Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)

Overview

• Born October 14, 1890, Denison, TX• Died March 28, 1969 (aged 78), Walter Reed General Hospital,

Washington, D.C.• Member of the Republican Party • 34th President of the United States (January 20, 1953-January 20,

1961) • 1st Supreme Allied Commander Europe (April 2, 1951-May 30, 1952) • 16th Chief of Staff of the Army (November 19, 1945-February 6, 1948) • 1st Governor of the American Zone of Occupied Germany (May 8,

1945-November 10, 1945) • 13th President of Columbia University (1948-1953)

Presidential portrait

Early life

• Dwight David Eisenhower, often known by his nickname Ike, was born on October 14, 1890 in Denison, Texas, to David Jacob Eisenhower and Ida Elizabeth Stover Eisenhower; he was the third of seven sons.

• His parents moved from Abilene, Kansas to Denison, Texas, before his birth.

• In Denison, the family resided in a small house near the railroad tracks.

• David worked as a train-engine cleaner.

• The Eisenhower family moved back to Abilene when Dwight was a year and a half old so David could find a better job at his brother-in-law’s creamery.

• When Dwight was four, his ten-month-old brother Paul died of diphtheria.

• Despite the premature tragedy, Dwight had a happy childhood in Abilene that he treasured all through his life; among his happy memories were his days playing baseball and football at Abilene High School.

Eisenhower’s birthplace, Denison, TX

Abilene High School in the 1930s

Early life – cont.

• Eisenhower graduated from Abilene High School in 1909.

• He subsequently joined his father and uncle at the Belle Springs Creamery while also holding a second job as a fireman; he used the money he made to help pay for his younger brother Edgar’s tuition at the University of Michigan.

• The brothers had an agreement: they would alternate places so Edgar would work to pay for Dwight’s college education, although Edgar never had to fulfill his part of the agreement.

• In 1911, Eisenhower landed a new job at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, where attendance was free; he was once again a star player on the football field until recurring knee injuries compelled him to stop playing.

• Eisenhower graduated from West Point in 1915, and was assigned as a second lieutenant.

Belle Springs Creamery postcard

United States Military Academy, West Point, NY

Military Career

• After he graduated from West Point, Eisenhower was deployed in Texas; here, he met and began dating eighteen-year-old Mamie Geneva Doud from Denver, Colorado.

• The couple married nine months later, on July 1, 1916; the same day, Eisenhower was promoted to first lieutenant.

• During the first few years of Eisenhower’s military career, he and Mamie relocated from post to post throughout Texas, Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.

• In 1917, they gave birth to their first son, Doud Dwight; the same year, the United States entered World War I.

• Though Eisenhower expected that he would be assigned abroad, he was instead assigned to supervise a tank-training center at Camp Colt in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

• During the war and subsequently, Eisenhower continued to advance through the ranks; by 1920, he reached the rank of major after he volunteered for the Tank Corps in the War Department’s first pancontinental motor procession the year before.

The Eisenhower's wedding portrait

Military Career – cont.

• Disaster hit the family in 1921 when Doud Dwight died of scarlet fever at only the age of three.

• The following year, the couple gave birth to a second son, John Sheldon David; the same year, Eisenhower undertook the role of executive officer to General Fox Conner in the Panama Canal Zone.

• In 1924, at Conner’s advice, Eisenhower petitioned for the Army’s prestigious graduate school, the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; he was accepted.

• He went on to graduate at the top of his class of 245 in 1926, with a firm standing for his military skill.

• Eisenhower explored and reported for the War Department, under General John Pershing, from 1927 to 1929; after he finished his tour, Eisenhower was made chief military aide under General Douglas MacArthur.

• From 1935 to 1939, Eisenhower served under MacArthur as associate military advisor to the Philippines.

• He returned to the United States early in 1940.

Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, KS

Military Career – cont.

• Eisenhower was posted in California and Washington state during the next two years.

• Following a relocation to Fort Sam Houston in 1941, he became Chief of Staff for the Third Army; he was soon made brigadier general for his leadership of the Louisiana Maneuvers.

• He was allocated to the War Plans division in Washington, D.C. late that year.

• In 1942, he was made major general; just months later, he reached the rank of Commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces and directed Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa.

• On June 6, 1944, Eisenhower commanded the Allied forces in the invasion of Normandy, codenamed Operation Overlord; six months later, he advanced to five-star rank.

• After Germany’s surrender and the subsequent collapse of the Nazi régime in 1945, Eisenhower was made military governor of the U.S. Occupied Zone.

• He returned home to Abilene after the war ended and was greeted enthusiastically; he was appointed U.S. Army Chief of Staff a few months later.

Normandy landings, June 6, 1944

Military Career – cont.

• He was elected President of Columbia University in 1948; he held that position until December 1950, when he decided to leave Columbia to accept a position as first Supreme Allied Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

• During his time in Paris with NATO, Republican representatives persuaded him to run for President of the United States.

Eisenhower at Paris NATO headquarters, 1951

President of the United States, 1953-1961

• Eisenhower stepped down from active service in 1952 and returned to Abilene to announce his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination; his campaign slogan was “I Like Ike”.

• On November 4, 1952, Eisenhower, a fiscal conservative and social liberal, was elected the thirty-fourth President of the United States in a landslide victory over Adlai Stevenson II.

• His domestic policy resumed the policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and Fair Deal programs.

• In foreign policy, Eisenhower focused on easing Cold War tensions through military cooperation.

Eisenhower, surrounded by supporters, campaigns for president

Results of the 1952 presidential election

President of the United States, 1953-1961 – cont.

• Just after he assumed office in January 1953, Eisenhower coordinated a cease fire that ended the Korean War.

• Also in 1953, he delivered his prominent “Atoms for Peace” speech at the United Nations General Assembly.

• The United States and the Soviet Union had both developed atomic bombs during World War II; the speech encouraged employing atomic energy to diplomatic purposes, and discouraged using it for artillery and combat.

• In 1955, Eisenhower met with Soviet, British, and French representatives in Geneva to further prevent the danger of atomic war.

Eisenhower delivers his “Atoms for Peace” speech at the UN General Assembly, New York City, December 8, 1953

Eisenhower with Soviet Leader Nikita S. Khrushchev at the Geneva Summit , July 18,

1955

President of the United States, 1953-1961 – cont.

• Eisenhower won election to a second term on November 6, 1956, and won by an even wider margin in a rematch against Adlai Stevenson II, despite having only recently recovered from a heart attack.

• He continued to push for his Atoms for Peace program during his second term.

• Just before he was reelected, his administration grappled with the anti-communist uprising in Hungary and the Suez crisis; the U.S. military later intervened in the Lebanon crisis in July 1958.

• Important domestic accomplishments of his presidency include the establishment of the U.S. Information Agency and the admission of Alaska and Hawaii into the union.

• The Interstate Highway System was created during his administration.

• He signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and set up a permanent Civil Rights Commission; moreover, he was responsible for signing the bill to found the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Interstate Highway plan, September 1955

Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law, September 9, 1957

President of the United States, 1953-1961 – cont.

• On January 17, 1961, Eisenhower delivered a televised farewell address that warned the nation of the growing threat of the Cold War “military-industrial complex”.

• Three days later, he was succeeded by John F. Kennedy, and attended the latter’s inauguration.

Eisenhower’s farewell address, January 17, 1961

Eisenhower shakes hands with Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, January 20, 1961

Later life

• Following a two-term presidency, Eisenhower spent his final years at a farmhouse in Gettysburg with his wife.

• While he stepped down from his position as a general eight years earlier, his successor John F. Kennedy revitalized Eisenhower’s commission.

• He additionally preserved an office at Gettysburg College for the rest of his life; he held gatherings there and wrote his memoirs.

• Eisenhower died on March 28, 1969 at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C., following a long period of undergoing a heart-related sickness.

• Aside from a state funeral in the nation’s capital, a military funeral was held in Eisenhower’s hometown of Abilene.

Eisenhower’s state funeral

11’ statue of Eisenhower, Abilene

Bibliography

• http://www.biography.com/people/dwight-d-eisenhower-9285482

Other links• Eisenhower Presidential Library: http

://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/