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Citation: Presidential Studies Quarterly June 1999, v.29, 2, 493
Author: HARTMANN, SUSAN M.
Title: Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady: Richard Nixon vs. Helen
Gahagan Douglas--Sexual Politics and the Red Scare,
1950. by SUSAN M. HARTMANN
------------------------------------------------------------------------
COPYRIGHT 1999 Permission granted by the Center for the Study of the
Presidency, Publisher of Presidential Studies Quarterly.
GREG MITCHELL, Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady: Richard Nixon vs. Helen
Gahagan Douglas--Sexual Politics and the Red Scare, 1950 (NewYork: Random
House, 1998), 316 + pp. $25.00 cloth (ISBN 0-679-41621-8).
As the Watergate scandal unfolded in 1973, bumper stickers appeared in
California saying, "DON'T BLAME ME, I VOTED FOR HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS" (p.
xvi). The stickers referred to one of the most notorious political campaigns
in U.S. history, in which Richard M. Nixon defeated Douglas for one of
California's seats in the Senate in 1950. Biographers of the two combatants
have discussed this election at some length, but Greg Mitchell has produced
the first book-length treatment of the race.
Mitchell, whose previous books include an account of Upton Sinclair's
campaign for governor of California in the 1930s, sets the Nixon-Douglas race
within the context of California politics and national history. His extensive
research included the papers of the two principals; papers of other key
figures from the worlds of politics, entertainment, and journalism, such as
Earl Warren, Harry S. Truman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Edward G. Robinson, John
Houston, William Randolph Hearst, and Hedda Hopper; dozens of oral histories
and interviews; newspapers; and a broad range of secondary sources. Newly
available for this book were several boxes of Nixon papers and campaign
material, including memos by Nixon and his campaign manager Murray Chotiner.
Mitchell's detailed, week-by-week and sometimes day-by-day, account of the
campaign is set within a larger argument that 1950 was a turning point, the
year that antiCommunism became a national phenomenon. In making Douglas's
alleged Communist sympathies the focus of the election, the Nixon campaign
went far beyond the Redbaiting that had been but one part of his attack on
incumbent Jerry Voorhis in 1946. Nor did Republicans have a monopoly on
anti-Communism in 1950. Douglas's opponent in the Democratic primary labeled
her "pink," as Mitchell points out, "stockpiling ammunition for Nixon to fire
later" (p. 32). Southern Democrats began to run hard on antiCommunism in 1950,
as did Republicans, egged on by the Republican National Committee, which
distributed a booklet linking the Democratic Party to Communism.
Mitchell relates key events of 1950 to the Nixon-Douglas
contest--imprisonment of four of the Hollywood Ten for refusing to name
associates who might have been connected with Communist or front
organizations, the arrest of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg for passing atomic
secrets to the Soviets, the Korean War, and the passage of the harsh McCarran
Internal SecurityAct, which Douglas risked her career to vote against in
contrast to liberal Democrats like Hubert Humphrey and Wayne Morse who would
not buck the tide. Because both Douglas and her husband Melvyn were actors and
because their home was Los Angeles, readers learn much about anti-Communism in
the entertainment industry. In addition to the Hollywood Ten, Mitchell
discusses publication of Red Channels, a report that set off a wave of
blacklisting in radio and television, and a bitter fight on the eve of the
election within the Screen Directors Guild over whether guild members should
sign a loyalty oath. He also notes the anti-Semitism associated with
anti-Communism, pointing out Nixon's oblique remarks about the Jewish heritage
of Melvyn Douglas.
The opening of new Nixon papers related to the campaign enabled Mitchell to
provide details about Nixon's strategy and those who supported him. His
campaign raised large amounts of money, not just from California but from
people of wealth across the country, including Joseph P. Kennedy, whose $1,000
check was hand delivered by his son John, Nixon's colleague in the House. Ed
Pauley and other Democrats lent their support, some within an organization,
Democrats for Nixon, set up by George Creel, who had served in the Wilson
administration. Having contributed $50 to Douglas, Ronald Reagan changed
political horses during the campaign and was mobilizing support for Nixon by
the end.
For Douglas, raising money was a constant struggle. In addition to lacking
money, Douglas's campaign suffered from her inability to get off the
defensive, her overly long stump speeches, and the poor--and, according to
Stanford researchers, biased--press coverage (the Los Angeles Times did not
publish a single photo of her during the campaign). Douglas benefited from
LyndonJohnson's mentorship and the support of notables like Drew Pearson,
Averill Harriman, and Eleanor Roosevelt who campaigned for her in California.
(Roosevelt also campaigned for her son James, whose gubernatorial campaign
against Earl Warren was a liability for all Democrats running in the state.)
But President Truman refused repeated appeals to help the Democrats in
California and waited until a few days before the election to issue a strong
endorsement of Douglas in the course of a press conference. Ahead of her
contemporaries on the issue of race, Douglas welcomed the support of Mary
McLeod Bethune who traveled to California to campaign for her; but the major
black newspaper in Los Angeles endorsed Nixon for his ability to combat
Communism.
Mitchell is sensitive to the obstacles Douglas faced as a woman running for
political office, including not only public attitudes about gender roles but
also how press reporting reflected the bias against women. He documents
Nixon's subtle techniques (using the word emotional to refer to Douglas) and
less subtle methods (repeating the statement that she was "pink right down to
her underwear") to focus voters' minds on her gender. At the same time,
however, Mitchell himself pays much more attention to Douglas's clothing and
appearance than he does to those of her opponent. Biographers of the two
principals, for example Roger Morris and Herbert Parmet on Nixon and Ingrid
Scobie on Douglas, offer more analysis of their motivations and of the outcome
and later significance of the election than does this volume. Tricky Dick and
the Pink Lady does not transform our understanding of the campaign or the
major characters, but in a very engaging way it does add detail about the
precise role of the two candidates in designing strategy, about campaign
practices pioneered by Nixon, and about the roles of the press and of other
participants in this campaign.
SUSAN M. HARTMANN
Professor of History and Women's Studies Ohio State University
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