Bringing to the
Presidency his prestige as commanding general of the
victorious forces in Europe during World War II, Dwight D.
Eisenhower obtained a truce in Korea and worked incessantly
during his two terms to ease the tensions of the Cold War. He
pursued the moderate policies of "Modern
Republicanism," pointing out as he left office,
"America is today the strongest, most influential, and
most productive nation in the world."
Born in Texas in
1890, brought up in Abilene, Kansas, Eisenhower was the third
of seven sons. He excelled in sports in high school, and
received an appointment to West Point. Stationed in Texas as a
second lieutenant, he met Mamie Geneva Doud, whom he married
in 1916.
In his early Army
career, he excelled in staff assignments, serving under
Generals John J. Pershing, Douglas MacArthur, and Walter
Krueger. After Pearl Harbor, General George C. Marshall called
him to Washington for a war plans assignment. He commanded the
Allied Forces landing in North Africa in November 1942; on
D-Day, 1944, he was Supreme Commander of the troops invading
France.
After the war, he
became President of Columbia University, then took leave to
assume supreme command over the new NATO forces being
assembled in 1951. Republican emissaries to his headquarters
near Paris persuaded him to run for President in 1952.
"I like
Ike" was an irresistible slogan; Eisenhower won a
sweeping victory.
Negotiating from
military strength, he tried to reduce the strains of the Cold
War. In 1953, the signing of a truce brought an armed peace
along the border of South Korea. The death of Stalin the same
year caused shifts in relations with Russia.
New Russian
leaders consented to a peace treaty neutralizing Austria.
Meanwhile, both Russia and the United States had developed
hydrogen bombs. With the threat of such destructive force
hanging over the world, Eisenhower, with the leaders of the
British, French, and Russian governments, met at Geneva in
July 1955.
The
President proposed that the United States and Russia exchange
blueprints of each other's military establishments and
"provide within our countries facilities for aerial
photography to the other country." The Russians greeted the
proposal with silence, but were so cordial throughout the
meetings that tensions relaxed.
Suddenly, in
September 1955, Eisenhower suffered a heart attack in Denver,
Colorado. After seven weeks he left the hospital, and in
February 1956 doctors reported his recovery. In November he
was elected for his second term.
In domestic
policy the President pursued a middle course, continuing most
of the New Deal and Fair Deal programs, emphasizing a balanced
budget. As desegregation of schools began, he sent troops into
Little Rock, Arkansas, to assure compliance with the orders of
a Federal court; he also ordered the complete desegregation of
the Armed Forces. "There must be no second class citizens
in this country," he wrote.
Eisenhower
concentrated on maintaining world peace. He watched with
pleasure the development of his "atoms for peace"
program--the loan of American uranium to "have not"
nations for peaceful purposes.
Before he left
office in January 1961, for his farm in Gettysburg, he urged
the necessity of maintaining an adequate military strength,
but cautioned that vast, long-continued military expenditures
could breed potential dangers to our way of life. He concluded
with a prayer for peace "in the goodness of time."
Both themes remained timely and urgent when he died, after a
long illness, on March 28, 1969.
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Dwight
Eisenhower