Editing Joseph McCarthy (section)

===McCarthy and Eisenhower===
[[File:Photograph of Dwight D. Eisenhower - NARA - 518138.jpg|thumb|right|[[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], 34th President of the United States.]]
During the [[1952 United States presidential election|1952 presidential election]], the Eisenhower campaign toured Wisconsin with McCarthy. In a speech delivered in [[Green Bay, Wisconsin|Green Bay]], Eisenhower declared that while he agreed with McCarthy's goals, he disagreed with his methods. In draft versions of his speech, Eisenhower had also included a strong defense of his mentor, George Marshall, which was a direct rebuke of McCarthy's frequent attacks. However, under the advice of [[conservatism in the United States|conservative]] colleagues who were afraid that Eisenhower could lose Wisconsin if he alienated McCarthy supporters, he deleted this defense from later versions of his speech.<ref name="autogenerated15">{{cite book|last = Wicker
 |first = Tom
 |year = 2002
 |title = Dwight D. Eisenhower: The American Presidents Series
 |publisher = Times Books
 |page = [https://archive.org/details/rutherfordbhayes00tref/page/15 15]
 |isbn = 0-8050-6907-0
 |url = https://archive.org/details/rutherfordbhayes00tref/page/15
 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book
  |last = Griffith
  |first = Robert
  |title = The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate
  |url = https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif/page/188
  |url-access = registration
  |publisher = University of Massachusetts Press
  |year = 1970
  |pages = [https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif/page/188 188+]
  |isbn = 0-87023-555-9
  }}</ref> The deletion was discovered by William H. Laurence, a reporter for ''[[The New York Times]],'' and featured on its front page the next day. Eisenhower was widely criticized for giving up his personal convictions, and the incident became the low point of his campaign.<ref name="autogenerated15" />

With his victory in the 1952 presidential race, Eisenhower became the first Republican president in 20 years. The Republican Party also held a majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate. After being elected president, Eisenhower made it clear to those close to him that he did not approve of McCarthy and he worked actively to diminish his power and influence. Still, he never directly confronted McCarthy or criticized him by name in any speech, thus perhaps prolonging McCarthy's power by giving the impression that even the President was afraid to criticize him directly. Oshinsky disputes this, stating that "Eisenhower was known as a harmonizer, a man who could get diverse factions to work toward a common goal. ... Leadership, he explained, meant patience and conciliation, not 'hitting people over the head.'"<ref>{{cite book
  |last = Oshinsky
  |first = David M.
  |title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy
  |publisher = Oxford University Press
  |year=  2005
  |page = 259
  |isbn = 0-19-515424-X
  |orig-year= 1983}}</ref>

McCarthy won reelection in 1952 with 54% of the popular vote, defeating former Wisconsin State Attorney General [[Thomas E. Fairchild]] but, as stated above, badly trailing a Republican ticket which otherwise swept the state of Wisconsin; all the other Republican winners, including Eisenhower himself, received at least 60% of the Wisconsin vote.<ref>{{cite book
  |last = Oshinsky
  |first = David M.
  |title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy
  |publisher = Oxford University Press
  |year=  2005
  |page = 244
  |isbn = 0-19-515424-X
  |orig-year= 1983}}</ref>
Those who expected that party loyalty would cause McCarthy to tone down his accusations of Communists being harbored within the government were soon disappointed. Eisenhower had never been an admirer of McCarthy, and their relationship became more hostile once Eisenhower was in office. In a November 1953 speech that was carried on national television, McCarthy began by praising the Eisenhower Administration for removing "1,456 Truman holdovers who were&nbsp;... gotten rid of because of Communist connections and activities or perversion." He then went on to complain that [[John Paton Davies Jr.]] was still "on the payroll after eleven months of the Eisenhower administration," even though Davies had actually been dismissed three weeks earlier, and repeated an unsubstantiated accusation that Davies had tried to "put Communists and espionage agents in key spots in the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]." In the same speech, he criticized Eisenhower for not doing enough to secure the release of missing American pilots shot down over China during the Korean War.<ref>All quotes in this paragraph: {{cite book|last = Fried
 |first = Albert
 |year = 1997
 |title = McCarthyism, The Great American Red Scare: A Documentary History
 |publisher = Oxford University Press
 |pages = [https://archive.org/details/mccarthyismgreat00frie/page/182 182–184]
 |isbn = 0-19-509701-7
 |url = https://archive.org/details/mccarthyismgreat00frie/page/182
 }}</ref> By the end of 1953, McCarthy had altered the "twenty years of treason" catchphrase he had coined for the preceding Democratic administrations and began referring to "twenty-''one'' years of treason" to include Eisenhower's first year in office.<ref>{{cite book|last = Fried
  |first = Albert
  |title = McCarthyism, The Great American Red Scare: A Documentary History
  |publisher = Oxford University Press
  |year = 1996
  |page = [https://archive.org/details/mccarthyismgreat00frie/page/179 179]
  |isbn = 0-19-509701-7
  |url = https://archive.org/details/mccarthyismgreat00frie/page/179
  }}</ref>

As McCarthy became increasingly combative towards the Eisenhower Administration, Eisenhower faced repeated calls that he confront McCarthy directly. Eisenhower refused, saying privately "nothing would please him [McCarthy] more than to get the publicity that would be generated by a public repudiation by the President."<ref>{{cite book
  |last = Powers
  |first = Richard Gid
  |title = Not Without Honor: The History of American Anticommunism
  |publisher = Yale University Press
  |year=  1998
  |page = 263
  |isbn = 0-300-07470-0}}</ref> On several occasions Eisenhower is reported to have said of McCarthy that he did not want to "get down in the gutter with that guy."<ref>{{cite book|last = Parmet
  |first = Herbert S.
  |title = Eisenhower and the American Crusades
  |publisher = Transaction Publishers
  |year = 1998
  |pages = [https://archive.org/details/eisenhowerameric00parm/page/248 248, 337, 577]
  |isbn = 0-7658-0437-9
  |url = https://archive.org/details/eisenhowerameric00parm/page/248
  }}</ref>