How’s That Again, General?

When Adlai Stevenson allowed the 1956 Democratic convention to select Estes Kefauver as his Vice Presidential nominee, he was smart enough to realize that he should leverage his running mate’s widespread popularity in an uphill battle against the even more widely popular Dwight Eisenhower.

Stevenson wisely gave Kefauver prominent billing in his campaign literature and ads. His television ads, for instance, regularly encouraged voters to cast their ballots for Stevenson and Kefauver. (Stevenson did not extend the same courtesy to his 1952 running mate, John Sparkman. And Eisenhower certainly wasn’t running ads telling people to vote for him and Nixon.)

Not only was Kefauver’s name prominently featured in Stevenson’s ads, the Senator himself often appeared. For instance, Kefauver was featured in a series of ads that allowed him to combine the “attack dog” role often assigned to running mates with the bold truth-seeker persona that catapulted him to national fame during the organized crime hearings.

The series was entitled “How’s That Again, General?” The ads featured a clip of Eisenhower speaking, usually from his 1952 campaign, making a firm declaration on some subject or other. They then cut to Kefauver, who showed how Eisenhower had broken his promise, before closing with the slogan “Let’s think it through.”

One of the smart things about these ads is that they frequently featured issues for which Kefauver was already known. For instance, take this ad, in which he highlighted Eisenhower’s abandoned pledge to repeal the “union-busting” provisions of Taft-Hartley. For Kefauver, a strong supporter of organized labor, the ad was a natural:

(Note also his chart comparing the rise in General Motors’ profits against the much smaller rise in auto worker incomes, foreshadowing his Senate hearings into the auto industry a couple years later.)

Here’s another ad in the same series, focusing on Eisenhower’s broken promise to reduce the cost of living. The effect of growing corporations and economic concentration on consumer prices is another theme that Kefauver would return to throughout his career.

In a third ad, Kefauver points out the hollowness of Eisenhower’s pledge to return “integrity and thrift” to government, mentioning several Republican scandals from Ike’s administration. Although Kefauver doesn’t call it out specifically, you’ll see the name “Wenzell” on the screen, a name that the Senator had made widely known to Americans as a result of the Dixon-Yates scandal.

I’d also like to take a moment to highlight the story of Wes Roberts, whom Kefauver does mention. In 1951, the state of Kansas paid $110,000 to purchase a hospital from the nearly-defunct insurance company that had built, even though the state had run the hospital since it was built and had a letter of agreement to acquire the hospital for free if the insurance company ever gave it up. Roberts, a power broker in Kansas politics who was between positions at that point, collected a 10% fee for “representing” the insurance company in the sale.

By the time the story broke in 1953, Roberts was chairman of the Republican National Committee; he resigned after just four months due to the scandal. Kansas City Star reporter Alvin McCoy, who brought the story to light, won a Pulitzer for his efforts. Roberts’ son Pat would go on to become a four-term U.S. Senator representing Kansas. I have no idea what happened to the silver tray that Kefauver mentioned, but I’m sure it was very nice.