| Dwight David Eisenhower | |
|---|---|
| 34th President of the United States | |
| In office January 20, 1953 – January 20, 1961 |
|
| Vice President | Richard Nixon |
| Preceded by | Harry S. Truman |
| Succeeded by | John F. Kennedy |
| Personal details | |
| Born | October 14, 1890 Denison, Texas |
| Died | March 28, 1969 (aged 78) Washington, D.C. |
| Nationality | American |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Mamie Doud Eisenhower |
| Religion | Presbyterian |
| Signature | |
The presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953-61 followed double defeats of Democrat Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 and 1956 elections. Ike, as he was popularly known, ended the Korean war and presided over eight years of peace[1] and moderate economic growth.[2] His main legacy is the Interstate Highway System.[3]
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Eisenhower had been a favorite of the New Dealers during the war, especially Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Hopkins. Rejecting Democratic efforts to nominate him in 1948 and 1952, Eisenhower instead chose to run for the Republican Party nomination in 1952. His goal was to prevent Robert A. Taft's non-interventionism—such as opposition to NATO—from becoming public policy.
On domestic issues they were in general agreement, and a compromise was reached after Eisenhower won the nomination that Taft would be dominant in domestic affairs and stay out of foreign affairs. Ike crusaded against "Korea—Communism—Corruption", identifying these as failures of the Truman administration. He electrified the country just before the election by promising to personally go to Korea and end that stalemated conflict.
Eisenhower's choice for vice-president on his ticket was Richard Nixon. He saw Nixon's strong vocal opposition against communism as an asset to his campaign. When Nixon's Checkers scandal was revealed to the public, Eisenhower still kept Nixon on the ticket.
In the 1952 U.S. presidential election, Eisenhower easily defeated Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson II and became the first career soldier since Ulysses S. Grant to be elected President. Although many presidents have served in the military, Eisenhower was the only general to serve as President in the 20th century.
Eisenhower created the positions of White House Chief of Staff and National Security Advisor. He expanded the role of the National Security Council and was the first president to conduct televised press conferences.[4] Reporters of that time have said that Eisenhower was the first president to employ the "non-answer" during these events.[4] Journalist Clark Mollenhoff said of Eisenhower's simultaneous decisions to televise press conferences and not answer questions as asked: "No President and White House of my acquaintance ever gave out at once so much and so little."[4]
Eisenhower's presidency was dominated by the Cold War, the prolonged confrontation with the Soviet Union which had begun during Truman's term of office. When Joseph Stalin died, he sought to extend an olive branch to the new Soviet regime in his "Chance for Peace speech", but continued turmoil in Moscow prevented a meaningful response and the Cold War deepened.
In 1953 Eisenhower opened relations with Spain under Fascist leader Francisco Franco. Despite its undemocratic nature, Spain's strategic position in light of the Cold War and Anti-Communist position led Eisenhower to build a trade and military alliance with the Spanish through the Pact of Madrid, ultimately bringing an end to Spain's isolation after World War II, and bringing about the Spanish Miracle.
During his campaign, Eisenhower had promised to end the stalemated Korean War. This promise was fulfilled on 27 July 1953 by the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement. Also, defense treaties with South Korea and the Republic of China were signed, and the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) alliance in an effort to halt the spread of Communism in Asia was formed.
Eisenhower, while accepting the doctrine of containment originally developed by George F. Kennan, sought to counter the Soviet Union through more active means as detailed in the State Department memorandum NSC-68. His covert action policy was laid out in NSC 162/2. He, along with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, developed the tactic of covert action, used the Central Intelligence Agency—directed by Allen Welsh Dulles to interfere with suspected Communist governments abroad. An early use of covert action was against the elected Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammed Mosaddeq. The Shah of Iran and pro-monarchy forces ejected him from power in the complex 1953 Iranian coup d'état (Operation Ajax) supported by U.S. intelligence agencies. The CIA also orchestrated a coup the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état that overthrew the democratically-elected President of Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, in Operation PBSUCCESS.
Covert action continued throughout Eisenhower's administration. In the newly independent but chaotic Republic of Congo, the Soviet Union and the KGB had intervened in favor of popularly elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. Anti-Communism had become an issue and the U.S. and CIA gave weapons and covert support to pro-Western and Democratic CIA assets Joseph Kasavubu and his subordinate, Colonel Joseph Mobutu. The initial struggle came to a close in December 1960, after Kasavubu and Mobutu overthrew Lumumba and proceeded to turn the country (later known as Zaire) into an autocracy which was unstable long after the end of Eisenhower's term. Lumumba was murdered shortly after his deposition, and some allege that the CIA (Sidney Gottlieb), collaborated with Mobutu in the assassination.
Eisenhower also increased U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia, a process which had begun under his predecessor Truman. In 1954, he sent Dulles to Geneva as a delegate to the Geneva Conference, which ended the First Indochina War and temporarily partitioned Vietnam into a Communist northern half (under Ho Chi Minh) and a non-Communist southern half (under Ngo Dinh Diem). In February 1955, Eisenhower dispatched the first American soldiers to Vietnam as military advisors to Diem's army. After Diem announced the formation of the Republic of Vietnam (RVN, commonly known as South Vietnam) in October, Eisenhower immediately recognized the new state and offered military, economic, and technical assistance.
In 1956, Eisenhower strongly disapproved of the actions of Britain, France and Israel in sending troops to Egypt in the dispute over control of the Suez Canal. He used the economic power of the U.S. to force his European allies to back down and withdraw from Egypt. However, he later described this decision as the greatest foreign policy mistake he made during his time in office.
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 occurred during his presidency and he has received some criticism for the lack of support from the United States for the revolutionaries during this time. On November 2, 1956, the State Department issued the statement, "The government of the United States does not look with favor upon governments unfriendly to the Soviet Union on the borders of the Soviet Union." [1] Early in the morning on November 4, 1956 the Soviet Union counterattacked and without outside support the revolution quickly fell.
During his second term he became increasingly involved in Middle Eastern affairs, sending troops to Lebanon in 1958, and promoting the creation of the Baghdad Pact between Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan, and Iran, as well as Britain.
Under Eisenhower's presidency the U.S. developed as a global nuclear power. When Russia also developed their nuclear weapons, fears of mutual annihilation in a Third World War intensified. On October 30, 1953, Eisenhower approved the security policy document NSC 162/2, which emphasized nuclear weapons above all other defense means. Nuclear weapons were seen as the most economically feasible means to deter the Soviet Union from military action against what then was called the "Free World." Throughout his presidency, Eisenhower insisted on having plans to initiate, fight, and win a nuclear war against the Soviets, although he hoped he would never feel forced to use them.[5] American chagrin at the Soviets' 1957 surprise launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, led to many strategic initiatives, including the creation of NASA in 1958 and a speeded up American space program.
Eisenhower hoped that after the death of Stalin in 1953, it would be possible to come to an agreement with subsequent Russian leaders to halt the nuclear arms race. However his efforts to reach a disarmament agreement throughout his presidency aimed mainly to gain military and diplomatic advantage over the Soviets. He never agreed to any proposal unless he thought it would yield such advantage to the U.S.[5] Several attempts at convening a summit conference were made. The final attempt failed in 1960 when Nikita Khrushchev withdrew following the shooting down of an American U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union. Eisenhower at first said that his administration had not been spying on the Soviet Union; when the Soviets produced the pilot, who had lived after his plane went down, the Americans were caught misleading the public, and the incident resulted in international embarrassment.[6][7] During the Paris Summit in 1960, President Eisenhower accused Khrushchev "of sabotaging this meeting, on which so much of the hopes of the world have rested."[8]
Eisenhower appointed a Cabinet of nine "businessmen and a plumber," and gave them wide latitude in handling domestic affairs. He allowed them to take credit for domestic policy[9] and allow him to concentrate on foreign affairs. Eisenhower was a conservative whose policy views were close to Taft; they agreed that a free enterprise economy should run itself.[10] He did not attempt to roll back the New Deal--he expanded Social Security. His major project was building the interstate highway system using federal gasoline taxes. While his 1952 landslide gave the Republicans control of both houses of the Congress, Eisenhower believed that taxes could not be cut until the budget was balanced. "We cannot afford to reduce taxes, [and] reduce income," he said, "until we have in sight a program of expenditure that shows that the factors of income and outgo will be balanced." Eisenhower kept the national debt low and inflation near zero.[11]
There were three recessions during Eisenhower's administration — July 1953 through May 1954, August 1957 through April 1958, and April 1960 through February 1961. Real GDP growth averaged just 2.5% over those eight years. Eisenhower allowed the recessions to occur, to wring out the inflation of wartime.[11] Under the Eisenhower administration the economy had greatly expanded, with the Dow Jones Industrials stock market index more than doubling (from 288 to 634).[12]
The Democrats regained control in the 1954 Senate and House elections, limiting his freedom of action on domestic policy. He forged a good relationship with Congressional leaders, particularly House Speaker Sam Rayburn.
On June 17, 1954, Eisenhower launched Operation Wetback in response to increasing illegal immigration to the United States. As many as three million illegal immigrants had crossed the U.S. Mexican border to work in California, Arizona, Texas and other states. Eisenhower opposed this movement, believing that it lowered the wages of American workers and led to corruption. The Immigration and Naturalization Service sent back to Mexico about 80,000 immigrants. (Press releases about one million were not verified and could have been larger or smaller.)[13]
In 1957, he sent federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas after Governor Orval Faubus attempted to defy a federal court order calling for desegregation of Little Rock public schools. The soldiers escorted nine African-American students, who became known as the Little Rock Nine, to Little Rock Central High School. He wrote legislation that would create a Civil Rights Commission in the executive branch and a civil rights department in the Justice Department, along with protecting voting rights; Nixon stepped in to break a filibuster in the Senate.[14]
Democrats attacked Eisenhower for not taking a public stand against Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist campaigns. Privately he held McCarthy and his tactics in contempt, writing, "I despise [McCarthy's tactics], and even during the political campaign of '52 I not only stated publicly (and privately to him) that I disapproved of those methods, but I did so in his own State." [15] Eisenhower worked behind the scenes to weaken McCarthy, in particular by putting together a task force headed by Herbert Brownell, Sherman Adams, and Henry Cabot Lodge to oversee the defense of the Army., leading to the pivotal Army-McCarthy hearings which led to his downfall in 1954.[16]
Eisenhower promoted the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, which created the United States' Interstate Highways.[17] It was the largest public works program in U.S. history, providing a 41,000-mile highway system. Eisenhower had been impressed during the war with the German Autobahn system, and also recalled his own involvement in a military convoy in 1919 that took 62 days to cross the U.S. Another achievement was a 20% increase in family income during his presidency, of which he was very proud.
Eisenhower retained his popularity throughout his presidency. In 1956, he was re-elected by an even wider margin than in 1952, again defeating Stevenson, and carrying such traditional Democratic states as Texas and Tennessee.
Eisenhower had mixed feelings about his Vice-President, Richard Nixon, and only reluctantly endorsed him as the Republican candidate at the 1960 Presidential election. Nixon campaigned against Kennedy on the great experience he had acquired in eight years as Vice President, but when Eisenhower was asked to name a decision Nixon had been responsible for in that time, he replied (intending a joke): "Give me a week and I might think of something." This was a blow to Nixon, and he blamed Eisenhower for his narrow loss to Kennedy.
During the early stages of the Civil Rights Movement, President Eisenhower denied backing with strong opinion the Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education in the public arena. Just before the court ruling was made, President Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren as Supreme Court Chief Justice, which he later said was the “biggest damn fool mistake” he had ever made. President Eisenhower verbally rebuked Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas for his insertion of the Arkansas National Guard to override Congressional law. Further instances of lawlessness in Little Rock, Arkansas brought about an angry response from the President and gave him little choice but to intervene. He issued Executive Order 10730 to place the Arkansas National Guard under his command, also sending in one thousand of the 101st “Screaming Eagles” Airborne Division of the US Army. [18]
In 1949 General Eisenhower quit his 4-pack a day cigarette habit. In 1955, the President took a vacation in Denver and complained of stomach pains following a golf game. That night after dinner with his wife and doctor he had more complaints. The doctor had left the dinner unconcerned. Eisenhower's distress became worse, and his wife Mamie drove him by car to Fitzsimmons Army Hospital after 2 AM, September 24, 1955. The President had a myocardial infarction, keeping him and the nation's attention on the 8th floor of Fitzsimmons Hospital for seven weeks. In November he returned to Washington and then on to his farm in Gettysburg to recuperate. In December he considered announcing he would not run for re-election in 1956. In February 1956 the medical opinion was "his present active life satisfactorily for another five to ten years." On February 28, 1956 Eisenhower announced he would indeed seek a second term.[19][20]
President Eisenhower was diagnosed with Crohn's disease or ileitis on May 10, 1956. On June 8, he required surgery at Walter Reed Hospital, thus the public learned of the diagnosis during the election year. He won his second term. On November 25, 1957 Eisenhower suffered a mild stroke in the Oval Office. This left him with a slight speech impediment. The next year Eisenhower wrote a letter of authority giving Vice President Richard Nixon means to assume power in the event of incapacitation of the President. The Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1967, formalized conveyance of authority if a living President was incapacitated.[21]
| OFFICE | NAME | TERM |
| President | Dwight D. Eisenhower | 1953–1961 |
| Vice President | Richard Nixon | 1953–1961 |
| State | John Foster Dulles | 1953–1959 |
| Christian A. Herter | 1959–1961 | |
| Treasury | George M. Humphrey | 1953–1957 |
| Robert B. Anderson | 1957–1961 | |
| Defense | Charles E. Wilson | 1953–1957 |
| Neil H. McElroy | 1957–1959 | |
| Thomas S. Gates, Jr. | 1959–1961 | |
| Justice | Herbert Brownell, Jr. | 1953–1957 |
| William P. Rogers | 1957–1961 | |
| Postmaster General | Arthur E. Summerfield | 1953–1961 |
| Interior | Douglas McKay | 1953–1956 |
| Fred A. Seaton | 1956–1961 | |
| Agriculture | Ezra Taft Benson | 1953–1961 |
| Commerce | Sinclair Weeks | 1953–1958 |
| Lewis L. Strauss | 1958–1959 | |
| Frederick H. Mueller | 1959–1961 | |
| Labor | Martin P. Durkin | 1953 |
| James P. Mitchell | 1953–1961 | |
| HEW | Oveta Culp Hobby | 1953–1955 |
| Marion B. Folsom | 1955–1958 | |
| Arthur S. Flemming | 1958–1961 | |
Eisenhower appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:
|title= specified when using {{Cite web}}". Ike, McCarthy, and the McCarthy Battle. http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/stories/Ike-Milton-McCarthy.htm.|title= specified when using {{Cite web}}". Letter to Paul Roy Helms. The Presidential Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower. http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/762.cfm. "I despise [McCarthy's tactics], and even during the political campaign of '52 I not only stated publicly (and privately to him) that I disapproved of those methods, but I did so in his own State."