, Politics and Public Opinion in the United States, 1950–1953. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chang, Gordon. Friends and Enemies: The United States, China and the Soviet Union, 1948–1972. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1982.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eisenhower, Dwight D. A Mandate for a Change, 1953–1956. London: Heinemann, 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foyle, Douglass C. Counting the Public In: Presidents, Public Opinion and Foreign Policy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenstein, Fred. The Hidden-Hand Presidency: Eisenhower as a Leader. New York: Basic Books, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, Emmet J. The Ordeal of Power: A Political Memoir of the Eisenhower Years. New York: Atheneum, 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oliva, Mara. “Beaten at Their Own Game: Eisenhower, Dulles, US Public Opinion and the Sino-Ambassadorial Talks of 1955–1957.” Journal of Cold War Studies 20, no. 1 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  • Osgood, Kenneth. Total Cold War: Eisenhower’s Secret Propaganda Battle at Home and Abroad. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2006.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parry-Giles, Shawn J. “The Eisenhower Administration’s Conceptualisation of the USIA: The Development of Overt and Covert Propaganda Strategies.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 24 (1994): 263–276.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stueck, William, Jr. The Road to Confrontation; American Policy Toward China and Korea, 1947–1950. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1981.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, University of Reading, Reading, UK

    Mara Oliva

Authors
  1. Mara Oliva
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Oliva, M. (2018). Keeping Promises. In: Eisenhower and American Public Opinion on China. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76195-4_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76195-4_3

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-76194-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-76195-4

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation