1952 Republican National Convention

1952 Republican National Convention

1952 presidential election
Nominees Eisenhower and Nixon
Convention
Date(s)	July 7–July 11, 1952
City	Chicago, Illinois
Venue	International Amphitheatre
Candidates
Presidential nominee	Dwight D. Eisenhower of New York
Vice Presidential nominee	Richard Nixon of California

Attendees at the 1952 convention

The 1952 Republican National Convention was held at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois from July 7 to July 11, 1952, and nominated the popular general and war hero Dwight D. Eisenhower of New York, nicknamed "Ike," for president and the anti-communist crusading Senator from California, Richard M. Nixon, for vice president.

The Republican platform pledged to end the unpopular war in Korea, to fire all "the loafers, incompetents and unnecessary employees" at the State Department, condemned the Roosevelt and Truman administrations' economic policies, supported retention of the Taft-Hartley Act, opposed "discrimination against race, religion or national origin", supported "Federal action toward the elimination of lynching", and pledged to bring an end to communist subversion in the United States.

Candidates before the convention

• Businessman Riley A. Bender of Illinois
• Former Governor George T. Mickelson of South Dakota
• Representative Thomas H. Werdel of California

• 

  Retired General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower of New York

• 

  General of the Army Douglas MacArthur of Arkansas

• 

  Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon

• 

  Former Governor Harold Stassen of Minnesota

• 

  Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio

• 

  Former Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg of Michigan

• 

  Governor Earl Warren of California

The Balloting

A piece of literature for the Eisenhower–Nixon campaign, 1952

Presidential Balloting, RNC 1952
Contender: Ballot	1st Before Shifts	1st After Shifts
General Dwight D. Eisenhower	595	845
Ohio Senator Robert A. Taft	500	280
Governor Earl Warren of California	81	77
former Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen	20	0
General Douglas MacArthur	10	4

Vice Presidential

Eisenhower was so unfamiliar with politics that even after his nomination he believed that the delegates would choose the vice-presidential nominee, surprising his advisors Lucius D. Clay and Herbert Brownell. When they explained that the delegates would support whoever he chose, Eisenhower suggested businessmen he knew such as Charles E. Wilson and C. R. Smith. Clay and Brownell explained that a running mate should be a politician who balanced the ticket in geography, age, and other areas, and suggested Richard Nixon, who had helped Eisenhower win California's delegates. Eisenhower had met Nixon, and accepted the suggestion. Nixon was nominated unanimously.

See also

• List of Republican National Conventions
• 1952 Democratic National Convention
• U.S. presidential nominating convention
• U.S. presidential election, 1952

References

Preceded by 1948 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Republican National Conventions

Succeeded by 1956 San Francisco, California