A BYGONE AGE

The scene is the early stages of the presidential election of 1952. From Stephen Ambrose's 1983 biography of Eisenhower:

[A]t a press conference a reporter asked Truman a loaded question designed to produce an anti-Eisenhower statement. The President refused to comment and sent a recording of the conference to Eisenhower. In thanking him, Eisenhower said he too would do all he could to avoid creating any 'irritation or mutual resentment between us.' Truman replied, 'You can rest assured that no matter what the professional liars and the pathological columnists have to say, you and I understand each other.' (521)

On the other hand, on the campaign trail, in an attempt to appeal to his base in the primaries, vice presidential candidate Richard Nixon "called Stevenson a graduate of Dean Acheson's 'cowardly college of communist containment'" (553).