Dwight Eisenhower Essay, Research Paper

If you listened in history class you probably have heard his name

before. He was born in a small town called Deniso in western Texas in the

year 1890 (Hargrove 22).Then he and his family moved to a railroad town

called Abilene in the state of Kansas. Here Dwight Eisenhower grew up

with his 13 other family members. (Hargrove 19). Dwight David

Eisenhower is one of Americas greatest heroes with his military career to

his two terms as President of the United States.

Dwight Eisenhower had many accomplishments to and from West

Point through World War One. Ike Eisenhower wanted to serve his country

in any way he could. He found the idea of being a sailor in the U.S Navy

intriguing, but when he later applied for entering he found that he was too

old at the age of 20. Then after studying hard Eisenhower was accepted at

the West Point Military Academy with the help of a U.S senator (Hargrove

33). At college Ike showed himself as a hero on the Army Football team as

an end (Hargrove 34). He also found an easier procedure for working

advanced calculus (Hargrove 36). At the end of his college career in 1915,

Eisenhower graduated number 61 out of a class of 164 (Hargrove 38).

Eisenhower’s military journey began during World War One. When he

graduated college World War One was still raging through Europe. Instead

of fighting in the infantry overseas Eisenhower was to stay home on U.S

bases (Hargrove 41). After being promoted to a Lieutenant Colonel,

Eisenhower was sent to Camp Colt to train soldiers about tanks (Hargrove

42). Then in the year 1933 he became one of the important advisers to

General Douglas MacArther (Hargrove 45).

Dwight David Eisenhower worked his way up through the ranks

during World War Two and then led the Allies to victory in D-Day. Dwight

showed his skill of organizing the movement of large numbers of troops. He

was then promoted several times in the next few years.Then in 1941

Eisenhower was promoted to Chief of Staff of the Third Army (Hargrove

49). Then shortly after the promotion to “Chief of Staff”, Ike was again

promoted to the position of Brigadier General (Hargrove 50). Soon he was

put in charge of the Allied forces in Europe (Hargrove 52). He now

controlled the armies of the United States, Britain, and Canada (Hargrove

7). Eisenhower and other Allied Generals planned the invasion of

Normandy (Hargrove 12). Eisenhower would lead the 6,483 sea vessels,

about 800,000 men, and 12,000 aircraft across the English Channel to

Normandy France (Benson 12). Eisenhower had hoped that the Germans

would fear an invasion at the close French city of Calais (”The Beaches

of…” 9). There were to be five beaches invaided with the code names;

Omaha, Utah, Gold, Sword, and Juno (”The beaches of…” 28). In the end

Dwight D. Eisenhower led the Allies to victory on June 6,1944. If

Eisenhower had made a wrong choice, Hitler would have continued to rain

V-1 & V-2 rockets on London (Benson 7). Eisenhower had now

successfully completed the most important invasion in history wiping out all

most 100% of German units. Luckily Allied forces only suffered 76%

casualties (Barry 30).

Dwight Eisenhower was one of the most popular and successful

presidents in our country’s history. Eisenhower was elected to the office of

president twice. His first term with vice president Richard Nixion began in

1952 (Hargrove 65). Then again in 1956 Dwight Eisenhower was reelected

to president winning by a landslide (Hargrove 76). Dwight Eisenhower

solved many problems of his era. He helped to stop the Korea war with

peacetalks (Hargrove 67). Eisenhower also enforced the desegregation of

public schools making way for the start of equal schooling (Hargrove 79).

Dwight Eisenhower substantially helped prevent what could have been an

all out war in the Middle East (Reeder 149). Eisenhower started many

important programs and made great advancements in the United States.

“The atom, once mans’ slayer will now become his most productive

servant”. This is what Eisenhower said when he pushed for the start of the

International Atomic Agency (Reeder 145). He also organized the Army to

create a space program, which eventually launched Explorer I (Hargrove

81). President Eisenhower signed the two last states into the Union, Alaska

and Hawaii (Hargrove 82). He also started to build a mass network of

interstate across the country from coast to coast (Hargrove 82). On January

20, 1961 Dwight Eisenhower left the office of President and was succeeded

by newly-elected President John F. Kennedy (Hargrove 87).

In closing I believe that Dwight David Eisenhower is one of our

greatest American heroes. Even after his presidency Eisenhower still was

one of the most popular people and admired people through the mid to late

1960’s. He lived on a farm in Gettesyberg Pennsylvania spending much of

his time playing golf ( Hargrove 88). Then in 1969 on March 28, Dwight

Eisenhower died due to a long battle with heart problems. He was then

buried in his hometown of Abeline, Kansas. “America will be a lonely land

with out him, but America will always be a better nation-stronger, safer,

more conscious of its heritage, more certain of its destiny-because Ike was

with us when America needed him,” this is what President Lyndon Johnson

said after Eisenhower’s death (Hargrove 89).