Dwight D. Eisenhower
president of the United States from 1953 to 1961 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Dwight David Eisenhower[a] (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American politician and military officer who was the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe and achieved the five-star rank as General of the Army.
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Early life
Dwight David Eisenhower was born on October 14, 1890, at 609 S. Lamar Avenue in Denison, Texas. He was the third of seven sons.[4] His mother originally named him David Dwight, but she switched two names after his birth to avoid having two Davids in the family.[5]
In 1892, the family moved to Abilene, Kansas, which Eisenhower considered his hometown.[6] Dwight became very interested in exploring the outdoors. He learned about hunting and fishing, cooking, and card playing from a man named Bob Davis, who camped on the Smoky Hill River.[7][8][9]
Eisenhower went to Abilene High School and graduated with the class of 1909.[10] He and brother Edgar wanted to go to college, but they did not have enough money. They decided to take different years at college while the other worked to earn money to pay the tuitions.[11]
Edgar took the first turn at school, and Dwight was working a job as a night supervisor at the Belle Springs Creamery.[12] When Edgar asked for a second year, Dwight accepted and worked for a second year. At that time, a friend named "Swede" Hazlett was applying to the Naval Academy. He wanted Dwight to apply to the school since there was no tuition. Eisenhower asked for consideration for either Annapolis or West Point with U.S. Senator Joseph L. Bristow. Though Eisenhower was one of the winners of the entrance-exam competition, he was too old for the Naval Academy.[13] He then accepted an appointment to West Point in 1911.[13]
At West Point, Eisenhower liked the traditions and the sports. In sports, Eisenhower later said that "not making the baseball team at West Point was one of the greatest disappointments of my life, maybe my greatest."[14] He joined the varsity football team[15][16] and was a starter as running back and linebacker in 1912. He tackled the legendary Jim Thorpe of the Carlisle Indians.[17] Eisenhower got a torn knee while he was tackled in the next game, the last that he played. He reinjured his knee on horseback and in the boxing ring[6][7][18] and so he turned to fencing and gymnastics.[6]
Eisenhower later served as junior varsity football coach and cheerleader. He graduated in the middle of the class of 1915.[19] That class became known as the class the stars fell on because 59 members became general officers.
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Military career
Eisenhower was born into a family that did not have much money. He joined West Point as a cadet in 1911. As an officer, he served in many different places including the Panama Canal Zone; Washington, D.C.; and the Philippines.
During World War II, he was a general. He directed the invasion of Morocco and Algeria during the North African Campaign. He became a five-star general and was the Supreme Allied Commander for Operation Overlord, an attack on German troops in France that was one of the most important battles of the war.
After the war ended, he was considered a war hero. In the 1952 U.S. presidential election, the American public begged Eisenhower to run for president. Eisenhower, whose political views were then unknown, joined the Republican Party. He chose Richard Nixon as his vice-presidential candidate and won the election by beating the Democratic presidential candidate, Adlai Stevenson II.
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Presidency (1953–1961)
He served two terms from 1953 to 1961. Eisenhower was the first president of all 50 states.[20]
During the beginning of his first term, he oversaw a ceasefire (which stopped the fighting) during the Korean War. He created NASA, the United States space program, which began a space race against the Soviet Union Eisenhower believed that the United States should not try to fight wars overseas but should instead make more nuclear weapons to have an advantage in the Cold War. That let the United States keep the Soviet Union in check without spending a lot of money. For that reason, the U.S. government had balanced budgets during his presidency and did not have to borrow money.
He intimidated the Soviet Union by making it believe that the United States would respond to any act of aggression with the use of nuclear weapons. That policy is called brinkmanship, New Look, and massive retaliation. He also allowed planes to spy on the Soviet Union, but a U.S. spy plane accidentally crashed into the Soviet Union near the end of Eisenhower's term. That hurt relations between the United States and the Soviet Union.
McCarthyism involved Senator Joseph McCarthy accusing hundreds of people of being communist spies without evidence, which was was also an issue during his presidency. Eisenhower disliked McCarthy and tried to bring him down behind the scenes, but Eisenhower did not like to make enemiesand so he did not talk about McCarthy much.
The American economy was doing very well, and the nation was prosperous. Eisenhower supervised the creation of the Interstate Highway System and created the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Eisenhower was a moderate conservative, near the center of the political spectrum. He wanted to continue some New Deal programs such as Social Security but also wanted the government to be limited. At first, many criticized him for not doing enough to give civil rights to African Americans, but later during his presidency, he signed two civil rights acts and sent federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to make sure that schools were desegregated.
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Legacy
When Eisenhower's presidency ended, he was not very popular with scholars. Over time his reputation slowly improved and historians now generally consider him to be a good president. He died of heart failure in Washington D. C., at age 78.
In September 2020, a presidential memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C., honoring Eisenhower.[21]
Notes
- Pronounced /ˈaɪzənhaʊ.ər/ (
listen) EYE-zən-how-ər.
References
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