ABSTRACT
The fighting election of 1948 set the backdrop for Eisenhower's emergence in 1952 as a man of conscience, indignant at the degeneration of the Presidency into a merely political office. But, by 1956, Eisenhower, running against Adlai Stevenson for the second time, shifted with the moods wing to become a hero of harmony, a conciliator par excellence. The Eisenhower 1952 campaign was a "crusade" again, gathering "Citizens for Eisenhower" from every political faith, a process facilitated by the fact that no one had much of an idea what the candidate stood for. Eisenhower followed up his moralizing victory of 1952 with action: an armistice was finally signed in Korea in July 1953, and a new Red scare began in earnest. Eisenhower the popular President soared way on out past his party, leaving droves of Republican candidates behind among the defeated as he won an unprecedented victory. He sustained his popularity better than any other postwar President.
