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"Ike's Hidden Hand" Covertly Seeking Peace, 1950-1960

Produced by Starbright Media Corporation

This new two-hour, prime-time television documentary Special will be completed in Spring, 2012. The program will be divided into three major segments:

> “Why He Ran” will examine the reasons why Ike, America’s greatest World War II hero, left his critical Cold War post as Supreme Commander of NATO to enter the tumultuous arena of national politics.  There are those who say Ike had carefully orchestrated a secret multi-year campaign to gain the highest political office in the land.  Others claim his only reason for leaving a lifetime of military service was that “duty called.”   Through the commentary of political historians, Eisenhower confidants and journalists who covered the campaign, the segment explores his political views and strategies and his global military view of the Cold War and nuclear weapons, especially his great fear that a President uncommitted to an international foreign policy would take over the White House and end American leadership of the "free world" and the struggle against communism.

> “How He Won” will explore Eisenhower’s substantial “grassroots” political base in a nation that feared another war in Europe or in Asia, and his extremely effective use of television and advertising in this first presidential campaign of the television era.  In this segment, we meet Eisenhower’s chief political allies such as Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, governors Tom Dewey of New York and Sherman Adams of New Hampshire, and the leaders of “Citizens for Eisenhower” who built a significant national political movement for “Ike” among independents and Democrats as well as internationalist Republicans.

The Special tells the story of how these forces wrested control of the convention from the GOP political machine and  “Mr. Republican,” U.S. Senator and presidential hopeful, Robert Taft of Ohio, and out-maneuvered would-be candidates such as Gov. Earl Warren of California and Harold Stassen, former governor of Minnesota.  The Democratic opposition included President Truman, with whom Ike had closely collaborated in establishing an ongoing post-war American military presence in Europe. His opponent was Gov. Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, an eloquent speaker on the issues of the day, who reluctantly agreed to take on the country's greatest hero and defense of 20 years of Democratic rule.

The program examines, too, how Ike’s political aptitude, honed as “Supreme Commander” in Europe in World War II, worked on the campaign trail as he sought to handle the uncertainties of battle in party politics.   The road to triumph in November was a bumpy one, and including the bad stumbles of the campaign: his so-called “surrender” on key issues to Sen. Taft and right-wing Republicans, his apparent submission to the political power of Sen. Joe McCarthy on the question of Gen. George Marshall’s patriotism, and the very real possibility that he would have to dump his running mate in mid-campaign.

> “What It Meant” will look ahead to the major foreign policy events of the Eisenhower years in the White House and consider what his election meant to the national security of the United States, and the world-at-large.  On the world stage, Ike established a foreign policy based on an internationalist view, thus ending “isolationism” as a viable alternative view within the GOP. He also quickly launched a largely covert approach to U.S.-Soviet relations based on his belief that the arms race was "insanity."

On the home front, he balanced the budget, but he kept in-place the major changes of FDR’s New Deal and Truman’s Fair Deal. And he dealt pragmatically with difficult social and cultural issues while faced with a deeply divided GOP and Democratic majorities in the Congress.  For the oldest President in the history of the United States, and one without any previous involvement in party politics, it was a daunting experience – one that historians and political scientists have examined closely, especially over the past decade.  Their views will be heard in this segment along with the views of those who witnessed “close-up” the major events of Ike’s White House years.

> Ike's Hidden Hand was developed by writer/producer George A. Colburn in this latest program in an ongoing SMC series entitled “The Eisenhower Legacy.”  Colburn wrote and produced three prime-time Specials on Eisenhower in the early 1990s that were hosted by John Chancellor, the late NBC journalist.  In 1996, for the Disney Channel, he wrote and produced a 5-hour series on Ike’s military and political careers, 1941-1961, that was hosted by Gen. Colin Powell.

A 10-part educational version will be developed by SMC following release of the Special.  This series will be produced in a new Internet-linked format as well as in the traditional DVD format. The uncut interview footage for this Special will be made available to researchers by SMC through The Eisenhower Legacy archives.  The collection already contains 140 interviews conducted by Dr. Colburn from the eight previous documentaries he produced. 

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Dr. George Colburn
Post Office Box 309, Walloon Lake, MI 49796
231-535-2440 or 202-258-4887
gac@starbrightmc.com

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