ABSTRACT
From his rostrum at the Democratic National Convention, Harry S. Truman was the ever-confident president. Korea was at the top of foreign concerns. After the Chinese entry into the war in 1950, several inconclusive battles were waged along a bloody front. Modern Republicans made repeated and successful overtures to the Catholic hierarchy. In addition to making converts of worried Catholics, Republicans learned that suburbs were becoming hospitable Republican territory. The new world order that Eisenhower alluded to had set the stage for 1952 to become a transforming election. From 1952 to 1988, Democrats lost the White House seven times in ten elections—winning only with John F. Kennedy in 1960; Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964; and Jimmy Carter in 1976. Dwight Eisenhower's 1952 win began a Republican presidential era that lasted for the duration of the Cold War. Politics involves manipulating emotions, and until the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 both parties continued to plot their opposition to communism.
