The White House, January 10th 1956…
“Stassen and Knowland…I can’t believe those Sons of Bitches are trying to take my nomination away from me…Never, Never, Never, Never!” Nixon roared as he slammed down his fist hard enough on the Oval Office desk, that his two young advisors sitting across from him thought he may have broken it. After taking a deep inhale of air, The President slicked back his thick brush of ebony hair and calmly looked down at the memorandum in front of him.
“I do want to remind you Mr. President that no candidate has mounted a successful challenge to an incumbent President in this century. Hell I think the last one was when James Blaine usurped President Chester A. Arthur in 1884.” The young man, sitting to the right of Nixon, said.
The young man had the presence of a South Californian born and raised as he sat leaned back in the wooden chair, clad in a coal black, single breasted suit. His name was Robert H. Finch, a neophyte in national politics; he and the President became fast friends during their time together in Washington after the War. Ideologically Bob Finch was much more inline with the likes of Moderate-to-Liberal Republicans…Harold Stassen, Nelson Rockefeller and Earl Warren. The strange bond in which he and the President shared made Finch quit his lucrative job at a Los Angeles Law Firm to work as Nixon’s Chief of Staff upon Ike’s death.
“True, but Chet Arthur and I also had a lot more in common than you might think Bob…both of us were seemingly controversial Vice President’s coming into office upon a Presidential death. Goddamnit Roy, I want you to make sure that I don’t go down like that bastard.” Nixon said, as he jarred the manager of his Presidential campaign with his finger.
Although President Nixon understood the rumor’s floating around the beltway about Cohn being “quite the little fairy” to be probably true. Nixon also knew that Cohn was a man of his own heart, and someone who would have the ball’s to go after the Democrats without any remorse. Only 29 years old, Cohn’s name had already gained a level of infamy amongst those in the Democratic Political circles for his relentless pursuit for the executions of the Rosenberg’s in ’51. Cohn, like Nixon, was a man who thrived on Abuse, brought in for the sole purpose for the campaign to go down how Nixon liked…Rough and Dirty.
“Well since they’ve already firmed up their intentions to run, and we know that you have the Regular base of the party in full support behind our campaign…this will most definitely hamper both Knowland’s and Stassen’s ability to fundraise. So that will force them to compete in the Primaries.” Roy said.
“Hmm…If I compete in all of the Primaries and sweep them there…Stassen and Knowland will be dead in the water coming into San Francisco.” Nixon said with a sly smile on his face.
“Absolutely, we’ll show those bastards the he fucked with the wrong President, well win in the primaries and have them like it.” Roy laughed as he slapped his hand across his knee in excitement.
“Excellent, Were going to have to run a campaign featuring my legitimacy as the Incumbent President of the United States and that all those stature enhancing trips I took in the last four years weren’t for Naught. We also need to ask the American People, how a man who hasn’t been elected to Public Office since in 1938 is still considered a viable candidate. As well ask how a man can tear his own state apart to seek the Presidency for solely personal reasons.” Nixon said.
“That’s exactly what I had in mind Mr. President.” Roy replied back to the nation’s 35th President.
“Good, Good, Good, Good…With that being decided, let’s move on…” Nixon trailed off as he eye’s wandered into the gargantuan stack of memorandum’s on his desk.
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Final Results of the 1956 Republican Primaries
03/13/56: New Hampshire: Nixon 54%, Knowland 30%, Stassen 15%
03/20/56: Minnesota: Stassen: 65%, Nixon 20%, Knowland 15%
04/03/56: Wisconsin: Stassen 45%, Nixon 30%, Knowland 25%
04/10/56: Illinois: Knowland 36%, Stassen 34%, Nixon 30%
04/17/56: New Jersey: Nixon 62%, Stassen 16%, Knowland 16%
04/24/56: Pennsylvania: Nixon 45%, Knowland 30%, Stassen 25%
04/24/56: Massachusetts: Nixon 36%, Stassen 34%, Knowland 30%
04/24/56: Arkansas: Knowland 52%, Nixon 40%, Stassen 12%
05/01/56: DC: Stassen 75%, Nixon 20%, Knowland 5%
05/07/56: Maryland: Stassen 50%, Knowland 30%, Nixon 20%
05/08/56: Indiana: Nixon 46%, Knowland 34%, Stassen 20%
05/15/56: Nebraska: Stassen 65%, Nixon 35%
05/18/56: Oregon: Nixon 50%, Stassen 30%, Knowland 20%
05/29/56: Florida: Knowland 50%, Nixon 30%, Stassen 20%
06/05/56: California: Nixon 45%, Knowland 40%, Stassen 15%
From July 1st, 1956 Issue of Time Magazine
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Roy Cohn was wrong…Dead wrong.
President Richard M. Nixon did not sweep the primaries and was not destined to be bestowed with laurels at the Cow Palace in San Francisco.
Instead, the nation’s young 35th President spent the last Six months of his life almost completely on the road, from the snow covered hills of New Hampshire to the warm summer breeze of California. In truth, the 1956 Republican Primary campaign remained one of the nastiest on record. With Senator Knowland running to the Right, former Governor Stassen to the Left, President Nixon running as the sort of in between candidate…GOP Primary voters never before had more options in steering the course of their party in the future. As divided as people’s own beliefs are, the same would be true about how the primaries split. President Nixon competed in every single one of the primaries, and although he already held the institutional support amongst the party bosses his “Rose Garden” Strategy ensured him victories in New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Indiana, Oregon and California. Stassen and Knowland were basically left the scraps for states, that such as the Midwest a Republican was going to carry anyway in a General election and states such as the South where only a man of Eisenhower’s stature could break through the monolith of electoral votes.
So perhaps, that is why the A.B.N or Anybody but Nixon(Or more colloquially known as the Get that Asshole by Nature Out of the White House) Movement was doomed from the start. As best summed up by Theodore H. White, in the long civil war between citizens and regulars Nixon, through dint of four years in the best and worst of times, between banquets and campaigns, chores and dinners, had worked for the regulars all through a Presidency that was—as they carefully phrased—"not politically conditioned" which had made Nixon into the hero of the regulars, and would garner their unrelenting enthusiasm. The regulars could not accept the prospect, as they saw it, of another Eisenhower: that is, the threat of men the likes of Bill Knowland and Harry Stassen in the Presidency.
But to challenge an Incumbent President, that entire notion was almost unheard of in 20th century politics. It was supposed to be that no matter what your personal differences with the man behind the desk in the oval office, if he was of your own party, you stood behind him through hell or high water. It was no surprise to anyone within GOP circles that Stassen was going to mount yet another attempt at the Presidency. The man had sought the nominated of his party for the last twelve years, and only released his delegates to General Eisenhower in ‘52, a man whom he deeply respected, to defeat Mr. Conservative himself…Bob Taft on the first ballot. What is dumbfounding however is how a man who hadn’t been elected to public office since ’38 and Director of the now defunct Foreign Operations administration was so able to inspire the Progressive citizen wing of the party? Maybe it was his ferocious call for Civil Rights, Universal Health Care or grander farm subsidies for the Midwest that stirred up the hearts of men, who felt as if there party had died with Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Wendell Wilkie. They hoped that Progressivism still had one great warrior left…Harold Stassen, who at age 49 still had plenty of fight left in him.
If former Governor Stassen was a man with nothing to loose, and everything to gain then Bill Knowland of Almaeda, California was the exact opposite. Already the unadulterated King amongst men of Republicans in the Senate, the 11th Senate Minority Leader had everything to loose and truly nothing to gain. The late President Eisenhower had said before his death that “Knowland brings to his leadership post an absolute, unflinching integrity that rises above politics. In the councils of government, he inspires faith in his motives and gives weight to his words.” Yet, that belief amongst his fellow Republican colleagues who were eager to support Nixon, was shattered when on Christmas day 1955…The “Senator from Formosa” announced his candidacy for the Presidency of the United States “to save the Republican Party from utter destruction.” Yet he was forced by the political savvy of Richard Nixon to run to the right in the primaries. Knowland ran with a constituency that didn’t quite exist yet as he became a champion for States Rights(despite his life long support of Civil Rights), eradication of New Deal era Programs and restoration of the Chang Kai Shek regime in China. Although this bode him victories in Arkansas, Florida and White Ethnics in Illinois, he came of to many Republican voters as an incredibly bitter man. His vendetta against a man from his own state, was a major turn off to primary voters and although Knowland was able to secure a good amount of delegates. Senate Minority Leader or not, his chances of winning the nomination were just as slim as Harry Stassen’s.
However, the respective campaigns of Stassen and Knowland wasn’t a complete waste of time as there were able to pull away a few more state delegations away from Nixon at the start of the convention(Knowland in the South and Stassen in the Midwest) enough to deny him from claiming victory on the first ballot. Instead of meeting with only one of his opponents, in a smoky backroom in the convention hall, Nixon met with both Knowland and Stassen to get them to end their campaign. In their deal, the candidates mainly discussed possible picks for the Vice Presidency and other open cabinet positions, as well as different goals on Domestic Policy mainly Civil Rights. Stassen forwarded his man, Moderate Governor Christian Herter of Massachusetts while Knowland nominated his friend, Conservative Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. Dick Nixon although he personally liked both men, thought that Chris was too Aristocratic and Barry to Extreme for Middle-Class America.
In an attempt to reach a consensus, Nixon offered up the name of former President pro tempore…Senator Styles Bridges of New Hampshire. Bridges, with his strong Anti-Communist record, lengthy foreign policy experience, and universal respect across all Republican factions was considered highly agreeable by the Stassen and Knowland delegations. After the deal was done and a shaky picture between the President and his former challengers was taken on the Convention floor, Nixon won an overwhelming majority of delegates and clinched the nomination. The almost 60 year old Senator Bridges also readily accepted the nomination for the Vice Presidency, as he understood that he had already felt the zenith of his political power and that the office although “not worth a bucket of warm piss” would be a nice place to retire his outstanding career in public service.
Yet the 1956 Republican National Convention at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California wasn’t about President Nixon, Senator Knowland, former Governor Stassen or Senator Bridges…it was about the late President Eisenhower. The Convention Hall was adorned with Portraits of Ike, as well as Eisenhower placards and signs from the 1952 campaign. Former First Lady Mamie Eisenhower introduced a long film about Ike’s life and career during the first day of the convention, not exactly the best way to start a party, but it did succeed in moving everyone within the Cow Palace to tears. Nixon, ever the opportunist, continued to capitalize on the intense emotions of the room when he delivered his acceptance address…
From: Anybody but Nixon: The 1956 Presidential Election, by Michael Taylor
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“It was only four years ago that I stood in this very place after you had nominated our candidate for the President one of the great men of our century. And I say to you tonight that for generations to come, Americans, regardless of party, will gratefully remember Dwight Eisenhower as the man who brought peace to America as the man -- as the man under whose leadership America enjoyed the greatest progress and prosperity in history. But above all, they will remember him as the man who restored honesty, integrity, and dignity to the conduct of government in the highest office of this land.
And my fellow Americans, I know now that you will understand what I next say, because as your President of the United States you know that I have his great example to follow, because as President I will have new and challenging problems in the world of utmost gravity. This truly is a time for greatness in America's leadership.
And I know -- And my fellow Americans, I know tonight that we must resist the hate; we must remove the doubts, but above all, we must be worthy of the love and the trust of millions on this earth for whom America is the hope of the world.
A hundred years ago, the first Presidential Nominee of the Republican Party was brought forth before the American People. That man also hailed from this great state of California, and was no other than the Great Pathfinder himself…John C. Fremont. Their slogan in that year of Genesis was “Free speech, free press, free soil, free men, Frémont and victory!"
I think it’s about time that we use that slogan again, and remind the American People that the Republican Party shall always stand for Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Press, Freedom of Security against the tyranny of Communism, and Freedom to all Men & Women, no matter their race, or denomination. And after these Convention doors close, we shall go forward with our banners held high, singing Nixon/Bridges for Victory in 1956! And my fellow Americans, may that ever be our prayer for our country, and in that spirit, with faith in America, with faith in her ideals and in her people, I accept your nomination for President of the United States.”
Expert, From: President Nixon’s Acceptance address as the Republican Party’s Presidential Nominee… August 27th 1956 Issue of Time Magazine