Ike and McCarthy: Dwight Eisenhower’s Secret Campaign against Joseph McCarthy by David A. Nichols
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A very interesting book about an interesting period in US History. As we get farther away from the Eisenhower years (disclaimer: I was born during his second term), Ike’s reputation has been transformed. From the serene and distant grandfather who spent so much time on the golf course, we are seeing a more accurate portrayal of an involved chief executive who was quite adept at bureaucratic infighting if it was necessary to accomplish his goal.

One of the biggest complaints about Eisenhower was his silence on McCarthyism. In this book we see how Eisenhower actually responded to McCarthy: Ike basically refused to fight it out with McCarthy in the open because he believed that even mentioning him by name would increase McCarthy’s prestige. Instead Eisenhower worked behind the scenes to undermine McCarthy with the televised Army-McCarthy hearings delivering a fatal blow to McCarthy’s career. Eisenhower (and his subordinates) made some mistakes along the way – certainly Ike believed he erred by not defending General George Marshall earlier – but the behind the scenes plan worked, and virtually no one at the time suspected that Ike had anything to do with McCarthy’s downfall.

The author has done a good job of combining multiple stories and points of view to show Eisenhower in action against McCarthy. There are many footnotes to primary and secondary sources; this is the way that history should be written. If you’re interested in this period of history, I highly recommend this book.