Dwight D. Eisenhower, Presidents Of The United States

Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953 - 1961 term in office	Select A Different President
Thirty-fourth President of the United States of America Likeable Ike (Born 1890 Died 1969)

Before he marched into the White House amid cheers of “We Like Ike,” Dwight D. Eisenhower was one of the world’s most powerful military leaders. As the man who led the Allied forces to victory in World War II, he was widely respected and well known even before taking the helm of our nation.

Eisenhower was raised in humble beginnings. When he was just a year old, his working-class family moved from Texas to Abilene, Kansas. After graduating from high school in 1909, he worked for a year to send one of his six brothers to college before entering the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. After graduation, he entered the Army as an officer. During World War I, he was promoted to the rank of captain, but the War ended before he was sent overseas. He continued to rise through the military ranks, becoming an aide to Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur in 1933. By the dawn of World War II, Eisenhower had reached the rank of full colonel.

In December of 1941, Eisenhower was appointed to the Army’s war plans division where he plotted strategy for the Allied invasion of Europe. Very likeable and extremely good at his job, he was selected as commander of U.S. troops in Europe. He led the successful invasions of North Africa and Italy. Eventually he was appointed supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces. In this capacity, on June 6, 1944, (the day that came to be known as D-Day) he planned the attack and gave the order to invade the beaches of Normandy. The Allied forces won victory after victory, and by December of 1944, Eisenhower was a five-star general. After the war, he worked as Army chief of staff for two years under President Harry S Truman. In this capacity he worked to demobilize the wartime army. A war hero, widely respected and well-known, Eisenhower left active duty to become president of Columbia University in 1948. After Eisenhower spent two years in academia, President Truman asked him to assume leadership as the supreme commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). By 1952, he was persuaded to run for president by the Republican Party, and was elected effortlessly to two terms as president. His years in the Army shaped his presidential focus to bring peace, both to the world and to the nation.

He strove to end the Korean War, bringing about a truce between North and South Korea in 1953. Working to reduce the escalating tensions of McCarthyism and the Cold War, he pushed for open relations with Russia and worked to prevent the spread of communism. Concerned over the development and use of weapons of mass destruction, he helped form the International Atomic Energy Agency in 1957, to control and develop the use of atomic energy.

His foreign policy efforts continued with the Eisenhower Doctrine in 1957, which pledged the assistance of armed forces to any Middle Eastern country asking for help from communist aggressions. In 1958, following the Soviet launch of the first man-made satellite into space he created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), beginning the “space race.” He also invited Soviet premier Nikita Khruschev to the United States, but increased tensions between the two countries prevented any further meetings. Finally, the threat of communism in Cuba and the rise of Fidel Castro led the United States to end diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961.

On domestic soil, Eisenhower worked hard to keep his policies near the middle of the road. He passed the largest public works program to date, the Interstate Highway Act, in 1956, paving the way for 41,000 miles of national public highways. But most importantly, he worked to maintain peace amid the country’s rising racial tensions. In 1957, Eisenhower enforced the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, and sent 1,000 federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to ensure the integration of a high school. That same year, the Civil Rights Act of 1957 was passed, the first legislation of its kind since 1875.

Upon leaving office in 1961, Eisenhower’s rank as general of the Army was restored by Congress. He lived the rest of his life on his farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and spent most of his time writing his memoirs.

Fast Facts:

Eisenhower named the presidential retreat “Camp David” after his grandson. It had formerly been known as “Shangri-La.”

He was the only president to serve in both World Wars.

He had a putting green installed on the White House lawn.