Walter Lippmann and the American Century — 37 Overtaken by Events

1. 1. Lippmann took a sabbatical from his column in summer 1951 to work on a book and reconsider his career, hoping to become a special writer rather than a regular columnist.
2. 2. By 1952, Lippmann was so disgruntled with Truman that he blamed Truman's reelection for McCarthyism, German rearmament, and the Korean War stalemate.
3. 3. Lippmann initially thought Eisenhower was not personally qualified to be President, calling him a 'dream boy' embodying public discontent, but by 1952 he supported him as the best hope to unite the nation.
4. 4. Lippmann advised Eisenhower to run an aloof campaign to avoid exposing his political inexperience, and worked behind the scenes to block Senator Robert Taft's nomination.
5. 5. Lippmann supported Eisenhower despite his disappointing campaign performance and the Nixon slush fund scandal, believing only a Republican could tame McCarthy and end the Korean War without accusations of treason.
6. 6. After Eisenhower's inauguration, Lippmann quickly became disillusioned, complaining that Ike was weak and indecisive, likening him to a Merovingian monarch who reigned but did not govern.
7. 7. Lippmann was a persistent critic of McCarthy, describing his effort as 'cold, calculated, sustained and ruthless' and seeing in McCarthyism the seeds of totalitarianism.
8. 8. Lippmann wrote relatively little about McCarthyism and the loyalty program, and surprisingly considered Eisenhower's 'security risk' category an improvement over Truman's loyalty program.
9. 9. Lippmann did not write a single column about the Rosenberg espionage trial and execution, despite its political significance and the death sentence controversy.
10. 10. Lippmann's foreign policy critique focused on tactics rather than goals; he shared the administration's objectives and believed the problem was execution, not conception.
11. 11. Despite his earlier warnings against containment and intervention in Asia, Lippmann supported U.S. aid to Greece, intervention in Korea, and funding France's war in Indochina when communists seemed likely to take control.
12. 12. Lippmann accepted the division of Germany and Europe after Stalin's 1952 offer of reunification in neutrality, warning that a reunited Germany under Russian patronage would be dangerous.