Eisenhower Essay, Research Paper

Dwight Eisenhower

Bringing to the Presidency his prestige as commanding

general of the victorious forces in Europe during World War

II, Dwight D. Eisenhower obtained a truce in Korea and

worked incessantly during his two terms to ease the

tensions of the Cold War. He pursued the moderate policies

of “Modern Republicanism,” pointing out as he left office,

“America is today the strongest, most influential, and most

productive nation in the world.”

Born in Texas in 1890, brought up in Abilene, Kansas,

Eisenhower was the third of seven sons. He excelled in

sports in high school, and received an appointment to West

Point. Stationed in Texas as a second lieutenant, he met

Mamie Geneva Doud, whom he married in 1916.

In his early Army career, he excelled in staff

assignments, serving under Generals John J. Pershing,

Douglas MacArthur, and Walter Krueger. After Pearl Harbor,

General George C. Marshall called him to Washington for a

war plans assignment. He commanded the Allied Forces

landing in North Africa in November 1942; on D-Day, 1944,

he was Supreme Commander of the troops invading France.

After the war, he became President of Columbia

University, then took leave to assume supreme command over

the new NATO forces being assembled in 1951. Republican

emissaries to his headquarters near Paris persuaded him to

run for President in 1952. “I like Ike” was an irresistible

slogan; Eisenhower won a sweeping victory.

Negotiating from military strength, he tried to reduce

the strains of the Cold War. In 1953, the signing of a

truce brought an armed peace along the border of South

Korea. The death of Stalin the same year caused shifts in

relations with Russia. New Russian leaders consented to a

peace treaty neutralizing Austria. Meanwhile, both Russia

and the United States had developed hydrogen bombs. With

the threat of such destructive force hanging over the

world, Eisenhower, with the leaders of the British, French,

and Russian governments, met at Geneva in July 1955. The

President proposed that the United States and Russia

exchange blueprints of each other’s military establishments

and “provide within our countries facilities for aerial

photography to the other country.” The Russians greeted the

proposal with silence, but were so cordial throughout the

meetings that tensions relaxed.

Suddenly, in September 1955, Eisenhower suffered a

heart attack in Denver, Colorado. After seven weeks he left

the hospital, and in February 1956 doctors reported his

recovery. In November he was elected for his second term.

In domestic policy the President pursued a middle course,

continuing most of the New Deal and Fair Deal programs,

emphasizing a balanced budget. As desegregation of schools

began, he sent troops into Little Rock, Arkansas, to assure

compliance with the orders of a Federal court; he also

ordered the complete desegregation of the Armed Forces.

“There must be no second class citizens in this country,”

he wrote.

Eisenhower concentrated on maintaining world peace. He

watched with pleasure the development of his “atoms for

peace” program–the loan of American uranium to “have not”

nations for peaceful purposes. Before he left office in

January 1961, for his farm in Gettysburg, he urged the

necessity of maintaining an adequate military strength, but

cautioned that vast, long-continued military expenditures

could breed potential dangers to our way of life. He

concluded with a prayer for peace “in the goodness of

time.” Both themes remained timely and urgent when he died,

after a long illness, on March 28, 1969.

Even after his death the public still remembers him

for all he has accomplished both good, and bad. Many

people believed he helped our country greatly in all his

war efforts. One may think he created peace between

countries, but I feel differently. I remember him for the

one mistake he did, helping develop the Atom Bomb. I do not

feel he created peace because he was for creating the Atom

Bomb. To me, that is not a form of protection for our

country, but only a threat to other countries. Thus, it

intimidates other countries, not creating peace.