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
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.