Dwight D. Eisenhower
Party: Republican
Presidency: 1953 - 1961 |
Born on October 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas, Eisenhower spent most of his formative years in Abilene, Kansas. After graduating high school in 1909, Eisenhower worked at with his father at his uncle's creamery and as a fireman. In 1911, Eisenhower got a position at the US Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated at the top of his class in 1915. After his graduation Eisenhower was stationed in Texas as a second Lieutenant. While in Texas he met and married Mamie Doud. Over the years Eisenhower was stationed in various places around the country and he continued to receive promotions. In 1924 Eisenhower applied to the Command and General Staff School at Ft. Leavenworth and was accepted. He graduated, once again at the top of his class, in 1926. He continued to rise through the ranks and in 1942 was made commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces. When Germany surrendered, Eisenhower became the military governor of the US occupied zone, by this time a five-star general. From 1947 to 1950, Eisenhower was the President of Columbia University, but in 1951 he left to be the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO in France. While he was in France, Eisenhower was convinced to run for President. He won the election of 1952 and served two terms as President. After his second term, Eisenhower retired to a farmhouse in Gettysburg, Virginia with Mamie. He died on March 28, 1969. His funeral was held in Abilene(1).
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The "New Look" Policy (1953)
A B-47E with external JATO gear, photograph.
Eisenhower's "New Look" foreign policy was designed to reduce the economic strains of maintaining the huge military necessary to match the Soviet Union's might and supporting the increasing standard of living in the US. Eisenhower believed that the policy of massive retaliation was the key to reducing costs. The new policy was encapsulated in National Security Council Paper number 162/2. The paper described the policy of depending on a large nuclear arsenal ready for a massive strike at any moment to deter communist aggression. The military maintained a force of 1,306 B-47 bombers by 1956, and many of them were stationed at bases in Alaska, Guam, Morocco, and the UK starting in 1953. These bombers were often kept on one-third alert, meaning that one third of them would be sitting on the runway, fueled and armed. Crews were trained to launch bombers within fifteen seconds of each other tom make sure the entire force would be ready to attack the USSR as soon as possible. Unfortunately developing and maintaining this impressive force was expensive, and massive retaliation was not appropriate for deterring small operations that Moscow knew were not worth the punishment of nuclear obliteration(2).
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
Since 1896 the principle of "separate but equal" had been the rule in the segregated South. Everything from schools, restaurants, and trains to bathrooms and water fountains was segregated, and Jim Crow laws legally reinforced the superiority of whites. But on May 17, 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren handed down the unanimous decision in the landmark case of Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. Segregated schools were no longer equal. But the states of the deep south refused to cooperate with the courts unanimous ruling. On May 31, 1955, Warren read another court ruling, pictured below, that stated that schools must desegregate with "all deliberate speed". These historic rulings laid the path for the civil rights movement of the late fifties and sixties(3).
The Interstate Highway System (1956)
Henry Ford changed the world when he introduced the Model T in 1908. By 1927 Americans had bought almost fifteen million Model Ts and other car makers had entered the market. The new nation of commuters needed new roads. The car manufacturers successfully lobbied to have road building become a public project, and the federal government and the states worked together to build them. But construction moved slowly, and the motorists demanded more. As President, Eisenhower was determined to construct the highways the nation needed because he had been impressed by the German highway system during the War. Finally, the Federal-Aid Highway Act passed in June, 1956, authorizing the construction of forty-one thousand miles of new roads at the cost of twenty-six billion dollars. The federal government would pay ninety percent of the costs with money from a gasoline tax that went into the Highway Trust Fund. The interstate highway system is today forty-six thousand miles in length(4).
The Eisenhower Doctrine (1957)
The Eisenhower Doctrine states that any country under threat of armed aggression from any other state can request the military and economic aid of the United States. The Doctrine was prompted by the Suez Crisis, in which Britain, France, and Israel initiated an attack on Egypt in response to Egyptian President Nasser's nationalization of the Suez Canal. Eisenhower believed that the discrediting of Britain and France in the middle east would let the Soviet Union step in and start influencing middle eastern politics, and was eager for the US to fill this power vacuum instead(5). In his speech announcing the new doctrine, Eisenhower explained that Soviet aggression is greedy and dangerous to the freedom of the world. He argued that the US must support the countries of the middle east.
"The reason for Russia's interest in the Middle East is solely that of power politics. Considering her announced purpose of Communizing the world, it is easy to understand her hope of dominating the Middle East...
"These things stress the immense importance of the Middle East. If the nations of that area should lose their independence, if they were dominated by alien forces hostile to freedom, that would be both a tragedy for the area and for many other free nations whose economic life would be subject to near strangulation. Western Europe would be endangered just as though there had been no Marshall Plan, no North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The free nations of Asia and Africa, too, would be placed in serious jeopardy. And the countries of the Middle East would lose the markets upon which their economies depend. All this would have the most adverse, if not disastrous, effect upon our own nation's economic life and political prospects...
"Thus, we have these simple and indisputable facts:
"1. The Middle East, which has always been coveted by Russia, would today be prized more than ever by International Communism.
"2. The Soviet rulers continue to show that they do not scruple to use any means to gain their ends.
"3. The free nations of the Mid East need, and for the most part want, added strength to assure their continued independence(6)."
"The reason for Russia's interest in the Middle East is solely that of power politics. Considering her announced purpose of Communizing the world, it is easy to understand her hope of dominating the Middle East...
"These things stress the immense importance of the Middle East. If the nations of that area should lose their independence, if they were dominated by alien forces hostile to freedom, that would be both a tragedy for the area and for many other free nations whose economic life would be subject to near strangulation. Western Europe would be endangered just as though there had been no Marshall Plan, no North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The free nations of Asia and Africa, too, would be placed in serious jeopardy. And the countries of the Middle East would lose the markets upon which their economies depend. All this would have the most adverse, if not disastrous, effect upon our own nation's economic life and political prospects...
"Thus, we have these simple and indisputable facts:
"1. The Middle East, which has always been coveted by Russia, would today be prized more than ever by International Communism.
"2. The Soviet rulers continue to show that they do not scruple to use any means to gain their ends.
"3. The free nations of the Mid East need, and for the most part want, added strength to assure their continued independence(6)."
The Little Rock Nine (1957)
Count, Elizabeth Eckford Denied Entrance, photograph.
In 1957 Arkansas governor Orval Faubus defied the ruling of the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education by denying nine black students entrance to Little Rock Central High School. Faubus mobilized the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the students from entering the school on September 4, 1957. For two weeks the students were forced to keep up with their work from home. Faubus was ordered by the federal court to remove the national guard from in front of the school, and on September 23, the students entered the school. Later that morning, however, police became worried that they would not be able to control the mob outside and the students were removed from the school. On September 25, President Eisenhower placed the Arkansas National Guard under federal control and sent 1,200 members of the US Army's 101st Airborn Division to escort the students into the school. Each student was assigned a military guard, but endured heavy verbal and physical assault. One of the students, Minnijean Brown, was expelled for retaliating against her tormentors. The next year the town of Little Rock voted to close all four of its high schools rather than continue with desegregation efforts. The Little Rock Nine incident was a testament to the extreme power of racism in America(7).
NASA (1958)
The Soviet Union's October 4, 1957 launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, caused great distress in the United States. It was unthinkable to the American public that the Soviets had surpassed their scientific achievements. America was determined to win the incipient space race. Washington worked quickly to put together legislation to create a powerful new administration that could lead research to catch up to and surpass the Soviets. Eventually, Congress passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act and Eisenhower signed it into law on July 29, 1958. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration officially opened on October 1, 1958(8).
The U-2 Incident (1960)
In 1956, the US started sending high-altitude U-2 reconnaissance flights into Soviet airspace. The missions were a response to alarming Soviet advances in military technology. The flights were very useful, revealing that American nuclear capabilities far surpassed those of the Soviets at a time when it was widely believed that there was a "missile gap" that the US had to close. The Soviet Union knew about the flights, but were powerless to stop them. The U-2 spy planes flew at an altitude of thirteen miles and were unreachable by both Soviet planes and missiles. But in the spring of 1960, the USSR developed a new surface to air missile that could reach the U-2s. On May 1, 1960 pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down over Russia. When Khrushchev announced on May 5 that the Soviets had shot down an American spy plane, Eisenhower initially denied it. When Khrushchev produced photographs of Powers, however, the administration accepted responsibility for the flights. The incident occurred at an inopportune time, right before a May 14 summit in Paris. Khrushchev left the summit only three hours after it began and the summit was a complete failure. Powers was sentenced to ten years in prison for espionage, but was released after only two years in the first US-Soviet "spy swap". The U-2 incident started an new darker era in US-Soviet relations(9).
1. "Dwight D. Eisenhower," Bio.com.
2. "New Look-NSC-162/2," The History of the Cold War: A Comparative Perspective.
3. "Brown v. Board of Education," Our Documents.
4. "The Interstate Highway System," History.
5. "The Eisenhower Doctrine, 1957," U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
6. Eisenhower, "Special Message to the Congress," speech, The American Presidency Project.
7. "Little Rock Nine," Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
8. Dick, "The Birth of NASA," NASA.
9. "U-2 Spy Incident," History.
2. "New Look-NSC-162/2," The History of the Cold War: A Comparative Perspective.
3. "Brown v. Board of Education," Our Documents.
4. "The Interstate Highway System," History.
5. "The Eisenhower Doctrine, 1957," U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
6. Eisenhower, "Special Message to the Congress," speech, The American Presidency Project.
7. "Little Rock Nine," Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
8. Dick, "The Birth of NASA," NASA.
9. "U-2 Spy Incident," History.