The Moderate and the McCarthyite: The Case of Robert Taft"
Your 2013 article describes Taft as I remember and learned about him, along with Eisenhower and McCarthy.
Taft was "Mr. Conservative" and Eisenhower was also conservative, certainly by standards of today.
Taft and Ike got along well.
Taft's views on McCarthy were the same as mine -- McCarthy did some good work, exposing corruptions in our government, and that was very useful, however, McCarthy was also careless in accusing sometimes innocent people.
As for some children of famous Republicans, Liz Cheney comes to mind, and the Bushes, this John Taft seems to be in that same mold.
My point about "Mr. Conservative", Ohio Sen. Robert Taft is that he got along well with Republican Pres. Eisenhower and Eisenhower supported NATO and the policy of "containment" against Chi-Com and Old Soviet empire building.
There was nothing "neo-con" about either Taft or Eisenhower.
In 1953 US military spending was, relative to GDP, four times what it is today.
When Eisenhower left office in 1961, US defense spending was still over three times what it is today, relative to GDP.
