Happy Birthday Ike
On October 14, 1890 (122 years ago today) Dwight David Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas, the third of seven boys. 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. In 1892, the family moved to Abilene, Kansas, which Eisenhower considered as his home town.
Eisenhower graduated from West Point Military Academy in the middle of the class of 1915. A year later, on Valentine's Day of 1916 he proposed to his future wife Mamie Doud, and the two were married on July 1st of that year. Eisenhower missed out on combat in the first world war, but he rose to prominence in the second world war, serving as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe. He had responsibility for planning and supervising the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch in 1942–43 and the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45, from the Western Front. After World War II Eisenhower served as Chief of Staff under President Harry S. Truman and in 1951, he became the first supreme commander of NATO. He briefly served as President at Columbia University.
Eisenhower entered the 1952 presidential race as a Republican, to counter the non-interventionism of Senator Robert A. Taft, running on a campaign against "Communism, Korea and corruption". He won by a landslide, defeating Democrat Adlai Stevenson. In the first year of his presidency Eisenhower deposed the leader of Iran in the 1953 Iranian coup d'etat, and used nuclear threats to conclude the Korean War with China. His New Look policy of nuclear deterrence gave priority to inexpensive nuclear weapons while reducing the funding for conventional military forces. His strategy was to keep pressure on the Soviet Union and reduce federal deficits. In 1954 Eisenhower articulated his "domino theory" in his description of the threat presented by the spread of communism. When the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1957 he had to play catchup in the space race. Eisenhower forced Israel, the UK and France to end their invasion of Egypt during the Suez Crisis of 1956. In 1958 he sent 15,000 US troops to Lebanon to prevent the pro-Western government from falling to a Nasser-inspired revolution. Near the end of his term, his efforts to set up a summit meeting with the Soviets collapsed because of the U-2 incident when an American spy plane was shot down over Russia and its pilot captured.
On the domestic front, Eisenhower opposed the zealous anti-communist campaign of Senator Joseph McCarthy, though he did so overtly because of McCarthy's initial popularity. He was a moderate conservative who continued New Deal agencies, expanded Social Security and launched the Interstate Highway System. He sent federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, for the first time since Reconstruction to enforce federal court orders to desegregate public schools, and signed civil rights legislation in 1957 and 1960 to protect the right to vote. He implemented desegregation of the armed forces in two years, and was the first term-limited president in accordance with the 22nd Amendment.
On January 17, 1961, Eisenhower gave his final televised Address to the Nation from the Oval Office. In his farewell speech, Eisenhower 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." He added "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."
Eisenhower retired to his farm adjacent to the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, only thirty miles from his ancestral home of York. In 1967, the Eisenhowers donated the farm to the National Park Service. He spoke at the 1964 Republican National Convention and appeared with Barry Goldwater in a Republican campaign commercial from Gettysburg. However, his endorsement came somewhat reluctantly because Goldwater had once attacked the former president as "a dime-store New Dealer".
On March 28, 1969, Eisenhower died of congestive heart failure at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C.. He is interred in a small chapel on the grounds of the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas. Eisenhower is buried alongside his son Doud, who died at age 3 in 1921. His wife Mamie was buried next to him after her death in 1979.
Eisenhower's two terms were peaceful ones for the most part and saw considerable economic prosperity. Eisenhower is now often ranked as one of the top ten U.S. Presidents. If you visit the chapel where the Eisenhowers are laid to rest, you will see many of his inspiring words on the walls chiseled in granite, including these, from his "Chance for Peace" speech:
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. ... Is there no other way the world may live?
Eisenhower graduated from West Point Military Academy in the middle of the class of 1915. A year later, on Valentine's Day of 1916 he proposed to his future wife Mamie Doud, and the two were married on July 1st of that year. Eisenhower missed out on combat in the first world war, but he rose to prominence in the second world war, serving as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe. He had responsibility for planning and supervising the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch in 1942–43 and the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45, from the Western Front. After World War II Eisenhower served as Chief of Staff under President Harry S. Truman and in 1951, he became the first supreme commander of NATO. He briefly served as President at Columbia University.
Eisenhower entered the 1952 presidential race as a Republican, to counter the non-interventionism of Senator Robert A. Taft, running on a campaign against "Communism, Korea and corruption". He won by a landslide, defeating Democrat Adlai Stevenson. In the first year of his presidency Eisenhower deposed the leader of Iran in the 1953 Iranian coup d'etat, and used nuclear threats to conclude the Korean War with China. His New Look policy of nuclear deterrence gave priority to inexpensive nuclear weapons while reducing the funding for conventional military forces. His strategy was to keep pressure on the Soviet Union and reduce federal deficits. In 1954 Eisenhower articulated his "domino theory" in his description of the threat presented by the spread of communism. When the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1957 he had to play catchup in the space race. Eisenhower forced Israel, the UK and France to end their invasion of Egypt during the Suez Crisis of 1956. In 1958 he sent 15,000 US troops to Lebanon to prevent the pro-Western government from falling to a Nasser-inspired revolution. Near the end of his term, his efforts to set up a summit meeting with the Soviets collapsed because of the U-2 incident when an American spy plane was shot down over Russia and its pilot captured.
On the domestic front, Eisenhower opposed the zealous anti-communist campaign of Senator Joseph McCarthy, though he did so overtly because of McCarthy's initial popularity. He was a moderate conservative who continued New Deal agencies, expanded Social Security and launched the Interstate Highway System. He sent federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, for the first time since Reconstruction to enforce federal court orders to desegregate public schools, and signed civil rights legislation in 1957 and 1960 to protect the right to vote. He implemented desegregation of the armed forces in two years, and was the first term-limited president in accordance with the 22nd Amendment.
On January 17, 1961, Eisenhower gave his final televised Address to the Nation from the Oval Office. In his farewell speech, Eisenhower 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." He added "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."
Eisenhower retired to his farm adjacent to the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, only thirty miles from his ancestral home of York. In 1967, the Eisenhowers donated the farm to the National Park Service. He spoke at the 1964 Republican National Convention and appeared with Barry Goldwater in a Republican campaign commercial from Gettysburg. However, his endorsement came somewhat reluctantly because Goldwater had once attacked the former president as "a dime-store New Dealer".
On March 28, 1969, Eisenhower died of congestive heart failure at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C.. He is interred in a small chapel on the grounds of the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas. Eisenhower is buried alongside his son Doud, who died at age 3 in 1921. His wife Mamie was buried next to him after her death in 1979.
Eisenhower's two terms were peaceful ones for the most part and saw considerable economic prosperity. Eisenhower is now often ranked as one of the top ten U.S. Presidents. If you visit the chapel where the Eisenhowers are laid to rest, you will see many of his inspiring words on the walls chiseled in granite, including these, from his "Chance for Peace" speech:
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. ... Is there no other way the world may live?