Now that youve made your decision, i will fight to win that office with all of my heart and soul. With your help, i have no doubt that we will win. Help me to do the job of conflict and of campaign. We will justify our glorious task and the loyalty of millions who look to us for compassion, for understanding, and for honesty. We will serve our great tradition greatly. I ask of you all you have. I will give you all i have. That was our contender this week, Adlai Stevenson, excepting the democratic nomination for president in 1952. We are joined by Richard Norton smith in libertyville, illinois. Who was this oneterm governor of illinois . For millions of americans, that is all he was. The oneterm governor of illinois. They have never heard a voice like his. They did not know that a Political Revolution was being touched off that night. For the next decade, Adlai Stevenson would be the voice of the Democratic Party, someone you would transform american politics, even though he was never successful in his quest for the white house. How did he get the nomination in 1952 . He is the last candidate to be drafted. He is the last candidate to require one more balanced at the convention. He did not want the nomination is the short answer. There was a vacuum in the Democratic Party. Harry truman was retiring. There was no obvious successor. Adlai stevenson did a remarkable welcoming address at the Chicago Convention that had the effect on most of William Jennings bryant. It touched off a couple days later, he was delivering the speech you just heard. Welcome to libertyville and the contenders. Were looking at the man who ran for president and changed american politics. Tonight, our focus is adlais stevenson, 1900 to 1965. We are joined by a wellknown author and historian Richard Norton smith. Ere live from libertyville, ill. In just a minute, well be joined by newton minow, who worked at new Adlai Stevenson. We will be joined by senator Adlai Stevenson iii, the son of Adlai Stevenson. Richard norton smith, before we leave the office, there are some things sitting around that we want to learn a little bit more about it. First of all, what is this a hand . Stevenson said that he suffered from a bad case of hereditary politics. There are multiple to narrations of stevenson generations of stevensons in the story. The link in connection was a very powerful one. Lincoln connection was a very powerful one. This is a cast of lincolns hand. Also on the desks is an address book. Some of the names and this address book include eleanor roosevelt, Jackie Kennedy, john steinbeck. It hence he was a very unusual, a nonpolitician and a new ways. He in many ways. Eventually, by millions of americans who proudly declared themselves stevensonians. Standing between us is this old office chair. Cabinetis stevensons terror. He had an historic stand of the american passenger to the United Nations. He was made a member of the cabinet, this is the chair that commemorate spot. Somewhat difficult relationship that he had with the Kennedy Administration. You referred to the dynasty, the stephenson political dynasty. Here on the wall or some artifacts. Whitevernor stevensons said his grandfather was Vice President of the United States. Under grover cleveland. He ran again in 1900 under William Jennings bryant. This is grandfather stevensons hat. Thank you for joining us tonight. Live from libertyville, we will work our way it over to the barn on the family farm. We are currently in the study. Next to it is a barn. This is a working farm at some point. We will work our way over there where there is a new display about Adlai Stevenson. First, we want to show you some Campaign Commercials so you can see some of the video of Adlai Stevenson. These are from 1956 and 1952. One of them was felt right here in this study. I am sitting right here in my own library. Thanks to television, i can talk to millions of people that i could not reach any other way. I am not going to let this spoil me. I am not going to stop traveling in this campaign. I can talk to you, but i cannot listen to you. I cannot hear about your problems, about your hopes and your affairs. To do that, i have to go out and see you in person. That is what i have been doing. For the past several years, ive traveled all over this country. I have been in every state. I have met thousands of you and millions of you have seen me in. Stevenson i would rather have a man with a hole in his shoes and a man with a hole in everything he says. I would rather have a man that knows what to do when it gets to be the prez. I know the gov will bring the peace and joy adlai, love you madly but you did for your own great state you are going to do for the rest of the 48 old macdonald had a farm back in the 31 conditions filled him with alarm back in 31 to vote for Adlai Stevenson a vote vote there of vote for stevenson everywhere all the america loves that farm if you should allow it to be your president , next november, i should be the better for having done it, i am sure. Because i know that the strength and wisdom that i need must be drawn from you and the people. Finally, i hope the next time we meet, it will be a person to person and face to face. I am Adlai Stevenson. You and i have been hearing from our republican friends that things are so good, they could not be better. Do you think that things cannot be better for the smallbusiness man, like this one . Small business profits are down 52 . That they cannot be better for our farmers . Like these . Farm income is down 25 . Our year schools good enough for the richest nation in history . A third they need a third of a million more classrooms. What about you . Are you out of that . You have a comfortable bank role in the bank . Are you paying less for the things that you buy . Or more . Do you really think things cannot be better . Of course they can. Working together, we will make them better. Vote democratic. Rising cost of farming. Lower farm income. Caught in a squeeze. A vote democratic, the party for you, not just the few. Vote for Adlai Stevenson. We are back live at the stevenson farm in libertyville. We are now joined by newton minow. He is the former chairman of the federal communications commission. For our purposes tonight, he has worked with and was an associate of Adlai Stevenson for many years. Newton minow if you could start by telling us when did you first meet of honor gov. Stevenson . I was a law clerk at the supreme court. One of our professors came to visit one day. He later offered my coclerk a job as his assistant in springfield. It turned out that howard was not interested, but i was. I ended up being interviewed by the governor. At 7 00 for breakfast in the spring of 1952. He said to me, if i hire you, young man, it is there any reason why he would not take the job . It is my current boss runs for president , and it was rumored that he would be a candidate, if he asked me to stay with them, i would like to do that. The governor looked at me and said, i do not think that is very likely. I then drove into his next appointment. I went to work at the supreme court. I picked up the new york times. It said truman offers stevenson the president ial nomination. This was the morning after president truman had asked him to run. I was hired and are reported for work. What was the known for as governor . Even as a student, i worked in his campaign in 1948. He was known as being totally honest, which was not necessarily a prerequisite for election in illinois. He was a different kind of candidate. He was honest, and he was an intellectual, he cared deeply about to good government. He brought a whole different culture to the office of governor. Richard norton smith, 1952, sets the stage for us. There was a sense that the democrats have been power for 20 years. Even the most partisan democrat fact that perhaps the party and the country would be well served by a change. The great issue was which Republican Party would replace harry truman if harry truman were to leave . Would it be be isolationist conservative midwestern party or would it be the International Modern republican of the eisenhower . Stevenson had to calculate the chances of which party he might be running against. He was very reluctant to iran. He did not want to run. He was very reluctant to iran. He did not want to run. He did not want to run against dwight eisenhower. It was like running against jesus christ. If it had been robert taft as the opponent, Adlai Stevenson would have relished running. There would have been a clear difference in philosophy. You have to remember the democrats tried to draft general eisenhower. The democrats tried to give eisenhower to run as a democrat. Eisenhower was a candidate of both parties. Newton minow, when Adlai Stevenson did the welcoming address at the Democratic National convention in chicago in 1962 in 1962, was he considered a candidate . He was not that well known. I remember the first time he appeared on national television. He was on meet the press. He was never any good on television. He was a lot of fun and a great personality and you always went away feeling better about yourself. When you watched him on television, he was either nervous, but he was never himself. The country did not know him. He gets the welcoming address and he gets drafted, went on the second or third ballot. That is right. It was really unfortunate because the timing was wrong. If he had run for president against dwight eisenhower, he, of lakewood of one. Remember how he probably could have won. Who did you pick for a running mate . Senator fromman, alabama. He had to worry about keeping the solid south solid. Exactly. Was picked at the last minute. The city had a relationship . Not really. The way we do things in this country did you want to be on the 52 ticket . He was always interested in running for president. Adlai stevenson did not like him. He ended up being the Vice President in 56. Harry truman might tempt even less like to him even less. Harry truman in 1952 and its relationship with Adlai Stevenson. He is regarded as a great president. To commit the United States to the cold war. The fact is at the time, he was a very unpopular president. The korean war was an unpopular war. He fired douglas macarthur, there is a consensus that we did the right thing for the right reason, but at great political cost. Harry truman had been in power seven years. He had decided seven years was enough. He had the power to permit 10 from becoming the nominee. He probably had the power to make Adlai Stevenson the nominee. Without power went to the dead weight of the truman administration. My sense is that true men and truamn and stevensons relationship never quite recovered. There was another factor. There was a lot of corruption in the Democratic Party. There had been a scandal with one of president trumans ts. Istanc it was not a happy thing to become the nominee in 1952. As i left the supreme court, i went to see the chief justice to say goodbye. He was very Close Friends with truman. The chief said to me, your guy is not going to make it. I said, what . He said, i was with the president last night. He told me that he has lost patience with Adlai Stevenson. It is going to be barkley. They tried to get it for barkley, but everybody said, he is too old. We are live from libertyville, the stevenson family farm, about 40 miles outside of chicago. The phone numbers are on the screen because we want to hear from you as well. The results in 1952, by the way, that election was held 59 years ago tonight, november 4, 1952. Adlai stevenson wons 27 million votes. He got 89 electoral votes and won nine states. Dwight eisenhower, 442 electoral votes. He won the 34 million votes. He won the rest of the states, which would have been 41 states. One thing to keep in mind is compared with 1948. In losing, stevenson got 3 million more votes than truman had three years earlier. Dwight eisenhower got 12 million more votes. You have the largest increase in Voter Participation since the 18 twenties. You had two outstanding candidates. Each were able to excite the electorate. Here is a little bit more of Adlai Stevenson at the 1952 convention. What does concern me is not just winning this election. But how it is one. How we can take advantage of this great opportunity to debate issues sensibly and soberly. I hope and pray that we democrats will win or lose, can campaign, not as a crusade to exterminate the opposing party, as our pundit seem to prefer, but as a great opportunity to educate and elevate a people whose destiny is leadership. Peopleell the american the truth, there are no gameins without pain. Newton minow, where were you 59 years ago tonight . I was in the governors mansion. One thing that topped the American People about stevenson was the way he conceded defeat. He gave the most graceful, patriotic talk. He pledged to support president eisenhower. He ended with a story that he remembered from abraham lincoln. It was a story about a little boy who stubbed his toe in the dark. He said, it hurts too much to laugh, but i am not old enough to cry. People saw his character with that. He was a patriot who loved his country and was willing to support a new president. Lets take some calls. The first call is paul in iowa. Hello. I want to thank cspan for doing this. This is a great series. I have recently finished reading he puts forth a very negative view of Adlai Stevenson campaign for president. He claimed he spent too much time attacking nixon. It was a blemish on a very stellar career. The think that the campaign was a low point of stevensons political career . Did he spend too much time attacking nixon . Should she have focused on farm issues more . Should he have focused on war and peace issues . Thank you very much. Lets start with newton minow. 1956 campaign. 1956 campaign, in my opinion, was not as stellar as it was the 1952 campaign. The reason for the emphasis on nixon in 1956 was the fact that president eisenhower had suffered a bad heart attack and had some bad health problems. There was great concern in the country of what would happen if present eisenhower president eisenhower was reelected and he died during the second term and nixon became president. There was a good reason to go after nixon because nixon did not have the character to be president. I think the 1956 campaign, from a historical standpoint, it is the campaign that laid the groundwork for the new frontier. That is the campaign when Adlai Stevenson embraced the idea of a Nuclear Test Ban treaty. That is the campaign when he endorsed a constitutional amendment so 18yearolds could vote. In terms of foreshadowing policy to, 1956 turns out to open a fountainhead of ideas. You are right, the last speech on election eve where he said the medical evidence suggested a real possibility that Richard Nixon would become president. That is something that tom dewey had not done in 1944 under somewhat similar circumstances. You did not go there. In some ways, he paid a price for that. You are right. The Nuclear Test Ban, which was very unpopular point of view to take in 1956, he took it very courageously because he believed in it deeply. He said someone asked what the weapons would be in world war iv, and he said there would be sticks and stones. Between 1952 and 1956, was Adlai Stevenson and going to get the nomination again . I would have to answer that with a yes and no. He hoped that might someday be president , but he also knew that if you ran against president eisenhower again, the odds were very much against them. I was one of the few people around him that kurds to and not to run in 1956. He felt an obligation to the Democratic Party. Here is a little bit of Adlai Stevenson at the 1956 convention. I come here on a solid mission. Solemn mission. I accept your nomination and your program. [applause] i pledged to every resource of mind and strength that i possess to make a good win for our country and our party. Four years ago, i stood in this same place and under those same words to you. Four years ago, i did not seek the honor that you bestowed upon me. This time, as he may have noticed, it was not entirely unsolicited. [laughter] [applause] there is another big difference. That time, we lost. This time, we will win. [applause] newton minow, you started laughing what you listen to that video. When he said it was unsolicited, it reminded me. In 1955, stevenson gave a speech at the university of texas and i was asked to go with them. It was right after president eisenhower had suffered his heart attack. Lyndon johnson, the majority leader of the senate, had also suffered a heart attack. We were to spend the night at londons branch lyndons grant. We got there late. Mrs. Johnson was very upset because the doctor told her about Lyndon Johnson should be sleeping. And he was get up he was up until 2 00 in the morning. On the way home, just the two of us for traveling. Adlai stevenson said to me, if i want the nomination next year, i will have to run in the primaries. I