How It All Began

NEW Hampshire has twice played a decisive role in the political fortunes of Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1948 it was an abortive and amateur effort to run the General in the New Hampshire presidential primary that led him to write his now famous letter to Leonard V. Finder, then publisher of the Manchester (N. H.) Evening Leader, saying that he would not accept nomination to the presidency or any other high political office.l And again in 1952 it was the political situation in New Hampshire that precipitated his decision to seek the presidency, or at least to permit others to seek it for him. And it was his resounding victory in the New Hampshire primary that gave his candidacy the impetus it needed to win the Republican nomination and later the presidency itself. Certainly there was nothing in the Eisenhower background to explain any particular affinity for the Granite State and its internal politics. The explanation is to be sought in two facts

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