Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight Eisenhower

General of the Army Dwight David ("Ike") Eisenhower (1890-1969) was a career soldier who was the top Allied commander in Europe in World War II, and who later served as the 34th president of the United States (1953-1961). He first commanded Allied (British and American) troops invading North Africa in 1942 and Italy 1943, then became the Supreme Commander of the forces that invaded Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and defeated the Germans in the West.

As the great American hero of the war, both parties wanted him as a presidential candidate. He kept out of politics until 1952, when he defeated the isolationist Senator Robert A. Taft for the Republican nomination and was elected by a landslide. As president he continued what was left of the New Deal and expanded Social Security, kept the containment policy in the Cold War, ended the Korean War, sponsored the Interstate Highway System, signed the first civil rights bill in 82 years, and promoted moderate domestic policies known as "dynamic conservatism". Eisenhower largely ignored partisan politics, leaving that to his Vice President Richard Nixon, who was defeated in 1960 by John F. Kennedy when he tried to run on the achievements of the Eisenhower administration.

Early career

Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas, on Oct. 14, 1890 of Pennsylvania Dutch heritage. His father, David Jacob Eisenhower, was of Bavarian Mennonite descent; his mother, Ida Elizabeth (Stover) Eisenhower, was of Swiss descent. The families of both parents came to America prior to 1750. Three hundred "River Brethren," including his father, moved to farms in Kansas in the 1880s. His parents were college educated, but lost their inheritance and lived poor working class lives in Abilene (apart from a short stay in Texas where Ike was born). Ike maintained close ties with Abilene his entire life. There he grew up in an environment of strong family religious traditions; his father was distant, known only as a harsh disciplinarian, but his mother had a level of activism and a sparkle in her eye that Ike inherited. In the 1890s his parents left the Mennonites to join the Jehovah Witness religion, a highly controversial group because of its refusal to salute the flag. His mother was a leader but Eisenhower was never a member. Eisenhower was one of seven brothers, one of whom died in infancy. The others all had successful careers. The oldest, Arthur, became a banker; Edgar a lawyer; Roy a pharmacist; Earl an electrical engineer; and Milton the president of Kansas State College and Johns Hopkins University and a close adviser to his brother, the president.

Eisenhower was well educated in the small city's public schools and graduated from Abilene High School in 1909. Despite the strong pacifist sentiment in the community, Eisenhower entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1911. Cadet Eisenhower was outstanding as a football player until he injured a knee in his sophomore year. He became a student coach with a deep knowledge of the game and for the next decade was in demand as a football coach at different army posts. His academic ratings were average and he was commissioned a second lieutenant in June 1915 in the "class stars fell upon." The World War was underway in Europe, but it made little impact on the West Point curriculum, which was oriented toward military engineering and history, and above all to complex teamwork (and a disdain for politicians).

The new second lieutenant was assigned to the prestigious 19th Infantry Regiment at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas. There he met Mamie Geneva Doud, daughter of a prosperous Denver, Colorado, family. They were married on July 1, 1916; Eisenhower was promoted to first lieutenant the same day. They had two children, a boy who died in infancy, and John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower, who became an Army career officer.

During World War I Eisenhower, a permanent captain and a temporary lieutenant colonel, commanded a Tank Corps training center at Camp Colt, Pennsylvania, within sight of the place where he was later to build his Gettysburg farm home. He was preparing to sail for France when the armistice took effect on November 11, 1918, so he did not see combat. He had, however, achieved the number three rank in the Tank Corps; his close friend George Patton was number 2, and did see combat in France.

Interwar years

After the war, Eisenhower reverted to the permanent rank of major--one he was to hold for 16 years. After commanding several units in the fledgling Tank Corps, the Corps was disbanded and Eisenhower was told that his theorizing about the use of armor in future wars would jeopardize his career as an infantry officer, so he stopped. In 1922 he became executive officer of the 20th Infantry Brigade in the Panama Canal Zone, where he had many in-depth conversations with his first mentor General Fox Connor, an intellectual who had been a top aide to General John J. Pershing. Eisenhower recalled the experience as his "graduate school of military affairs." In 1924 Eisenhower graduated first in his class of 275 from the Army Command and General Staff School, a signal that he was among the half-dozen most promising young officers in the army. He also graduated from the Army War College. Assigned to Pershing's Battle Monuments Commission, he went to France twice and wrote a guidebook to the French battlefields, and added Pershing's mentorship. In late 1929 he was assigned to the office of the assistant secretary of war. He served three years in this critical position. A specialist on logistics and supply, he largely wrote the Army's "Industrial Mobilization Plan of 1930." (It was not, however, used when the war came.) Eisenhower moved up to the office of Chief of Staff, becoming an assistant to General Douglas MacArthur, a mentor whom he greatly admired at the time. When MacArthur was sent to the Philippines in 1935, Eisenhower accompanied him as assistant. There Eisenhower helped create the Philippine Army, specializing in its air force. He earned pilot's wings and a lieutenant colonelcy.

Holland (2001) argues that Eisenhower was the best read and trained officer of his age in the interwar Army and possessed a "terrific intellect." Far from being an unknown, his talents and work ethic attracted the attention of some of the Army's most important senior officers, especially Connor and MacArthur, who mentored Eisenhower and boosted his career. Indeed, he benefited from such attention more than any other officer of the era.

World War II

1940-42

Back in the United States in early 1940, he served as chief of staff of the Third Division and the Ninth Army Corps, and then of the Third Army. In this capacity, he had a large part in the tactical planning of the Louisiana war games of 1941. He won notice and rapid promotion to colonel and brigadier general. Eisenhower became the protégé of Chief of Staff George C. Marshall, serving in the office of the chief of staff as chief of the plans division and was named a major general. His first task was planning the Army's defensive role against Japan. American strategy called for defeat of Germany first, and in early 1942 Eisenhower took charge of planning its implementation. This brought him into repeated conflict with Chief of Naval Operations Ernest J. King, who wanted to shift most of the Navy's resources to the Pacific, stripping Europe of the landing craft Eisenhower needed.

1942-45

After a survey trip to Britain, Eisenhower was appointed commander of U.S. troops in Europe. Now a lieutenant general with three stars, he took charge of "Operation Torch," the Allied invasion of French North Africa. The landings there on November 8, 1942, met with merely temporary resistance from the French, and agreements with French Vichy leaders soon brought about Allied control of French North Africa. After an unexpected defeat at Kasserine Pass, Eisenhower's forces crushed the Germans and Italians from the west while British General Bernard Montgomery mauled them from the east; the enemy surrendered in May 1943. Eisenhower next supervised the Allied invasion of Sicily (July, 1943), in which the enemy escaped with all their soldiers and supplies. Eisenhower then led the invasions of mainland Italy (September 1943), which quickly bogged down. He tended to run his command through committees and distanced himself from day-to-day decisions, delegating responsibility to subordinates and rarely interfering. His genius was in understanding how to make coalition warfare work in both the military and political spheres. Eisenhower proved adept at dealing with the British and French, while wary of a possible German counterattack through Spain (which never happened).

Supreme Commander 1943-45

His tactical military successes, and especially his ability to lead and coordinate the efforts of all the Allied forces and to smooth over inter-Allied rivalries, led to Eisenhower's appointment in December 1943 as commander of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe (SHAEF). This was the command charged with leading the largest, climactic Allied push of the war--the invasion of France. Marshall himself wanted the job, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt insisted on Eisenhower.

Eisenhower molded the giant force that on June 6, 1944, landed on the beaches of Normandy. Although meeting fierce German resistance, his command of the air meant the Germans were immobile and could not be resupplied. Eisenhower's the forces broke through at St. Lo (July 18, 1944), and landed also in southern France (August 15, 1944). The Germans rapidly retreated to Germany, many escaping through the Failaise Gap that the American field commander, General Omar Bradley, had failed to close. The liberation of Paris on August 25, 1944, seemed to herald a quick end to the war. But a German counterattack, called the "Battle of the Bulge" in the Ardennes in mid-December 1944, caught the Allies by complete surprise. This time bad weather grounded the Allied air forces, but the Germans were stunned to discover that Allied artillery used proximity fuzes that made its barrages much more effective. Eisenhower had fought the Pentagon to get those fuzes (which Washington feared would be reverse engineered by the Germans and so should not be used.) The Battle of the Bulge was won when the skies cleared, but cost 77,000 casualties, the highest toll in U.S. military history. Finally on March 6, 1945, the Allied forces crossed the Rhine. They cleared the Ruhr Valley region and reached and bridged the Elbe River. Eisenhower declined to advance on the political target of Berlin, because the casualties would be too high and the Soviets had been assigned that task. He instead focused on destroying Nazi forces in central and southern Germany. This decision was controversial, but led to a quick collapse of Nazi Germany, which surrendered on May 8, 1945.

Debate with Montgomery

(PD) Photo: Harry S. Truman Library and Museum
Eisenhower (left) with General George Patton and President Harry S. Truman at the Potsdam Conference, 1945

Following the breakthrough in France in August 1944 an argument broke out between the Eisenhower, and the Commanding General of the 21st British Army Group, General Sir Bernard L. Montgomery. Montgomery argued that a concentrated attack, which he would lead, on the northern line of advance was preferable to Eisenhower's two-pronged broad-front advance. When Eisenhower decided that as of 1 September 1944 he would assume command of the ground troops from Montgomery, the temporary ground forces commander, the debate widened to include command. Except for Operation MARKET-GARDEN, Eisenhower did not take seriously Montgomery's single-thrust proposals.

Intelligence

Eisenhower entered the war ignorant of the intricacies of intelligence gathering; by 1944 he was a highly sophisticated and effective user of massive amounts of secret information from American and British sources. Throughout the European campaign he had almost as good a grasp of German order of battle as Hitler's staff, and sometimes better. He learned from Ultra and other deciphering of German messages; he was also informed by anti-Nazi Europeans outside Germany (although he did not have spies inside Germany). He relied too much on signal intelligence gathered by Ultra's monitoring German radio messages, and thereby was taken by surprise by the Battle of the Bulge, because the Germans used land lines for telephone and telegraph messages. Eisenhower became skilled in deceiving the Germans about Allied strength and possible landing sites. He pretended that the Normandy landing was a feint and that Pas de Calais and Norway were the real invasion sites, and the Germans bought the deception and misdirected their forces. Eisenhower used well the covert operations of the French Resistance.

Postwar

(PD) Photo: Harry S. Truman Library and Museum
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India receives an honorary degree from General Eisenhower. Eisenhower was President of Columbia University from 1948 until 1953.

The 1951 appointment of Eisenhower as NATO's first supreme allied commander, Europe (SACEUR) was crucial to the alliance's success. Eisenhower was the only individual with sufficient military and political stature to persuade Western Europe to rearm in the face of the Soviet threat. While not completely successful - NATO's combat strength did not reach the desired totals - Eisenhower spent 18 months visiting member countries and organizing available military forces. When he left NATO in 1952 to run for president, the organization was planning an ambitious expansion, including the entry of Greece and Turkey into the alliance and the rearming of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Eisenhower was convinced that America's own security depended on its commitment to NATO. He was, therefore outraged by isolationism of the leader of the GOP in Congress, Ohio Senator Robert Taft. In February 1951, Eisenhower met privately with Taft, seeking the senator's assurance that he would support America's commitment to European collective security. Taft refused, and the die was cast for Eisenhower's entry into the 1952 presidential contest to stop Taft and guarantee an internationalist commitment.

1952 Presidential campaign

The campaign made heavy use of the catchy slogan "I Like Ike"; it became an animated TV commercial produced by Roy Disney and the Citizens for Eisenhower-Nixon .

Truman's popularity had collapsed because of the faulure to end the Korean war. Late in the campaign Eisenhower electrified the nation by promising "I Shall Go to Korea" (and thus promising to end the war quickly). This speech is one of the rare instances when a single address is credited with having a decisive effect upon a presidential election. Though Eisenhower's personal stature seemed to validate the promise of his declaration, the public response additionally derived from four elements that formed a major portion of the conceptual, emotional, and interpretive manner by which voters in 1952 perceived and acted upon their world: 1) the Cold War discourse as it had been practiced from 1946 to 1952; 2) the foreign policy debate discourse, especially as it related to Asia; 3) the Korean War discourse as practiced from 1950 to 1952; and 4) the discourse of Eisenhower from 1942 to 1952, particularly the 1952 campaign discourse featuring an appeal to character. Because of this complex context, the speech was a decisive event. Once in office Eisenhower threatened to use nuclear weapons unless the Chinese came to terms on the issue of prisoner exchange, which they promptly did.

Presidency

Journalists in the 1950s depicted Eisenhower as a laid-back "chairman of the board" who let his subordinates run the government. The opening of Eisenhower's papers surprised scholars, who discovered that behind the scenes Eisenhower was a hands-on leader who watched details and made all the major decisions. As a consequence Eisenhower;s ratings by historians and political scientists rose from 22d place in the 1962 Schlesinger poll to 12th place in the 1981 David Porter poll to 9th in Steve Neal's 1996 poll.

Truman, bitterly unhappy with his own White House staff, joked that when Ike became president he would push a button and nothing will happen. Truman was wrong, for Eisenhower was the best organizer in the Army, and he redesigned the White House staff and the executive departments so he had clear control at all times, and brought on board talented senior staff to oversee the process, such as former New Hampshire governor Sherman Adams, his chief assistant from 1953 to 1958.

McCarthy

Republican Senator Joe McCarthy transformed the national discourse to a focus on internal treason by charging in 1950 that Roosevelt had allowed Soviet spies into the government (such as Alger Hiss), and that by protecting them Truman was guilty of "20 years of treason." When Eisenhower was elected McCarthy turned his attention to Eisenhower's administration and hinted at "21 years of treason." His main case was a reserve dentist who was recalled to active duty and promoted to major, even though he was a member of the Communist party. "Who promoted Major Peress??" he shouted. Eisenhower would not tolerate government employees who failed loyalty or security standards, but stressed his support for civil liberties and proper procedures. He succeeded in using behind-the-scenes tactics to undermine McCarthy, particularly after January 1954 when the senator took on the US Army. Eisenhower's shrewd plan included making political speeches about what his adminstration had done to remove Communists from the executive branch. Among other things, the president denied McCarthy access to certain White House documents, supported anti-McCarthy Republicans in the Senate, and publicly denounced McCarthy's methods without naming the senator. In October, 1954, the Senate censured McCarthy for bringing disgrace on that body, and he disappeared from the scene.

Foreign policy and the military

(PD) Photo: Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum
Eisenhower, his wife Mamie, his son John and his daughter-in-law Barbara at Eisenhower's second inauguration in 1957

Viewing the "limited" war in Korea as a mistake, Eisenhower believed that American national security and containment of Communist expansion could best be achieved through nuclear deterrence and the utilization of other assets, such as negotiations, psychological warfare and economic aid. Eisenhower worried that excessive defense spending would weaken the economy in the long-run, and thus be counterproductive. His "New Look" strategy economized by cutting back on Army divisions (much to the chagrin of the soldiers), and emphasizing instead nuclear weapons, which gave "more bang for the buck."

During his first three years as President, Eisenhower cut the federal budget, largely by controlling defense expenditures. By nature a fiscal conservative, he had no patience for corporate contractors' insistence that the United States needed ever more defense systems. He had even less tolerance for the same argument coming from his first Secretary of Defense, Charles E. Wilson, who had left the presidency of General Motors to serve in the administration. Wilson was ridiculed by Democrats for his garbled statement, "I thought that what was good for our country was good for General Motors and vice versa." (He meant to say what was bad for the country was bad for General Motors). Wilson proposed enormous Pentagon budget requests that Eisenhower slashed back.

Eisenhower rejected the policy of limited war and use of tactical nuclear weapons to the strategic menu of ways to deal with the Communist threat, and instead adopted a new strategy of "massive resistance" whereby a small war with the Soviet Union would immediately turn into a major nuclear war. He knew the U.S. had substantial nuclear superiority. The effect was to deter both sides from any action that might escalate tensions into a small war. Eisenhower thus avoided World War III.

Between 1953 and 1955 Army leaders, headed by Chief of Staff General Matthew B. Ridgway, challenged civilian control of the military by attempting to overturn Eisenhower's New Look. Ridgway believed that the new policies were militarily unsound and ultimately rendered military professionalism unnecessary by eliminating the political utility of force. Determined to salvage the military profession, Ridgway tried to undermine the credibility of Eisenhower's policies. Eisenhower, however, had much greater military and political prestige and replaced him in 1955. Eisenhower likewise rejected criticism from his next Army chief of staff Maxwell Taylor. Taylor (and Secretray of State John Foster Dulles) both wanted more flexibility, but Eisenhower got his way. Eisenhower had a triad of nuclear delivery systems (the B-52 bomber, submarines, and missiles), added an early warning radar system in Canada, and tried to add a civil defense system for cities in case deterrence failed, but the public was completely uninterested in his bomb shelters.

He strengthened the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the expense of the traditional service chiefs.

At the time there were no intercontinental missiles, and the American air defense system was considered strong enough to fend off any Soviet air attack. American progress in rocketry was upstaged by the Soviets in 1957, as they launched Sputnik, the first earth satellite, and kept their lead in space for several years. Everyone realized that gave the Soviets a lead in long-range missiles as well.

Middle East

Concerned over Communist subversion, Eisenhower created the Eisenhower Doctrine to support pro-Western Arab governments. At first the United States did not distinguish between Communism and radical Arab nationalism, perceiving Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser as linked to Soviet encroachment. The political situation grew complex as radicals challenged the Lebanese and Jordanian governments, and the ruler of Iraq was brutally overthrown. In 1958 Eisenhower sent Marines to Lebanon to support the government led by Camille Cahmoun but balked at British plans for greater military intervention. Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles eventually focused their strategy by distinguishing between Communism and Arab nationalism. The United States was able to limit its goals, accommodate itself to Nasser, and display a greater flexibility than the Eisenhower Doctrine originally offered. At the same time relations with Israel were greatly strengthened, which annoyed America's Arab allies.

Nicaragua

Scholars have spent a half century debating why the Eisenhower administration helped the Guatemalan army overthrow the Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán left-wing anti-American government in Guatemala in 1954. They have disagreed on the influence of the United Fruit Company, the potential role of Soviet influence, and the degree to which American officials simply misinterpreted social reform for Soviet backing. Newly declassified Central Intelligence Agency documents show the United Fruit Company played no major role, that Soviet influence was minimal, and that the Eisenhower administration did not need to be forced into the action by any lobby groups.

Second term

Eisenhower suffered a heart attack in 1955, but made a full recovery and was reelected easily in another landslide over the same Democrat, Adlai Stevenson.

The surprise launch of Sputnik, the the first satelitte around the earth by the Soviets in 1957 caused a major critis and a rethinking of national goals in missile technology and science education generally. Eisenhower set up a civilian agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), to carry out a highly publicized program of space exploration that would counteract the Soviet success. Five interest groups pressed Eisenhower for more aggressive action: a loose federation of physicists and astronomers interested in advancing basic research; the Pentagon, which wanted to use NASA's scientific discoveries to understand Soviet threats; engineering corporations who foresaw a large aerospace industry; space flight enthusiasts eager to pursue exploration beyond atmosphere; and politicians who wanted to restore national prestige.

The Air Force reacted to Sputnik by developing a series of new bomber systems to keep pace with new missile systems, notably air-to-surface missiles, the B-52, and the B-70. Eisenhower vacillated on the B-70, and John F. Kennedy later canceled the program because it was technically questionable and too expensive.

In 1958 Lebanese president Camille Chamoun, claiming Communist aggression, convinced Eisenhower to send troops to quell a civil war led by Arab nationalists. Though the operation itself was a success, it established a precedent of American opposition to radical Arab nationalism.

Farewell address

Eisenhower's farewell address on 17 January 1961 warned the nation against depending on an economy that was based on a military-industrial complex. Written by political scientist Malcolm Moos with help from brother Milton Eisenhower, the speech echoed the president's conviction that wars must be made obsolete. While he believed that the Soviet threat was being exaggerated, President Eisenhower argued for sufficiency, not superiority. The "military industrial complex" became a slogan used by the New Left in the 1960s to attack American capitalism, and became a standard ingredient of Soviet propaganda. Most Americans, however, ignored it.

Legacy

Eisenhower's legacy was victory in wartime, prosperity and peace afterwards. He was totally committed to the core republican values of civic duty and common sacrifice. Throughout the war he called for voluntary self-restraint and obedience to duty, which he called the first tenet of his religion. His apocalyptic view of the war was based on a dualism that pitted the selfish against the selfless. He saw the war largely as a spiritual struggle within the Allied camp between these two forces. Civilians as well as soldiers were exhorted to sacrifice personal interests for the sake of total mobilization, which meant exercising the virtue of selflessness. He interpreted fascism as a manifestation of selfishness and social disorder. As a soldier, his legacy includes common sense, caution, exhaustive planning, collaboration with allies, supoerb diplomatic timing, avoidance of casualties, and respect for the common soldier. As president his legacy was moderation, a sense of inclusiveness, a rejection of fear and paranoia, dedication to selecting the best experts, a disdain for partisanship, a commitment to entrepeneurial freedom, an abhorrence for war, a love of democracy. and a long-term sense of national greatness.

The "Eisenhower Era", 1953-1963, marked a decade of peace and prosperity, with an end to the bitter conflicts regarding class and ideology that marked the 1940s, and before the even more violent and bitter years of the 1960s. People look back with nostalgia, and gratitude for the man who kept the peace and queit.

Further reading

This is a quick guide to the most useful sources for beginners; a much longer guide is in the Bibliography.

• Ambrose, Stephen E. vol 1: Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect; vol 2: Eisenhower: The President; one volume edition is Eisenhower: Soldier and President (2003), standard scholarly biography excerpt and text search
• Boyle, Peter G. Eisenhower. (Profiles in Power Series.) (2005). 200 pp.
• Damms, Richard V. The Eisenhower Presidency, 1953-1961 (2002) 161 pp. short survey by British scholar
• D’Este, Carlo. Eisenhower, A Soldier’s Life (2002), 848 pages; a major military biography; excerpt and text search
• Greenstein, Fred I. The Hidden-Hand Presidency: Eisenhower as Leader (1991), highly influential study by political scientist
• Pach, Chester J. and Elmo Richardson. Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower (1991), standard historical survey
• Parmet, Herbert S. Eisenhower and the American Crusades (1972) online edition, scholarly biography
• Perret, Geoffrey. Eisenhower (2000), popular military biography; excerpt and text search
• Picket, William B. Dwight David Eisenhower and American Power (1995) 231pp
• Sixsmith, E. K.G. Eisenhower, His Life and Campaigns (1973) online edition
• Stoler, Mark A. "Dwight D. Eisenhower: Architect of Victory" in Theodore A. Wilson, ed. D-Day 1944 (1994), pp 298-317
• Weigley, Russell F. Eisenhower's Lieutenants: The Campaign of France and Germany 1944-1945 2 vol (1981), comprehensive history of Ike's campaigns
• Wukovits, John. Eisenhower: A Biography. (Great Generals Series.) (2006). 204 pp. excerpt and text search