ABSTRACT
The preliminaries of the 1952 Republican National Convention centered on the ability of the son of President William Howard Taft to repeat the control of the nominating session that his father had commanded in 1912. Possibly more important than such arithmetic was the Taft control of the party machinery. The Committee on Arrangements, meeting in Chicago a month ahead of the convention, ignored the protests of the Eisenhower minority and chose General Douglas MacArthur to rouse the delegates by delivering the keynote address on the opening night. The state executive committee, serving as a credentials committee, had “scrutinized” the contested seats with such care that pro-Eisenhower decisions were made only after the Taft forces were assured majority control even though they spoke for mere minorities at both precinct and county levels. The manifesto with the signatures of twenty-three Republican Governors was the first real breakthrough for the Eisenhower forces.
