Dwight
David "Ike" Eisenhower (/ˈaɪzənhaʊ.ər/ EYE-zən-how-ər; October 14, 1890
– March 28, 1969), GCB, OM was an American army general and statesman
who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961.
During World War II, he became a five-star general in the Army and
served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe.
He was responsible for planning and supervising the invasion of North
Africa in Operation Torch in 1942–43 and the successful invasion of
Normandy in 1944–45 from the Western Front.
Eisenhower
was born David Dwight Eisenhower, and raised in Abilene, Kansas, in a
large family of mostly Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. His family had a
strong religious background. His mother was a Lutheran, married as a
River Brethren, and later became a Jehovah's Witness. Eisenhower,
however, did not belong to any organized church until 1952. He cited
constant relocation during his military career as one reason.[2] He
graduated from West Point in 1915 and later married Mamie Doud, with
whom he had two sons. During World War I, he was denied a request to
serve in Europe and instead commanded a unit that trained tank crews.
Following the war, he served under various generals and was promoted to
the rank of brigadier general in 1941. After the United States entered
World War II, Eisenhower oversaw the invasions of North Africa and
Sicily before supervising the invasions of France and Germany. After the
war, he served as Army Chief of Staff (1945–1948), as president of
Columbia University (1948–1953) and as the first Supreme Commander of
NATO (1951–1952).
In 1952,
Eisenhower entered the presidential race as a Republican to block the
isolationist foreign policies of Senator Robert A. Taft; Taft opposed
NATO and wanted no foreign entanglements. Eisenhower won that election
and the 1956 election in landslides, both times defeating Adlai
Stevenson II. Eisenhower's main goals in office were to contain the
spread of communism and reduce federal deficits. In 1953, he threatened
to use nuclear weapons until China agreed to peace terms in the Korean
War. China did agree and an armistice resulted which remains in effect.
His New Look policy of nuclear deterrence prioritized inexpensive
nuclear weapons while reducing funding for expensive Army divisions. He
continued Harry S. Truman's policy of recognizing Taiwan as the
legitimate government of China, and he won congressional approval of the
Formosa Resolution. His administration provided major aid to help the
French fight off Vietnamese Communists in the First Indochina War. After
the French left, he gave strong financial support to the new state of
South Vietnam. He supported military coups in Iran and Guatemala
orchestrated by his own administration. During the Suez Crisis of 1956,
he condemned the Israeli, British, and French invasion of Egypt, and he
forced them to withdraw. He also condemned the Soviet invasion during
the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 but took no action. After the Soviet
Union launched Sputnik in 1957, Eisenhower authorized the establishment
of NASA, which led to the Space Race. He deployed 15,000 soldiers during
the 1958 Lebanon crisis. Near the end of his term, he failed to set up a
summit meeting with the Soviets when a U.S. spy plane was shot down
over the Soviet Union. He approved the Bay of Pigs invasion, which was
left to John F. Kennedy to carry out.
On
the domestic front, Eisenhower was a moderate conservative who
continued New Deal agencies and expanded Social Security. He covertly
opposed Joseph McCarthy and contributed to the end of McCarthyism by
openly invoking executive privilege. He signed the Civil Rights Act of
1957 and sent Army troops to enforce federal court orders which
integrated schools in Little Rock, Arkansas. His largest program was the
Interstate Highway System. He promoted the establishment of strong
science education via the National Defense Education Act. His two terms
saw widespread economic prosperity except for a minor recession in 1958.
In his farewell address to the nation, he expressed his concerns about
the dangers of massive military spending, particularly deficit spending
and government contracts to private military manufacturers, which he
dubbed "the military–industrial complex". Historical evaluations of his
presidency place him among the upper tier of American presidents.
Contents
1 Family background
2 Early life and education
3 Personal life
4 World War I
4.1 In service of generals
5 World War II
5.1 Operations Torch and Avalanche
5.2 Supreme Allied commander and Operation Overlord
5.3 Liberation of France and victory in Europe
6 After World War II
6.1 Military Governor in Germany and Army Chief of Staff
6.2 1948 presidential election
6.3 President at Columbia University and NATO Supreme Commander
6.4 Presidential campaign of 1952
6.5 Election of 1956
7 Presidency (1953–1961)
7.1 Interstate Highway System
7.2 Foreign policy
7.2.1 Space Race
7.2.2 Korean War, Free China and Red China
7.2.3 Southeast Asia
7.2.4 Legitimation of Francoist Spain
7.2.5 The Middle East and Eisenhower doctrine
7.2.6 1960 U-2 incident
7.3 Civil rights
7.4 Relations with Congress
7.5 Judicial appointments
7.5.1 Supreme Court
7.6 States admitted to the Union
7.7 Health issues
7.8 End of presidency
8 Post-presidency, death and funeral
9 Legacy and memory
9.1 Tributes and memorials
10 Awards and decorations
11 Promotions
12 Family tree
13 See also
14 References
15 Bibliography
15.1 General biographies
15.2 Military career
15.3 Civilian career
15.4 Primary sources
16 External links
Family background
The Eisenhower family home in Abilene, Kansas
The
Eisenhauer (German for "iron hewer/miner") family migrated from
Karlsbrunn in Nassau-Saarbrücken, to America, first settling in York,
Pennsylvania, in 1741, and in the 1880s moving to Kansas.[3] Accounts
vary as to how and when the German name Eisenhauer was anglicized to
Eisenhower.[4] Eisenhower's Pennsylvania Dutch ancestors, who were
primarily farmers, included Hans Nikolaus Eisenhauer of Karlsbrunn, who
migrated to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1741.[5]
Hans's
great-great-grandson, David Jacob Eisenhower (1863–1942), was
Eisenhower's father and was a college-educated engineer, despite his own
father Jacob's urging to stay on the family farm. Eisenhower's mother,
Ida Elizabeth (Stover) Eisenhower, born in Virginia, of German
Protestant ancestry, moved to Kansas from Virginia. She married David on
September 23, 1885, in Lecompton, Kansas, on the campus of their alma
mater, Lane University.[6]
David
owned a general store in Hope, Kansas, but the business failed due to
economic conditions and the family became impoverished. The Eisenhowers
then lived in Texas from 1889 until 1892, and later returned to Kansas,
with $24 (equivalent to $683 in 2019) to their name at the time. David
worked as a railroad mechanic and then at a creamery.[6] By 1898, the
parents made a decent living and provided a suitable home for their
large family.[7]
Early life and education
Dwight
David Eisenhower was born on October 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas, the
third of seven sons.[8] His mother originally named him David Dwight but
reversed the two names after his birth to avoid the confusion of having
two Davids in the family.[9] All of the boys were called "Ike", such as
"Big Ike" (Edgar) and "Little Ike" (Dwight); the nickname was intended
as an abbreviation of their last name.[10] By World War II, only Dwight
was still called "Ike".[3]
In
1892, the family moved to Abilene, Kansas, which Eisenhower considered
his hometown.[3] As a child, he was involved in an accident that cost
his younger brother an eye; he later referred to this as an experience
that taught him the need to be protective of those under him.[citation
needed] Dwight developed a keen and enduring interest in exploring the
outdoors. He learned about hunting and fishing, cooking, and card
playing from an illiterate named Bob Davis who camped on the Smoky Hill
River.[11][12][13]
While
Eisenhower's mother was against war, it was her collection of history
books that first sparked Eisenhower's early and lasting interest in
military history. He persisted in reading the books in her collection
and became a voracious reader on the subject. Other favorite subjects
early in his education were arithmetic and spelling.[14]
His
parents set aside specific times at breakfast and at dinner for daily
family Bible reading. Chores were regularly assigned and rotated among
all the children, and misbehavior was met with unequivocal discipline,
usually from David.[15] His mother, previously a member (with David) of
the River Brethren sect of the Mennonites, joined the International
Bible Students Association, later known as Jehovah's Witnesses. The
Eisenhower home served as the local meeting hall from 1896 to 1915,
though Eisenhower never joined the International Bible Students.[16] His
later decision to attend West Point saddened his mother, who felt that
warfare was "rather wicked", but she did not overrule his decision.[17]
While speaking of himself in 1948, Eisenhower said he was "one of the
most deeply religious men I know" though unattached to any "sect or
organization". He was baptized in the Presbyterian Church in 1953.[18]
Eisenhower
attended Abilene High School and graduated with the class of 1909.[19]
As a freshman, he injured his knee and developed a leg infection that
extended into his groin, and which his doctor diagnosed as
life-threatening. The doctor insisted that the leg be amputated but
Dwight refused to allow it, and surprisingly recovered, though he had to
repeat his freshman year.[20] He and brother Edgar both wanted to
attend college, though they lacked the funds. They made a pact to take
alternate years at college while the other worked to earn the
tuitions.[21]
Edgar took the
first turn at school, and Dwight was employed as a night supervisor at
the Belle Springs Creamery.[22] When Edgar asked for a second year,
Dwight consented and worked for a second year. At that time, a friend
"Swede" Hazlett was applying to the Naval Academy and urged Dwight to
apply to the school, since no tuition was required. Eisenhower requested
consideration for either Annapolis or West Point with his U.S. Senator,
Joseph L. Bristow. Though Eisenhower was among the winners of the
entrance-exam competition, he was beyond the age limit for the Naval
Academy.[23] He then accepted an appointment to West Point in 1911.[23]
Eisenhower (third from left) and Omar Bradley (second from right) were members of the 1912 West Point football team.
At
West Point, Eisenhower relished the emphasis on traditions and on
sports, but was less enthusiastic about the hazing, though he willingly
accepted it as a plebe. He was also a regular violator of the more
detailed regulations, and finished school with a less than stellar
discipline rating. Academically, Eisenhower's best subject by far was
English. Otherwise, his performance was average, though he thoroughly
enjoyed the typical emphasis of engineering on science and
mathematics.[24]
In
athletics, Eisenhower later said that "not making the baseball team at
West Point was one of the greatest disappointments of my life, maybe my
greatest".[25] He made the varsity football team[26][27] and was a
starter as running back and linebacker in 1912, when he tackled the
legendary Jim Thorpe of the Carlisle Indians.[28] Eisenhower suffered a
torn knee while being tackled in the next game, which was the last he
played; he re-injured his knee on horseback and in the boxing
ring,[3][11][29] so he turned to fencing and gymnastics.[3]
Eisenhower
later served as junior varsity football coach and cheerleader. He
graduated in the middle of the class of 1915,[30] which became known as
"the class the stars fell on", because 59 members eventually became
general officers.
Personal life
Main article: Family of Dwight D. Eisenhower
While
Eisenhower was stationed in Texas, he met Mamie Doud of Boone, Iowa.[3]
They were immediately taken with each other. He proposed to her on
Valentine's Day in 1916.[31] A November wedding date in Denver was moved
up to July 1 due to the pending U.S. entry into World War I. They moved
many times during their first 35 years of marriage.[32]
The
Eisenhowers had two sons. Doud Dwight "Icky" Eisenhower (1917–1921)
died of scarlet fever at the age of three.[33] Eisenhower was mostly
reluctant to discuss his death.[34] Their second son, John Eisenhower
(1922–2013), was born in Denver, Colorado.[35] John served in the United
States Army, retired as a brigadier general, became an author and
served as U.S. Ambassador to Belgium from 1969 to 1971. Coincidentally,
John graduated from West Point on D-Day, June 6, 1944. He married
Barbara Jean Thompson on June 10, 1947. John and Barbara had four
children: David, Barbara Ann, Susan Elaine and Mary Jean. David, after
whom Camp David is named,[36] married Richard Nixon's daughter Julie in
1968.
Mamie Eisenhower, painted in 1953 by Thomas E. Stephens
Eisenhower
was a golf enthusiast later in life, and he joined the Augusta National
Golf Club in 1948.[37] He played golf frequently during and after his
presidency and was unreserved in expressing his passion for the game, to
the point of golfing during winter; he ordered his golf balls painted
black so he could see them better against snow on the ground. He had a
small, basic golf facility installed at Camp David, and became close
friends with the Augusta National Chairman Clifford Roberts, inviting
Roberts to stay at the White House on several occasions. Roberts, an
investment broker, also handled the Eisenhower family's investments.
Roberts also advised Eisenhower on tax aspects of publishing his
memoirs, which proved financially lucrative.[37]
Oil
painting was one of Eisenhower's hobbies.[34] He began painting while
at Columbia University, after watching Thomas E. Stephens paint Mamie's
portrait. In order to relax, Eisenhower painted about 260 oils during
the last 20 years of his life. The images were mostly landscapes, but
also portraits of subjects such as Mamie, their grandchildren, General
Montgomery, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln.[38] Wendy Beckett
stated that Eisenhower's work, "simple and earnest, rather cause us to
wonder at the hidden depths of this reticent president". A conservative
in both art and politics, he in a 1962 speech denounced modern art as "a
piece of canvas that looks like a broken-down Tin Lizzie, loaded with
paint, has been driven over it".[34]
Angels
in the Outfield was Eisenhower's favorite movie.[39] His favorite
reading material for relaxation were the Western novels of Zane
Grey.[40] With his excellent memory and ability to focus, Eisenhower was
skilled at card games. He learned poker, which he called his "favorite
indoor sport", in Abilene. Eisenhower recorded West Point classmates'
poker losses for payment after graduation, and later stopped playing
because his opponents resented having to pay him. A friend reported that
after learning to play contract bridge at West Point, Eisenhower played
the game six nights a week for five months.[41] Eisenhower continued to
play bridge throughout his military career. While stationed in the
Philippines, he played regularly with President Manuel Quezon. During
WWII, an unwritten qualification for an officer's appointment to
Eisenhower's staff was the ability to play a sound game of bridge. He
played even during the stressful weeks leading up to the D-Day landings.
His favorite partner was General Alfred Gruenther, considered the best
player in the U.S. Army; he appointed Gruenther his second-in-command at
NATO partly because of his skill at bridge. Saturday night bridge games
at the White House were a feature of his presidency. He was a strong
player, though not an expert by modern standards. The great bridge
player and popularizer Ely Culbertson described his game as classic and
sound with "flashes of brilliance", and said that "You can always judge a
man's character by the way he plays cards. Eisenhower is a calm and
collected player and never whines at his losses. He is brilliant in
victory but never commits the bridge player's worst crime of gloating
when he wins." Bridge expert Oswald Jacoby frequently participated in
the White House games, and said, "The President plays better bridge than
golf. He tries to break 90 at golf. At bridge, you would say he plays
in the 70s."[42]
World War I
See also: Military career of Dwight D. Eisenhower
After
graduation in 1915, Second Lieutenant Eisenhower requested an
assignment in the Philippines, which was denied. He served initially in
logistics and then the infantry at various camps in Texas and Georgia
until 1918. In 1916, while stationed at Fort Sam Houston, Eisenhower was
football coach for St. Louis College, now St. Mary's University.[43]
Eisenhower was an honorary member of the Sigma Beta Chi fraternity at
St. Mary's University.[44] In late 1917, while he was in charge of
training at Ft. Oglethorpe in Georgia, his wife Mamie had their first
son.
When the U.S. entered
World War I, he immediately requested an overseas assignment but was
again denied and then assigned to Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas.[45] In
February 1918, he was transferred to Camp Meade in Maryland with the
65th Engineers. His unit was later ordered to France, but to his chagrin
he received orders for the new tank corps, where he was promoted to
brevet lieutenant colonel in the National Army.[46] He commanded a unit
that trained tank crews at Camp Colt – his first command – at the site
of "Pickett's Charge" on the Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Civil War
battleground. Though Eisenhower and his tank crews never saw combat, he
displayed excellent organizational skills, as well as an ability to
accurately assess junior officers' strengths and make optimal placements
of personnel.[47]
Once again
his spirits were raised when the unit under his command received orders
overseas to France. This time his wishes were thwarted when the
armistice was signed a week before his departure date.[48] Completely
missing out on the warfront left him depressed and bitter for a time,
despite receiving the Distinguished Service Medal for his work at
home.[citation needed] In World War II, rivals who had combat service in
the first great war (led by Gen. Bernard Montgomery) sought to
denigrate Eisenhower for his previous lack of combat duty, despite his
stateside experience establishing a camp, completely equipped, for
thousands of troops, and developing a full combat training schedule.[49]
In service of generals
Eisenhower (far right) with three unidentified men in 1919, four years after graduating from West Point
After
the war, Eisenhower reverted to his regular rank of captain and a few
days later was promoted to major, a rank he held for 16 years.[5] The
major was assigned in 1919 to a transcontinental Army convoy to test
vehicles and dramatize the need for improved roads in the nation.
Indeed, the convoy averaged only 5 mph from Washington, D.C., to San
Francisco; later the improvement of highways became a signature issue
for Eisenhower as president.[50]
He
assumed duties again at Camp Meade, Maryland, commanding a battalion of
tanks, where he remained until 1922. His schooling continued, focused
on the nature of the next war and the role of the tank in it. His new
expertise in tank warfare was strengthened by a close collaboration with
George S. Patton, Sereno E. Brett, and other senior tank leaders. Their
leading-edge ideas of speed-oriented offensive tank warfare were
strongly discouraged by superiors, who considered the new approach too
radical and preferred to continue using tanks in a strictly supportive
role for the infantry. Eisenhower was even threatened with court-martial
for continued publication of these proposed methods of tank deployment,
and he relented.[51][52]
From
1920, Eisenhower served under a succession of talented generals – Fox
Conner, John J. Pershing, Douglas MacArthur and George Marshall. He
first became executive officer to General Conner in the Panama Canal
Zone, where, joined by Mamie, he served until 1924. Under Conner's
tutelage, he studied military history and theory (including Carl von
Clausewitz's On War), and later cited Conner's enormous influence on his
military thinking, saying in 1962 that "Fox Conner was the ablest man I
ever knew." Conner's comment on Eisenhower was, "[He] is one of the
most capable, efficient and loyal officers I have ever met."[53] On
Conner's recommendation, in 1925–26 he attended the Command and General
Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he graduated first in a
class of 245 officers.[54][55] He then served as a battalion commander
at Fort Benning, Georgia, until 1927.
During
the late 1920s and early 1930s, Eisenhower's career in the post-war
army stalled somewhat, as military priorities diminished; many of his
friends resigned for high-paying business jobs. He was assigned to the
American Battle Monuments Commission directed by General Pershing, and
with the help of his brother Milton Eisenhower, then a journalist at the
Agriculture Department, he produced a guide to American battlefields in
Europe.[56] He then was assigned to the Army War College and graduated
in 1928. After a one-year assignment in France, Eisenhower served as
executive officer to General George V. Moseley, Assistant Secretary of
War, from 1929 to February 1933.[57] Major Dwight D. Eisenhower
graduated from the Army Industrial College (Washington, DC) in 1933 and
later served on the faculty (it was later expanded to become the
Industrial College of the Armed Services and is now known as the Dwight
D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource
Strategy).[58][59]
His
primary duty was planning for the next war, which proved most difficult
in the midst of the Great Depression.[60] He then was posted as chief
military aide to General Douglas MacArthur, Army Chief of Staff. In 1932
he participated in the clearing of the Bonus March encampment in
Washington, D.C. Although he was against the actions taken against the
veterans and strongly advised MacArthur against taking a public role in
it, he later wrote the Army's official incident report, endorsing
MacArthur's conduct.[61][62]
In
1935 he accompanied MacArthur to the Philippines, where he served as
assistant military adviser to the Philippine government in developing
their army. Eisenhower had strong philosophical disagreements with
MacArthur regarding the role of the Philippine Army and the leadership
qualities that an American army officer should exhibit and develop in
his subordinates. The resulting antipathy between Eisenhower and
MacArthur lasted the rest of their lives.[63]
Historians
have concluded that this assignment provided valuable preparation for
handling the challenging personalities of Winston Churchill, George S.
Patton, George Marshall, and Bernard Montgomery during World War II.
Eisenhower later emphasized that too much had been made of the
disagreements with MacArthur, and that a positive relationship
endured.[64] While in Manila, Mamie suffered a life-threatening stomach
ailment but recovered fully. Eisenhower was promoted to the rank of
permanent lieutenant colonel in 1936. He also learned to fly, making a
solo flight over the Philippines in 1937, and obtained his private
pilot's license in 1939 at Fort Lewis.[65][66] Also around this time, he
was offered a post by the Philippine Commonwealth Government, namely by
then Philippine President Manuel L. Quezon on recommendations by
MacArthur, to become the chief of police of a new capital being planned,
now named Quezon City, but he declined the offer.[67]
Eisenhower
returned to the United States in December 1939 and was assigned as
commanding officer (CO) of the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment at
Fort Lewis, Washington, later becoming the regimental executive officer.
In March 1941 he was promoted to colonel and assigned as chief of staff
of the newly activated IX Corps under Major General Kenyon Joyce. In
June 1941, he was appointed chief of staff to General Walter Krueger,
Commander of the Third Army, at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas.
After successfully participating in the Louisiana Maneuvers, he was
promoted to brigadier general on October 3, 1941.[68][69] Although his
administrative abilities had been noticed, on the eve of the American
entry into World War II he had never held an active command above a
battalion and was far from being considered by many as a potential
commander of major operations.
World War II
After
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Eisenhower was assigned to the
General Staff in Washington, where he served until June 1942 with
responsibility for creating the major war plans to defeat Japan and
Germany. He was appointed Deputy Chief in charge of Pacific Defenses
under the Chief of War Plans Division (WPD), General Leonard T. Gerow,
and then succeeded Gerow as Chief of the War Plans Division. Next, he
was appointed Assistant Chief of Staff in charge of the new Operations
Division (which replaced WPD) under Chief of Staff General George C.
Marshall, who spotted talent and promoted accordingly.[70]
At
the end of May 1942, Eisenhower accompanied Lt. Gen. Henry H. Arnold,
commanding general of the Army Air Forces, to London to assess the
effectiveness of the theater commander in England, Maj. Gen. James E.
Chaney.[71] He returned to Washington on June 3 with a pessimistic
assessment, stating he had an "uneasy feeling" about Chaney and his
staff. On June 23, 1942, he returned to London as Commanding General,
European Theater of Operations (ETOUSA), based in London and with a
house on Coombe, Kingston upon Thames,[72] and took over command of
ETOUSA from Chaney.[73] He was promoted to lieutenant general on July 7.
Operations Torch and Avalanche
Eisenhower as a major general, 1942
In
November 1942, Eisenhower was also appointed Supreme Commander Allied
Expeditionary Force of the North African Theater of Operations (NATOUSA)
through the new operational Headquarters Allied (Expeditionary) Force
Headquarters (A(E)FHQ). The word "expeditionary" was dropped soon after
his appointment for security reasons.[failed verification] The campaign
in North Africa was designated Operation Torch and was planned
underground within the Rock of Gibraltar. Eisenhower was the first
non-British person to command Gibraltar in 200 years.[74]
French
cooperation was deemed necessary to the campaign, and Eisenhower
encountered a "preposterous situation"[according to whom?] with the
multiple rival factions in France. His primary objective was to move
forces successfully into Tunisia, and intending to facilitate that
objective, he gave his support to François Darlan as High Commissioner
in North Africa, despite Darlan's previous high offices of state in
Vichy France and his continued role as commander-in-chief of the French
armed forces. The Allied leaders were "thunderstruck"[according to
whom?] by this from a political standpoint, though none of them had
offered Eisenhower guidance with the problem in the course of planning
the operation. Eisenhower was severely criticized[by whom?] for the
move. Darlan was assassinated on December 24 by Fernand Bonnier de La
Chapelle. Eisenhower did not take action to prevent the arrest and
extrajudicial execution of Bonnier de La Chapelle by associates of
Darlan acting without authority from either Vichy or the Allies,
considering it a criminal rather than a military matter.[75] Eisenhower
later appointed, as High Commissioner, General Henri Giraud, who had
been installed by the Allies as Darlan's commander-in-chief, and who had
refused to postpone the execution.[76]
General Eisenhower, General Patton (standing to the left) and President Roosevelt in Sicily, 1943
Operation
Torch also served as a valuable training ground for Eisenhower's combat
command skills; during the initial phase of Generalfeldmarschall Erwin
Rommel's move into the Kasserine Pass, Eisenhower created some confusion
in the ranks by some interference with the execution of battle plans by
his subordinates. He also was initially indecisive in his removal of
Lloyd Fredendall, commanding U.S. II Corps. He became more adroit in
such matters in later campaigns.[77] In February 1943, his authority was
extended as commander of AFHQ across the Mediterranean basin to include
the British Eighth Army, commanded by General Sir Bernard Montgomery.
The Eighth Army had advanced across the Western Desert from the east and
was ready for the start of the Tunisia Campaign. Eisenhower gained his
fourth star and gave up command of ETOUSA to become commander of
NATOUSA.
After the
capitulation of Axis forces in North Africa, Eisenhower oversaw the
invasion of Sicily. Once Mussolini, the Italian leader, had fallen in
Italy, the Allies switched their attention to the mainland with
Operation Avalanche. But while Eisenhower argued with President
Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill, who both insisted on
unconditional terms of surrender in exchange for helping the Italians,
the Germans pursued an aggressive buildup of forces in the country. The
Germans made the already tough battle more difficult by adding 19
divisions and initially outnumbering the Allied forces 2 to 1.[78]
Supreme Allied commander and Operation Overlord
In
December 1943, President Roosevelt decided that Eisenhower – not
Marshall – would be Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. The following
month, he resumed command of ETOUSA and the following month was
officially designated as the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied
Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), serving in a dual role until the end of
hostilities in Europe in May 1945.[79] He was charged in these positions
with planning and carrying out the Allied assault on the coast of
Normandy in June 1944 under the code name Operation Overlord, the
liberation of Western Europe and the invasion of Germany.
Eisenhower
speaks with men of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the
101st Airborne Division, on June 5, 1944, the day before the D-Day
invasion.
Eisenhower, as well as the officers and
troops under him, had learned valuable lessons in their previous
operations, and their skills had all strengthened in preparation for the
next most difficult campaign against the Germans—a beach landing
assault. His first struggles, however, were with Allied leaders and
officers on matters vital to the success of the Normandy invasion; he
argued with Roosevelt over an essential agreement with De Gaulle to use
French resistance forces in covert and sabotage operations against the
Germans in advance of Overlord.[80] Admiral Ernest J. King fought with
Eisenhower over King's refusal to provide additional landing craft from
the Pacific.[81] Eisenhower also insisted that the British give him
exclusive command over all strategic air forces to facilitate Overlord,
to the point of threatening to resign unless Churchill relented, which
he did.[82] Eisenhower then designed a bombing plan in France in advance
of Overlord and argued with Churchill over the latter's concern with
civilian casualties; de Gaulle interjected that the casualties were
justified in shedding the yoke of the Germans, and Eisenhower
prevailed.[83] He also had to skillfully manage to retain the services
of the often unruly George S. Patton, by severely reprimanding him when
Patton earlier had slapped a subordinate, and then when Patton gave a
speech in which he made improper comments about postwar policy.[84]
From left, front row includes army officers Simpson, Patton, Spaatz, Eisenhower, Bradley, Hodges and Gerow in 1945
The
D-Day Normandy landings on June 6, 1944, were costly but successful.
Two months later (August 15), the invasion of Southern France took
place, and control of forces in the southern invasion passed from the
AFHQ to the SHAEF. Many thought that victory in Europe would come by
summer's end, but the Germans did not capitulate for almost a year. From
then until the end of the war in Europe on May 8, 1945, Eisenhower,
through SHAEF, commanded all Allied forces, and through his command of
ETOUSA had administrative command of all U.S. forces on the Western
Front north of the Alps. He was ever mindful of the inevitable loss of
life and suffering that would be experienced on an individual level by
the troops under his command and their families. This prompted him to
make a point of visiting every division involved in the invasion.[85]
Eisenhower's sense of responsibility was underscored by his draft of a
statement to be issued if the invasion failed. It has been called one of
the great speeches of history:
Our
landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory
foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this
time and place was based on the best information available. The troops,
the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could
do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.[86]
Liberation of France and victory in Europe
Eisenhower with Allied commanders following the signing of the German Instrument of Surrender at Reims
Once
the coastal assault had succeeded, Eisenhower insisted on retaining
personal control over the land battle strategy, and was immersed in the
command and supply of multiple assaults through France on Germany. Field
Marshal Montgomery insisted priority be given to his 21st Army Group's
attack being made in the north, while Generals Bradley (12th U.S. Army
Group) and Devers (Sixth U.S. Army Group) insisted they be given
priority in the center and south of the front (respectively). Eisenhower
worked tirelessly to address the demands of the rival commanders to
optimize Allied forces, often by giving them tactical latitude; many
historians conclude this delayed the Allied victory in Europe. However,
due to Eisenhower's persistence, the pivotal supply port at Antwerp was
successfully, albeit belatedly, opened in late 1944.[87]
Eisenhower as General of the Army, 1945
In
recognition of his senior position in the Allied command, on December
20, 1944, he was promoted to General of the Army, equivalent to the rank
of Field Marshal in most European armies. In this and the previous high
commands he held, Eisenhower showed his great talents for leadership
and diplomacy. Although he had never seen action himself, he won the
respect of front-line commanders. He interacted adeptly with allies such
as Winston Churchill, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and General
Charles de Gaulle. He had serious disagreements with Churchill and
Montgomery over questions of strategy, but these rarely upset his
relationships with them. He dealt with Soviet Marshal Zhukov, his
Russian counterpart, and they became good friends.[88]
In
December 1944, the Germans launched a surprise counter offensive, the
Battle of the Bulge, which the Allies turned back in early 1945 after
Eisenhower repositioned his armies and improved weather allowed the Air
Force to engage.[89] German defenses continued to deteriorate on both
the eastern front with the Soviets and the western front with the
Allies. The British wanted to capture Berlin, but Eisenhower decided it
would be a military mistake for him to attack Berlin, and said orders to
that effect would have to be explicit. The British backed down, but
then wanted Eisenhower to move into Czechoslovakia for political
reasons. Washington refused to support Churchill's plan to use
Eisenhower's army for political maneuvers against Moscow. The actual
division of Germany followed the lines that Roosevelt, Churchill and
Stalin had previously agreed upon. The Soviet Red Army captured Berlin
in a very large-scale bloody battle, and the Germans finally surrendered
on May 7, 1945.[90]
In 1945
Eisenhower anticipated that someday an attempt would be made to
recharacterize Nazi crimes as propaganda (Holocaust denial) and took
steps against it by demanding extensive still and movie photographic
documentation of Nazi death camps.[91]
After World War II
Military Governor in Germany and Army Chief of Staff
General
Eisenhower served as military governor of the American zone
(highlighted) in Allied-occupied Germany from May through November 1945
Following
the German unconditional surrender, Eisenhower was appointed military
governor of the American occupation zone, located primarily in Southern
Germany, and headquartered at the IG Farben Building in Frankfurt am
Main. Upon discovery of the Nazi concentration camps, he ordered camera
crews to document evidence of the atrocities in them for use in the
Nuremberg Trials. He reclassified German prisoners of war (POWs) in U.S.
custody as Disarmed Enemy Forces (DEFs), who were no longer subject to
the Geneva Convention. Eisenhower followed the orders laid down by the
Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) in directive JCS 1067, but softened them by
bringing in 400,000 tons of food for civilians and allowing more
fraternization.[92][93][94] In response to the devastation in Germany,
including food shortages and an influx of refugees, he arranged
distribution of American food and medical equipment.[95] His actions
reflected the new American attitudes of the German people as Nazi
victims not villains, while aggressively purging the ex-Nazis.[96][97]
General Eisenhower (left) in Warsaw, Poland, 1945
In
November 1945, Eisenhower returned to Washington to replace Marshall as
Chief of Staff of the Army. His main role was rapid demobilization of
millions of soldiers, a job that was delayed by lack of shipping.
Eisenhower was convinced in 1946 that the Soviet Union did not want war
and that friendly relations could be maintained; he strongly supported
the new United Nations and favored its involvement in the control of
atomic bombs. However, in formulating policies regarding the atomic bomb
and relations with the Soviets, Truman was guided by the U.S. State
Department and ignored Eisenhower and the Pentagon. Indeed, Eisenhower
had opposed the use of the atomic bomb against the Japanese, writing,
"First, the Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn't necessary to
hit them with that awful thing. Second, I hated to see our country be
the first to use such a weapon."[98] Initially, Eisenhower hoped for
cooperation with the Soviets.[99] He even visited Warsaw in 1945.
Invited by Bolesław Bierut and decorated with the highest military
decoration, he was shocked by the scale of destruction in the city.[100]
However, by mid-1947, as East–West tensions over economic recovery in
Germany and the Greek Civil War escalated, Eisenhower agreed with a
containment policy to stop Soviet expansion.[99]
1948 presidential election
In
June 1943, a visiting politician had suggested to Eisenhower that he
might become President of the United States after the war. Believing
that a general should not participate in politics, Merlo J. Pusey wrote
that "figuratively speaking, [Eisenhower] kicked his political-minded
visitor out of his office". As others asked him about his political
future, Eisenhower told one that he could not imagine wanting to be
considered for any political job "from dogcatcher to Grand High Supreme
King of the Universe", and another that he could not serve as Army Chief
of Staff if others believed he had political ambitions. In 1945 Truman
told Eisenhower during the Potsdam Conference that if desired, the
president would help the general win the 1948 election,[101] and in 1947
he offered to run as Eisenhower's running mate on the Democratic ticket
if MacArthur won the Republican nomination.[102]
As
the election approached, other prominent citizens and politicians from
both parties urged Eisenhower to run for president. In January 1948,
after learning of plans in New Hampshire to elect delegates supporting
him for the forthcoming Republican National Convention, Eisenhower
stated through the Army that he was "not available for and could not
accept nomination to high political office"; "life-long professional
soldiers", he wrote, "in the absence of some obvious and overriding
reason, [should] abstain from seeking high political office".[101]
Eisenhower maintained no political party affiliation during this time.
Many believed he was forgoing his only opportunity to be president:
Republican Thomas E. Dewey was considered the probable winner and would
presumably serve two terms, meaning that Eisenhower, at age 66 in 1956,
would be too old to have another chance to run.[103]
President at Columbia University and NATO Supreme Commander
In
1948 Eisenhower became President of Columbia University, an Ivy League
university in New York City, where he was inducted into Phi Beta
Kappa.[104] The assignment was described as not being a good fit in
either direction.[105] During that year Eisenhower's memoir, Crusade in
Europe, was published.[106] Critics regarded it as one of the finest
U.S. military memoirs, and it was a major financial success as well.
Eisenhower's profit on the book was substantially aided by an
unprecedented ruling[citation needed] by the U.S. Department of the
Treasury that Eisenhower was not a professional writer, but rather,
marketing the lifetime asset of his experiences, and thus he had to pay
only capital gains tax on his $635,000 advance instead of the much
higher personal tax rate. This ruling saved Eisenhower about
$400,000.[107]
Eisenhower's
stint as the president of Columbia University was punctuated by his
activity within the Council on Foreign Relations, a study group he led
as president concerning the political and military implications of the
Marshall Plan, and The American Assembly, Eisenhower's "vision of a
great cultural center where business, professional and governmental
leaders could meet from time to time to discuss and reach conclusions
concerning problems of a social and political nature". His biographer
Blanche Wiesen Cook suggested that this period served as "the political
education of General Eisenhower", since he had to prioritize
wide-ranging educational, administrative, and financial demands for the
university. Through his involvement in the Council on Foreign Relations,
he also gained exposure to economic analysis, which would become the
bedrock of his understanding in economic policy. "Whatever General
Eisenhower knows about economics, he has learned at the study group
meetings," one Aid to Europe member claimed.
Eisenhower
accepted the presidency of the university to expand his ability to
promote "the American form of democracy" through education. He was clear
on this point to the trustees involved in the search committee. He
informed them that his main purpose was "to promote the basic concepts
of education in a democracy". As a result, he was "almost incessantly"
devoted to the idea of the American Assembly, a concept he developed
into an institution by the end of 1950.
Within
months of beginning his tenure as the president of the university,
Eisenhower was requested to advise U.S. Secretary of Defense James
Forrestal on the unification of the armed services. About six months
after his appointment, he became the informal Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff in Washington. Two months later he fell ill, and he
spent over a month in recovery at the Augusta National Golf Club. He
returned to his post in New York in mid-May, and in July 1949 took a
two-month vacation out-of-state. Because the American Assembly had begun
to take shape, he traveled around the country during mid-to-late 1950,
building financial support from Columbia Associates, an alumni
association.
Eisenhower was
unknowingly building resentment and a reputation among the Columbia
University faculty and staff as an absentee president who was using the
university for his own interests. As a career military man, he naturally
had little in common with the academics.[108]
The
contacts gained through university and American Assembly fund-raising
activities would later become important supporters in Eisenhower's bid
for the Republican party nomination and the presidency. Meanwhile,
Columbia University's liberal faculty members became disenchanted with
the university president's ties to oilmen and businessmen, including
Leonard McCollum, the president of Continental Oil; Frank Abrams, the
chairman of Standard Oil of New Jersey; Bob Kleberg, the president of
the King Ranch; H. J. Porter, a Texas oil executive; Bob Woodruff, the
president of the Coca-Cola Corporation; and Clarence Francis, the
chairman of General Foods.
As
the president of Columbia, Eisenhower gave voice and form to his
opinions about the supremacy and difficulties of American democracy. His
tenure marked his transformation from military to civilian leadership.
His biographer Travis Beal Jacobs also suggested that the alienation of
the Columbia faculty contributed to sharp intellectual criticism of him
for many years.[109]
The
trustees of Columbia University refused to accept Eisenhower's
resignation in December 1950, when he took an extended leave from the
university to become the Supreme Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO), and he was given operational command of NATO forces
in Europe. Eisenhower retired from active service as an army general on
May 31, 1952, and he resumed his presidency of Columbia. He held this
position until January 20, 1953, when he became the President of the
United States.
NATO did not
have strong bipartisan support in Congress at the time that Eisenhower
assumed its military command. Eisenhower advised the participating
European nations that it would be incumbent upon them to demonstrate
their own commitment of troops and equipment to the NATO force before
such would come from the war-weary United States.
At
home, Eisenhower was more effective in making the case for NATO in
Congress than the Truman administration had been. By the middle of 1951,
with American and European support, NATO was a genuine military power.
Nevertheless, Eisenhower thought that NATO would become a truly European
alliance, with the American and Canadian commitments ending after about
ten years.[110]
Presidential campaign of 1952
Main article: 1952 United States presidential election
Eisenhower button from the 1952 campaign
President
Truman sensed a broad-based desire for an Eisenhower candidacy for
president, and he again pressed him to run for the office as a Democrat
in 1951. But Eisenhower voiced his disagreements with the Democratic
Party and declared himself to be a Republican.[111] A "Draft Eisenhower"
movement in the Republican Party persuaded him to declare his candidacy
in the 1952 presidential election to counter the candidacy of
non-interventionist Senator Robert A. Taft. The effort was a long
struggle; Eisenhower had to be convinced that political circumstances
had created a genuine duty for him to offer himself as a candidate, and
that there was a mandate from the public for him to be their president.
Henry Cabot Lodge and others succeeded in convincing him, and he
resigned his command at NATO in June 1952 to campaign full-time.[112]
Eisenhower
defeated Taft for the nomination, having won critical delegate votes
from Texas. His campaign was noted for the simple slogan "I Like Ike".
It was essential to his success that Eisenhower express opposition to
Roosevelt's policy at Yalta and to Truman's policies in Korea and
China—matters in which he had once participated.[113][114] In defeating
Taft for the nomination, it became necessary for Eisenhower to appease
the right wing Old Guard of the Republican Party; his selection of
Richard Nixon as the Vice-President on the ticket was designed in part
for that purpose. Nixon also provided a strong anti-communist presence,
as well as some youth to counter Ike's more advanced age.[115]
1952 electoral vote results
Eisenhower
insisted on campaigning in the South in the general election, against
the advice of his campaign team, refusing to surrender the region to the
Democratic Party. The campaign strategy was dubbed "K1C2" and was
intended to focus on attacking the Truman and Roosevelt administrations
on three issues: Korea, Communism, and corruption. In an effort to
accommodate the right, he stressed that the liberation of Eastern Europe
should be by peaceful means only; he also distanced himself from his
former boss President Truman.
Two
controversies tested him and his staff during the campaign, but they
did not affect the campaign. One involved a report that Nixon had
improperly received funds from a secret trust. Nixon spoke out adroitly
to avoid potential damage, but the matter permanently alienated the two
candidates. The second issue centered on Eisenhower's relented decision
to confront the controversial methods of Joseph McCarthy on his home
turf in a Wisconsin appearance.[116] Just two weeks before the election,
Eisenhower vowed to go to Korea and end the war there. He promised to
maintain a strong commitment against Communism while avoiding the topic
of NATO; finally, he stressed a corruption-free, frugal administration
at home.
Eisenhower defeated
Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson II in a landslide, with an
electoral margin of 442 to 89, marking the first Republican return to
the White House in 20 years.[114] He also brought a Republican majority
in the House, by eight votes, and in the Senate, evenly divided with
Vice President Nixon providing Republicans the majority.[117]
Eisenhower
was the last president born in the 19th century, and he was the oldest
president-elect at age 62 since James Buchanan in 1856.[118] He was the
third commanding general of the Army to serve as president, after George
Washington and Ulysses S. Grant, and the last to have not held
political office prior to being president until Donald Trump entered
office in January 2017.[119]
Election of 1956
Main article: 1956 United States presidential election
1956 electoral vote results
The
United States presidential election of 1956 was held on November 6,
1956. Eisenhower, the popular incumbent, successfully ran for
re-election. The election was a re-match of 1952, as his opponent in
1956 was Stevenson, a former Illinois governor, whom Eisenhower had
defeated four years earlier. Compared to the 1952 election, Eisenhower
gained Kentucky, Louisiana, and West Virginia from Stevenson, while
losing Missouri. His voters were less likely to bring up his leadership
record. Instead what stood out this time, "was the response to personal
qualities— to his sincerity, his integrity and sense of duty, his virtue
as a family man, his religious devotion, and his sheer
likeableness."[120]
Presidency (1953–1961)
Main article: Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower
Truman
and Eisenhower had minimal discussions about the transition of
administrations due to a complete estrangement between them as a result
of campaigning.[121] Eisenhower selected Joseph M. Dodge as his budget
director, then asked Herbert Brownell Jr. and Lucius D. Clay to make
recommendations for his cabinet appointments. He accepted their
recommendations without exception; they included John Foster Dulles and
George M. Humphrey with whom he developed his closest relationships, as
well as Oveta Culp Hobby. His cabinet consisted of several corporate
executives and one labor leader, and one journalist dubbed it "eight
millionaires and a plumber."[122] The cabinet was known for its lack of
personal friends, office seekers, or experienced government
administrators. He also upgraded the role of the National Security
Council in planning all phases of the Cold War.[123]
Prior
to his inauguration, Eisenhower led a meeting of advisors at Pearl
Harbor addressing foremost issues; agreed objectives were to balance the
budget during his term, to bring the Korean War to an end, to defend
vital interests at lower cost through nuclear deterrent, and to end
price and wage controls.[124] He also conducted the first pre-inaugural
cabinet meeting in history in late 1952; he used this meeting to
articulate his anti-communist Russia policy. His inaugural address was
also exclusively devoted to foreign policy and included this same
philosophy as well as a commitment to foreign trade and the United
Nations.[125]
February 1959 White House portrait
Eisenhower
made greater use of press conferences than any previous president,
holding almost 200 over his two terms. He saw the benefit of maintaining
a good relationship with the press, and he saw value in them as a means
of direct communication with the American people.[126]
Throughout
his presidency, Eisenhower adhered to a political philosophy of dynamic
conservatism.[127] He described himself as a "progressive
conservative"[128] and used terms such as "progressive moderate" and
"dynamic conservatism" to describe his approach.[129] He continued all
the major New Deal programs still in operation, especially Social
Security. He expanded its programs and rolled them into the new
cabinet-level agency of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare,
while extending benefits to an additional ten million workers. He
implemented racial integration in the Armed Services in two years, which
had not been completed under Truman.[130]
In a private letter, Eisenhower wrote:
Should
any party attempt to abolish social security and eliminate labor laws
and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our
political history. There is a tiny splinter group of course, that
believes you can do these things [...] Their number is negligible and
they are stupid.[131]
When
the 1954 Congressional elections approached, it became evident that the
Republicans were in danger of losing their thin majority in both houses.
Eisenhower was among those who blamed the Old Guard for the losses, and
he took up the charge to stop suspected efforts by the right wing to
take control of the GOP. He then articulated his position as a moderate,
progressive Republican: "I have just one purpose ... and that is to
build up a strong progressive Republican Party in this country. If the
right wing wants a fight, they are going to get it ... before I end up,
either this Republican Party will reflect progressivism or I won't be
with them anymore."[132]
Eisenhower
initially planned on serving only one term, but he remained flexible in
case leading Republicans wanted him to run again. He was recovering
from a heart attack late in September 1955 when he met with his closest
advisors to evaluate the GOP's potential candidates; the group concluded
that a second term was well advised, and he announced that he would run
again in February 1956.[133][134] Eisenhower was publicly noncommittal
about having Nixon as the Vice President on his ticket; the question was
an especially important one in light of his heart condition. He
personally favored Robert B. Anderson, a Democrat who rejected his
offer, so Eisenhower resolved to leave the matter in the hands of the
party.[135] In 1956, Eisenhower faced Adlai Stevenson again and won by
an even larger landslide, with 457 of 531 electoral votes and
57.6-percent of the popular vote. The level of campaigning was curtailed
out of health considerations.[136]
Eisenhower
made full use of his valet, chauffeur, and secretarial support; he
rarely drove or even dialed a phone number. He was an avid fisherman,
golfer, painter, and bridge player, and preferred active rather than
passive forms of entertainment.[137] On August 26, 1959, he was aboard
the maiden flight of Air Force One, which replaced the Columbine as the
presidential aircraft.[138]
Interstate Highway System
Main article: Interstate Highway System
Remarks in Cadillac Square, Detroit
MENU0:00
President
Eisenhower delivered remarks about the need for a new highway program
at Cadillac Square in Detroit on October 29, 1954
Text of speech excerpt
Problems playing this file? See media help.
Eisenhower
championed and signed the bill that authorized the Interstate Highway
System in 1956.[139] He justified the project through the Federal Aid
Highway Act of 1956 as essential to American security during the Cold
War. It was believed that large cities would be targets in a possible
war, so the highways were designed to facilitate their evacuation and
ease military maneuvers.
Eisenhower's
goal to create improved highways was influenced by difficulties that he
encountered during his involvement in the Army's 1919 Transcontinental
Motor Convoy. He was assigned as an observer for the mission, which
involved sending a convoy of Army vehicles coast to coast.[140][141] His
subsequent experience with the German autobahn limited-access road
systems during the concluding stages of World War II convinced him of
the benefits of an Interstate Highway System. The system could also be
used as a runway for airplanes, which would be beneficial to war
efforts. Franklin D. Roosevelt put this system into place with the
Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944. He thought that an interstate highway
system would be beneficial for military operations and would also
provide a measure of continued economic growth for the nation.[142] The
legislation initially stalled in Congress over the issuance of bonds to
finance the project, but the legislative effort was renewed and
Eisenhower signed the law in June 1956.[143]
Foreign policy
Main article: Foreign policy of the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration
Eisenhower with Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru
U.S. President Eisenhower visits the Republic of China and its President Chiang Kai-shek in Taipei.
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev during his 11-day U.S. visit as guest of President Eisenhower, September 1959
In
1953 the Republican Party's Old Guard presented Eisenhower with a
dilemma by insisting he disavow the Yalta Agreements as beyond the
constitutional authority of the Executive Branch; however, the death of
Joseph Stalin in March 1953 made the matter a moot point.[144] At this
time Eisenhower gave his Chance for Peace speech in which he attempted,
unsuccessfully, to forestall the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union
by suggesting multiple opportunities presented by peaceful uses of
nuclear materials. Biographer Stephen Ambrose opined that this was the
best speech of Eisenhower's presidency.[145][146]
Nevertheless,
the Cold War escalated during his presidency. When the Soviet Union
successfully tested a hydrogen bomb in late November 1955, Eisenhower,
against the advice of Dulles, decided to initiate a disarmament proposal
to the Soviets. In an attempt to make their refusal more difficult, he
proposed that both sides agree to dedicate fissionable material away
from weapons toward peaceful uses, such as power generation. This
approach was labeled "Atoms for Peace".[147]
The
U.N. speech was well received but the Soviets never acted upon it, due
to an overarching concern for the greater stockpiles of nuclear weapons
in the U.S. arsenal. Indeed, Eisenhower embarked upon a greater reliance
on the use of nuclear weapons, while reducing conventional forces, and
with them the overall defense budget, a policy formulated as a result of
Project Solarium and expressed in NSC 162/2. This approach became known
as the "New Look", and was initiated with defense cuts in late
1953.[148]
In 1955 American
nuclear arms policy became one aimed primarily at arms control as
opposed to disarmament. The failure of negotiations over arms until 1955
was due mainly to the refusal of the Russians to permit any sort of
inspections. In talks located in London that year, they expressed a
willingness to discuss inspections; the tables were then turned on
Eisenhower, when he responded with an unwillingness on the part of the
U.S. to permit inspections. In May of that year the Russians agreed to
sign a treaty giving independence to Austria, and paved the way for a
Geneva summit with the U.S., U.K. and France.[149] At the Geneva
Conference Eisenhower presented a proposal called "Open Skies" to
facilitate disarmament, which included plans for Russia and the U.S. to
provide mutual access to each other's skies for open surveillance of
military infrastructure. Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev dismissed the
proposal out of hand.[150]
In
1954 Eisenhower articulated the domino theory in his outlook towards
communism in Southeast Asia and also in Central America. He believed
that if the communists were allowed to prevail in Vietnam, this would
cause a succession of countries to fall to communism, from Laos through
Malaysia and Indonesia ultimately to India. Likewise, the fall of
Guatemala would end with the fall of neighboring Mexico.[151] That year
the loss of North Vietnam to the communists and the rejection of his
proposed European Defence Community (EDC) were serious defeats, but he
remained optimistic in his opposition to the spread of communism, saying
"Long faces don't win wars".[152] As he had threatened the French in
their rejection of EDC, he afterwards moved to restore West Germany, as a
full NATO partner.[153] In 1954, he also induced Congress to create an
Emergency Fund for International Affairs in order to support America's
use of cultural diplomacy to strengthen international relations
throughout Europe during the cold
war.[154][155][156][157][158][159][160]
With
Eisenhower's leadership and Dulles' direction, CIA activities increased
under the pretense of resisting the spread of communism in poorer
countries;[161] the CIA in part deposed the leaders of Iran in Operation
Ajax, of Guatemala through Operation Pbsuccess, and possibly the newly
independent Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville).[162] In 1954
Eisenhower wanted to increase surveillance inside the Soviet Union. With
Dulles' recommendation, he authorized the deployment of thirty Lockheed
U-2's at a cost of $35 million (equivalent to $333.22 million in
2019).[163] The Eisenhower administration also planned the Bay of Pigs
Invasion to overthrow Fidel Castro in Cuba, which John F. Kennedy was
left to carry out.[164]
Space Race
Further information: Space Race
President Eisenhower with Wernher von Braun, 1960
Eisenhower
and the CIA had known since at least January 1957, nine months before
Sputnik, that Russia had the capability to launch a small payload into
orbit and was likely to do so within a year.[165] He may also privately
have welcomed the Russian satellite for its legal implications: By
launching a satellite, Russia had in effect acknowledged that space was
open to anyone who could access it, without needing permission from
other nations.
On the whole,
Eisenhower's support of the nation's fledgling space program was
officially modest until the Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957, gaining
the Cold War enemy enormous prestige around the world. He then launched a
national campaign that funded not just space exploration but a major
strengthening of science and higher education. The Eisenhower
administration determined to adopt a non-aggressive policy that would
allow "space-crafts of any state to overfly all states, a region free of
military posturing and launch Earth satellites to explore space".[166]
His Open Skies Policy attempted to legitimize illegal Lockheed U-2
flyovers and Project Genetrix while paving the way for spy satellite
technology to orbit over sovereign territory,[167] however Nikolai
Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev declined Eisenhower's proposal at the
Geneva conference in July 1955.[168] In response to Sputnik being
launched in October 1957, Eisenhower created NASA as a civilian space
agency in October 1958, signed a landmark science education law, and
improved relations with American scientists.[169]
Fear
spread through the United States that the Soviet Union would invade and
spread communism, so Eisenhower wanted to not only create a
surveillance satellite to detect any threats but ballistic missiles that
would protect the United States. In strategic terms, it was Eisenhower
who devised the American basic strategy of nuclear deterrence based upon
the triad of B-52 bombers, land-based intercontinental ballistic
missiles (ICBMs), and Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missiles
(SLBMs).[170]
NASA planners
projected that human spaceflight would pull the United States ahead in
the Space Race as well as accomplishing their long time goal; however,
in 1960, an Ad Hoc Panel on Man-in-Space concluded that "man-in-space
can not be justified" and was too costly.[171] Eisenhower later resented
the space program and its gargantuan price tag—he was quoted as saying,
"Anyone who would spend $40 billion in a race to the moon for national
prestige is nuts."[172]
Korean War, Free China and Red China
In
late 1952 Eisenhower went to Korea and discovered a military and
political stalemate. Once in office, when the Chinese communists began a
buildup in the Kaesong sanctuary, he threatened to use nuclear force if
an armistice was not concluded. His earlier military reputation in
Europe was effective with the Chinese communists.[173] The National
Security Council, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Strategic Air
Command (SAC) devised detailed plans for nuclear war against Red
China.[174] With the death of Stalin in early March 1953, Russian
support for a Chinese communists hard-line weakened and Red China
decided to compromise on the prisoner issue.[175]
Eisenhower in Korea with General Chung Il-kwon, and Baik Seon-yup, 1952
In
July 1953, an armistice took effect with Korea divided along
approximately the same boundary as in 1950. The armistice and boundary
remain in effect today. The armistice, concluded despite opposition from
Secretary Dulles, South Korean President Syngman Rhee, and also within
Eisenhower's party, has been described by biographer Ambrose as the
greatest achievement of the administration. Eisenhower had the insight
to realize that unlimited war in the nuclear age was unthinkable, and
limited war unwinnable.[175]
A
point of emphasis in Ike's campaign had been his endorsement of a
policy of liberation from communism as opposed to a policy of
containment. This remained his preference despite the armistice with
Korea.[176] Throughout his terms Eisenhower took a hard-line attitude
toward Red China, as demanded by conservative Republicans, with the goal
of driving a wedge between Red China and the Soviet Union.[177]
Eisenhower
continued Truman's policy of recognizing the Republic of China (Free
China) as the legitimate government of China, not the Beijing regime.
There were localized flare-ups when the People's Liberation Army began
shelling the islands of Quemoy and Matsu in September 1954. Eisenhower
received recommendations embracing every variation of response to the
aggression of the Chinese communists. He thought it essential to have
every possible option available to him as the crisis unfolded.[178]
The
Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty with the Republic of China was
signed in December 1954. He requested and secured from Congress their
"Free China Resolution" in January 1955, which gave Eisenhower
unprecedented power in advance to use military force at any level of his
choosing in defense of Free China and the Pescadores. The Resolution
bolstered the morale of the Chinese nationalists, and signaled to
Beijing that the U.S. was committed to holding the line.[178]
Eisenhower
openly threatened the Chinese communists with use of nuclear weapons,
authorizing a series of bomb tests labeled Operation Teapot.
Nevertheless, he left the Chinese communists guessing as to the exact
nature of his nuclear response. This allowed Eisenhower to accomplish
all of his objectives—the end of this communist encroachment, the
retention of the Islands by the Chinese nationalists and continued
peace.[179] Defense of the Republic of China from an invasion remains a
core American policy.[180]
By
the end of 1954 Eisenhower's military and foreign policy experts—the
NSC, JCS and State Dept.—had unanimously urged him, on no less than five
occasions, to launch an atomic attack against Red China; yet he
consistently refused to do so and felt a distinct sense of
accomplishment in having sufficiently confronted communism while keeping
world peace.[181]
Southeast Asia
Early
in 1953, the French asked Eisenhower for help in French Indochina
against the Communists, supplied from China, who were fighting the First
Indochina War. Eisenhower sent Lt. General John W. "Iron Mike" O'Daniel
to Vietnam to study and assess the French forces there.[182] Chief of
Staff Matthew Ridgway dissuaded the President from intervening by
presenting a comprehensive estimate of the massive military deployment
that would be necessary. Eisenhower stated prophetically that "this war
would absorb our troops by divisions."[183]
Eisenhower
did provide France with bombers and non-combat personnel. After a few
months with no success by the French, he added other aircraft to drop
napalm for clearing purposes. Further requests for assistance from the
French were agreed to but only on conditions Eisenhower knew were
impossible to meet – allied participation and congressional
approval.[184] When the French fortress of Dien Bien Phu fell to the
Vietnamese Communists in May 1954, Eisenhower refused to intervene
despite urgings from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the Vice
President and the head of NCS.[185]
Eisenhower
responded to the French defeat with the formation of the SEATO
(Southeast Asia Treaty Organization) Alliance with the U.K., France, New
Zealand and Australia in defense of Vietnam against communism. At that
time the French and Chinese reconvened Geneva peace talks; Eisenhower
agreed the U.S. would participate only as an observer. After France and
the Communists agreed to a partition of Vietnam, Eisenhower rejected the
agreement, offering military and economic aid to southern Vietnam.[186]
Ambrose argues that Eisenhower, by not participating in the Geneva
agreement, had kept the U.S. out of Vietnam; nevertheless, with the
formation of SEATO, he had in the end put the U.S. back into the
conflict.[187]
In late 1954,
Gen. J. Lawton Collins was made ambassador to "Free Vietnam" (the term
South Vietnam came into use in 1955), effectively elevating the country
to sovereign status. Collins' instructions were to support the leader
Ngo Dinh Diem in subverting communism, by helping him to build an army
and wage a military campaign.[188] In February 1955, Eisenhower
dispatched the first American soldiers to Vietnam as military advisors
to Diem's army. After Diem announced the formation of the Republic of
Vietnam (RVN, commonly known as South Vietnam) in October, Eisenhower
immediately recognized the new state and offered military, economic, and
technical assistance.[189]
In
the years that followed, Eisenhower increased the number of U.S.
military advisors in South Vietnam to 900 men.[190] This was due to
North Vietnam's support of "uprisings" in the south and concern the
nation would fall.[186] In May 1957 Diem, then President of South
Vietnam, made a state visit to the United States for ten days. President
Eisenhower pledged his continued support, and a parade was held in
Diem's honor in New York City. Although Diem was publicly praised, in
private Secretary of State John Foster Dulles conceded that Diem had
been selected because there were no better alternatives.[191]
After
the election of November 1960, Eisenhower in briefing with John F.
Kennedy pointed out the communist threat in Southeast Asia as requiring
prioritization in the next administration. Eisenhower told Kennedy he
considered Laos "the cork in the bottle" with regard to the regional
threat.[192]
Legitimation of Francoist Spain
Main article: Pact of Madrid
Spanish dictator Francisco Franco and Eisenhower in Madrid in 1959.
The
Pact of Madrid, signed on 23 September 1953 by Francoist Spain and the
United States, was a significant effort to break international isolation
of Spain after World War II, together with the Concordat of 1953. This
development came at a time when other victorious Allies of World War II
and much of the rest of the world remained hostile (for the 1946 United
Nations condemnation[193] of the Francoist regime, see "Spanish
Question") to a fascist regime sympathetic to the cause of the former
Axis powers and established with Nazi assistance. This accord took the
form of three separate executive agreements that pledged the United
States to furnish economic and military aid to Spain. The United States,
in turn, was to be permitted to construct and to utilize air and naval
bases on Spanish territory (Naval Station Rota, Morón Air Base, Torrejón
Air Base and Zaragoza Air Base).
Eisenhower
personally visited Spain in December 1959 to meet dictator Francisco
Franco and consolidate his international legitimation.
The Middle East and Eisenhower doctrine
Eisenhower with the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1959)
Even
before he was inaugurated Eisenhower accepted a request from the
British government to restore the Shah of Iran (Mohammad Reza Pahlavi)
to power. He therefore authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to
overthrow Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh.[194] This resulted in an
increased strategic control over Iranian oil by U.S. and British
companies.[195]
In November
1956, Eisenhower forced an end to the combined British, French and
Israeli invasion of Egypt in response to the Suez Crisis, receiving
praise from Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. Simultaneously he
condemned the brutal Soviet invasion of Hungary in response to the
Hungarian Revolution of 1956. He publicly disavowed his allies at the
United Nations, and used financial and diplomatic pressure to make them
withdraw from Egypt.[196] Eisenhower explicitly defended his strong
position against Britain and France in his memoirs, which were published
in 1965.[197]
After the Suez
Crisis the United States became the protector of unstable friendly
governments in the Middle East via the "Eisenhower Doctrine".[198]
Designed by Secretary of State Dulles, it held the U.S. would be
"prepared to use armed force ... [to counter] aggression from any
country controlled by international communism". Further, the United
States would provide economic and military aid and, if necessary, use
military force to stop the spread of communism in the Middle East.[199]
Eisenhower and Vice President Richard Nixon with their host, King Saud of Saudi Arabia, at the Mayflower Hotel (1957)
Eisenhower
applied the doctrine in 1957–58 by dispensing economic aid to shore up
the Kingdom of Jordan, and by encouraging Syria's neighbors to consider
military operations against it. More dramatically, in July 1958, he sent
15,000 Marines and soldiers to Lebanon as part of Operation Blue Bat, a
non-combat peace-keeping mission to stabilize the pro-Western
government and to prevent a radical revolution from sweeping over that
country.[200]
The mission
proved a success and the Marines departed three months later. The
deployment came in response to the urgent request of Lebanese president
Camille Chamoun after sectarian violence had erupted in the country.
Washington considered the military intervention successful since it
brought about regional stability, weakened Soviet influence, and
intimidated the Egyptian and Syrian governments, whose anti-West
political position had hardened after the Suez Crisis.[200]
Most
Arab countries were skeptical about the "Eisenhower doctrine" because
they considered "Zionist imperialism" the real danger. However, they did
take the opportunity to obtain free money and weapons. Egypt and Syria,
supported by the Soviet Union, openly opposed the initiative. However,
Egypt received American aid until the Six-Day War in 1967.[201]
As
the Cold War deepened, Dulles sought to isolate the Soviet Union by
building regional alliances of nations against it. Critics sometimes
called it "pacto-mania".[202]
1960 U-2 incident
Main article: 1960 U-2 incident
A U-2 reconnaissance aircraft in flight
On
May 1, 1960, a U.S. one-man U-2 spy plane was reportedly shot down at
high altitude over Soviet Union airspace. The flight was made to gain
photo intelligence before the scheduled opening of an east–west summit
conference, which had been scheduled in Paris, 15 days later.[203]
Captain Francis Gary Powers had bailed out of his aircraft and was
captured after parachuting down onto Russian soil. Four days after
Powers disappeared, the Eisenhower Administration had NASA issue a very
detailed press release noting that an aircraft had "gone missing" north
of Turkey. It speculated that the pilot might have fallen unconscious
while the autopilot was still engaged, and falsely claimed that "the
pilot reported over the emergency frequency that he was experiencing
oxygen difficulties."[204]
Soviet
Premier Nikita Khrushchev announced that a "spy-plane" had been shot
down but intentionally made no reference to the pilot. As a result, the
Eisenhower Administration, thinking the pilot had died in the crash,
authorized the release of a cover story claiming that the plane was a
"weather research aircraft" which had unintentionally strayed into
Soviet airspace after the pilot had radioed "difficulties with his
oxygen equipment" while flying over Turkey.[205] The Soviets put Captain
Powers on trial and displayed parts of the U-2, which had been
recovered almost fully intact.[206]
The
Four Power Paris Summit in May 1960 with Eisenhower, Nikita Khrushchev,
Harold Macmillan and Charles de Gaulle collapsed because of the
incident. Eisenhower refused to accede to Khrushchev's demands that he
apologize. Therefore, Khrushchev would not take part in the summit. Up
until this event, Eisenhower felt he had been making progress towards
better relations with the Soviet Union. Nuclear arms reduction and
Berlin were to have been discussed at the summit. Eisenhower stated it
had all been ruined because of that "stupid U-2 business".[206]
The
affair was an embarrassment for United States prestige. Further, the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a lengthy inquiry into the U-2
incident.[206] In Russia, Captain Powers made a forced confession and
apology. On August 19, 1960, Powers was convicted of espionage and
sentenced to imprisonment. On February 10, 1962, Powers was exchanged
for Rudolf Abel in Berlin and returned to the U.S.[204]
Civil rights
While
President Truman had begun the process of desegregating the Armed
Forces in 1948, actual implementation had been slow. Eisenhower made
clear his stance in his first State of the Union address in February
1953, saying "I propose to use whatever authority exists in the office
of the President to end segregation in the District of Columbia,
including the Federal Government, and any segregation in the Armed
Forces".[207] When he encountered opposition from the services, he used
government control of military spending to force the change through,
stating "Wherever Federal Funds are expended ..., I do not see how any
American can justify ... a discrimination in the expenditure of those
funds".[208]
When Robert B.
Anderson, Eisenhower's first Secretary of the Navy, argued that the U.S.
Navy must recognize the "customs and usages prevailing in certain
geographic areas of our country which the Navy had no part in creating,"
Eisenhower overruled him: "We have not taken and we shall not take a
single backward step. There must be no second class citizens in this
country."[209]
The
administration declared racial discrimination a national security issue,
as Communists around the world used the racial discrimination and
history of violence in the U.S. as a point of propaganda attack.[210]
Eisenhower
told District of Columbia officials to make Washington a model for the
rest of the country in integrating black and white public school
children.[211][212] He proposed to Congress the Civil Rights Act of 1957
and of 1960 and signed those acts into law. The 1957 act for the first
time established a permanent civil rights office inside the Justice
Department and a Civil Rights Commission to hear testimony about abuses
of voting rights. Although both acts were much weaker than subsequent
civil rights legislation, they constituted the first significant civil
rights acts since 1875.[213]
In
1957 the state of Arkansas refused to honor a federal court order to
integrate their public school system stemming from the Brown decision.
Eisenhower demanded that Arkansas governor Orval Faubus obey the court
order. When Faubus balked, the president placed the Arkansas National
Guard under federal control and sent in the 101st Airborne Division.
They escorted and protected nine black students' entry to Little Rock
Central High School, an all-white public school, marking the first time
since the Reconstruction Era the federal government had used federal
troops in the South to enforce the U. S. Constitution.[214] Martin
Luther King Jr. wrote to Eisenhower to thank him for his actions,
writing "The overwhelming majority of southerners, Negro and white,
stand firmly behind your resolute action to restore law and order in
Little Rock".[215]
Eisenhower's
administration contributed to the McCarthyist Lavender Scare[216] with
President Eisenhower issuing his Executive Order 10450 in 1953.[217]
During Eisenhower's presidency thousands of lesbian and gay applicants
were barred from federal employment and over 5,000 federal employees
were fired under suspicions of being homosexual.[218][219] From 1947 to
1961 the number of firings based on sexual orientation were far greater
than those for membership in the Communist party,[218] and government
officials intentionally campaigned to make "homosexual" synonymous with
"Communist traitor" such that LGBT people were treated as a national
security threat stemming from the belief they were susceptible to
blackmail and exploitation.[220]
Relations with Congress
Eisenhower
had a Republican Congress for only his first two years in office; in
the Senate, the Republican majority was by a one-vote margin. Senator
Robert A. Taft assisted the President greatly in working with the Old
Guard, and was sorely missed when his death (in July 1953) left
Eisenhower with his successor William Knowland, whom Eisenhower
disliked.[221]
This prevented
Eisenhower from openly condemning Joseph McCarthy's highly criticized
methods against communism. To facilitate relations with Congress,
Eisenhower decided to ignore McCarthy's controversies and thereby
deprive them of more energy from involvement of the White House. This
position drew criticism from a number of corners.[222] In late 1953,
McCarthy declared on national television that the employment of
communists within the government was a menace and would be a pivotal
issue in the 1954 Senate elections. Eisenhower was urged to respond
directly and specify the various measures he had taken to purge the
government of communists.[223]
Among
Eisenhower's objectives in not directly confronting McCarthy was to
prevent McCarthy from dragging the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) into
McCarthy's witch hunt for communists, which would interfere with, and
perhaps delay, the AEC's important work on H-bombs. The administration
had discovered through its own investigations that one of the leading
scientists on the AEC, J. Robert Oppenheimer, had urged that the H-bomb
work be delayed. Eisenhower removed him from the agency and revoked his
security clearance, though he knew this would create fertile ground for
McCarthy.[224]
In May 1955,
McCarthy threatened to issue subpoenas to White House personnel.
Eisenhower was furious, and issued an order as follows: "It is essential
to efficient and effective administration that employees of the
Executive Branch be in a position to be completely candid in advising
with each other on official matters ... it is not in the public interest
that any of their conversations or communications, or any documents or
reproductions, concerning such advice be disclosed." This was an
unprecedented step by Eisenhower to protect communication beyond the
confines of a cabinet meeting, and soon became a tradition known as
executive privilege. Ike's denial of McCarthy's access to his staff
reduced McCarthy's hearings to rants about trivial matters, and
contributed to his ultimate downfall.[225]
In
early 1954, the Old Guard put forward a constitutional amendment,
called the Bricker Amendment, which would curtail international
agreements by the Chief Executive, such as the Yalta Agreements.
Eisenhower opposed the measure.[226] The Old Guard agreed with
Eisenhower on the development and ownership of nuclear reactors by
private enterprises, which the Democrats opposed. The President
succeeded in getting legislation creating a system of licensure for
nuclear plants by the AEC.[227]
The
Democrats gained a majority in both houses in the 1954 election.[228]
Eisenhower had to work with the Democratic Majority Leader Lyndon B.
Johnson (later U.S. president) in the Senate and Speaker Sam Rayburn in
the House, both from Texas. Joe Martin, the Republican Speaker from 1947
to 1949 and again from 1953 to 1955, wrote that Eisenhower "never
surrounded himself with assistants who could solve political problems
with professional skill. There were exceptions, Leonard W. Hall, for
example, who as chairman of the Republican National Committee tried to
open the administration's eyes to the political facts of life, with
occasional success. However, these exceptions were not enough to right
the balance."[229]
Speaker
Martin concluded that Eisenhower worked too much through subordinates in
dealing with Congress, with results, "often the reverse of what he has
desired" because Members of Congress, "resent having some young fellow
who was picked up by the White House without ever having been elected to
office himself coming around and telling them 'The Chief wants this'.
The administration never made use of many Republicans of consequence
whose services in one form or another would have been available for the
asking."[229]
Judicial appointments
Supreme Court
Main articles: Dwight D. Eisenhower Supreme Court candidates and Dwight D. Eisenhower judicial appointments
Eisenhower appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:
Earl Warren, 1953 (Chief Justice)
John Marshall Harlan II, 1954
William J. Brennan, 1956
Charles Evans Whittaker, 1957
Potter Stewart, 1958
Whittaker
was unsuited for the role and soon retired. Stewart and Harlan were
conservative Republicans, while Brennan was a Democrat who became a
leading voice for liberalism.[230] In selecting a Chief Justice,
Eisenhower looked for an experienced jurist who could appeal to liberals
in the party as well as law-and-order conservatives, noting privately
that Warren "represents the kind of political, economic, and social
thinking that I believe we need on the Supreme Court ... He has a
national name for integrity, uprightness, and courage that, again, I
believe we need on the Court".[231] In the next few years Warren led the
Court in a series of liberal decisions that revolutionized the role of
the Court.
States admitted to the Union
Two states were admitted to the Union during Eisenhower's presidency.
Alaska – January 3, 1959 49th state
Hawaii – August 21, 1959 50th state
Health issues
Eisenhower
began chain smoking cigarettes at West Point, often three or four packs
a day. He joked that he "gave [himself] an order" to stop cold turkey
in 1949. But Evan Thomas says the true story was more complex. At first
he removed cigarettes and ashtrays, but that did not work. He told a
friend:
I decided to make a
game of the whole business and try to achieve a feeling of some
superiority ... So I stuffed cigarettes in every pocket, put them around
my office on the desk ... [and] made it a practice to offer a cigarette
to anyone who came in ... while mentally reminding myself as I sat
down, "I do not have to do what that poor fellow is doing."[232]
He
was the first president to release information about his health and
medical records while in office, but people around him deliberately
misled the public about his health. On September 24, 1955, while
vacationing in Colorado, he had a serious heart attack.[233] Dr. Howard
Snyder, his personal physician, misdiagnosed the symptoms as
indigestion, and failed to call in the help that was urgently needed.
Snyder later falsified his own records to cover his blunder and to
protect Eisenhower's need to portray he was healthy enough to do his
job.[234][235][236]
The heart
attack required six weeks' hospitalization, during which time Nixon,
Dulles, and Sherman Adams assumed administrative duties and provided
communication with the President.[237] He was treated by Dr. Paul Dudley
White, a cardiologist with a national reputation, who regularly
informed the press of the President's progress. Instead of eliminating
him as a candidate for a second term as president, his physician
recommended a second term as essential to his recovery.[238]
As
a consequence of his heart attack, Eisenhower developed a left
ventricular aneurysm, which was in turn the cause of a mild stroke on
November 25, 1957. This incident occurred during a cabinet meeting when
Eisenhower suddenly found himself unable to speak or move his right
hand. The stroke had caused aphasia. The president also suffered from
Crohn's disease,[239] chronic inflammatory condition of the
intestine,[240] which necessitated surgery for a bowel obstruction on
June 9, 1956.[241] To treat the intestinal block, surgeons bypassed
about ten inches of his small intestine.[242] His scheduled meeting with
Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was postponed so he could
recover at his farm.[243] He was still recovering from this operation
during the Suez Crisis. Eisenhower's health issues forced him to give up
smoking and make some changes to his dietary habits, but he still
indulged in alcohol. During a visit to England he complained of
dizziness and had to have his blood pressure checked on August 29, 1959;
however, before dinner at Chequers on the next day his doctor General
Howard Snyder recalled Eisenhower "drank several gin-and-tonics, and one
or two gins on the rocks ... three or four wines with the dinner".[244]
The
last three years of Eisenhower's second term in office were ones of
relatively good health. Eventually after leaving the White House, he
suffered several additional and ultimately crippling heart attacks.[245]
A severe heart attack in August 1965 largely ended his participation in
public affairs.[246] In August 1966 he began to show symptoms of
cholecystitis, for which he underwent surgery on December 12, 1966, when
his gallbladder was removed, containing 16 gallstones.[245] After
Eisenhower's death in 1969 (see below), an autopsy unexpectedly revealed
an adrenal pheochromocytoma,[247] a benign adrenaline-secreting tumor
that may have made the President more vulnerable to heart disease.
Eisenhower suffered seven heart attacks from 1955 until his death.[245]
End of presidency
The official White House portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower by James Anthony Wills
The
22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1951, and it
set term limits to the presidency of two terms. Truman as the incumbent
was not covered. Eisenhower became the first U.S. president
constitutionally prevented from running for re-election to a third term.
Eisenhower
was also the first outgoing President to come under the protection of
the Former Presidents Act; two living former Presidents, Herbert Hoover
and Harry S. Truman, left office before the Act was passed. Under the
act, Eisenhower was entitled to receive a lifetime pension,
state-provided staff and a Secret Service detail.[248]
In
the 1960 election to choose his successor, Eisenhower endorsed Nixon
over Democrat John F. Kennedy. He told friends, "I will do almost
anything to avoid turning my chair and country over to Kennedy."[114] He
actively campaigned for Nixon in the final days, although he may have
done Nixon some harm. When asked by reporters at the end of a televised
press conference to list one of Nixon's policy ideas he had adopted,
Eisenhower joked, "If you give me a week, I might think of one. I don't
remember." Kennedy's campaign used the quote in one of its campaign
commercials. Nixon narrowly lost to Kennedy. Eisenhower, who was the
oldest president in history at that time (then 70), was succeeded by the
youngest elected president, as Kennedy was 43.[114]
It
was originally intended for President Eisenhower to have a more active
role in the campaign as he wanted to respond to attacks Kennedy made on
his administration. However, First Lady Mamie Eisenhower expressed
concern to Second Lady Pat Nixon about the strain campaigning would put
on his heart and wanted the President to back out of it without letting
him know of her intervention. Vice President Nixon himself also received
concern from White House physician Major General Howard Snyder, who
informed him that he could not approve a heavy campaign schedule for the
President and his health problems had been exacerbated by Kennedy's
attacks. Nixon then convinced Eisenhower not to go ahead with the
expanded campaign schedule and limit himself to the original schedule.
Nixon reflected that if Eisenhower had carried out his expanded campaign
schedule he might have had a decisive impact on the outcome of the
election, especially in states that Kennedy won with razor-thin margins.
It was years later before Mamie told Dwight why Nixon changed his mind
on Dwight's campaigning.[249]
MENU0:00
Eisenhower's farewell address, January 17, 1961. Length 15:30.
On
January 17, 1961, Eisenhower gave his final televised Address to the
Nation from the Oval Office.[250] In his farewell speech, Eisenhower
raised the issue of the Cold War and role of the U.S. armed forces. He
described the Cold War: "We face a hostile ideology global in scope,
atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose and insidious in method ..."
and warned about what he saw as unjustified government spending
proposals and continued with a warning that "we must guard against the
acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the
military–industrial complex."[250]
He
elaborated, "we recognize the imperative need for this development ...
the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will
persist ... Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the
proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense
with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may
prosper together."[250]
Because
of legal issues related to holding a military rank while in a civilian
office, Eisenhower had resigned his permanent commission as General of
the Army before entering the office of President of the United States.
Upon completion of his presidential term, his commission was reactivated
by Congress and Eisenhower again was commissioned a five-star general
in the United States Army.[251][252]
Post-presidency, death and funeral
Eisenhower speaks to the press at the 1964 Republican National Convention
President Lyndon Johnson with Eisenhower aboard Air Force One in October 1965
Eisenhower's funeral service
Graves of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Doud Dwight "Icky" Eisenhower and Mamie Eisenhower in Abilene, Kansas
Following
the presidency, Eisenhower moved to the place where he and Mamie had
spent much of their post-war time. The home was a working farm adjacent
to the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 70 miles from his
ancestral home in Elizabethville, Dauphin County,
Pennsylvania.[253][254] They also maintained a retirement home in Palm
Desert, California.[255] In 1967 the Eisenhowers donated the Gettysburg
farm to the National Park Service.
After
leaving office, Eisenhower did not completely retreat from political
life. He flew to San Antonio, where he had been stationed years earlier,
to support John W. Goode, the unsuccessful Republican candidate against
the Democrat Henry B. Gonzalez for Texas' 20th congressional district
seat.[256] He addressed the 1964 Republican National Convention, in San
Francisco, and appeared with party nominee Barry Goldwater in a campaign
commercial from his Gettysburg retreat.[257] That endorsement came
somewhat reluctantly because Goldwater had in the late 1950s criticized
Eisenhower's administration as "a dime-store New Deal".[258] On January
20, 1969, the day Nixon was inaugurated as President, Eisenhower issued a
statement praising his former vice president and calling it a "day for
rejoicing".[259]
On the
morning of March 28, 1969, Eisenhower died in Washington, D.C., of
congestive heart failure at Walter Reed Army Medical Center; he was 78
years old. The following day, his body was moved to the Washington
National Cathedral's Bethlehem Chapel, where he lay in repose for 28
hours.[260] He was then transported to the United States Capitol, where
he lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda March 30–31.[261] A state funeral
service was conducted at the Washington National Cathedral on March
31.[262] The president and First Lady, Richard and Pat Nixon, attended,
as did former president Lyndon Johnson. Also among the 2,000 invited
guests were U.N. Secretary General U Thant and 191 foreign delegates
from 78 countries, including 10 foreign heads of state and government.
Notable guests included President Charles de Gaulle of France, who was
in the United States for the first time since the state funeral of John
F. Kennedy,[263] Chancellor Kurt-Georg Kiesinger of West Germany and
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran. As with JFK's funeral, de Gaulle and
King Baudouin of Belgium were the prominent world leaders present.[262]
The service included the singing of Faure's The Palms, and the playing of Onward, Christian Soldiers.[264]
That
evening, Eisenhower's body was placed onto a special funeral train for
its journey from the nation's capital through seven states to his
hometown of Abilene, Kansas. First incorporated into President Abraham
Lincoln's funeral in 1865, a funeral train would not be part of a U.S.
state funeral again until 2018.[265] Eisenhower is buried inside the
Place of Meditation, the chapel on the grounds of the Eisenhower
Presidential Center in Abeline. As requested, he was buried in a
Government Issue casket, and wearing his World War II uniform, decorated
with: Army Distinguished Service Medal with three oak leaf clusters,
Navy Distinguished Service Medal, and the Legion of Merit. Buried
alongside Eisenhower are his son Doud, who died at age 3 in 1921, and
wife Mamie, who died in 1979.[260]
President Richard Nixon eulogized Eisenhower in 1969, saying:
Some
men are considered great because they lead great armies or they lead
powerful nations. For eight years now, Dwight Eisenhower has neither
commanded an army nor led a nation; and yet he remained through his
final days the world's most admired and respected man, truly the first
citizen of the world.[266]
Legacy and memory
Eisenhower's
reputation declined in the immediate years after he left office. During
his presidency, he was widely seen by critics as an inactive,
uninspiring, golf-playing president. This was in stark contrast to his
vigorous young successor, John F. Kennedy, who was 26 years his junior.
Despite his unprecedented use of Army troops to enforce a federal
desegregation order at Central High School in Little Rock, Eisenhower
was criticized for his reluctance to support the civil rights movement
to the degree that activists wanted. Eisenhower also attracted criticism
for his handling of the 1960 U-2 incident and the associated
international embarrassment,[267][268] for the Soviet Union's perceived
leadership in the nuclear arms race and the Space Race, and for his
failure to publicly oppose McCarthyism.
In
particular, Eisenhower was criticized for failing to defend George
Marshall from attacks by Joseph McCarthy, though he privately deplored
McCarthy's tactics and claims.[269]
Historian John Lewis Gaddis has summarized a more recent turnaround in evaluations by historians:
Historians
long ago abandoned the view that Eisenhower's was a failed presidency.
He did, after all, end the Korean War without getting into any others.
He stabilized, and did not escalate, the Soviet–American rivalry. He
strengthened European alliances while withdrawing support from European
colonialism. He rescued the Republican Party from isolationism and
McCarthyism. He maintained prosperity, balanced the budget, promoted
technological innovation, facilitated (if reluctantly) the civil rights
movement and warned, in the most memorable farewell address since
Washington's, of a "military–industrial complex" that could endanger the
nation's liberties. Not until Reagan would another president leave
office with so strong a sense of having accomplished what he set out to
do.[270]
Eisenhower signs the legislation that changes Armistice Day to Veterans Day, June 1, 1954
President
John F. Kennedy meets with General Eisenhower at Camp David, April 22,
1961, three days after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion
Although
conservatism in politics was strong during the 1950s, and Eisenhower
generally espoused conservative sentiments, his administration concerned
itself mostly with foreign affairs (an area in which the
career-military president had more knowledge) and pursued a hands-off
domestic policy. Eisenhower looked to moderation and cooperation as a
means of governance.[271]
Although
he sought to slow or contain the New Deal and other federal programs,
he did not attempt to repeal them outright. In doing so, Eisenhower was
popular among the liberal wing of the Republican Party.[271]
Conservative critics of his administration thought that he did not do
enough to advance the goals of the right; according to Hans Morgenthau,
"Eisenhower's victories were but accidents without consequence in the
history of the Republican party."[272]
Since
the 19th century, many if not all presidents were assisted by a central
figure or "gatekeeper", sometimes described as the president's private
secretary, sometimes with no official title at all.[273] Eisenhower
formalized this role, introducing the office of White House Chief of
Staff – an idea he borrowed from the United States Army. Every president
after Lyndon Johnson has also appointed staff to this position.
Initially, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter tried to operate without a chief
of staff, but each eventually appointed one.
As
president, Eisenhower also initiated the "up or out" policy that still
prevails in the U.S. military. Officers who are passed over for
promotion twice, are then usually honorably but quickly discharged, in
order to make way for younger, and more able officers. (As an army
officer, Eisenhower had been stuck at the rank of major for 16 years in
the interwar period.)
On
December 20, 1944, Eisenhower was appointed to the rank of General of
the Army, placing him in the company of George Marshall, Henry "Hap"
Arnold, and Douglas MacArthur, the only four men to achieve the rank in
World War II. Along with Omar Bradley, they were the only five men to
achieve the rank since the August 5, 1888 death of Philip Sheridan, and
the only five men to hold the rank of five-star general. The rank was
created by an Act of Congress on a temporary basis, when Public Law
78–482 was passed on December 14, 1944,[274] as a temporary rank,
subject to reversion to permanent rank six months after the end of the
war. The temporary rank was then declared permanent on March 23, 1946 by
Public Law 333 of the 79th Congress, which also awarded full pay and
allowances in the grade to those on the retired list.[275][276] It was
created to give the most senior American commanders parity of rank with
their British counterparts holding the ranks of field marshal and
admiral of the fleet. This second General of the Army rank is not the
same as the post-Civil War era version because of its purpose and five
stars.
Frank
Gasparro's obverse design (left) and reverse design (right) of the
Presidential Medal of Appreciation award during Eisenhower's official
visit to the State of Hawaii from June 20–25, 1960
Eisenhower
founded People to People International in 1956, based on his belief
that citizen interaction would promote cultural interaction and world
peace. The program includes a student ambassador component, which sends
American youth on educational trips to other countries.[277]
During
his second term as president, Eisenhower distinctively preserved his
presidential gratitude by awarding individuals a special memento. This
memento was a series of specially designed U.S. Mint presidential
appreciation medals. Eisenhower presented the medal as an expression of
his appreciation and the medal is a keepsake reminder for the
recipient.[278]
The
development of the appreciation medals was initiated by the White House
and executed by the United States Mint, through the Philadelphia Mint.
The medals were struck from September 1958 through October 1960. A total
of twenty designs are cataloged with a total mintage of 9,858. Each of
the designs incorporates the text "with appreciation" or "with personal
and official gratitude" accompanied with Eisenhower's initials "D.D.E."
or facsimile signature. The design also incorporates location, date,
and/or significant event. Prior to the end of his second term as
president, 1,451 medals were turned in to the Bureau of the Mint and
destroyed.[278] The Eisenhower appreciation medals are part of the
Presidential Medal of Appreciation Award Medal Series.[278]
Tributes and memorials
Main article: List of memorials to Dwight D. Eisenhower
Eisenhower Interstate System sign south of San Antonio, Texas
Bronze statue of Eisenhower in the Capitol rotunda[279]
The
Interstate Highway System is officially known as the "Dwight D.
Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways" in his
honor. It was inspired in part by Eisenhower's own Army experiences in
World War II, where he recognized the advantages of the autobahn system
in Germany.[142] Commemorative signs reading "Eisenhower Interstate
System" and bearing Eisenhower's permanent 5-star rank insignia were
introduced in 1993 and now are displayed throughout the Interstate
System. Several highways are also named for him, including the
Eisenhower Expressway (Interstate 290) near Chicago. the Eisenhower
Tunnel on Interstate 70 west of Denver, and Interstate 80 in
California.[280]
Dwight D.
Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy is a
senior war college of the Department of Defense's National Defense
University in Washington, DC. Eisenhower graduated from this school when
it was previously known as the Army Industrial College. The school's
building on Fort Lesley J. McNair, when it was known as the Industrial
College of the Armed Forces, was dedicated as Eisenhower Hall in 1960.
Eisenhower
was honored on a US one dollar coin, minted from 1971 to 1978. His
centenary was honored on a commemorative dollar coin issued in 1990.
In
1969 four major record companies – ABC Records, MGM Records, Buddha
Records and Caedmon Audio – released tribute albums in Eisenhower's
honor.[281]
In 1999 the
United States Congress created the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial
Commission, to create an enduring national memorial in Washington, D.C..
In 2009 the commission chose the architect Frank Gehry to design the
memorial.[282][283] The memorial will stand on a four-acre site near the
National Mall on Maryland Avenue, SW across the street from the
National Air and Space Museum.[284]
In
December 1999 he was listed on Gallup's List of Most Widely Admired
People of the 20th century. In 2009 he was named to the World Golf Hall
of Fame in the Lifetime Achievement category for his contributions to
the sport.[285] In 1973, he was inducted into the Hall of Great
Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.[286]
Awards and decorations
The star of the Soviet Order of Victory awarded to Eisenhower[287]
The
coat of arms granted to Eisenhower upon his incorporation as a knight
of the Danish Order of the Elephant in 1950.[288] The anvil represents
the fact that his name is derived from the German for "iron hewer",
making these an example of canting arms.
U.S. Military Decorations[289]
Bronze oak leaf clusterBronze oak leaf clusterBronze oak leaf clusterBronze oak leaf cluster Army Distinguished Service Medal w/ 4 oak leaf clusters
Navy Distinguished Service Medal
Legion of Merit
U.S. Service Medals[289]
Mexican Border Service Medal
World War I Victory Medal
American Defense Service Medal
Silver starBronze starBronze star European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal w/ 7 campaign stars
World War II Victory Medal
Army of Occupation Medal w/ "Germany" clasp
Bronze star National Defense Service Medal w/ 1 service star
International and Foreign Awards[290]
Order of the Liberator San Martin, Grand Cross (Argentina)
Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold with Sash (Austria)[291]
Order of Leopold, Grand Cordon (Belgium)
Croix de guerre w/ palm (Belgium)
Order of the Southern Cross, Grand Cross (Brazil)
Order of Military Merit (Brazil), Grand Cross
Order of Aeronautical Merit, Grand Cross (Brazil)
War Medal (Brazil)
Campaign Medal (Brazil)
Order of Merit, Grand Cross (Chile)
Order of the Cloud and Banner, with Special Grand Cordon, (China)
Military Order of the White Lion, Grand Cross (Czechoslovakia)
War Cross 1939–1945 (Czechoslovakia)
Order of the Elephant, Knight (Denmark)
Order of Abdon Calderón, First Class (Ecuador)
Order of Ismail, Grand Cordon (Egypt)
Order of Solomon, Knight Grand Cross with Cordon (Ethiopia)
Order of the Queen of Sheba, Member (Ethiopia)
Legion of Honour, Grand Cross (France)
Order of Liberation, Companion (France)
Military Medal (France)[292]
Croix de guerre w/ palm (France)
Royal Order of George I, Knight Grand Cross with Swords (Greece)
Order of the Redeemer, Knight Grand Cross (Greece)
Cross of Military Merit, First Class (Guatemala)
National Order of Honour and Merit, Grand Cross with Gold Badge (Haiti)
Order of the Holy Sepulchre, Knight Grand Cross (Holy See)
Military Order of Italy, Knight Grand Cross (Italy)
Order of the Chrysanthemum, Collar (Japan)
Order of the Oak Crown, Grand Cross (Luxembourg)
LUX Military Medal ribbon.PNG Military Medal (Luxembourg)
Order pro merito Melitensi, KGC (Sovereign Military Order of Malta)
Order of the Aztec Eagle, Collar (Mexico)
Medal of Military Merit (Mexico)
Medal of Civic Merit (Mexico)
Order of Ouissam Alaouite, Grand Cross (Morocco)
Order of the Netherlands Lion, Knight Grand Cross (Netherlands)
Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, Grand Cross (Norway)
Order of Nishan-e-Pakistan, First Class (Pakistan)
Order of Manuel Amador Guerrero, Grand Officer (Panama)
Orden Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Grand Cross (Panama)
Order of Sikatuna, Grand Collar (Philippines)
Legion of Honor (Philippines), Chief Commander (Philippines)
Distinguished Service Star, (Philippines)
Order of Polonia Restituta, Grand Cross (Poland)
Order of Virtuti Militari, First Class (Poland)
Cross of Grunwald, First Class (Poland)
Order of the Royal House of Chakri, Knight (Thailand)
Order of Glory, Grand Cordon (Tunisia)
Order of the Bath, Knight Grand Cross (United Kingdom)
Order of Merit, Member (United Kingdom)
Africa Star, with "8" numerical device (United Kingdom)
Ribbon - War Medal.png War Medal 1939–1945 (United Kingdom)
Order of Victory, Star (USSR)
Order of Suvorov, First Class (USSR)
The Royal Yugoslav Commemorative War Cross (Yugoslavia)
Promotions
No insignia Cadet, United States Military Academy: June 14, 1911
No pin insignia in 1915 Second Lieutenant, Regular Army: June 12, 1915
US-O2 insignia.svg First Lieutenant, Regular Army: July 1, 1916
US-O3 insignia.svg Captain, Regular Army: May 15, 1917
US-O4 insignia.svg Major, National Army: June 17, 1918
US-O5 insignia.svg Lieutenant Colonel, National Army: October 20, 1918
US-O3 insignia.svg Captain, Regular Army: June 30, 1920
(Reverted to permanent rank.)
US-O4 insignia.svg Major, Regular Army: July 2, 1920
US-O3 insignia.svg Captain, Regular Army: November 4, 1922
(Discharged as major and appointed as captain due to reduction of Army.)
US-O4 insignia.svg Major, Regular Army: August 26, 1924
US-O5 insignia.svg Lieutenant Colonel, Regular Army: July 1, 1936
US-O6 insignia.svg Colonel, Army of the United States: March 6, 1941
US-O7 insignia.svg Brigadier General, Army of the United States: September 29, 1941
US-O8 insignia.svg Major General, Army of the United States: March 27, 1942
US-O9 insignia.svg Lieutenant General, Army of the United States: July 7, 1942
US-O10 insignia.svg General, Army of the United States: February 11, 1943
US-O7 insignia.svg Brigadier General, Regular Army: August 30, 1943
US-O8 insignia.svg Major General, Regular Army: August 30, 1943
US-O11 insignia.svg General of the Army, Army of the United States: December 20, 1944
US-O11 insignia.svg General of the Army, Regular Army: April 11, 1946
Note
– Eisenhower relinquished his active duty status when he became
president on January 20, 1953. He was returned to active duty when he
left office eight years later.
Family tree
Dwight D. Eisenhower
(1890–1969) Mamie Doud
(1896–1979)
Richard Nixon
(1913–1994) Pat Ryan
(1912–1993) Doud Eisenhower
(1917–1921) John Eisenhower
(1922–2013) Barbara Thompson
(1926–2014)
Edward Cox
(1946–present) Tricia Nixon
(1946–present) Julie Nixon
(1948–present) David Eisenhower
(1948–present) Fernando
Echavarría-Uribe Anne Eisenhower
(1949–present) Susan Eisenhower
(1951–present) John Mahon Mary Eisenhower
(1955–present) Ralph Atwater
Andrea Catsimatidis
(1989–present) Christopher Cox
(1979–present) Anthony Cheslock
(1977–present) Jennie Eisenhower
(1978–present) Alex Eisenhower
(1980–present) Tara Brennan
(1979–present) Melanie Eisenhower
(1984–present) Adriana Echavarria
(1969–present) Amelia Eisenhower Mahon
(1981/82–present) Merrill Eisenhower Atwater
(1981–present)
See also
"And I don't care what it is", phrase by Eisenhower, 1952, on religion
Atoms for Peace, a speech to the UN General Assembly in December 1953
Committee on Scientists and Engineers
Eisenhower baseball controversy
Eisenhower dollar
Eisenhower method for time management
Eisenhower National Historic Site
Eisenhower on U.S. Postage stamps
Eisenhower Presidential Center
Pact of Madrid
People to People Student Ambassador Program
Kay Summersby
Ike:
Countdown to D-Day – a 2004 American television film about the
decisions Eisenhower made as Supreme Commander that led to the
successful D-Day invasion of World War II
Pressure – a
2014 British play on Eisenhower's part in the meteorological decisions
leading up to D-Day; he was played in the premiere production by Malcolm
Sinclair
General:
History of the United States (1945–1964)
List of Presidents of the United States, sortable by previous experience
Historical rankings of United States Presidents