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Adlai Stevenson II

March 04, 2023

Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (/ˈædleɪ/; February 5, 1900 – July 14, 1965) was an American politician and diplomat who was the United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 1961 until his death in 1965. He previously served as the 31st governor of Illinois from 1949 to 1953 and was the Democratic nominee for President of the United States in 1952 and 1956, losing both elections to Dwight Eisenhower. Stevenson was the grandson of Adlai Stevenson I, the 23rd vice president of the United States.

Adlai Stevenson II
Stevenson in 1961
5th United States Ambassador to the United Nations
In office
January 23, 1961 (1961-01-23) – July 14, 1965 (1965-07-14)
President
Preceded byJames Jeremiah Wadsworth
Succeeded byArthur Goldberg
31st Governor of Illinois
In office
January 10, 1949 (1949-01-10) – January 12, 1953 (1953-01-12)
LieutenantSherwood Dixon
Preceded byDwight H. Green
Succeeded byWilliam Stratton
Personal details
Born
Adlai Ewing Stevenson II

(1900-02-05)February 5, 1900
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
DiedJuly 14, 1965(1965-07-14) (aged 65)
Westminster, London, England
Resting placeEvergreen Cemetery
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse
Ellen Borden
​
​
(m. 1928; div. 1949)​
Children3, including Adlai III
Parent
RelativesStevenson family
Adlai Stevenson (grandfather)
Adlai Stevenson IV (grandson)
EducationPrinceton University (BA)
Northwestern University (JD)
Military service
Allegiance United States
Branch/service United States Navy
Years of service1918
Rank Seaman second class

Raised in Bloomington, Illinois, Stevenson was a member of the Democratic Party.[1] He served in numerous positions in the federal government during the 1930s and 1940s, including the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, Federal Alcohol Administration, Department of the Navy, and the State Department. In 1945, he served on the committee that created the United Nations, and he was a member of the initial U.S. delegations to the UN.

In 1948, he was elected governor of Illinois, defeating incumbent governor Dwight H. Green in an upset. As governor, he reformed the state police, cracked down on illegal gambling, improved the state highways, and attempted to cleanse the state government of corruption. Stevenson also sought, with mixed success, to reform the Illinois state constitution and introduced several crime bills in the state legislature.

In the 1952 and 1956 presidential elections, he was chosen as the Democratic nominee for president, but was defeated in a landslide by Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower both times. In 1960, he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination for a third time at the Democratic National Convention. After President John F. Kennedy was elected, he appointed Stevenson as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Two major events Stevenson dealt with during his time as UN ambassador were the Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba in April 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962.

Stevenson served as UN ambassador from January 1961 until his death during a visit to London on July 14, 1965. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in his hometown of Bloomington, Illinois.

Early life and education

 
Stevenson's boyhood home in Bloomington, Illinois

Adlai Ewing Stevenson II[2] was born in Los Angeles, California, in a neighborhood that is now designated as the North University Park Historic District. His home and birthplace at 2639 Monmouth Avenue has been designated as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.[3] He was a member of a prominent Illinois political family. His grandfather and namesake Adlai Stevenson I was Vice President of the United States under President Grover Cleveland from 1893 to 1897. His father, Lewis Stevenson, never held an elected office, but was appointed Illinois Secretary of State (1914–1917) and was considered a strong contender for the Democratic vice-presidential nomination in 1928. A maternal great-grandfather, Jesse W. Fell, had been a close friend and campaign manager for Abraham Lincoln in his 1858 US Senate race; Stevenson often referred to Fell as his favorite ancestor.[4] Stevenson's eldest son, Adlai E. Stevenson III, became a U.S. Senator from Illinois (1970–1981). His mother was Helen Davis Stevenson, and he had an older sister, Elizabeth Stevenson Ives, an author who was called "Buffie". Actor McLean Stevenson was a second cousin once removed.[5] He was the nephew by marriage of novelist Mary Borden, and she assisted in the writing of some of his political speeches.[6]

Stevenson was raised in the city of Bloomington, Illinois; his family was a member of Bloomington's upper class and lived in one of the city's well-to-do neighborhoods. On December 30, 1912, at the age of twelve, Stevenson accidentally killed Ruth Merwin, a 16-year-old friend, while demonstrating drill technique with a rifle, inadvertently left loaded, during a party at the Stevenson home.[7] Stevenson was devastated by the accident and rarely mentioned or discussed it as an adult, even with his wife and children.[8] However, in 1955 Stevenson heard about a woman whose son had experienced a similar tragedy. He wrote to her that she should tell her son that "he must now live for two", which Stevenson's friends took to be a reference to the shooting incident.[9]

Stevenson left Bloomington High School after his junior year and attended University High School in Normal, Illinois, Bloomington's "twin city", just to the north. He then went to boarding school in Connecticut at The Choate School (now Choate Rosemary Hall), where he played on the tennis team, acted in plays, and was elected editor-in-chief of The Choate News, the school newspaper.[10] Upon his graduation from Choate in 1918,[11] he enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve and served at the rank of seaman apprentice, but his training was completed too late for him to participate in World War I.[12]

He attended Princeton University, becoming managing editor of The Daily Princetonian, a member of the American Whig-Cliosophic Society,[13] a member of the Quadrangle Club, and received a B.A. degree in 1922 in literature and history.[14] Under prodding from his father he then went to Harvard Law School, but found the law to be "uninteresting", and withdrew after failing several classes.[15] He returned to Bloomington where he wrote for the family newspaper, The Daily Pantagraph, which was founded by his maternal great-grandfather Jesse Fell. The Pantagraph, which had one of the largest circulations of any newspaper in Illinois outside the Chicago area, was a main source of the Stevenson family's wealth.[16] Following his mother's death in 1935, Adlai inherited one-quarter of the Pantagraph's stock, providing him with a large, dependable source of income for the rest of his life.[17]

A year after leaving Harvard, Stevenson became interested in the law again after talking to Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. When he returned home to Bloomington, he decided to finish his degree at Northwestern University School of Law, attending classes during the week and returning to Bloomington on the weekends to write for the Pantagraph. Stevenson received his J.D. degree from Northwestern in 1926 and passed the Illinois state bar examination that year. He obtained a position at Cutting, Moore & Sidley, one of Chicago's oldest and most prestigious law firms.[18]

Family and religion

On December 1, 1928, Stevenson married Ellen Borden, a well-to-do socialite. The young couple soon became popular and familiar figures on the Chicago social scene; they especially enjoyed attending and hosting costume parties.[19] They had three sons: Adlai Stevenson III, who would become a U.S. Senator; Borden Stevenson, and John Fell Stevenson. In 1935, Adlai and Ellen purchased a 70-acre (28 ha) tract of land along the Des Plaines River near Libertyville, Illinois, a wealthy suburb of Chicago. They built a home on the property and it served as Stevenson's official residence for the rest of his life. Although he spent relatively little time there due to his career, Stevenson did consider the estate to be his home, and in the 1950s, he was often called "The Man from Libertyville" by the national news media. Stevenson also purchased a farm in northwestern Illinois, just outside Galena, where he frequently rode horses and kept some cattle.

On December 12, 1949, Adlai and Ellen were divorced; their son Adlai III later recalled that "There hadn't been a good relationship for a long time. I remember her [Ellen] as the unreasonable one, not only with Dad, but with us and the servants. I was embarrassed by her peremptory way with servants."[20] Several of Stevenson's biographers have written that his wife suffered from mental illness: "Incidents that went from petulant to bizarre to nasty generally have been described without placing them in the context of the progression of [her] increasingly serious mental illness. It was an illness that those closest to her – including Adlai for long after the divorce – were slow and reluctant to recognize. Hindsight, legal proceedings, and psychiatric testimony now make understandable the behavior that baffled and saddened her family."[21] Stevenson did not remarry after his divorce, but instead dated a number of prominent women throughout the rest of his life, including Alicia Patterson, Marietta Tree,[22] and Betty Beale.[23][24]

Stevenson belonged to the Unitarian faith, and was a longtime member of Bloomington's Unitarian church.[25] However, he also occasionally attended Presbyterian services in Libertyville, where a Unitarian church was not present, and as governor he became close friends with the Rev. Richard Graebel, the pastor of Springfield's Presbyterian church.[26] Graebel "acknowledged that Stevenson's Unitarian rearing had imbued him with the means of translating religious and ethical values into civic issues".[26] According to one historian "religion never disappeared entirely from his public messages – it was indeed part of his appeal".[26]

Early career

In July 1933, Stevenson took a job opportunity as special attorney and assistant to Jerome Frank, the general counsel of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), a part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. Following the repeal of Prohibition in December 1933, Stevenson changed jobs, becoming chief attorney for the Federal Alcohol Control Administration (FACA), a subsidiary of the AAA which regulated the activities of the alcohol industry.

In 1935, Stevenson returned to Chicago to practice law. He became involved in civic activities, particularly as chairman of the Chicago branch of the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies from 1940 to 1941.[27] As chairman, Stevenson worked to raise public support for military and economic aid to the United Kingdom and its allies in fighting Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Stevenson "believed Britain [was] America's first line of defense" and "argued for a repeal of the neutrality legislation" and support for President Roosevelt's Lend-Lease programme.[28] His efforts earned strong criticism from Colonel Robert R. McCormick, the powerful, isolationist publisher of the Chicago Tribune, and a leading member of the non-interventionist America First Committee.[29]

In 1940, Major Frank Knox, newly appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as Secretary of the Navy, offered Stevenson a position as Principal Attorney and special assistant. In this capacity, Stevenson wrote speeches, represented Secretary Knox and the Navy on committees, toured the various theaters of war, and handled many administrative duties. Since Knox was largely a figurehead, there were few major roles for Stevenson. However, in early 1944 he joined a mission to Sicily and Italy for the Foreign Economic Administration to report on the country's economy. After Knox died in April 1944, Stevenson returned to Chicago where he attempted to purchase Knox's controlling interest in the Chicago Daily News, but his syndicate was outbid by another party.[30]

In 1945, Stevenson took a temporary position in the State Department, as special assistant to US Secretary of State Edward Stettinius to work with Assistant Secretary of State Archibald MacLeish on a proposed world organization. Later that year, he went to London as Deputy United States Delegate to the Preparatory Commission of the United Nations Organization, a position he held until February 1946. When the head of the delegation fell ill, Stevenson assumed his role. His work at the commission, and in particular his dealings with the representatives of the Soviet Union, resulted in appointments to the US delegations to the United Nations in 1946 and 1947.[31]

Governor of Illinois, 1949 to 1953

 
Stevenson as governor.

In 1948, Stevenson was chosen by Jacob Arvey, leader of the powerful Chicago Democratic political organization, to be the Democratic candidate in the Illinois gubernatorial race against the incumbent Republican, Dwight H. Green.[32] In an upset, Stevenson defeated Green by 572,067 votes, a record margin in Illinois gubernatorial elections.[33] President Truman carried Illinois by only 33,612 votes against his Republican opponent, Thomas E. Dewey, leading a biographer to write that "Clearly, Adlai had carried the President in with him."[33] Paul Douglas, a University of Chicago professor of economics, was elected senator on the same ticket.[34]

Principal among Stevenson's achievements as Illinois governor were reforming the state police by removing political considerations from hiring practices and instituting a merit system for employment and promotion, cracking down on illegal gambling, and improving the state highways.[35] He sought, with mixed success, to cleanse the Illinois state government of corruption; in one instance he fired the warden of the state penitentiary for overcrowding, political corruption, and incompetence that had left the prisoners on the verge of revolt, and in another instance Stevenson fired the superintendent of an institution for alcoholics when he learned that the superintendent, after receiving bribes from local tavern owners, was allowing the patients to buy drinks at local bars.[36] Two of Stevenson's major initiatives as governor were a proposal to create a constitutional convention (called "con-con") to reform and improve the Illinois state constitution, and several crime bills that would have provided new resources and methods to fight criminal activities in Illinois.[37] Most of the crime bills and con-con failed to pass the state legislature, much to Stevenson's chagrin. However, Stevenson did agree to support a Republican alternative to con-con called "Gateway", it passed the legislature and was approved by Illinois voters in a 1950 referendum.[38] Stevenson's push for an improved state constitution "began the process of constitutional change...and in 1969, four years after his death, the goal was achieved. It was perhaps his most important achievement as governor."[38] The new constitution had the effect of removing the structural limitations on the growth of government in the state.

Stevenson's governorship coincided with the Second Red Scare, and during his term, the Illinois state legislature passed a bill that would have "made it a felony to belong to any subversive group", and would have required "a loyalty oath of public employees and candidates for office." Stevenson vetoed the bill.[39] In his public message regarding the veto, Stevenson wrote "Does anyone seriously think that a real traitor will hesitate to sign a loyalty oath? Of course not. Really dangerous subversives and saboteurs will be caught by careful, constant, professional investigation, not by pieces of paper. The whole notion of loyalty inquisitions is a natural characteristic of the police state, not of democracy. I know full well this veto will be distorted and misunderstood...I know that to veto this bill in this period of grave anxiety will be unpopular with many. But I must, in good conscience, protest against any unnecessary suppression of our ancient rights as free men...we will win the contest of ideas that afflicts the world not by suppressing those rights, but by their triumph."[40]

Stevenson proved to be a popular public speaker, gaining a national reputation as an intellectual, with a self-deprecating sense of humor to match. One example came when the Illinois legislature passed a bill (supported by bird lovers) declaring that cats roaming unescorted was a public nuisance. Stevenson vetoed the bill, and sent this public message regarding the veto: "It is in the nature of cats to do a certain amount of unescorted roaming...the problem of cat versus bird is as old as time. If we attempt to solve it by legislation who knows but what we may be called upon to take sides as well in the age old problem of dog versus cat, bird versus bird, or even bird versus worm. In my opinion, the State of Illinois and its local governing bodies already have enough to do without trying to control feline delinquency. For these reasons, and not because I love birds the less or cats the more, I veto and withhold my approval from Senate Bill No. 93."[41]

On June 2, 1949, Stevenson privately gave a sworn deposition as a character witness for Alger Hiss, a former State Department official who was later found to be a spy for the Soviet Union.[42] Stevenson had infrequently worked with Hiss, first in the legal division of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration in 1933, and then in 1945, 1946, and 1947 on various United Nations projects, but he was not a close friend or associate of him.[43] In the deposition, Stevenson testified that the reputation of Hiss for integrity, loyalty, and veracity was good.[44] In 1950, Hiss was found guilty of perjury on the spying charges.[42] Stevenson's deposition, according to his biographer Porter McKeever, would later be used in the 1952 presidential campaign by Senators Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon to "inflame public opinion and attack Adlai as 'soft on communism'."[45] In the 1952 campaign, Senator Nixon would claim that Stevenson's "defense of Hiss" reflected such "poor judgment" on his part that "doubt was cast about Adlai's capacity to govern."[44] In a 1952 appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, Stevenson responded to a question about his deposition for Hiss by saying "I'm a lawyer. I think that one of the most fundamental responsibilities...particularly of lawyers, is to give testimony in a court of law, to give it honestly and willingly, and it will be a very unhappy day for Anglo-Saxon justice when a man, even in public life, is too timid to state what he knows and what he has heard about a defendant in a criminal trial for fear that defendant might later be convicted. That would to me be the ultimate timidity."[46]

1952 presidential bid

See also: 1952 United States presidential election and Electoral history of Adlai Stevenson
 
President Harry S. Truman, vice presidential nominee Alabama senator John J. Sparkman and presidential nominee Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson in the Oval Office, 1952

Early in 1952, while Stevenson was still governor of Illinois, President Harry S. Truman decided that he would not seek another term as president. Instead, Truman met with Stevenson in Washington and proposed that Stevenson seek the Democratic nomination for president; Truman promised him his support if he did so. Stevenson at first hesitated, arguing that he was committed to running for a second gubernatorial term in Illinois. However, a number of his friends and associates (such as George Wildman Ball) quietly began organizing a "draft Stevenson" movement for president; they persisted in their activity even when Stevenson (both publicly and privately) told them to stop. When Stevenson continued to state that he was not a candidate, President Truman and the Democratic Party leadership looked for other prospective candidates. However, each of the other main contenders had a major weakness. Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee won most of the presidential primaries and entered the 1952 Democratic National Convention with the largest number of delegates, but he was unpopular with President Truman and other prominent Democrats. In 1950, Kefauver had chaired a Senate committee that traveled to several large cities and held televised hearings into organized crime. The hearings revealed connections between organized-crime syndicates and big-city Democratic political organizations, which led Truman and other Democratic leaders to oppose Kefauver's bid for the nomination: "a machine politician and proud of it, [Truman] had no use for reformers who blackened the names of fellow Democrats."[47] Truman favored U.S. diplomat W. Averell Harriman, but he had never held elective office and was inexperienced in national politics. Truman next turned to his vice-president, Alben Barkley, but at 74 years of age he was dismissed as being too old by labor union leaders. Senator Richard Russell Jr. of Georgia was popular in the South, but his support of racial segregation and opposition to civil rights for blacks made him unacceptable to Northern and Western Democrats. In the end Stevenson, despite his reluctance to run, remained the most attractive candidate heading into the 1952 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

 
A poster from the 1952 campaign

At the convention, Stevenson, as governor of the host state, was assigned to give the welcoming address to the delegates. His speech was so stirring and witty that it invigorated efforts to secure the nomination for him, in spite of his continued protests that he was not a presidential candidate. In his welcoming speech he poked fun at the 1952 Republican National Convention, which had been held in Chicago in the same coliseum two weeks earlier. Stevenson described the achievements of the Democratic Party under Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, but noted "our Republican friends have said it was all a miserable failure. For almost a week pompous phrases marched over this landscape in search of an idea, and the only idea that they found was that the two great decades of progress...were the misbegotten spawn of bungling, of corruption, of socialism, of mismanagement, of waste and worse...after listening to this everlasting procession of epithets about our [party's] misdeeds I was even surprised the next morning when the mail was delivered on time. But we Democrats were by no means the only victims here. First they [Republicans] slaughtered each other, and then they went after us...perhaps the proximity of the stockyards accounts for the carnage."[48]

Following this speech, the Illinois delegation (led by Jacob Arvey) announced that they would place Stevenson's name in nomination, and Stevenson called President Truman to ask if "he would be embarrassed" if Stevenson formally announced his candidacy for the nomination. Truman told Stevenson "I have been trying since January to get you to say that. Why should it embarrass me?"[49] Kefauver led on the first ballot, but was well below the vote total he needed to win. Stevenson gradually gained strength until he was nominated on the third ballot.[49] The 1952 Democratic National Convention was the last political convention of either major party to require more than one ballot to nominate a presidential candidate.[50]

Historian John Frederick Martin says party leaders selected him because he was "more moderate on civil rights than Estes Kefauver, yet nonetheless acceptable to labor and urban machines—so a coalition of southern, urban, and labor leaders fell in behind his candidacy in Chicago".[51] Stevenson's 1952 running mate was Senator John Sparkman of Alabama.

Stevenson accepted the Democratic nomination with an acceptance speech that, according to contemporaries, "electrified the delegates:"[52]

When the tumult and the shouting die, when the bands are gone and the lights are dimmed, there is the stark reality of responsibility in an hour of history haunted with those gaunt, grim specters of strife, dissension, and materialism at home, and ruthless, inscrutable, and hostile power abroad. The ordeal of the twentieth century – the bloodiest, most turbulent age of the Christian era – is far from over. Sacrifice, patience, understanding, and implacable purpose may be our lot for years to come. ... Let's talk sense to the American people! Let's tell them the truth, that there are no gains without pains, that we are now on the eve of great decisions.

Although Stevenson's eloquent oratory and thoughtful, stylish demeanor impressed many intellectuals, journalists, political commentators, and members of the nation's academic community, the Republicans and some working-class Democrats ridiculed what they perceived as his indecisive, aristocratic air. During the 1952 campaign Stewart Alsop, a powerful Connecticut Republican, labeled Stevenson an "egghead", based on his baldness and intellectual air. His brother, the influential newspaper columnist Joe Alsop, used the word to underscore Stevenson's difficulty in attracting working-class voters, and the nickname stuck.[53] Stevenson himself made fun of his "egghead" nickname; in one speech he joked "eggheads of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your yolks!" In his campaign speeches Stevenson strongly criticized the Communist-hunting tactics of Senator Joseph McCarthy, labeling "McCarthy's kind of patriotism" as "a disgrace" and ridiculing right-wing Republicans "who hunt Communists in the Bureau of Wildlife and Fisheries while hesitating to aid the gallant men and women who are resisting the real thing in the front lines of Europe and Asia...they are finally the men who seemingly believe that we can confound the Kremlin by frightening ourselves to death."[54] In return, Senator McCarthy stated in a speech that "he would like to get on the Stevenson campaign trail with a club and thereby make a good and loyal American out of the governor".[53]

In the 1952 campaign, Stevenson also developed a strong dislike for Richard M. Nixon, then the GOP vice-presidential candidate. "Adlai literally loathed Nixon. No other person aroused such disgust; not even Joseph McCarthy...Friends who often wished he could be more of a hater were awed at the strength of his distaste for Nixon."[55] A biographer wrote that "for Stevenson, Nixon was an ambitious, unprincipled partisan who craved winning, the exact personification of what was wrong with modern American politics...[for Stevenson] Nixon was an entirely plastic politician...Nixon was Stevenson's complete villain. Others sensed the potential for immorality that led to Nixon's humiliating resignation in 1974, but Stevenson was among the first."[56] During the 1952 campaign Stevenson often used his wit to attack Nixon, and once stated that Nixon "was the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, and then mount the stump and make a speech for [tree] conservation".[57]

The journalist David Halberstam later wrote that "Stevenson [was] an elegant campaigner who raised the political discourse" and that in 1952 "Stevenson reinvigorated [the Democratic Party] and made it seem an open and exciting place for a generation of younger Americans who might otherwise never have thought of working for a political candidate."[54] During the campaign, a photograph revealed a hole in the sole of Stevenson's right shoe.[58] This became a symbol of Stevenson's frugality and earthiness. The Eisenhower campaign attempted to use the symbol of the shoe with a hole to criticize Stevenson in advertising, to which Stevenson said, “Better a hole in the shoe than a hole in the head.”[59] Photographer William M. Gallagher of the Flint Journal won the 1953 Pulitzer prize on the strength of the image.[60]

Stevenson did not use television as effectively as his Republican opponent, war hero Dwight D. Eisenhower, and was unable to rally the New Deal voting coalition for one last hurrah. Historian Richard Aldous wrote "Occasionally persuasive, [Stevenson] was rarely compelling and, unlike Eisenhower, he lacked any kind of rapport or common touch with large crowds. He also failed to respond quickly enough to Eisenhower's pioneering use of TV. Both candidates resisted the new medium at first, but Ike relented sooner. He used "Mad Men" advertising executive Rosser Reeves of the Ted Bates agency to create brilliant thirty-second TV spots. Ironically, Stevenson came across well on TV, but his highfalutin nature caused him to minimize it in the campaign. "This is the worst thing I've ever heard of," he scoffed, "selling the presidency like breakfast cereal!" That attitude left him behind the curve."[61] On election day, Eisenhower won the national popular vote by 55% to 45%. Stevenson lost heavily outside the Solid South; he carried only nine states and lost the Electoral College vote 442 to 89. In his concession speech on election night, Stevenson said: "Someone asked me...how I felt, and I was reminded of a story that a fellow townsman of ours used to tell – Abraham Lincoln. He said he felt like the little boy who had stubbed his toe in the dark. He said that he was too old to cry, but it hurt too much to laugh."[62]

Biographer Jean H. Baker summarized Stevenson's 1952 campaign: "Uncomfortable with the carnival side of elections, Stevenson tried to be a man for the people, not of them; a man of reason talking sense, not manipulation or sentiment."[63] "Liberals...were attracted to the Illinois governor because he firmly opposed McCarthyism, [and] they also appreciated Stevenson because of his style...he had clearly dissociated himself, as did many Americans, from the plebians. Stevenson dramatized the complex feelings of educated elites, some of whom came to adore him not because he was a liberal, but because he was not...he spoke a language that set apart from average Americans an increasingly college-educated population. His approach to voters as rational participants in a process that depended on weighing the issues attracted reformers, intellectuals, and middle-class women with time and money (the "Shakespeare vote", joked one columnist). Or as one enthralled voter wrote "You were too good for the American people."[64] "Adlai Stevenson ended the 1952 campaign with an adoring group of Stevensonites. Articulate and loyal...they would soon create the Stevenson legend and make the Man from Libertyville a counterhero to President Eisenhower, whom they would portray as inept and banal."[65]

1953 World Tour and 1954 elections

 
Stevenson in March 1953 at U.S. Air Force 17th Bomb Wing base in Korea, joined by US ambassador to Korea Ellis O. Briggs (left), acting foreign minister of the Republic of Korea Cho Chong-Hwan (second from right) and acting prime minister of the Republic of Tu-chin (far right)

Following his defeat, Stevenson in 1953 made a well-publicized world tour through Asia, the Middle East and Europe, writing about his travels for Look magazine. His political stature as head of the Democratic Party gave him access to many foreign leaders and dignitaries. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1953.[66] In the 1954 off-year elections, Stevenson took a leading role in campaigning for Democratic congressional and gubernatorial candidates around the nation. When the Democrats won control of both houses of Congress and picked up nine gubernatorial seats it "put Democrats around the country in Stevenson's debt and greatly strengthened his position as his party's leader."[67]

1956 presidential bid

See also: 1956 United States presidential election and Electoral history of Adlai Stevenson
 
Stevenson and supporter Joe Smith leave Chicago's O'Hare Airport for four days of campaigning in the Pacific Northwest and California

Unlike 1952, Stevenson was an announced, active candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1956.[68] Initially, with polls showing Eisenhower headed for a landslide re-election, few Democrats wanted the 1956 nomination, and Stevenson hoped that he could win the nomination without a serious contest, and without entering any presidential primaries.[69] However, on September 24, 1955, Eisenhower suffered a serious heart attack. Although he recovered and eventually decided to run for a second term, concerns about his health led two prominent Democrats, Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver and New York Governor Averell Harriman, to decide to challenge Stevenson for the Democratic nomination.[70] After being told by his aides that he needed to enter and win several presidential primaries to defeat Kefauver and Harriman, Stevenson entered and campaigned in the Minnesota, Florida, and California primaries.[71] Stevenson was upset in the Minnesota primary by Kefauver, who successfully portrayed him as a "captive" of corrupt Chicago political bosses and "a corporation lawyer out of step with regular Democrats".[72] Stevenson next battled Kefauver in the Florida primary, where he agreed to debate Kefauver on radio and television.[73] Stevenson later joked that in Florida he had appealed to the state's citrus farmers by "bitterly denouncing the Japanese beetle and fearlessly attacking the Mediterranean fruit fly".[73] He narrowly defeated Kefauver in Florida by 12,000 votes, and then won the California primary over Kefauver with 63% of the vote, effectively ending Kefauver's presidential bid.[73]

At the 1956 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, former President Truman endorsed Governor Harriman, to Stevenson's dismay, but the blow was softened by former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt's continued enthusiastic support.[74] Stevenson easily defeated Harriman on the first ballot, winning his second Democratic presidential nomination.[75] He was aided by strong support from younger delegates, who were said to form the core of the "New Politics" movement. In a bid to raise enthusiasm for the Democratic ticket, Stevenson made the unusual decision to leave the selection of his running mate up to the convention delegates.[75] This set off a frantic scramble among several prominent Democrats to win the vice-presidential nomination, including Kefauver, Senator Hubert Humphrey, and Senator John F. Kennedy. After fending off a surprisingly strong challenge from Kennedy, Kefauver narrowly won the vice-presidential nomination on the second ballot.[76] In his acceptance speech, Stevenson spoke of his plan for a "New America", which included extending New Deal programs to "areas of education, health, and poverty".[77] He also criticized Republicans for trying to "merchandise candidates like breakfast cereal".[76]

Following his nomination, Stevenson waged a vigorous presidential campaign, delivering 300 speeches and traveling 55,000 miles (89,000 km); he crisscrossed the nation three times before the election in November.[78] Robert F. Kennedy traveled with the Stevenson campaign, hoping to "take home some lessons on how to manage a presidential campaign".[78] Kennedy was deeply disillusioned by Stevenson's campaign, later saying that "I thought it was ghastly. It was poorly organized...my feeling was that he had no rapport with his audience – no comprehension of what campaigning required, no ability to make decisions...In 1952 I had been crazy about him...Then I spent six weeks with him on the campaign and he destroyed it all." Kennedy voted for Eisenhower in November.[79] For their part, Stevenson and many of his aides resented Kennedy's attitude during his stay with the campaign; Stevenson friend and aide George W. Ball recalled "My impression was that Bobby was a very surly and arrogant young man...he wasn't doing any good for Adlai. I don't know why we had him along."[80] The tension that developed between Stevenson and Robert Kennedy would have significant consequences for the 1960 presidential campaign, and for Stevenson's relationships with both John and Robert Kennedy during President Kennedy's administration.[81]

Against the advice of many of his political advisers, Stevenson insisted on calling for an international ban to aboveground nuclear weapons tests, and for an end to the military draft.[82] Despite strong criticism from President Eisenhower and other leading Republicans, such as Vice-president Nixon and former New York Governor Thomas Dewey, that his proposals were naive and would benefit the Soviet Union in the cold war, Stevenson held his ground, saying in various speeches that "Earth's atmosphere is contaminated from week to week by exploding hydrogen bombs...We don't want to live forever in the shadow of a radioactive mushroom cloud...[and] growing children are the principal potential sufferers" of increased strontium 90 in the atmosphere.[83] In the end, Stevenson's push to ban atmospheric nuclear bomb tests "cost him dearly in votes", yet "Adlai finally won the verdict", as Eisenhower suspended aboveground nuclear tests in 1958, President Kennedy would sign the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty into law in 1963, and President Nixon would end the military draft in 1973.[84]

Civil rights was emerging rapidly as a major political issue. Stevenson urged caution and warned against aggressive enforcement of the Supreme Court's Brown decision in order to gain Southern white support. Kotlowski writes:

Liberal Democrats, too, flinched before Brown. Adlai E. Stevenson, front-runner for the party's presidential nomination in 1956, urged the government to "proceed gradually" on school desegregation in deference to the South's long-held "traditions". Stevenson backed integration but opposed using armed personnel to enforce Brown....It certainly helped. Stevenson carried most of Dixie in the fall campaign but received just 61 percent of the black vote, low for a Democrat, and lost the election to Eisenhower by a landslide.[85]

His views on racial progress were described after his death by his longtime companion Marietta Tree as: "He thought of all Negroes as being loveable old family retainers and not as individuals like you and me who were longing to get educated and who had aspirations and dreams just like the rest of us. I think this took him a long time to get over--the fact that they really indeed not only were created equal; they wanted equality of opportunity and wanted it now. It was hard for him to understand the urgency."[86]

While President Eisenhower suffered heart problems, the economy enjoyed robust health. Stevenson's hopes for victory were dashed when, in October, Eisenhower's doctors gave him a clean bill of health and the Suez and Hungary crises erupted simultaneously. The public was not convinced that a change in leadership was needed. Stevenson lost his second bid for the presidency by a landslide, winning only 42% of the popular vote and 73 electoral votes from just seven states, all except Missouri in the solid Democratic South.

Early in 1957, Stevenson resumed law practice, allying himself with Judge Simon H. Rifkind to create a law firm based in Washington, D.C. (Stevenson, Paul, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison), and a second firm in Chicago (Stevenson, Rifkind & Wirtz). Both law firms were related to New York City's Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Stevenson's associates in the new law firm included Willard Wirtz, William McCormick Blair Jr., and Newton N. Minow; each of these men later served in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. He also accepted an appointment, along with other prominent Democrats, to the new Democratic Advisory Council, which "pursued an aggressive line in attacking the [Republican] Eisenhower administration and in developing new Democratic policies".[87] He was also employed part-time by the Encyclopædia Britannica as a legal consultant.

1960 presidential campaign and appointment as UN Ambassador

 
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Adlai Stevenson's Cuban Missile Crisis speech

In early 1960, Stevenson announced that he would not seek a third Democratic presidential nomination, but would accept a draft. One of his closest friends told a journalist that "Deep down, he wants [the Democratic nomination]. But he wants the [Democratic] Convention to come to him, he doesn't want to go to the Convention."[71] In May 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy, who was actively campaigning for the Democratic nomination, visited Stevenson at his Libertyville home. Kennedy asked Stevenson for a public endorsement of his candidacy; in exchange Kennedy promised, if elected, to appoint Stevenson as his Secretary of State. Stevenson turned down the offer, which strained relations between the two men.[88] At the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, Stevenson's admirers, led by Eleanor Roosevelt, Agnes Meyer, and such Hollywood celebrities as Dore Schary and Henry Fonda, vigorously promoted him for the nomination, even though he was not an announced candidate.[89] JFK's campaign manager, his brother Robert F. Kennedy, reportedly threatened Stevenson in a meeting, telling him that unless he agreed to place his brother's name in nomination "you are through". Stevenson refused and ordered him out of his hotel room.[90] In letters to friends, Stevenson described both John and Robert Kennedy as "cold and ruthless", referred to Robert Kennedy as the "Black Prince", and expressed his belief that JFK, "though bright and able, was too young, too unseasoned, to be President; he pushed too hard, was in too much of a hurry; he lacked the wisdom of humility...[Stevenson felt] that both Kennedy and the nation would benefit from a postponement of his ambition."[91]

The night before the balloting, Stevenson began working actively for the nomination, calling the leaders of several state delegations to ask for their support. The key call went to Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, the leader of the Illinois delegation. The delegation had already voted to give Kennedy 59.5 votes to Stevenson's 2, but Stevenson told Daley that he now wanted the Democratic nomination, and asked him if the "delegates' vote might merely indicate they thought he was not a candidate".[92] Daley told Stevenson that he had no support in the delegation. Stevenson then "asked if this meant no support in fact or no support because the delegates thought he was not a candidate. Daley replied that Stevenson had no support." According to Stevenson biographer John Bartlow Martin, the phone conversation with Daley "was the real end of the [1960] Stevenson candidacy...if he could not get the support of his home state his candidacy was doomed".[92] However, Stevenson continued to work for the nomination the next day, fulfilling what he felt were obligations to old friends and supporters such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Agnes Meyer.[93] Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota delivered an impassioned nominating speech for Stevenson, urging the convention to not "reject the man who has made us proud to be Democrats. Do not leave this prophet without honor in his own party."[94] However, Kennedy won the nomination on the first ballot with 806 delegate votes; Stevenson finished in fourth place with 79.5 votes.[94]

Once Kennedy won the nomination, Stevenson, always an enormously popular public speaker, campaigned actively for him. Due to his two presidential nominations and previous United Nations experience, Stevenson perceived himself an elder statesman and the natural choice for Secretary of State.[95] However, according to historian Robert Dallek, "neither Jack nor Bobby [Kennedy] thought all that well of Stevenson...they saw him as rather prissy and ineffective. [Stevenson] never met their standard of tough-mindedness." Stevenson's refusal to publicly endorse Kennedy before the Democratic Convention was something that Kennedy "couldn't forgive", with JFK telling a Stevenson supporter after the election, "I'm not going to give him anything."[88] The prestigious post of Secretary of State went instead to the (then) little-known Dean Rusk. However, "although Jack and Bobby would have been just as happy to freeze Stevenson out of the administration, they felt compelled to offer him something" due to his continued support from progressive Democrats.[88] President Kennedy offered Stevenson the choice of becoming ambassador to Britain, attorney general (a post that eventually went to Robert Kennedy), or United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Stevenson accepted the latter position.[88]

Many years later, it was revealed that during the campaign Stevenson was approached by Soviet Ambassador Menshikov who offered Soviet financial and public relations help to assist him in getting elected if he decided to run. Stevenson flatly rejected the Soviet offer telling Menshikov that he, "considered the offer of such assistance highly improper, indiscreet and dangerous to all concerned". Stevenson then reported the incident directly to President Eisenhower.[96]

Ambassador to the United Nations, 1961 to 1965

 
Stevenson shows aerial photos of Cuban missiles to the United Nations

At the United Nations Stevenson worked hard to support U.S. foreign policy, even when he personally disagreed with some of President Kennedy's actions. However, he was often seen as an outsider in the Kennedy administration, with one historian noting "everyone knew that Stevenson's position was that of a bit player".[97] Kennedy told his adviser Walt Rostow that "Stevenson wouldn't be happy as president. He thinks that if you talk long enough you get a soft option and there are very few soft options as president."[98]

Bay of Pigs incident

In April 1961 Stevenson suffered the greatest humiliation of his diplomatic career in the Bay of Pigs invasion. After hearing rumors that "a lot of refugees wanted to go back and overthrow Castro", Stevenson voiced his skepticism about an invasion, but "he was kept on the fringes of the operation, receiving...nine days before the invasion, only an unduly vague briefing by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr." and the CIA.[99] Senior CIA official Tracy Barnes told Stevenson and his staff that "there was going to be a clandestine operation in Cuba...it was strictly a Cuban affair. It would have some American cooperation, but only with the training and financing."[100] According to historian Peter Wyden, Barnes did not tell Stevenson that there would be a large-scale invasion of Cuba, nor did he provide details about the full extent of American support for, and involvement with, the Cuban rebels, nor did he tell Stevenson about the planned air strikes to destroy Castro's air force.[101] Kennedy Library historian Sheldon Stern interviewed Ambassador Charles W. Yost, Stevenson's deputy, who attended the meeting and confirmed that Yost had been suspicious of the story from the start. Yost agreed that this was another one of the CIA's "clumsy tricks". Assistant Secretary of State Harlan Cleveland, who attended the briefing, felt that Barnes was too evasive in his description of the operation, and that it was clear that Stevenson was not to be given the full details of the invasion plan.[101] Historian Garry Wills has written that "news of the invasion was leaking out...Castro knew the landings would occur; only Adlai Stevenson was kept in the dark" about the invasion by President Kennedy and his aides.[102]

Kennedy, anticipating that Stevenson might be angered at being left out of the discussions over whether to invade Cuba, told Schlesinger that "the integrity and credibility of Adlai Stevenson constitute one of our great national assets. I don't want to do anything to jeopardize that", and he asked Schlesinger to let Stevenson know that the president was shielding him from many of the details to protect him in case the clandestine operation failed.[103] Instead, as Robert Dallek has written, "by leaving him out of the discussion it led to his humiliation". Unaware that the anti-Castro Cuban exiles landing at the Bay of Pigs were being armed and assisted directly by the CIA and US Navy, and that American pilots were participating in bombing raids of Cuban targets, Stevenson unwittingly "repeated a CIA cover story in a speech before the UN General Assembly".[99] He argued that the rebels were not assisted in any way by the U.S. government; when this claim was proven to be false Stevenson complained that "I took this job on the understanding that I would be consulted and kept fully informed on everything. Now my credibility has been compromised and therefore my usefulness."[104] When he told his friend Harlan Cleveland that his own government had "deliberately tricked" him into believing there was no direct American involvement in the invasion, Cleveland replied "I feel as betrayed as you do."[105] Stevenson seriously considered resigning, but was convinced by his friends and President Kennedy to stay.[106]

Cuban Missile Crisis

During the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, Stevenson gave a presentation at an emergency session of the Security Council.[107] In his presentation, which attracted national television coverage, he forcefully asked Soviet UN representative Valerian Zorin if his country was installing nuclear missiles in Cuba, and when Zorin appeared reluctant to reply, Stevenson punctuated with the demand "Don't wait for the translation, [answer] 'yes' or 'no'!"[108][109] When Zorin replied that "I am not in an American court of law, and therefore do not answer a question put to me in the manner of a prosecuting counsel...you will have your answer in due course", Stevenson retorted, "I am prepared to wait for my answer until Hell freezes over."[108] Stevenson then showed photographs taken by a U-2 spy plane which proved the existence of nuclear missiles in Cuba, just after Zorin had implied they did not exist.[110]

Stevenson also attended several meetings of the EXCOMM at the White House during the Missile Crisis, where he boldly proposed to make an exchange with the Soviets: if they would remove their missiles from Cuba, the United States would agree to remove its obsolete Jupiter missiles from Turkey. However, he faced strong opposition from some other EXCOMM members, who regarded such an exchange as a sign of weakness. According to Kennedy adviser and Stevenson friend George W. Ball, who was present, these members "intemperately upbraided Stevenson...[and were] outraged and shrill".[111] However, President Kennedy remarked "You have to admire Adlai, he sticks to his position even when everyone is jumping on him", and Robert Kennedy wrote that "Stevenson has since been criticized for the position he took at the meeting...although I disagreed strongly with his recommendations, I thought he was courageous to make them, and I might add that they made as much sense as some others considered during that period of time."[112] Stevenson remarked "I know that most of those fellows will consider me a coward for the rest of my life for what I said today, but perhaps we need a coward in the room when we are talking about nuclear war."[113] In fact, the Kennedy Administration did remove the Jupiter-class MRBMs from Italy and Turkey some six months after the Cuban Missile Crisis ended, and there is evidence that President Kennedy privately agreed that, if the Soviets would remove their missiles from Cuba, he would remove the Jupiter missiles from Turkey and Italy at a later date.[114] The deal was kept a secret for many years, however, and Stevenson was thus given no credit for his original suggestion.[115]

In December 1962 journalists Stewart Alsop and Charles Bartlett published an article about the Missile Crisis in the Saturday Evening Post. The article quoted a "non-admiring official" who claimed that Stevenson "Wanted a Munich. He wanted to trade U.S. bases for Cuban bases" and generally portrayed Stevenson's behavior and actions during the Missile Crisis as weak and inept.[116] Stevenson was deeply angered by the article, especially as it was widely believed that the "non-admiring" official who criticized Stevenson was President Kennedy himself – "Kennedy had fed the Stevenson story to Alsop and Bartlett, partly because it enabled him to look strong" in comparison to Stevenson.[116] However, a number of Stevenson's friends and supporters, such as historian and White House aide Arthur Schlesinger Jr., came to Stevenson's defense. Schlesinger told Kennedy "The suggestion in the Alsop-Bartlett story that Stevenson favored a Caribbean Munich is grossly unfair and shows the number of people who still have their knives out for him."[117] Stevenson, knowing that Bartlett was a close friend of President Kennedy, assumed that the article had been written with Kennedy's permission and let the president know through friends that if Kennedy had wanted him to resign, "he did not have to go about it in such a roundabout fashion."[118] Kennedy told Stevenson that he did not want him to resign and had his Press Secretary, Pierre Salinger, release a letter to the press praising Stevenson's performance during the Missile Crisis.[119] Although the letter did "cause the public furor to die down... for months Washington continued to buzz over what everyone saw as an effort to force Adlai's resignation", and Stevenson friend George Ball later said that the "injury inflicted by the magazine article lingered on and on... After the Cuban Missile Crisis, Adlai was only going through the motions. From then on, he knew he was not going to have an impact on foreign policy."[120]

Kennedy assassination and Vietnam War

During his time as UN Ambassador, Stevenson often traveled around the country promoting the United Nations in speeches and seminars. On these trips, he frequently faced opposition and protests from groups skeptical of the United Nations, such as the right-wing John Birch Society. On October 25, 1963, Stevenson spoke in Dallas, Texas, where he was heckled and spat upon by unruly protestors led by retired General Edwin Walker's "National Indignation Convention". At one point a woman hit Stevenson on the head with a sign, leading Stevenson to remark "is she animal or human?", and telling a policeman "I don't want her to go to jail, I want her to go to school."[121] Afterwards, Stevenson warned President Kennedy's advisers about the "ugly and frightening" mood he had found in Dallas, but he did not discuss his concerns directly with Kennedy before the president's visit to Texas in late November 1963.[122] On November 22, Stevenson was attending a luncheon held by the Chilean ambassador when he was informed that Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. He told friends and aides "That Dallas! Why, why, didn't I insist that he not go there?"[123]

After President Kennedy was assassinated, Stevenson continued to serve in his position as Ambassador to the UN under President Lyndon Johnson. As the country moved toward the 1964 presidential election, the war in Vietnam became an important campaign issue. The Republican presidential candidate, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, advocated victory in Vietnam—a rollback strategy that Johnson denounced as tantamount to nuclear war. Stevenson was not a major player on the Vietnam issue. He did support Johnson publicly and in private because he believed in the containment of communism, but he also wanted to start negotiations with North Vietnam through the United Nations, which Johnson rejected.[124]

Death and legacy

In July 1965, Stevenson traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, to attend the annual meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Council.[125] After the conference he stopped in London for several days, where he visited UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson, discussed the situation in South Vietnam with British officials, and was interviewed by CBS newsman Eric Sevareid.[125] On the afternoon of July 14, while walking in London with his aide and girlfriend Marietta Tree to Grosvenor Square, Stevenson suffered a massive heart attack, and died later that day at age 65 of heart failure at St George's Hospital.[126][127][128] Marietta Tree recalled:

As we were walking along the street he said do not walk quite so fast and do hold your head up Marietta. I was burrowing ahead trying to get to the park as quickly as possible and then the next thing I knew, I turned around and I saw he'd gone white, gray really, and he fell and his hand brushed me as he fell and he hit the pavement with the most terrible crack and I thought he'd fractured his skull.


That night in her diary, she wrote, "Adlai is dead. We were together."[129] Following memorial services at the United Nations General Assembly Hall (on July 19, 1965), and in Washington, D.C.; Springfield, Illinois; and Bloomington, Illinois, Stevenson was interred in the family plot in Evergreen Cemetery, Bloomington, Illinois. The funeral in Bloomington's Unitarian Church was attended by many national figures, including President Lyndon B. Johnson, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and Chief Justice Earl Warren.

 
Stevenson grave in Evergreen Memorial Cemetery in Bloomington, Illinois

Historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., who served as one of his speechwriters, described Stevenson as a "great creative figure in American politics. He turned the Democratic Party around in the fifties and made JFK possible...to the United States and the world he was the voice of a reasonable, civilized, and elevated America. He brought a new generation into politics, and moved millions of people in the United States and around the world."[130]

Journalist David Halberstam wrote that "Stevenson's gift to the nation was his language, elegant and well-crafted, thoughtful and calming."[54] His biographer Jean H. Baker stated that Stevenson's memory "still survives...as an expression of a different kind of politics – nobler, more issue-oriented, less compliant to the greedy ambitions of modern politicians, and less driven by public opinion polls and the media."[131]

W. Willard Wirtz, his friend and law partner, once said "If the Electoral College ever gives an honorary degree, it should go to Adlai Stevenson."[132]

Halberstam wrote of Stevenson that

 
U.S. postage stamp in honor of Stevenson

he had played a historic role for his party, twice its presidential candidate, the first time running against impossible odds in 1952, at the height of the Korean War and McCarthyism, with the [Democratic] party already decaying from the scandals of twenty years in power. Running against the great hero of the era, Dwight Eisenhower, Stevenson had lost, of course, but his voice had seemed special in that moment, a voice of rationality and elegance. In the process of defeat, he had helped to salvage the party, giving it a new vitality and bringing to its fold a whole new generation of educated Americans, volunteers now in the political process, some very professional amateurs who would be masterly used by the Kennedys in 1960. If John and Robert Kennedy seemed to symbolize style in politics, much of that was derived directly from Stevenson. He had, at what should have been a particularly low point for the party, managed to keep it vibrant and vital, and to involve a new kind of people in politics.[133]

His biographer Jean H. Baker wrote of Stevenson's two presidential campaigns in 1952 and 1956 that "what would be remembered...were not his public programs and ideas for a New America but, ironically, the private man – his character and personality, his wit and charm, his efforts to negotiate and keep the peace within the Democratic Party, his elegant speeches, and the grace with which he accepted defeat."[134]

The Central Illinois Regional Airport near Bloomington has a whimsical statue of Stevenson, sitting on a bench with his feet propped on his briefcase and his head in one hand, as if waiting for his flight. He is depicted wearing shoes that had a hole in the sole, from having walked many miles during his election campaign. The shoe had become a symbol of his campaign.[135][136]

The Adlai E. Stevenson II Farm in Mettawa, Illinois, which was Stevenson's home from 1936 to 1965, is on the National Register of Historic Places and has been designated a National Historic Landmark.

Adlai Stevenson II was inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the state's highest honor) by the governor of Illinois in 1965 in the area of government.[137]

In October 1965, the United States Post Office Department issued a 5 cent stamp in Bloomington, Illinois, to commemorate the life of Stevenson.[138]

Stevenson in popular culture

In film and television

Stevenson has been referenced in television episodes of The Simpsons in the episodes "Lisa the Iconoclast" and "The Secret War of Lisa Simpson" (appearing in the latter in an educational film, with Harry Shearer providing the cartoon Stevenson's voice. In the former, a gag occurs, as the mob of Springfielders exhume the corpse of Jedediah, Willie mistakenly throws dirt over the flame of a candle vigil set in front of Adlai's grave). He has also been referenced in The Golden Girls,[139] Happy Days (in the January 28, 1975, episode "The Not Making of the President")[140] and Mystery Science Theater 3000's presentation of Manos: The Hands of Fate (a Stevenson lookalike buys a car and one of the MST3K characters comments on it). Murphy Brown briefly names her newborn son 'Adlai Stevenson'.

Stevenson has also been referenced in films. Peter Sellers claimed that his portrayal of President Merkin Muffley in Dr. Strangelove was modeled on Stevenson.[141] Stevenson's "Don't wait for the translation" speech to Russian ambassador Valerian Zorin during the Cuban Missile Crisis inspired dialogue in a courtroom scene in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.[142] The historical speech itself is depicted in the 2000 film Thirteen Days with Michael Fairman playing Stevenson, as well as partially depicted in the 1974 television play The Missiles of October by Ralph Bellamy. Stevenson is also referenced in Wayne's World 2 ("Waynestock" is held in an Aurora, Illinois, park named for Stevenson), Plain Clothes (the high school is named for Stevenson), Annie Hall (Woody Allen's character tells a standup joke about the Stevenson-Eisenhower campaign) and Breakfast at Tiffany's.[143] Stevenson also appear in A Global Affair credited as himself.

In Pioneer One, a crowd-financed TV series published under a Creative Commons license, one of the characters introduces himself as "Adlai Steve DiLeo", named after Adlai Stevenson, "someone who ran three times for president unsuccessfully".[144]

In a parallel universe featured in the Sliders episode "The Return of Maggie Beckett", the German Wehrmacht breaks through the Allied lines in the Battle of the Bulge in 1944, which causes World War II to drag on until 1947. General Eisenhower is relieved as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe and returns to the United States in disgrace. Consequently, Stevenson becomes president. The Stevenson administration makes the Roswell UFO incident in July 1947 public knowledge and signs the Reticulan-American Free Trade Agreement (RAFTA), giving the US access to advanced Reticulan technology. This leads to a human mission to Mars in the 1990s.

In the 2016 movie Bogie and Bacall, Stevenson was portrayed by actor Ryan Paevey.

In alternate history and science fiction

Stevenson comes close to being assassinated by a 12-year-old in James Patrick Kelly's Hugo Award-winning novelette 1016 to 1 (1999).

In Robin Gerber's novel Eleanor vs. Ike, Stevenson suffers a fatal heart attack as he approaches the podium to accept the Democratic nomination in 1952. He is replaced as the Democratic presidential candidate by former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

In the alternate history short story "The Impeachment of Adlai Stevenson" by David Gerrold included in the anthology Alternate Presidents, Stevenson is elected in 1952 after Dwight D. Eisenhower makes the mistake of accepting Joseph McCarthy as his running mate instead of Richard Nixon. He successfully runs for re-election in 1956, once again defeating General Eisenhower. However, he proves to be an extremely unpopular president.

In Michael P. Kube-McDowell's alternate history novel Alternities, Stevenson is mentioned as having been elected president in 1956 and serving for two terms, though he is quoted as describing his second term as a curse.

The alternate history novella "Southern Strategy" by Michael F. Flynn (Alternate Generals, volume two, Baen, 2002), is told entirely from Stevenson's point of view. In a world where the Kaiser's Germany is the leader of something resembling a free world in 1956, Stevenson is a former senator of the United States, which is in ruins after a Second American Civil War. The novella follows Stevenson's increasingly futile efforts to negotiate an armistice between League of Nations peacekeepers led by General Erwin Rommel and several disparate guerrilla-terrorist bands with differing agendas. One of the terrorist bands is led by Richard Nixon.

In the alternate history novel Dominion by C. J. Sansom, World War II ends in June 1940 when the British government, under the leadership of the Prime Minister Lord Halifax, signs a peace treaty with Nazi Germany in Berlin. Franklin D. Roosevelt is steadfast in his opposition to the Nazis and the treaty, which results in him losing the 1940 election to his Republican opponent, Robert A. Taft, who becomes the 33rd president. Taft is re-elected in 1944 and 1948 but Stevenson defeats him in 1952, becoming the 34th President. Shortly after Stevenson's election in November 1952, The Times, which is owned by the pro-Nazi British Prime Minister Lord Beaverbrook, speculates that Stevenson will follow in Roosevelt's footsteps and pursue an interventionist foreign policy regarding European affairs. Several weeks later, President-elect Stevenson gives a speech indicating that he intends to begin trading with the Soviet Union upon taking office on January 20, 1953.

In other media

The writer Gore Vidal, who admired and supported Stevenson, based a main character in his 1960 Broadway play The Best Man on Stevenson. The play, which was nominated for six Tony Awards, centers on the contest for the presidential nomination at a fictitious political convention. One of the main contenders for the nomination is Secretary of State William Russell, a principled, liberal intellectual. The character is based on Stevenson; his main opponent is the ruthless, unscrupulous Senator Joseph Cantwell, whom Vidal modeled on Richard Nixon and the Kennedy brothers. The play was turned into a 1964 film of the same name, with actor Henry Fonda playing Russell. Fonda had been a Stevenson supporter at the 1960 Democratic National Convention.

The Avalanche, an album by Sufjan Stevens, contains a song called "Adlai Stevenson".

Things named after Stevenson

Electoral history

Main article: Electoral history of Adlai Stevenson

Gubernatorial

1948
1948 Illinois gubernatorial Democratic primary[145]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Adlai E. Stevenson 578,390 100
Total votes 578,390 100
1948 Illinois gubernatorial election[146]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Adlai E. Stevenson 2,250,074 57.11
Republican Dwight H. Green (incumbent) 1,678,007 42.59
Prohibition Willis Ray Wilson 9,491 0.24
Socialist Labor Louis Fisher 2,673 0.07
Write-in Others 12 0.00
Total votes 3,940,257 100
1952
1952 Illinois gubernatorial Democratic primary[147]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Adlai E. Stevenson (incumbent) 708,275 99.97
Write-in Others 213 0.03
Total votes 708,488 100

Presidential

1952
Electoral results
Presidential candidate Party Home state Popular vote[148] Electoral
vote[149]		 Running mate
Count Percentage Vice-presidential candidate Home state Electoral vote[149]
Dwight David Eisenhower Republican New York 34,075,529 55.18% 442 Richard Milhous Nixon California 442
Adlai Ewing Stevenson II Democratic Illinois 27,375,090 44.33% 89 John Jackson Sparkman Alabama 89
Vincent Hallinan Progressive California 140,746 0.23% 0 Charlotta Amanda Spears Bass New York 0
Stuart Hamblen Prohibition Texas 73,412 0.12% 0 Enoch Arden Holtwick Illinois 0
Eric Hass Socialist Labor New York 30,406 0.05% 0 Stephen Emery New York 0
Darlington Hoopes Socialist Pennsylvania 20,203 0.03% 0 Samuel Herman Friedman New York 0
Douglas MacArthur Constitution Arkansas 17,205 0.03% 0 Harry Flood Byrd Sr. Virginia 0
Farrell Dobbs Socialist Workers Minnesota 10,312 0.02% 0 Myra Tanner Weiss California 0
Other 9,039 0.02% — Other —
Total 61,751,942 100% 531 531
Needed to win 266 266
1956
Electoral results
Presidential candidate Party Home state Popular vote[150] Electoral
vote[151]		 Running mate
Count Percentage Vice-presidential candidate Home state Electoral vote[151]
Dwight David Eisenhower (Incumbent) Republican Pennsylvania 35,579,180 57.37% 457 Richard Milhous Nixon California 457
Adlai Ewing Stevenson II Democratic Illinois 26,028,028 41.97% 73 Carey Estes Kefauver Tennessee 73
(Unpledged electors) (n/a) (n/a) 196,318 0.32% 0 (n/a) (n/a) 0
Thomas Coleman Andrews States' Rights Virginia 108,956 0.18% 0 Thomas Harold Werdel California 0
Eric Hass Socialist Labor New York 44,300 0.07% 0 Georgia Olive Cozzini Wisconsin 0
Enoch Arden Holtwick Prohibition Illinois 41,937 0.07% 0 Edwin M. Cooper California 0
Farrell Dobbs Socialist Workers New York 7,797 0.01% 0 Myra Tanner Weiss California 0
Harry Flood Byrd Sr. States' Rights Virginia 2,657 <0.01% 0 William Ezra Jenner Indiana 0
Darlington Hoopes Socialist Pennsylvania 2,128 <0.01% 0 Samuel Herman Friedman New York 0
Henry B. Krajewski American Third New Jersey 1,829 <0.01% 0 Anna Yezo New Jersey 0
Gerald Lyman Kenneth Smith Christian Nationalist Michigan 8 <0.01% 0 Charles Robertson Michigan 0
Walter Burgwyn Jones Democratic Alabama —(a) —(a) 1 Herman Eugene Talmadge Georgia 1
Other 8,691 0.01% — Other —
Total 62,021,328 100% 531 531
Needed to win 266 266

Notes

  1. ^ (Baker, pp. 9–10, 335–337)
  2. ^ "Los Angeles County Birth Record for Adlai E. Stevenson". California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994. February 5, 1900. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
  3. ^ "Historic-Cultural Monument List, City Declared Monuments" (PDF). Retrieved June 19, 2012.
  4. ^ (Martin, p. 89)
  5. ^ "'MASH' star McLean Stevenson dies". CNN. Retrieved April 23, 2010.
  6. ^ "Mary Borden | an Extraordinary Life | Mary Borden: A Woman of Two Wars".
  7. ^ "Killed in Stevenson Home; Girl Shot Accidentally by Former Vice President's Grandson". The New York Times. December 31, 1912. p. 1. Retrieved November 3, 2007.
  8. ^ (Baker, pp. 228–232)
  9. ^ (McKeever, p. 31)
  10. ^ (McKeever, p. 38)
  11. ^ "Stevenson Fellow Advocates for Public Service". The Choate News. March 31, 2017. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
  12. ^ Department of State Publication: General foreign policy series. Department of State Publication: General Foreign Policy Series. p. 43. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  13. ^ Daily Princetonian – Special Class of 1979 Issue 25 July 1975 — Princeton Periodicals. Theprince.princeton.edu (July 25, 1975). Retrieved on 2013-07-26.
  14. ^ "Mudd Library Completes Catalog, Preservation of Adlai E. Stevenson Papers". Princeton University. August 8, 1997. Retrieved December 20, 2011.
  15. ^ (McKeever, pp. 45–46)
  16. ^ (McKeever, p. 60)
  17. ^ (Baker, p. 246, p. 257)
  18. ^ (Baker, p. 317)
  19. ^ (Martin, pp. 154–155)
  20. ^ (McKeever, p. 141)
  21. ^ (McKeever, pp. 65–66)
  22. ^ (McKeever, pp. 142, 272)
  23. ^ Evers, Donna (September 5, 2012). "Those Were the Days: Betty Beale and the Party World of Post-War Washington". The Georgetowner. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
  24. ^ "Washington Star Society Columnist Betty Beale, 94". The Washington Post. June 8, 2006. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
  25. ^ (Baker, p. 357)
  26. ^ a b c (Baker, p. 358)
  27. ^ (Martin, pp. 164–165)
  28. ^ (Baker, p. 283)
  29. ^ (McKeever, p. 74)
  30. ^ (Martin, pp. 225–226)
  31. ^ (Martin, pp. 234–259)
  32. ^ (McKeever, pp. 107–114)
  33. ^ a b (McKeever, p. 126)
  34. ^ Robert E. Hartley, Battleground 1948: Truman, Stevenson, Douglas, and the Most Surprising Election in Illinois History (Southern Illinois University Press; 2013)
  35. ^ (McKeever, p. 137)
  36. ^ (McKeever, pp. 133–135)
  37. ^ (McKeever, pp. 134)
  38. ^ a b (McKeever, p. 136)
  39. ^ (McKeever, pp. 159–160)
  40. ^ (McKeever, pp. 160–161)
  41. ^ (McKeever, p. 134)
  42. ^ a b (McKeever, pp. 144–145)
  43. ^ (Martin, pp. 405–407)
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References

  • Aldous, Richard. Schlesinger: The Imperial Historian. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2017.
  • Baker, Jean H. (1996). The Stevensons: A Biography of An American Family. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. ISBN 978-0-393-03874-3.
  • Bain, Richard C. and Judith H. Parris. Convention Decisions and Voting Records. The Brookings Institution, 1973.
  • Broadwater, Jeff. Adlai Stevenson and American Politics: The Odyssey of a Cold War Liberal. Twayne, 1994. 291 pp
  • Cowden, Jonathan A. Adlai Stevenson: a Retrospective. Princeton University Library Chronicle 2000 61(3): 322–359. ISSN 0032-8456
  • Dallek, Robert. Camelot's Court: Inside the Kennedy White House. New York: HarperCollins, 2013.
  • Halberstam, David. The Fifties. New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1993.
  • Halberstam, David. The Best and the Brightest. New York: Random House. 1969.
  • Hartley, Robert E. Battleground 1948: Truman, Stevenson, Douglas, and the Most Surprising Election in Illinois History (Southern Illinois University Press; 2013) 240 pages
  • McKeever, Porter (1989). Adlai Stevenson: His Life and Legacy. New York: William Morrow and Company. ISBN 978-0-688-06661-1.
  • Manchester, William. The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932–1972. New York: Bantam Books. 1975.
  • Martin, John Bartlow . Adlai Stevenson of Illinois: The Life of Adlai E. Stevenson (1976) and Adlai Stevenson and the World: The Life of Adlai E. Stevenson (1977), the standard scholarly biography
  • Murphy, John M. "Civic Republicanism in the Modern Age: Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 Presidential Campaign," Quarterly Journal of Speech 1994 80(3): 313–328. ISSN 0033-5630
  • Schlesinger, Arthur M. A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1965.
  • Schlesinger, Arthur M. Journals: 1952–2000. New York: Penguin Press, 2007.
  • Slaybaugh, Douglas. Adlai Stevenson, Television, and the Presidential Campaign of 1956 Illinois Historical Journal 1996 89(1): 2–16. ISSN 0748-8149
  • Slaybaugh, Douglas. Political Philosophy or Partisanship: a Dilemma in Adlai Stevenson's Published Writings, 1953–1956. Wisconsin Magazine of History 1992 75(3): 163–194. ISSN 0043-6534. Argues, by 1956, Stevenson had alienated many of his well-placed and well-educated supporters without winning over many new rank-and-file Democrats.
  • White, Mark J. "Hamlet in New York: Adlai Stevenson During the First Week of the Cuban Missile Crisis" Illinois Historical Journal 1993 86(2): 70–84. ISSN 0748-8149
  • White, Theodore H. The Making of the President 1960. New York: Barnes & Noble Books. 2004.
  • Wills, Garry. The Kennedy Imprisonment: A Meditation on Power. New York: Mariner Books. 2002.
  • Wyden, Peter. Bay of Pigs: The Untold Story. New York: Touchstone Books. 1979.

Primary sources

Further reading

  • Whitman, Alden. Portrait [of] Adlai E. Stevenson: Politician, Diplomat, Friend. New York: Harper & Row, cop. 1965. ix, 299 p. + [24] p. of b&w photos.

External links

 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Adlai Stevenson II.
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Adlai Stevenson II.
  • Adlai E. Stevenson Papers at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University
  • John J.B. Shea Papers on Adlai E. Stevenson at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University
  • Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy
  • Adapted parts from: , part of a series on notable American Unitarians
  • in Libertyville, Illinois. Open to the public.
  • Adlai Today includes speeches, photographs, and more.
  • , United Nations Association – McLean County Chapter.
  • Text of Stevenson's First Presidential Nominee Acceptance
  • Text and Audio of Stevenson's UN Memorial Remarks for JFK
  • Text and Audio Stevenson's UN Memorial Remarks for Eleanor Roosevelt
  • Radio spots of Adlai E. Stevenson from the 1952 Presidential election
  • Open Access Photos of Adlai Stevenson in the University of Florida Digital Collections
  • interviewed by Mike Wallace on The Mike Wallace Interview June 1, 1958
  • Booknotes interview with Porter McKeever on Adlai Stevenson: His Life and Legacy, August 6, 1989
  • "Adlai Stevenson, Presidential Contender" from C-SPAN's The Contenders
  • – McLean County Museum of History
  • – McLean County Museum of History
  • Stevenson faced anti-U.N. mob in 1963 – Pantagraph (Bloomington, Illinois, newspaper)
  • Albert Herling worked on Stevenson's 1956 campaign among others. His campaign memorabilia is located at the University of Maryland Libraries
Party political offices
Preceded by Democratic nominee for Governor of Illinois
1948, 1952 (withdrew) 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Democratic nominee for President of the United States
1952, 1956 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Governor of Illinois
1949–1953 		Succeeded by
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by United States Ambassador to the United Nations
1961–1965 		Succeeded by

March 04, 2023
adlai, stevenson, adlai, ewing, stevenson, february, 1900, july, 1965, american, politician, diplomat, united, states, ambassador, united, nations, from, 1961, until, death, 1965, previously, served, 31st, governor, illinois, from, 1949, 1953, democratic, nomi. Adlai Ewing Stevenson II ˈ ae d l eɪ February 5 1900 July 14 1965 was an American politician and diplomat who was the United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 1961 until his death in 1965 He previously served as the 31st governor of Illinois from 1949 to 1953 and was the Democratic nominee for President of the United States in 1952 and 1956 losing both elections to Dwight Eisenhower Stevenson was the grandson of Adlai Stevenson I the 23rd vice president of the United States Adlai Stevenson IIStevenson in 19615th United States Ambassador to the United NationsIn office January 23 1961 1961 01 23 July 14 1965 1965 07 14 PresidentJohn F KennedyLyndon B JohnsonPreceded byJames Jeremiah WadsworthSucceeded byArthur Goldberg31st Governor of IllinoisIn office January 10 1949 1949 01 10 January 12 1953 1953 01 12 LieutenantSherwood DixonPreceded byDwight H GreenSucceeded byWilliam StrattonPersonal detailsBornAdlai Ewing Stevenson II 1900 02 05 February 5 1900Los Angeles California U S DiedJuly 14 1965 1965 07 14 aged 65 Westminster London EnglandResting placeEvergreen CemeteryPolitical partyDemocraticSpouseEllen Borden m 1928 div 1949 wbr Children3 including Adlai IIIParentLewis Stevenson father RelativesStevenson familyAdlai Stevenson grandfather Adlai Stevenson IV grandson EducationPrinceton University BA Northwestern University JD Military serviceAllegiance United StatesBranch serviceUnited States NavyYears of service1918RankSeaman second classRaised in Bloomington Illinois Stevenson was a member of the Democratic Party 1 He served in numerous positions in the federal government during the 1930s and 1940s including the Agricultural Adjustment Administration Federal Alcohol Administration Department of the Navy and the State Department In 1945 he served on the committee that created the United Nations and he was a member of the initial U S delegations to the UN In 1948 he was elected governor of Illinois defeating incumbent governor Dwight H Green in an upset As governor he reformed the state police cracked down on illegal gambling improved the state highways and attempted to cleanse the state government of corruption Stevenson also sought with mixed success to reform the Illinois state constitution and introduced several crime bills in the state legislature In the 1952 and 1956 presidential elections he was chosen as the Democratic nominee for president but was defeated in a landslide by Republican Dwight D Eisenhower both times In 1960 he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination for a third time at the Democratic National Convention After President John F Kennedy was elected he appointed Stevenson as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations Two major events Stevenson dealt with during his time as UN ambassador were the Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba in April 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 Stevenson served as UN ambassador from January 1961 until his death during a visit to London on July 14 1965 He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in his hometown of Bloomington Illinois Contents 1 Early life and education 1 1 Family and religion 2 Early career 3 Governor of Illinois 1949 to 1953 4 1952 presidential bid 4 1 1953 World Tour and 1954 elections 5 1956 presidential bid 6 1960 presidential campaign and appointment as UN Ambassador 7 Ambassador to the United Nations 1961 to 1965 7 1 Bay of Pigs incident 7 2 Cuban Missile Crisis 7 3 Kennedy assassination and Vietnam War 8 Death and legacy 9 Stevenson in popular culture 9 1 In film and television 9 2 In alternate history and science fiction 9 3 In other media 10 Things named after Stevenson 11 Electoral history 11 1 Gubernatorial 11 2 Presidential 12 Notes 13 References 13 1 Primary sources 14 Further reading 15 External linksEarly life and education Edit Stevenson s boyhood home in Bloomington Illinois Adlai Ewing Stevenson II 2 was born in Los Angeles California in a neighborhood that is now designated as the North University Park Historic District His home and birthplace at 2639 Monmouth Avenue has been designated as a Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument 3 He was a member of a prominent Illinois political family His grandfather and namesake Adlai Stevenson I was Vice President of the United States under President Grover Cleveland from 1893 to 1897 His father Lewis Stevenson never held an elected office but was appointed Illinois Secretary of State 1914 1917 and was considered a strong contender for the Democratic vice presidential nomination in 1928 A maternal great grandfather Jesse W Fell had been a close friend and campaign manager for Abraham Lincoln in his 1858 US Senate race Stevenson often referred to Fell as his favorite ancestor 4 Stevenson s eldest son Adlai E Stevenson III became a U S Senator from Illinois 1970 1981 His mother was Helen Davis Stevenson and he had an older sister Elizabeth Stevenson Ives an author who was called Buffie Actor McLean Stevenson was a second cousin once removed 5 He was the nephew by marriage of novelist Mary Borden and she assisted in the writing of some of his political speeches 6 Stevenson was raised in the city of Bloomington Illinois his family was a member of Bloomington s upper class and lived in one of the city s well to do neighborhoods On December 30 1912 at the age of twelve Stevenson accidentally killed Ruth Merwin a 16 year old friend while demonstrating drill technique with a rifle inadvertently left loaded during a party at the Stevenson home 7 Stevenson was devastated by the accident and rarely mentioned or discussed it as an adult even with his wife and children 8 However in 1955 Stevenson heard about a woman whose son had experienced a similar tragedy He wrote to her that she should tell her son that he must now live for two which Stevenson s friends took to be a reference to the shooting incident 9 Stevenson left Bloomington High School after his junior year and attended University High School in Normal Illinois Bloomington s twin city just to the north He then went to boarding school in Connecticut at The Choate School now Choate Rosemary Hall where he played on the tennis team acted in plays and was elected editor in chief of The Choate News the school newspaper 10 Upon his graduation from Choate in 1918 11 he enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve and served at the rank of seaman apprentice but his training was completed too late for him to participate in World War I 12 He attended Princeton University becoming managing editor of The Daily Princetonian a member of the American Whig Cliosophic Society 13 a member of the Quadrangle Club and received a B A degree in 1922 in literature and history 14 Under prodding from his father he then went to Harvard Law School but found the law to be uninteresting and withdrew after failing several classes 15 He returned to Bloomington where he wrote for the family newspaper The Daily Pantagraph which was founded by his maternal great grandfather Jesse Fell The Pantagraph which had one of the largest circulations of any newspaper in Illinois outside the Chicago area was a main source of the Stevenson family s wealth 16 Following his mother s death in 1935 Adlai inherited one quarter of the Pantagraph s stock providing him with a large dependable source of income for the rest of his life 17 A year after leaving Harvard Stevenson became interested in the law again after talking to Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr When he returned home to Bloomington he decided to finish his degree at Northwestern University School of Law attending classes during the week and returning to Bloomington on the weekends to write for the Pantagraph Stevenson received his J D degree from Northwestern in 1926 and passed the Illinois state bar examination that year He obtained a position at Cutting Moore amp Sidley one of Chicago s oldest and most prestigious law firms 18 Family and religion Edit Stevenson s home in Libertyville Illinois now Mettawa Illinois On December 1 1928 Stevenson married Ellen Borden a well to do socialite The young couple soon became popular and familiar figures on the Chicago social scene they especially enjoyed attending and hosting costume parties 19 They had three sons Adlai Stevenson III who would become a U S Senator Borden Stevenson and John Fell Stevenson In 1935 Adlai and Ellen purchased a 70 acre 28 ha tract of land along the Des Plaines River near Libertyville Illinois a wealthy suburb of Chicago They built a home on the property and it served as Stevenson s official residence for the rest of his life Although he spent relatively little time there due to his career Stevenson did consider the estate to be his home and in the 1950s he was often called The Man from Libertyville by the national news media Stevenson also purchased a farm in northwestern Illinois just outside Galena where he frequently rode horses and kept some cattle On December 12 1949 Adlai and Ellen were divorced their son Adlai III later recalled that There hadn t been a good relationship for a long time I remember her Ellen as the unreasonable one not only with Dad but with us and the servants I was embarrassed by her peremptory way with servants 20 Several of Stevenson s biographers have written that his wife suffered from mental illness Incidents that went from petulant to bizarre to nasty generally have been described without placing them in the context of the progression of her increasingly serious mental illness It was an illness that those closest to her including Adlai for long after the divorce were slow and reluctant to recognize Hindsight legal proceedings and psychiatric testimony now make understandable the behavior that baffled and saddened her family 21 Stevenson did not remarry after his divorce but instead dated a number of prominent women throughout the rest of his life including Alicia Patterson Marietta Tree 22 and Betty Beale 23 24 Stevenson belonged to the Unitarian faith and was a longtime member of Bloomington s Unitarian church 25 However he also occasionally attended Presbyterian services in Libertyville where a Unitarian church was not present and as governor he became close friends with the Rev Richard Graebel the pastor of Springfield s Presbyterian church 26 Graebel acknowledged that Stevenson s Unitarian rearing had imbued him with the means of translating religious and ethical values into civic issues 26 According to one historian religion never disappeared entirely from his public messages it was indeed part of his appeal 26 Early career EditIn July 1933 Stevenson took a job opportunity as special attorney and assistant to Jerome Frank the general counsel of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration AAA a part of President Franklin D Roosevelt s New Deal Following the repeal of Prohibition in December 1933 Stevenson changed jobs becoming chief attorney for the Federal Alcohol Control Administration FACA a subsidiary of the AAA which regulated the activities of the alcohol industry In 1935 Stevenson returned to Chicago to practice law He became involved in civic activities particularly as chairman of the Chicago branch of the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies from 1940 to 1941 27 As chairman Stevenson worked to raise public support for military and economic aid to the United Kingdom and its allies in fighting Nazi Germany during the Second World War Stevenson believed Britain was America s first line of defense and argued for a repeal of the neutrality legislation and support for President Roosevelt s Lend Lease programme 28 His efforts earned strong criticism from Colonel Robert R McCormick the powerful isolationist publisher of the Chicago Tribune and a leading member of the non interventionist America First Committee 29 In 1940 Major Frank Knox newly appointed by President Franklin D Roosevelt as Secretary of the Navy offered Stevenson a position as Principal Attorney and special assistant In this capacity Stevenson wrote speeches represented Secretary Knox and the Navy on committees toured the various theaters of war and handled many administrative duties Since Knox was largely a figurehead there were few major roles for Stevenson However in early 1944 he joined a mission to Sicily and Italy for the Foreign Economic Administration to report on the country s economy After Knox died in April 1944 Stevenson returned to Chicago where he attempted to purchase Knox s controlling interest in the Chicago Daily News but his syndicate was outbid by another party 30 In 1945 Stevenson took a temporary position in the State Department as special assistant to US Secretary of State Edward Stettinius to work with Assistant Secretary of State Archibald MacLeish on a proposed world organization Later that year he went to London as Deputy United States Delegate to the Preparatory Commission of the United Nations Organization a position he held until February 1946 When the head of the delegation fell ill Stevenson assumed his role His work at the commission and in particular his dealings with the representatives of the Soviet Union resulted in appointments to the US delegations to the United Nations in 1946 and 1947 31 Governor of Illinois 1949 to 1953 Edit Stevenson as governor In 1948 Stevenson was chosen by Jacob Arvey leader of the powerful Chicago Democratic political organization to be the Democratic candidate in the Illinois gubernatorial race against the incumbent Republican Dwight H Green 32 In an upset Stevenson defeated Green by 572 067 votes a record margin in Illinois gubernatorial elections 33 President Truman carried Illinois by only 33 612 votes against his Republican opponent Thomas E Dewey leading a biographer to write that Clearly Adlai had carried the President in with him 33 Paul Douglas a University of Chicago professor of economics was elected senator on the same ticket 34 Principal among Stevenson s achievements as Illinois governor were reforming the state police by removing political considerations from hiring practices and instituting a merit system for employment and promotion cracking down on illegal gambling and improving the state highways 35 He sought with mixed success to cleanse the Illinois state government of corruption in one instance he fired the warden of the state penitentiary for overcrowding political corruption and incompetence that had left the prisoners on the verge of revolt and in another instance Stevenson fired the superintendent of an institution for alcoholics when he learned that the superintendent after receiving bribes from local tavern owners was allowing the patients to buy drinks at local bars 36 Two of Stevenson s major initiatives as governor were a proposal to create a constitutional convention called con con to reform and improve the Illinois state constitution and several crime bills that would have provided new resources and methods to fight criminal activities in Illinois 37 Most of the crime bills and con con failed to pass the state legislature much to Stevenson s chagrin However Stevenson did agree to support a Republican alternative to con con called Gateway it passed the legislature and was approved by Illinois voters in a 1950 referendum 38 Stevenson s push for an improved state constitution began the process of constitutional change and in 1969 four years after his death the goal was achieved It was perhaps his most important achievement as governor 38 The new constitution had the effect of removing the structural limitations on the growth of government in the state Stevenson s governorship coincided with the Second Red Scare and during his term the Illinois state legislature passed a bill that would have made it a felony to belong to any subversive group and would have required a loyalty oath of public employees and candidates for office Stevenson vetoed the bill 39 In his public message regarding the veto Stevenson wrote Does anyone seriously think that a real traitor will hesitate to sign a loyalty oath Of course not Really dangerous subversives and saboteurs will be caught by careful constant professional investigation not by pieces of paper The whole notion of loyalty inquisitions is a natural characteristic of the police state not of democracy I know full well this veto will be distorted and misunderstood I know that to veto this bill in this period of grave anxiety will be unpopular with many But I must in good conscience protest against any unnecessary suppression of our ancient rights as free men we will win the contest of ideas that afflicts the world not by suppressing those rights but by their triumph 40 Stevenson proved to be a popular public speaker gaining a national reputation as an intellectual with a self deprecating sense of humor to match One example came when the Illinois legislature passed a bill supported by bird lovers declaring that cats roaming unescorted was a public nuisance Stevenson vetoed the bill and sent this public message regarding the veto It is in the nature of cats to do a certain amount of unescorted roaming the problem of cat versus bird is as old as time If we attempt to solve it by legislation who knows but what we may be called upon to take sides as well in the age old problem of dog versus cat bird versus bird or even bird versus worm In my opinion the State of Illinois and its local governing bodies already have enough to do without trying to control feline delinquency For these reasons and not because I love birds the less or cats the more I veto and withhold my approval from Senate Bill No 93 41 On June 2 1949 Stevenson privately gave a sworn deposition as a character witness for Alger Hiss a former State Department official who was later found to be a spy for the Soviet Union 42 Stevenson had infrequently worked with Hiss first in the legal division of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration in 1933 and then in 1945 1946 and 1947 on various United Nations projects but he was not a close friend or associate of him 43 In the deposition Stevenson testified that the reputation of Hiss for integrity loyalty and veracity was good 44 In 1950 Hiss was found guilty of perjury on the spying charges 42 Stevenson s deposition according to his biographer Porter McKeever would later be used in the 1952 presidential campaign by Senators Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon to inflame public opinion and attack Adlai as soft on communism 45 In the 1952 campaign Senator Nixon would claim that Stevenson s defense of Hiss reflected such poor judgment on his part that doubt was cast about Adlai s capacity to govern 44 In a 1952 appearance on NBC s Meet the Press Stevenson responded to a question about his deposition for Hiss by saying I m a lawyer I think that one of the most fundamental responsibilities particularly of lawyers is to give testimony in a court of law to give it honestly and willingly and it will be a very unhappy day for Anglo Saxon justice when a man even in public life is too timid to state what he knows and what he has heard about a defendant in a criminal trial for fear that defendant might later be convicted That would to me be the ultimate timidity 46 1952 presidential bid EditSee also 1952 United States presidential election and Electoral history of Adlai Stevenson President Harry S Truman vice presidential nominee Alabama senator John J Sparkman and presidential nominee Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson in the Oval Office 1952 Early in 1952 while Stevenson was still governor of Illinois President Harry S Truman decided that he would not seek another term as president Instead Truman met with Stevenson in Washington and proposed that Stevenson seek the Democratic nomination for president Truman promised him his support if he did so Stevenson at first hesitated arguing that he was committed to running for a second gubernatorial term in Illinois However a number of his friends and associates such as George Wildman Ball quietly began organizing a draft Stevenson movement for president they persisted in their activity even when Stevenson both publicly and privately told them to stop When Stevenson continued to state that he was not a candidate President Truman and the Democratic Party leadership looked for other prospective candidates However each of the other main contenders had a major weakness Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee won most of the presidential primaries and entered the 1952 Democratic National Convention with the largest number of delegates but he was unpopular with President Truman and other prominent Democrats In 1950 Kefauver had chaired a Senate committee that traveled to several large cities and held televised hearings into organized crime The hearings revealed connections between organized crime syndicates and big city Democratic political organizations which led Truman and other Democratic leaders to oppose Kefauver s bid for the nomination a machine politician and proud of it Truman had no use for reformers who blackened the names of fellow Democrats 47 Truman favored U S diplomat W Averell Harriman but he had never held elective office and was inexperienced in national politics Truman next turned to his vice president Alben Barkley but at 74 years of age he was dismissed as being too old by labor union leaders Senator Richard Russell Jr of Georgia was popular in the South but his support of racial segregation and opposition to civil rights for blacks made him unacceptable to Northern and Western Democrats In the end Stevenson despite his reluctance to run remained the most attractive candidate heading into the 1952 Democratic National Convention in Chicago A poster from the 1952 campaign At the convention Stevenson as governor of the host state was assigned to give the welcoming address to the delegates His speech was so stirring and witty that it invigorated efforts to secure the nomination for him in spite of his continued protests that he was not a presidential candidate In his welcoming speech he poked fun at the 1952 Republican National Convention which had been held in Chicago in the same coliseum two weeks earlier Stevenson described the achievements of the Democratic Party under Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman but noted our Republican friends have said it was all a miserable failure For almost a week pompous phrases marched over this landscape in search of an idea and the only idea that they found was that the two great decades of progress were the misbegotten spawn of bungling of corruption of socialism of mismanagement of waste and worse after listening to this everlasting procession of epithets about our party s misdeeds I was even surprised the next morning when the mail was delivered on time But we Democrats were by no means the only victims here First they Republicans slaughtered each other and then they went after us perhaps the proximity of the stockyards accounts for the carnage 48 Following this speech the Illinois delegation led by Jacob Arvey announced that they would place Stevenson s name in nomination and Stevenson called President Truman to ask if he would be embarrassed if Stevenson formally announced his candidacy for the nomination Truman told Stevenson I have been trying since January to get you to say that Why should it embarrass me 49 Kefauver led on the first ballot but was well below the vote total he needed to win Stevenson gradually gained strength until he was nominated on the third ballot 49 The 1952 Democratic National Convention was the last political convention of either major party to require more than one ballot to nominate a presidential candidate 50 Historian John Frederick Martin says party leaders selected him because he was more moderate on civil rights than Estes Kefauver yet nonetheless acceptable to labor and urban machines so a coalition of southern urban and labor leaders fell in behind his candidacy in Chicago 51 Stevenson s 1952 running mate was Senator John Sparkman of Alabama Stevenson accepted the Democratic nomination with an acceptance speech that according to contemporaries electrified the delegates 52 When the tumult and the shouting die when the bands are gone and the lights are dimmed there is the stark reality of responsibility in an hour of history haunted with those gaunt grim specters of strife dissension and materialism at home and ruthless inscrutable and hostile power abroad The ordeal of the twentieth century the bloodiest most turbulent age of the Christian era is far from over Sacrifice patience understanding and implacable purpose may be our lot for years to come Let s talk sense to the American people Let s tell them the truth that there are no gains without pains that we are now on the eve of great decisions Although Stevenson s eloquent oratory and thoughtful stylish demeanor impressed many intellectuals journalists political commentators and members of the nation s academic community the Republicans and some working class Democrats ridiculed what they perceived as his indecisive aristocratic air During the 1952 campaign Stewart Alsop a powerful Connecticut Republican labeled Stevenson an egghead based on his baldness and intellectual air His brother the influential newspaper columnist Joe Alsop used the word to underscore Stevenson s difficulty in attracting working class voters and the nickname stuck 53 Stevenson himself made fun of his egghead nickname in one speech he joked eggheads of the world unite you have nothing to lose but your yolks In his campaign speeches Stevenson strongly criticized the Communist hunting tactics of Senator Joseph McCarthy labeling McCarthy s kind of patriotism as a disgrace and ridiculing right wing Republicans who hunt Communists in the Bureau of Wildlife and Fisheries while hesitating to aid the gallant men and women who are resisting the real thing in the front lines of Europe and Asia they are finally the men who seemingly believe that we can confound the Kremlin by frightening ourselves to death 54 In return Senator McCarthy stated in a speech that he would like to get on the Stevenson campaign trail with a club and thereby make a good and loyal American out of the governor 53 In the 1952 campaign Stevenson also developed a strong dislike for Richard M Nixon then the GOP vice presidential candidate Adlai literally loathed Nixon No other person aroused such disgust not even Joseph McCarthy Friends who often wished he could be more of a hater were awed at the strength of his distaste for Nixon 55 A biographer wrote that for Stevenson Nixon was an ambitious unprincipled partisan who craved winning the exact personification of what was wrong with modern American politics for Stevenson Nixon was an entirely plastic politician Nixon was Stevenson s complete villain Others sensed the potential for immorality that led to Nixon s humiliating resignation in 1974 but Stevenson was among the first 56 During the 1952 campaign Stevenson often used his wit to attack Nixon and once stated that Nixon was the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree and then mount the stump and make a speech for tree conservation 57 The journalist David Halberstam later wrote that Stevenson was an elegant campaigner who raised the political discourse and that in 1952 Stevenson reinvigorated the Democratic Party and made it seem an open and exciting place for a generation of younger Americans who might otherwise never have thought of working for a political candidate 54 During the campaign a photograph revealed a hole in the sole of Stevenson s right shoe 58 This became a symbol of Stevenson s frugality and earthiness The Eisenhower campaign attempted to use the symbol of the shoe with a hole to criticize Stevenson in advertising to which Stevenson said Better a hole in the shoe than a hole in the head 59 Photographer William M Gallagher of the Flint Journal won the 1953 Pulitzer prize on the strength of the image 60 Stevenson did not use television as effectively as his Republican opponent war hero Dwight D Eisenhower and was unable to rally the New Deal voting coalition for one last hurrah Historian Richard Aldous wrote Occasionally persuasive Stevenson was rarely compelling and unlike Eisenhower he lacked any kind of rapport or common touch with large crowds He also failed to respond quickly enough to Eisenhower s pioneering use of TV Both candidates resisted the new medium at first but Ike relented sooner He used Mad Men advertising executive Rosser Reeves of the Ted Bates agency to create brilliant thirty second TV spots Ironically Stevenson came across well on TV but his highfalutin nature caused him to minimize it in the campaign This is the worst thing I ve ever heard of he scoffed selling the presidency like breakfast cereal That attitude left him behind the curve 61 On election day Eisenhower won the national popular vote by 55 to 45 Stevenson lost heavily outside the Solid South he carried only nine states and lost the Electoral College vote 442 to 89 In his concession speech on election night Stevenson said Someone asked me how I felt and I was reminded of a story that a fellow townsman of ours used to tell Abraham Lincoln He said he felt like the little boy who had stubbed his toe in the dark He said that he was too old to cry but it hurt too much to laugh 62 Biographer Jean H Baker summarized Stevenson s 1952 campaign Uncomfortable with the carnival side of elections Stevenson tried to be a man for the people not of them a man of reason talking sense not manipulation or sentiment 63 Liberals were attracted to the Illinois governor because he firmly opposed McCarthyism and they also appreciated Stevenson because of his style he had clearly dissociated himself as did many Americans from the plebians Stevenson dramatized the complex feelings of educated elites some of whom came to adore him not because he was a liberal but because he was not he spoke a language that set apart from average Americans an increasingly college educated population His approach to voters as rational participants in a process that depended on weighing the issues attracted reformers intellectuals and middle class women with time and money the Shakespeare vote joked one columnist Or as one enthralled voter wrote You were too good for the American people 64 Adlai Stevenson ended the 1952 campaign with an adoring group of Stevensonites Articulate and loyal they would soon create the Stevenson legend and make the Man from Libertyville a counterhero to President Eisenhower whom they would portray as inept and banal 65 1953 World Tour and 1954 elections Edit Stevenson in March 1953 at U S Air Force 17th Bomb Wing base in Korea joined by US ambassador to Korea Ellis O Briggs left acting foreign minister of the Republic of Korea Cho Chong Hwan second from right and acting prime minister of the Republic of Tu chin far right Following his defeat Stevenson in 1953 made a well publicized world tour through Asia the Middle East and Europe writing about his travels for Look magazine His political stature as head of the Democratic Party gave him access to many foreign leaders and dignitaries He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1953 66 In the 1954 off year elections Stevenson took a leading role in campaigning for Democratic congressional and gubernatorial candidates around the nation When the Democrats won control of both houses of Congress and picked up nine gubernatorial seats it put Democrats around the country in Stevenson s debt and greatly strengthened his position as his party s leader 67 1956 presidential bid EditSee also 1956 United States presidential election and Electoral history of Adlai Stevenson Stevenson and supporter Joe Smith leave Chicago s O Hare Airport for four days of campaigning in the Pacific Northwest and California Unlike 1952 Stevenson was an announced active candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1956 68 Initially with polls showing Eisenhower headed for a landslide re election few Democrats wanted the 1956 nomination and Stevenson hoped that he could win the nomination without a serious contest and without entering any presidential primaries 69 However on September 24 1955 Eisenhower suffered a serious heart attack Although he recovered and eventually decided to run for a second term concerns about his health led two prominent Democrats Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver and New York Governor Averell Harriman to decide to challenge Stevenson for the Democratic nomination 70 After being told by his aides that he needed to enter and win several presidential primaries to defeat Kefauver and Harriman Stevenson entered and campaigned in the Minnesota Florida and California primaries 71 Stevenson was upset in the Minnesota primary by Kefauver who successfully portrayed him as a captive of corrupt Chicago political bosses and a corporation lawyer out of step with regular Democrats 72 Stevenson next battled Kefauver in the Florida primary where he agreed to debate Kefauver on radio and television 73 Stevenson later joked that in Florida he had appealed to the state s citrus farmers by bitterly denouncing the Japanese beetle and fearlessly attacking the Mediterranean fruit fly 73 He narrowly defeated Kefauver in Florida by 12 000 votes and then won the California primary over Kefauver with 63 of the vote effectively ending Kefauver s presidential bid 73 At the 1956 Democratic National Convention in Chicago former President Truman endorsed Governor Harriman to Stevenson s dismay but the blow was softened by former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt s continued enthusiastic support 74 Stevenson easily defeated Harriman on the first ballot winning his second Democratic presidential nomination 75 He was aided by strong support from younger delegates who were said to form the core of the New Politics movement In a bid to raise enthusiasm for the Democratic ticket Stevenson made the unusual decision to leave the selection of his running mate up to the convention delegates 75 This set off a frantic scramble among several prominent Democrats to win the vice presidential nomination including Kefauver Senator Hubert Humphrey and Senator John F Kennedy After fending off a surprisingly strong challenge from Kennedy Kefauver narrowly won the vice presidential nomination on the second ballot 76 In his acceptance speech Stevenson spoke of his plan for a New America which included extending New Deal programs to areas of education health and poverty 77 He also criticized Republicans for trying to merchandise candidates like breakfast cereal 76 Following his nomination Stevenson waged a vigorous presidential campaign delivering 300 speeches and traveling 55 000 miles 89 000 km he crisscrossed the nation three times before the election in November 78 Robert F Kennedy traveled with the Stevenson campaign hoping to take home some lessons on how to manage a presidential campaign 78 Kennedy was deeply disillusioned by Stevenson s campaign later saying that I thought it was ghastly It was poorly organized my feeling was that he had no rapport with his audience no comprehension of what campaigning required no ability to make decisions In 1952 I had been crazy about him Then I spent six weeks with him on the campaign and he destroyed it all Kennedy voted for Eisenhower in November 79 For their part Stevenson and many of his aides resented Kennedy s attitude during his stay with the campaign Stevenson friend and aide George W Ball recalled My impression was that Bobby was a very surly and arrogant young man he wasn t doing any good for Adlai I don t know why we had him along 80 The tension that developed between Stevenson and Robert Kennedy would have significant consequences for the 1960 presidential campaign and for Stevenson s relationships with both John and Robert Kennedy during President Kennedy s administration 81 Against the advice of many of his political advisers Stevenson insisted on calling for an international ban to aboveground nuclear weapons tests and for an end to the military draft 82 Despite strong criticism from President Eisenhower and other leading Republicans such as Vice president Nixon and former New York Governor Thomas Dewey that his proposals were naive and would benefit the Soviet Union in the cold war Stevenson held his ground saying in various speeches that Earth s atmosphere is contaminated from week to week by exploding hydrogen bombs We don t want to live forever in the shadow of a radioactive mushroom cloud and growing children are the principal potential sufferers of increased strontium 90 in the atmosphere 83 In the end Stevenson s push to ban atmospheric nuclear bomb tests cost him dearly in votes yet Adlai finally won the verdict as Eisenhower suspended aboveground nuclear tests in 1958 President Kennedy would sign the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty into law in 1963 and President Nixon would end the military draft in 1973 84 Civil rights was emerging rapidly as a major political issue Stevenson urged caution and warned against aggressive enforcement of the Supreme Court s Brown decision in order to gain Southern white support Kotlowski writes Liberal Democrats too flinched before Brown Adlai E Stevenson front runner for the party s presidential nomination in 1956 urged the government to proceed gradually on school desegregation in deference to the South s long held traditions Stevenson backed integration but opposed using armed personnel to enforce Brown It certainly helped Stevenson carried most of Dixie in the fall campaign but received just 61 percent of the black vote low for a Democrat and lost the election to Eisenhower by a landslide 85 His views on racial progress were described after his death by his longtime companion Marietta Tree as He thought of all Negroes as being loveable old family retainers and not as individuals like you and me who were longing to get educated and who had aspirations and dreams just like the rest of us I think this took him a long time to get over the fact that they really indeed not only were created equal they wanted equality of opportunity and wanted it now It was hard for him to understand the urgency 86 While President Eisenhower suffered heart problems the economy enjoyed robust health Stevenson s hopes for victory were dashed when in October Eisenhower s doctors gave him a clean bill of health and the Suez and Hungary crises erupted simultaneously The public was not convinced that a change in leadership was needed Stevenson lost his second bid for the presidency by a landslide winning only 42 of the popular vote and 73 electoral votes from just seven states all except Missouri in the solid Democratic South Early in 1957 Stevenson resumed law practice allying himself with Judge Simon H Rifkind to create a law firm based in Washington D C Stevenson Paul Rifkind Wharton amp Garrison and a second firm in Chicago Stevenson Rifkind amp Wirtz Both law firms were related to New York City s Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton amp Garrison Stevenson s associates in the new law firm included Willard Wirtz William McCormick Blair Jr and Newton N Minow each of these men later served in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations He also accepted an appointment along with other prominent Democrats to the new Democratic Advisory Council which pursued an aggressive line in attacking the Republican Eisenhower administration and in developing new Democratic policies 87 He was also employed part time by the Encyclopaedia Britannica as a legal consultant 1960 presidential campaign and appointment as UN Ambassador Edit Wikisource has original text related to this article Adlai Stevenson s Cuban Missile Crisis speechIn early 1960 Stevenson announced that he would not seek a third Democratic presidential nomination but would accept a draft One of his closest friends told a journalist that Deep down he wants the Democratic nomination But he wants the Democratic Convention to come to him he doesn t want to go to the Convention 71 In May 1960 Senator John F Kennedy who was actively campaigning for the Democratic nomination visited Stevenson at his Libertyville home Kennedy asked Stevenson for a public endorsement of his candidacy in exchange Kennedy promised if elected to appoint Stevenson as his Secretary of State Stevenson turned down the offer which strained relations between the two men 88 At the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles Stevenson s admirers led by Eleanor Roosevelt Agnes Meyer and such Hollywood celebrities as Dore Schary and Henry Fonda vigorously promoted him for the nomination even though he was not an announced candidate 89 JFK s campaign manager his brother Robert F Kennedy reportedly threatened Stevenson in a meeting telling him that unless he agreed to place his brother s name in nomination you are through Stevenson refused and ordered him out of his hotel room 90 In letters to friends Stevenson described both John and Robert Kennedy as cold and ruthless referred to Robert Kennedy as the Black Prince and expressed his belief that JFK though bright and able was too young too unseasoned to be President he pushed too hard was in too much of a hurry he lacked the wisdom of humility Stevenson felt that both Kennedy and the nation would benefit from a postponement of his ambition 91 The night before the balloting Stevenson began working actively for the nomination calling the leaders of several state delegations to ask for their support The key call went to Chicago Mayor Richard J Daley the leader of the Illinois delegation The delegation had already voted to give Kennedy 59 5 votes to Stevenson s 2 but Stevenson told Daley that he now wanted the Democratic nomination and asked him if the delegates vote might merely indicate they thought he was not a candidate 92 Daley told Stevenson that he had no support in the delegation Stevenson then asked if this meant no support in fact or no support because the delegates thought he was not a candidate Daley replied that Stevenson had no support According to Stevenson biographer John Bartlow Martin the phone conversation with Daley was the real end of the 1960 Stevenson candidacy if he could not get the support of his home state his candidacy was doomed 92 However Stevenson continued to work for the nomination the next day fulfilling what he felt were obligations to old friends and supporters such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Agnes Meyer 93 Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota delivered an impassioned nominating speech for Stevenson urging the convention to not reject the man who has made us proud to be Democrats Do not leave this prophet without honor in his own party 94 However Kennedy won the nomination on the first ballot with 806 delegate votes Stevenson finished in fourth place with 79 5 votes 94 Once Kennedy won the nomination Stevenson always an enormously popular public speaker campaigned actively for him Due to his two presidential nominations and previous United Nations experience Stevenson perceived himself an elder statesman and the natural choice for Secretary of State 95 However according to historian Robert Dallek neither Jack nor Bobby Kennedy thought all that well of Stevenson they saw him as rather prissy and ineffective Stevenson never met their standard of tough mindedness Stevenson s refusal to publicly endorse Kennedy before the Democratic Convention was something that Kennedy couldn t forgive with JFK telling a Stevenson supporter after the election I m not going to give him anything 88 The prestigious post of Secretary of State went instead to the then little known Dean Rusk However although Jack and Bobby would have been just as happy to freeze Stevenson out of the administration they felt compelled to offer him something due to his continued support from progressive Democrats 88 President Kennedy offered Stevenson the choice of becoming ambassador to Britain attorney general a post that eventually went to Robert Kennedy or United States Ambassador to the United Nations Stevenson accepted the latter position 88 Many years later it was revealed that during the campaign Stevenson was approached by Soviet Ambassador Menshikov who offered Soviet financial and public relations help to assist him in getting elected if he decided to run Stevenson flatly rejected the Soviet offer telling Menshikov that he considered the offer of such assistance highly improper indiscreet and dangerous to all concerned Stevenson then reported the incident directly to President Eisenhower 96 Ambassador to the United Nations 1961 to 1965 Edit Stevenson shows aerial photos of Cuban missiles to the United Nations At the United Nations Stevenson worked hard to support U S foreign policy even when he personally disagreed with some of President Kennedy s actions However he was often seen as an outsider in the Kennedy administration with one historian noting everyone knew that Stevenson s position was that of a bit player 97 Kennedy told his adviser Walt Rostow that Stevenson wouldn t be happy as president He thinks that if you talk long enough you get a soft option and there are very few soft options as president 98 Bay of Pigs incident Edit In April 1961 Stevenson suffered the greatest humiliation of his diplomatic career in the Bay of Pigs invasion After hearing rumors that a lot of refugees wanted to go back and overthrow Castro Stevenson voiced his skepticism about an invasion but he was kept on the fringes of the operation receiving nine days before the invasion only an unduly vague briefing by Arthur M Schlesinger Jr and the CIA 99 Senior CIA official Tracy Barnes told Stevenson and his staff that there was going to be a clandestine operation in Cuba it was strictly a Cuban affair It would have some American cooperation but only with the training and financing 100 According to historian Peter Wyden Barnes did not tell Stevenson that there would be a large scale invasion of Cuba nor did he provide details about the full extent of American support for and involvement with the Cuban rebels nor did he tell Stevenson about the planned air strikes to destroy Castro s air force 101 Kennedy Library historian Sheldon Stern interviewed Ambassador Charles W Yost Stevenson s deputy who attended the meeting and confirmed that Yost had been suspicious of the story from the start Yost agreed that this was another one of the CIA s clumsy tricks Assistant Secretary of State Harlan Cleveland who attended the briefing felt that Barnes was too evasive in his description of the operation and that it was clear that Stevenson was not to be given the full details of the invasion plan 101 Historian Garry Wills has written that news of the invasion was leaking out Castro knew the landings would occur only Adlai Stevenson was kept in the dark about the invasion by President Kennedy and his aides 102 Kennedy anticipating that Stevenson might be angered at being left out of the discussions over whether to invade Cuba told Schlesinger that the integrity and credibility of Adlai Stevenson constitute one of our great national assets I don t want to do anything to jeopardize that and he asked Schlesinger to let Stevenson know that the president was shielding him from many of the details to protect him in case the clandestine operation failed 103 Instead as Robert Dallek has written by leaving him out of the discussion it led to his humiliation Unaware that the anti Castro Cuban exiles landing at the Bay of Pigs were being armed and assisted directly by the CIA and US Navy and that American pilots were participating in bombing raids of Cuban targets Stevenson unwittingly repeated a CIA cover story in a speech before the UN General Assembly 99 He argued that the rebels were not assisted in any way by the U S government when this claim was proven to be false Stevenson complained that I took this job on the understanding that I would be consulted and kept fully informed on everything Now my credibility has been compromised and therefore my usefulness 104 When he told his friend Harlan Cleveland that his own government had deliberately tricked him into believing there was no direct American involvement in the invasion Cleveland replied I feel as betrayed as you do 105 Stevenson seriously considered resigning but was convinced by his friends and President Kennedy to stay 106 Cuban Missile Crisis Edit During the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 Stevenson gave a presentation at an emergency session of the Security Council 107 In his presentation which attracted national television coverage he forcefully asked Soviet UN representative Valerian Zorin if his country was installing nuclear missiles in Cuba and when Zorin appeared reluctant to reply Stevenson punctuated with the demand Don t wait for the translation answer yes or no 108 109 When Zorin replied that I am not in an American court of law and therefore do not answer a question put to me in the manner of a prosecuting counsel you will have your answer in due course Stevenson retorted I am prepared to wait for my answer until Hell freezes over 108 Stevenson then showed photographs taken by a U 2 spy plane which proved the existence of nuclear missiles in Cuba just after Zorin had implied they did not exist 110 Stevenson also attended several meetings of the EXCOMM at the White House during the Missile Crisis where he boldly proposed to make an exchange with the Soviets if they would remove their missiles from Cuba the United States would agree to remove its obsolete Jupiter missiles from Turkey However he faced strong opposition from some other EXCOMM members who regarded such an exchange as a sign of weakness According to Kennedy adviser and Stevenson friend George W Ball who was present these members intemperately upbraided Stevenson and were outraged and shrill 111 However President Kennedy remarked You have to admire Adlai he sticks to his position even when everyone is jumping on him and Robert Kennedy wrote that Stevenson has since been criticized for the position he took at the meeting although I disagreed strongly with his recommendations I thought he was courageous to make them and I might add that they made as much sense as some others considered during that period of time 112 Stevenson remarked I know that most of those fellows will consider me a coward for the rest of my life for what I said today but perhaps we need a coward in the room when we are talking about nuclear war 113 In fact the Kennedy Administration did remove the Jupiter class MRBMs from Italy and Turkey some six months after the Cuban Missile Crisis ended and there is evidence that President Kennedy privately agreed that if the Soviets would remove their missiles from Cuba he would remove the Jupiter missiles from Turkey and Italy at a later date 114 The deal was kept a secret for many years however and Stevenson was thus given no credit for his original suggestion 115 In December 1962 journalists Stewart Alsop and Charles Bartlett published an article about the Missile Crisis in the Saturday Evening Post The article quoted a non admiring official who claimed that Stevenson Wanted a Munich He wanted to trade U S bases for Cuban bases and generally portrayed Stevenson s behavior and actions during the Missile Crisis as weak and inept 116 Stevenson was deeply angered by the article especially as it was widely believed that the non admiring official who criticized Stevenson was President Kennedy himself Kennedy had fed the Stevenson story to Alsop and Bartlett partly because it enabled him to look strong in comparison to Stevenson 116 However a number of Stevenson s friends and supporters such as historian and White House aide Arthur Schlesinger Jr came to Stevenson s defense Schlesinger told Kennedy The suggestion in the Alsop Bartlett story that Stevenson favored a Caribbean Munich is grossly unfair and shows the number of people who still have their knives out for him 117 Stevenson knowing that Bartlett was a close friend of President Kennedy assumed that the article had been written with Kennedy s permission and let the president know through friends that if Kennedy had wanted him to resign he did not have to go about it in such a roundabout fashion 118 Kennedy told Stevenson that he did not want him to resign and had his Press Secretary Pierre Salinger release a letter to the press praising Stevenson s performance during the Missile Crisis 119 Although the letter did cause the public furor to die down for months Washington continued to buzz over what everyone saw as an effort to force Adlai s resignation and Stevenson friend George Ball later said that the injury inflicted by the magazine article lingered on and on After the Cuban Missile Crisis Adlai was only going through the motions From then on he knew he was not going to have an impact on foreign policy 120 Kennedy assassination and Vietnam War Edit During his time as UN Ambassador Stevenson often traveled around the country promoting the United Nations in speeches and seminars On these trips he frequently faced opposition and protests from groups skeptical of the United Nations such as the right wing John Birch Society On October 25 1963 Stevenson spoke in Dallas Texas where he was heckled and spat upon by unruly protestors led by retired General Edwin Walker s National Indignation Convention At one point a woman hit Stevenson on the head with a sign leading Stevenson to remark is she animal or human and telling a policeman I don t want her to go to jail I want her to go to school 121 Afterwards Stevenson warned President Kennedy s advisers about the ugly and frightening mood he had found in Dallas but he did not discuss his concerns directly with Kennedy before the president s visit to Texas in late November 1963 122 On November 22 Stevenson was attending a luncheon held by the Chilean ambassador when he was informed that Kennedy had been shot in Dallas He told friends and aides That Dallas Why why didn t I insist that he not go there 123 After President Kennedy was assassinated Stevenson continued to serve in his position as Ambassador to the UN under President Lyndon Johnson As the country moved toward the 1964 presidential election the war in Vietnam became an important campaign issue The Republican presidential candidate Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater advocated victory in Vietnam a rollback strategy that Johnson denounced as tantamount to nuclear war Stevenson was not a major player on the Vietnam issue He did support Johnson publicly and in private because he believed in the containment of communism but he also wanted to start negotiations with North Vietnam through the United Nations which Johnson rejected 124 Death and legacy EditIn July 1965 Stevenson traveled to Geneva Switzerland to attend the annual meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Council 125 After the conference he stopped in London for several days where he visited UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson discussed the situation in South Vietnam with British officials and was interviewed by CBS newsman Eric Sevareid 125 On the afternoon of July 14 while walking in London with his aide and girlfriend Marietta Tree to Grosvenor Square Stevenson suffered a massive heart attack and died later that day at age 65 of heart failure at St George s Hospital 126 127 128 Marietta Tree recalled As we were walking along the street he said do not walk quite so fast and do hold your head up Marietta I was burrowing ahead trying to get to the park as quickly as possible and then the next thing I knew I turned around and I saw he d gone white gray really and he fell and his hand brushed me as he fell and he hit the pavement with the most terrible crack and I thought he d fractured his skull That night in her diary she wrote Adlai is dead We were together 129 Following memorial services at the United Nations General Assembly Hall on July 19 1965 and in Washington D C Springfield Illinois and Bloomington Illinois Stevenson was interred in the family plot in Evergreen Cemetery Bloomington Illinois The funeral in Bloomington s Unitarian Church was attended by many national figures including President Lyndon B Johnson Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Chief Justice Earl Warren Stevenson grave in Evergreen Memorial Cemetery in Bloomington Illinois Historian Arthur M Schlesinger Jr who served as one of his speechwriters described Stevenson as a great creative figure in American politics He turned the Democratic Party around in the fifties and made JFK possible to the United States and the world he was the voice of a reasonable civilized and elevated America He brought a new generation into politics and moved millions of people in the United States and around the world 130 Journalist David Halberstam wrote that Stevenson s gift to the nation was his language elegant and well crafted thoughtful and calming 54 His biographer Jean H Baker stated that Stevenson s memory still survives as an expression of a different kind of politics nobler more issue oriented less compliant to the greedy ambitions of modern politicians and less driven by public opinion polls and the media 131 W Willard Wirtz his friend and law partner once said If the Electoral College ever gives an honorary degree it should go to Adlai Stevenson 132 Halberstam wrote of Stevenson that U S postage stamp in honor of Stevenson he had played a historic role for his party twice its presidential candidate the first time running against impossible odds in 1952 at the height of the Korean War and McCarthyism with the Democratic party already decaying from the scandals of twenty years in power Running against the great hero of the era Dwight Eisenhower Stevenson had lost of course but his voice had seemed special in that moment a voice of rationality and elegance In the process of defeat he had helped to salvage the party giving it a new vitality and bringing to its fold a whole new generation of educated Americans volunteers now in the political process some very professional amateurs who would be masterly used by the Kennedys in 1960 If John and Robert Kennedy seemed to symbolize style in politics much of that was derived directly from Stevenson He had at what should have been a particularly low point for the party managed to keep it vibrant and vital and to involve a new kind of people in politics 133 His biographer Jean H Baker wrote of Stevenson s two presidential campaigns in 1952 and 1956 that what would be remembered were not his public programs and ideas for a New America but ironically the private man his character and personality his wit and charm his efforts to negotiate and keep the peace within the Democratic Party his elegant speeches and the grace with which he accepted defeat 134 The Central Illinois Regional Airport near Bloomington has a whimsical statue of Stevenson sitting on a bench with his feet propped on his briefcase and his head in one hand as if waiting for his flight He is depicted wearing shoes that had a hole in the sole from having walked many miles during his election campaign The shoe had become a symbol of his campaign 135 136 The Adlai E Stevenson II Farm in Mettawa Illinois which was Stevenson s home from 1936 to 1965 is on the National Register of Historic Places and has been designated a National Historic Landmark Adlai Stevenson II was inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln the state s highest honor by the governor of Illinois in 1965 in the area of government 137 In October 1965 the United States Post Office Department issued a 5 cent stamp in Bloomington Illinois to commemorate the life of Stevenson 138 Stevenson in popular culture EditThis section has multiple issues Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page Learn how and when to remove these template messages This section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Adlai Stevenson II news newspapers books scholar JSTOR April 2019 Learn how and when to remove this template message This article appears to contain trivial minor or unrelated references to popular culture Please reorganize this content to explain the subject s impact on popular culture providing citations to reliable secondary sources rather than simply listing appearances Unsourced material may be challenged and removed January 2023 Learn how and when to remove this template message In film and television Edit Stevenson has been referenced in television episodes of The Simpsons in the episodes Lisa the Iconoclast and The Secret War of Lisa Simpson appearing in the latter in an educational film with Harry Shearer providing the cartoon Stevenson s voice In the former a gag occurs as the mob of Springfielders exhume the corpse of Jedediah Willie mistakenly throws dirt over the flame of a candle vigil set in front of Adlai s grave He has also been referenced in The Golden Girls 139 Happy Days in the January 28 1975 episode The Not Making of the President 140 and Mystery Science Theater 3000 s presentation of Manos The Hands of Fate a Stevenson lookalike buys a car and one of the MST3K characters comments on it Murphy Brown briefly names her newborn son Adlai Stevenson Stevenson has also been referenced in films Peter Sellers claimed that his portrayal of President Merkin Muffley in Dr Strangelove was modeled on Stevenson 141 Stevenson s Don t wait for the translation speech to Russian ambassador Valerian Zorin during the Cuban Missile Crisis inspired dialogue in a courtroom scene in Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country 142 The historical speech itself is depicted in the 2000 film Thirteen Days with Michael Fairman playing Stevenson as well as partially depicted in the 1974 television play The Missiles of October by Ralph Bellamy Stevenson is also referenced in Wayne s World 2 Waynestock is held in an Aurora Illinois park named for Stevenson Plain Clothes the high school is named for Stevenson Annie Hall Woody Allen s character tells a standup joke about the Stevenson Eisenhower campaign and Breakfast at Tiffany s 143 Stevenson also appear in A Global Affair credited as himself In Pioneer One a crowd financed TV series published under a Creative Commons license one of the characters introduces himself as Adlai Steve DiLeo named after Adlai Stevenson someone who ran three times for president unsuccessfully 144 In a parallel universe featured in the Sliders episode The Return of Maggie Beckett the German Wehrmacht breaks through the Allied lines in the Battle of the Bulge in 1944 which causes World War II to drag on until 1947 General Eisenhower is relieved as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe and returns to the United States in disgrace Consequently Stevenson becomes president The Stevenson administration makes the Roswell UFO incident in July 1947 public knowledge and signs the Reticulan American Free Trade Agreement RAFTA giving the US access to advanced Reticulan technology This leads to a human mission to Mars in the 1990s In the 2016 movie Bogie and Bacall Stevenson was portrayed by actor Ryan Paevey In alternate history and science fiction Edit Stevenson comes close to being assassinated by a 12 year old in James Patrick Kelly s Hugo Award winning novelette 1016 to 1 1999 In Robin Gerber s novel Eleanor vs Ike Stevenson suffers a fatal heart attack as he approaches the podium to accept the Democratic nomination in 1952 He is replaced as the Democratic presidential candidate by former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt In the alternate history short story The Impeachment of Adlai Stevenson by David Gerrold included in the anthology Alternate Presidents Stevenson is elected in 1952 after Dwight D Eisenhower makes the mistake of accepting Joseph McCarthy as his running mate instead of Richard Nixon He successfully runs for re election in 1956 once again defeating General Eisenhower However he proves to be an extremely unpopular president In Michael P Kube McDowell s alternate history novel Alternities Stevenson is mentioned as having been elected president in 1956 and serving for two terms though he is quoted as describing his second term as a curse The alternate history novella Southern Strategy by Michael F Flynn Alternate Generals volume two Baen 2002 is told entirely from Stevenson s point of view In a world where the Kaiser s Germany is the leader of something resembling a free world in 1956 Stevenson is a former senator of the United States which is in ruins after a Second American Civil War The novella follows Stevenson s increasingly futile efforts to negotiate an armistice between League of Nations peacekeepers led by General Erwin Rommel and several disparate guerrilla terrorist bands with differing agendas One of the terrorist bands is led by Richard Nixon In the alternate history novel Dominion by C J Sansom World War II ends in June 1940 when the British government under the leadership of the Prime Minister Lord Halifax signs a peace treaty with Nazi Germany in Berlin Franklin D Roosevelt is steadfast in his opposition to the Nazis and the treaty which results in him losing the 1940 election to his Republican opponent Robert A Taft who becomes the 33rd president Taft is re elected in 1944 and 1948 but Stevenson defeats him in 1952 becoming the 34th President Shortly after Stevenson s election in November 1952 The Times which is owned by the pro Nazi British Prime Minister Lord Beaverbrook speculates that Stevenson will follow in Roosevelt s footsteps and pursue an interventionist foreign policy regarding European affairs Several weeks later President elect Stevenson gives a speech indicating that he intends to begin trading with the Soviet Union upon taking office on January 20 1953 In other media Edit The writer Gore Vidal who admired and supported Stevenson based a main character in his 1960 Broadway play The Best Man on Stevenson The play which was nominated for six Tony Awards centers on the contest for the presidential nomination at a fictitious political convention One of the main contenders for the nomination is Secretary of State William Russell a principled liberal intellectual The character is based on Stevenson his main opponent is the ruthless unscrupulous Senator Joseph Cantwell whom Vidal modeled on Richard Nixon and the Kennedy brothers The play was turned into a 1964 film of the same name with actor Henry Fonda playing Russell Fonda had been a Stevenson supporter at the 1960 Democratic National Convention The Avalanche an album by Sufjan Stevens contains a song called Adlai Stevenson Things named after Stevenson EditStevenson Expressway Interstate 55 is known as the Adlai E Stevenson Expressway between Lake Shore Drive and I 355 in Illinois Adlai E Stevenson Elementary School in Fairfield New Jersey Adlai E Stevenson Elementary School in Rochester New York Adlai E Stevenson II Elementary School in Bloomington Illinois Adlai E Stevenson High School located in Lincolnshire Illinois Adlai E Stevenson High School in Sterling Heights Michigan Adlai Stevenson Elementary School formerly Junior High in Cleveland Ohio Adlai E Stevenson High School in Livonia Michigan Adlai E Stevenson High School in Bronx New York now closed Adlai E Stevenson Elementary School in Elk Grove Village Illinois Adlai E Stevenson Elementary School in Des Plaines Illinois Adlai Stevenson Elementary School in the Plum Borough School District in Plum Pennsylvania Adlai E Stevenson Elementary School in Chicago Illinois Stevenson Elementary School in Mountain View California Adlai E Stevenson College a residential college at the University of California Santa Cruz Stevenson Hall a lecture building on the Illinois State University campus in Normal Illinois Adlai E Stevenson Hall Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park California Stevenson Drive a major thoroughfare in Springfield Illinois Stevenson Hall a residence hall for students on the Northern Illinois University campus in DeKalb Illinois Stevenson Hall a residence hall for students on the Eastern Illinois University campus in Charleston Illinois Adlai E Stevenson Chair a professorship of International Affairs at Columbia University currently held by Robert Jervis Adlai Stevenson Middle School in Westland Michigan Adlai E Stevenson School an Elementary School in Decatur Illinois Adlai E Stevenson Elementary School in Southfield Michigan Stevenson Hall a student dining facility at Princeton University Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development graduate school program at Illinois State UniversityElectoral history EditMain article Electoral history of Adlai Stevenson Gubernatorial Edit 19481948 Illinois gubernatorial Democratic primary 145 Party Candidate Votes Democratic Adlai E Stevenson 578 390 100Total votes 578 390 1001948 Illinois gubernatorial election 146 Party Candidate Votes Democratic Adlai E Stevenson 2 250 074 57 11Republican Dwight H Green incumbent 1 678 007 42 59Prohibition Willis Ray Wilson 9 491 0 24Socialist Labor Louis Fisher 2 673 0 07Write in Others 12 0 00Total votes 3 940 257 10019521952 Illinois gubernatorial Democratic primary 147 Party Candidate Votes Democratic Adlai E Stevenson incumbent 708 275 99 97Write in Others 213 0 03Total votes 708 488 100Presidential Edit 1952Electoral results Presidential candidate Party Home state Popular vote 148 Electoralvote 149 Running mateCount Percentage Vice presidential candidate Home state Electoral vote 149 Dwight David Eisenhower Republican New York 34 075 529 55 18 442 Richard Milhous Nixon California 442Adlai Ewing Stevenson II Democratic Illinois 27 375 090 44 33 89 John Jackson Sparkman Alabama 89Vincent Hallinan Progressive California 140 746 0 23 0 Charlotta Amanda Spears Bass New York 0Stuart Hamblen Prohibition Texas 73 412 0 12 0 Enoch Arden Holtwick Illinois 0Eric Hass Socialist Labor New York 30 406 0 05 0 Stephen Emery New York 0Darlington Hoopes Socialist Pennsylvania 20 203 0 03 0 Samuel Herman Friedman New York 0Douglas MacArthur Constitution Arkansas 17 205 0 03 0 Harry Flood Byrd Sr Virginia 0Farrell Dobbs Socialist Workers Minnesota 10 312 0 02 0 Myra Tanner Weiss California 0Other 9 039 0 02 Other Total 61 751 942 100 531 531Needed to win 266 2661956Electoral results Presidential candidate Party Home state Popular vote 150 Electoralvote 151 Running mateCount Percentage Vice presidential candidate Home state Electoral vote 151 Dwight David Eisenhower Incumbent Republican Pennsylvania 35 579 180 57 37 457 Richard Milhous Nixon California 457Adlai Ewing Stevenson II Democratic Illinois 26 028 028 41 97 73 Carey Estes Kefauver Tennessee 73 Unpledged electors n a n a 196 318 0 32 0 n a n a 0Thomas Coleman Andrews States Rights Virginia 108 956 0 18 0 Thomas Harold Werdel California 0Eric Hass Socialist Labor New York 44 300 0 07 0 Georgia Olive Cozzini Wisconsin 0Enoch Arden Holtwick Prohibition Illinois 41 937 0 07 0 Edwin M Cooper California 0Farrell Dobbs Socialist Workers New York 7 797 0 01 0 Myra Tanner Weiss California 0Harry Flood Byrd Sr States Rights Virginia 2 657 lt 0 01 0 William Ezra Jenner Indiana 0Darlington Hoopes Socialist Pennsylvania 2 128 lt 0 01 0 Samuel Herman Friedman New York 0Henry B Krajewski American Third New Jersey 1 829 lt 0 01 0 Anna Yezo New Jersey 0Gerald Lyman Kenneth Smith Christian Nationalist Michigan 8 lt 0 01 0 Charles Robertson Michigan 0Walter Burgwyn Jones Democratic Alabama a a 1 Herman Eugene Talmadge Georgia 1Other 8 691 0 01 Other Total 62 021 328 100 531 531Needed to win 266 266Notes Edit Baker pp 9 10 335 337 Los Angeles County Birth Record for Adlai E Stevenson California County Birth and Death Records 1800 1994 February 5 1900 Retrieved May 22 2022 Historic Cultural Monument List City Declared Monuments PDF Retrieved June 19 2012 Martin p 89 MASH star McLean Stevenson dies CNN Retrieved April 23 2010 Mary Borden an Extraordinary Life Mary Borden A Woman of Two Wars Killed in Stevenson Home Girl Shot Accidentally by Former Vice President s Grandson The New York Times December 31 1912 p 1 Retrieved November 3 2007 Baker pp 228 232 McKeever p 31 McKeever p 38 Stevenson Fellow Advocates for Public Service The Choate News March 31 2017 Retrieved June 19 2020 Department of State Publication General foreign policy series Department of State Publication General Foreign Policy Series p 43 Retrieved February 28 2020 Daily Princetonian Special Class of 1979 Issue 25 July 1975 Princeton Periodicals Theprince princeton edu July 25 1975 Retrieved on 2013 07 26 Mudd Library Completes Catalog Preservation of Adlai E Stevenson Papers Princeton University August 8 1997 Retrieved December 20 2011 McKeever pp 45 46 McKeever p 60 Baker p 246 p 257 Baker p 317 Martin pp 154 155 McKeever p 141 McKeever pp 65 66 McKeever pp 142 272 Evers Donna September 5 2012 Those Were the Days Betty Beale and the Party World of Post War Washington The Georgetowner Retrieved December 18 2013 Washington Star Society Columnist Betty Beale 94 The Washington Post June 8 2006 Retrieved December 18 2013 Baker p 357 a b c Baker p 358 Martin pp 164 165 Baker p 283 McKeever p 74 Martin pp 225 226 Martin pp 234 259 McKeever pp 107 114 a b McKeever p 126 Robert E Hartley Battleground 1948 Truman Stevenson Douglas and the Most Surprising Election in Illinois History Southern Illinois University Press 2013 McKeever p 137 McKeever pp 133 135 McKeever pp 134 a b McKeever p 136 McKeever pp 159 160 McKeever pp 160 161 McKeever p 134 a b McKeever pp 144 145 Martin pp 405 407 a b McKeever p 145 McKeever p 144 McKeever pp 185 186 Manchester p 608 Manchester p 621 622 a b Manchester p 622 Bain and Parris p 350 John Frederick Martin The Trappings of Democracy Historically Speaking 2013 14 4 p4 in Project MUSE Kennedy Edward M True Compass A Memoir 2009 a b Halberstam p 235 a b c Halberstam p 236 McKeever p 228 Baker p 378 McKeever p 230 Visual History The Flint Journal Archived from the original on April 21 2012 Retrieved January 24 2015 Original Chicago Cocktail Old Shoe WTTW News Retrieved April 9 2022 1953 Winners The Pulitzer Prizes Retrieved December 20 2011 Aldous p 161 Manchester p 640 Baker p 336 Baker pp 336 337 Baker p 337 Book of Members 1780 2010 Chapter S PDF American Academy of Arts and Sciences Retrieved April 7 2011 Martin pp 148 McKeever pp 340 341 McKeever pp 354 356 McKeever p 356 a b White p 58 Baker pp 355 356 a b c McKeever p 374 Caro Robert 2002 Master of the Senate Knopf ISBN 978 0 394 52836 6 a b McKeever p 376 a b McKeever p 377 Baker p 362 a b Baker p 364 Baker pp 364 365 Strober p 93 Baker p 365 McKeever p 380 Baker p 373 McKeever pp 380 383 Dean Kotlowski With All Deliberate Delay Kennedy Johnson and School Desegregation Journal of Policy History 2005 17 2 pp 155 192 quote at p 159 online at Project MUSE Adlai E Stevenson Project Marietta Tree Oral History Research Office Columbia University 1968 92 93 Schlesinger pp 9 10 a b c d Dallek p 94 Baker p 401 Baker p 402 McKeever p 451 a b Martin p 526 Martin pp 526 528 a b Baker p 403 Dallek pp 93 94 Martin Adlai Stevenson and the World Baker p 408 Baker p 409 a b Dallek p 142 Wyden pp 156 157 a b Wyden p 157 Wills p 228 Wyden p 156 Baker p 416 Wyden p 190 Baker pp 416 417 McKeever pp 526 528 a b McKeever p 527 Cuban Missile Crisis YouTube Archived from the original on November 3 2021 Retrieved November 2 2020 McKeever pp 527 528 McKeever p 520 McKeever p 521 Baker p 420 Johnson Dominic D P Failing to Win p 105 McKeever p 535 a b Aldous p 300 Aldous p 301 McKeever p 532 McKeever p 534 McKeever p 536 James McEnteer 2004 Deep in the heart the Texas tendency in American politics Greenwood p 114 ISBN 9780275983062 Baker p 429 McKeever po 539 Seymour Maxwell Finger Inside the World of Diplomacy The U S Foreign Service in a Changing World 2001 p 63 a b Baker p 437 Ambassador Adlai Stevenson dies in London The Bulletin Bend Oregon UPI July 14 1965 p 1 Nation loses U N leader Spokesman Review Spokane Washington Associated Press July 15 1965 p 1 Adlai Stevenson collapses dies Wilmington Morning Star North Carolina UPI July 15 1965 p 1 Human Rights Commission amp Marietta Peabody Tree biography Archived September 5 2008 at the Wayback Machine Schlesinger p 239 Baker pp xi Martin p 392 Halberstam pp 26 27 Baker p 382 1 Archived April 3 2015 at the Wayback Machine 2 Archived March 25 2009 at the Wayback Machine Laureates by Year The Lincoln Academy of Illinois The Lincoln Academy of Illinois Retrieved March 7 2016 1965 5c Adlai Stevenson www mysticstamp com Retrieved August 4 2021 The One That Got Away 1988 IMDb The Not Making of a President at IMDb Sikov Ed October 15 2003 Google Book Search Mr Strangelove ISBN 9780786885817 Retrieved December 20 2011 Asherman Alan May 1 1993 The Star Trek Compendium ISBN 978 0 671 79612 9 Breakfast at Tiffanys Whysanity net Archived from the original on May 29 2010 Retrieved May 14 2010 Pioneer One S1E3 Illinois Blue Book 1947 1948 Illinois Secretary of State p 747 Retrieved March 29 2020 Illinois Blue Book 1949 1950 Illinois Secretary of State pp 745 46 785 Retrieved March 29 2020 Illinois Blue Book 1951 1952 Illinois Secretary of State pp 757 758 Retrieved March 31 2020 Leip David 1952 Presidential Election Results Dave Leip s Atlas of U S Presidential Elections Retrieved September 16 2012 Electoral College Box Scores 1789 1996 National Archives and Records Administration Retrieved August 1 2005 Leip David 1956 Presidential Election Results Dave Leip s Atlas of U S Presidential Elections Retrieved August 1 2005 Electoral College Box Scores 1789 1996 National Archives and Records Administration Retrieved August 1 2005 References EditAldous Richard Schlesinger The Imperial Historian New York W W Norton amp Company 2017 Baker Jean H 1996 The Stevensons A Biography of An American Family New York W W Norton amp Co ISBN 978 0 393 03874 3 Bain Richard C and Judith H Parris Convention Decisions and Voting Records The Brookings Institution 1973 Broadwater Jeff Adlai Stevenson and American Politics The Odyssey of a Cold War Liberal Twayne 1994 291 pp Cowden Jonathan A Adlai Stevenson a Retrospective Princeton University Library Chronicle 2000 61 3 322 359 ISSN 0032 8456 Dallek Robert Camelot s Court Inside the Kennedy White House New York HarperCollins 2013 Halberstam David The Fifties New York Fawcett Columbine 1993 Halberstam David The Best and the Brightest New York Random House 1969 Hartley Robert E Battleground 1948 Truman Stevenson Douglas and the Most Surprising Election in Illinois History Southern Illinois University Press 2013 240 pages McKeever Porter 1989 Adlai Stevenson His Life and Legacy New York William Morrow and Company ISBN 978 0 688 06661 1 Manchester William The Glory and the Dream A Narrative History of America 1932 1972 New York Bantam Books 1975 Martin John Bartlow Adlai Stevenson of Illinois The Life of Adlai E Stevenson 1976 and Adlai Stevenson and the World The Life of Adlai E Stevenson 1977 the standard scholarly biography Murphy John M Civic Republicanism in the Modern Age Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 Presidential Campaign Quarterly Journal of Speech 1994 80 3 313 328 ISSN 0033 5630 Schlesinger Arthur M A Thousand Days John F Kennedy in the White House New York Houghton Mifflin 1965 Schlesinger Arthur M Journals 1952 2000 New York Penguin Press 2007 Slaybaugh Douglas Adlai Stevenson Television and the Presidential Campaign of 1956 Illinois Historical Journal 1996 89 1 2 16 ISSN 0748 8149 Slaybaugh Douglas Political Philosophy or Partisanship a Dilemma in Adlai Stevenson s Published Writings 1953 1956 Wisconsin Magazine of History 1992 75 3 163 194 ISSN 0043 6534 Argues by 1956 Stevenson had alienated many of his well placed and well educated supporters without winning over many new rank and file Democrats White Mark J Hamlet in New York Adlai Stevenson During the First Week of the Cuban Missile Crisis Illinois Historical Journal 1993 86 2 70 84 ISSN 0748 8149 White Theodore H The Making of the President 1960 New York Barnes amp Noble Books 2004 Wills Garry The Kennedy Imprisonment A Meditation on Power New York Mariner Books 2002 Wyden Peter Bay of Pigs The Untold Story New York Touchstone Books 1979 Primary sources Edit Stevenson Adlai The Papers of Adlai E Stevenson 8 vol 1972 Blair William McC ed Adlai Stevenson s Legacy Reminiscences by His Friends and Family Princeton University Library Chronicle 2000 61 3 360 403 ISSN 0032 8456 Reminiscences by Arthur Schlesinger Jr William McC Blair Adlai Stevenson III Newton N Minow and Willard Wirtz Further reading EditWhitman Alden Portrait of Adlai E Stevenson Politician Diplomat Friend New York Harper amp Row cop 1965 ix 299 p 24 p of b amp w photos External links Edit Wikiquote has quotations related to Adlai Stevenson II Wikimedia Commons has media related to Adlai Stevenson II Adlai E Stevenson Papers at the Seeley G Mudd Manuscript Library Princeton University John J B Shea Papers on Adlai E Stevenson at the Seeley G Mudd Manuscript Library Princeton University Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy Adapted parts from Adlai E Stevenson A Voice of Conscience part of a series on notable American Unitarians The Adlai E Stevenson Historic Home in Libertyville Illinois Open to the public Adlai Today includes speeches photographs and more A brief biography United Nations Association McLean County Chapter Text of Stevenson s First Presidential Nominee Acceptance Text and Video Excerpt of Stevenson s United Nations Security Council Address on the Buildup of Soviet Missiles in Cuba Text and Audio of Stevenson s UN Memorial Remarks for JFK Text and Audio Stevenson s UN Memorial Remarks for Eleanor Roosevelt Radio spots of Adlai E Stevenson from the 1952 Presidential election Open Access Photos of Adlai Stevenson in the University of Florida Digital Collections Adlai Stevenson interviewed by Mike Wallace on The Mike Wallace Interview June 1 1958 Booknotes interview with Porter McKeever on Adlai Stevenson His Life and Legacy August 6 1989 Adlai Stevenson Presidential Contender from C SPAN s The Contenders Adlai Stevenson II McLean County Museum of History Helen Davis Stevenson McLean County Museum of History Stevenson faced anti U N mob in 1963 Pantagraph Bloomington Illinois newspaper Albert Herling worked on Stevenson s 1956 campaign among others His campaign memorabilia is located at the University of Maryland LibrariesParty political officesPreceded byThomas J Courtney Democratic nominee for Governor of Illinois1948 1952 withdrew Succeeded bySherwood DixonPreceded byHarry S Truman Democratic nominee for President of the United States1952 1956 Succeeded byJohn F KennedyPolitical officesPreceded byDwight H Green Governor of Illinois1949 1953 Succeeded byWilliam StrattonDiplomatic postsPreceded byJames Jeremiah Wadsworth United States Ambassador to the United Nations1961 1965 Succeeded byArthur Goldberg Portals Biography Politics United States Illinois Modern history Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Adlai Stevenson II amp oldid 1141484206, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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