jetra2
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Hi everyone,
I thought that you all would like to read my term paper that I wrote on Dwight D. Eisenhower. Tell me what you think!!!
Jason Toft
American National Government
Professor Strauss
March 29, 2003
Dwight David Eisenhower
Dwight David Eisenhower was born in October of 1890 in the great state of Texas, and was raised in Abilene, Kansas. Many things played a role in the shaping of the man named Eisenhower. In a physical frame of mind, Ike inherited a tough body, very good looks, and a grin to die for. Ike was very competitive, just like his parents. Along with this, Eisenhower inherited a bad temper, a belief in unconditional love for the right things and people, and stern self-discipline. Also, his parents made him read his bible aloud and taught him to control his emotions, mostly his temper! All of his life, when Ike would say a swear word such as "hell" or "****" in front of a lady, he would blush and apologize because of his strong beliefs.
Eisenhower was in the military for many years before he became president. He believed that the key to peace in the world was a strong military, therefore, he decided to become a military officer at a young age. Ike wanted to be in the Navy, but when he took the entrance exams to the schools, he marked either where you chose which school to go to, West Point or Annapolis. Because of this, the Army's school, West Point, accepted him. He graduated in 1915, 61st in a class of 164. This class was later called "The Class that the Stars Fell on," because 58 of the students earned at least one Generals' Star, including Eisenhower. He achieved the highest rank of the entire class-that of Five-Star General of the Army. During his time in the military, Dwight Eisenhower increased in both rank and stature. Eisenhower served alongside prominent people such as Douglas MacArthur, John C. Pershing, and Walter Krueger. Ike was a military advisor to both MacArthur and Pershing in the Philippines. Although he did not achieve many of his goals for the first twenty-five years of his career, goals such as getting to war and getting to a very high rank, his experience increased to the point when one day in the early 1940's, his patience paid off.
When the Allies began to start the retaking of Europe, Eisenhower was in command of four hundred and twenty thousand troops in field training in Louisiana, working with an old West Point Colleague, General George Patton. Here, in Louisiana, Eisenhower demonstrated his gift for strategy and coordination and Patton demonstrated his ability to lead an armored division with skill and precision. After the United States entered World War II, Eisenhower received a call from General George C. Marshall, who, at the time, was Chief of Staff of the Army in Washington, D.C. General Marshall requested Eisenhower come to Washington to help draw up war plans. The military leaders in Washington were very impressed with Eisenhower's abilities and they sent him to Europe to serve as liaison between the American and British planners.
Eisenhower made such a commendatory impression on both British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the American leaders in Europe that they commissioned him to draw up plans for "Operation Overlord," also known as the Allied Assault on Europe, which began with the Normandy invasion. What we see here is that Eisenhower rose up from a lowly Lieutenant Colonel in the Philippines to the commander of the finest military force in history! One of the most famous decisions that Eisenhower made during his time in Europe was that of giving the order to start the Normandy invasion in inclement weather. This quote, "Okay, let's go," was met with devotion and admiration by the military and the civilians of London and other European cities. Whenever people that worked with Eisenhower described him, there was only one word that they used. Trust. They believed that his human qualities were his strongest strength. People believed that once Eisenhower smiled at you, you were drawn in close and immediately trusted him.
General Eisenhower, after his tour in Europe, went back to the U.S. and received a hero's welcome, along with all the other troops that served in the war there. As peace came to Europe, Eisenhower found himself caught up in the political controversy of his being the leader of American occupation forces. He found himself making hard decisions, which is to be expected as a leader. He had to relieve his colleague, General Patton, as military governor of Bavaria because he was using former Nazi's as government officials.
Returning to Washington after his short stint as the occupation leader, Eisenhower served as a advisor to then-president Harry Truman. Near the end of World War II, the President was deciding whether or not to use the atomic bomb on Japan, Eisenhower strongly disagreed with this plan. He believed that Japan was already beaten and was trying to make peace. He also thought that it would taint the United States' image as a leader in the war. After the fateful week in August of 1945, the bombs were dropped, and the war was over just about three weeks later.
After all of this, Eisenhower served two years as Chief of Staff of the Army. During this time, he demobilized the army, dropping the amount of soldiers from eight to one million. Later, after serving a very short time as president of Columbia University, Eisenhower decided to become the commander of NATO, at President Truman's calling. NATO, at the time, consisted of only eleven nations, including the United States.
In 1948, President Truman secretly offered Eisenhower the chance to become President. Truman wanted Eisenhower to run for President on the Democratic ticket, with Truman as Vice President. Ike politely declined the offer because he believed that a professional military officer should not be President.
Near the time for the 1952 election, Truman again asked Eisenhower for him to run alongside him. Eisenhower listened, but showed no interest in running with Truman. A Massachusetts Senator, Henry Cabot Lodge, then began an "Eisenhower for President" drive. In the New Hampshire primary election, Eisenhower beat his opponent, Senator Robert Taft (son of former President William Taft), by almost ten thousand votes, out of the eighty thousand votes cast. Ike was running as a Republican. At the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Eisenhower won the Presidential slot on the ticket.
Although Eisenhower had a personal allure that was captivating, it didn't matter to him. Eisenhower's campaign focused on ignoring his opponent and attacking Truman. The campaign also focused on twenty-five states and effectively using informal radio and television appearances to cover the nation with Eisenhower's charm. When Eisenhower was asked why he was running for president, he gave two reasons. One, he wanted to keep his main opponent, Senator Taft, from running because Taft was a dangerous isolationist who thought that America should lead the world by example and not by military force. Two, he wanted to keep the Democrats from creating big government, or statism, and welfare socialism in the United States.
The Democratic candidate, Adlai Stevenson, the former Governor of Illinois, gave thought provoking speeches that stirred up the liberal and moderate democrats, was Eisenhower's opponent. Stevenson had many captivating traits, he was a Princeton educated lawyer, special advisor to the State Department, special assistant to the Secretary of the Navy in 1941, and an instrumental factor in the creation of the United Nations. Although these credentials are impressive, they are no match to Eisenhower's.
Eisenhower's running mate was Richard Nixon. Eisenhower never liked Nixon, mainly because of a secret slush fund that he received, consisting of $18,000, all for personal expenses. As mentioned above, Eisenhower was raised with strong morals and was trustworthy. Ike was ready to drop Nixon as his running mate, but just before he could, Nixon made a televised speech, denying any wrongdoing. The result was an outpouring of support by the American people, and Ike reluctantly kept Nixon on his ticket.
In the final days of the campaign, President Truman joined the Democratic side of the campaign. The sudden appearance of a new threat to Eisenhower campaign almost tipped its wagon, in a manner of speaking. Truman spoke about things that were not true of Eisenhower, such as that he was a "puppet to a dangerous crew of isolationists," and that Ike was campaigning against his own morals. To retaliate against this attack on his campaign, Eisenhower promised that if he was elected, he would go to Korea and personally try to end the war there. This retaliation was successful, thus, an outpouring of support was shown for Eisenhower's campaign. Even Democratic voters wore "I Like Ike" buttons.
Upon the arrival of election day, Ike's campaign won the popular vote by 10.7% over Adlai Stevenson. Eisenhower won the electoral college vote in a landslide with over 350 more votes than Stevenson. Although the Republicans were successful in the winning of the president by a large margin, they barely won a majority in the House of Representatives by only one seat, and lost a Senate majority by one seat, which was filled by Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy, who would win the presidency in the early sixties.
Soon after entering office, Eisenhower, as promised during his campaign, went to Korea. While in Korea, there were two factors that Ike considered when making his decisions. One, Stalin had recently died, moving Russia's foreign attitudes from a safe level to a extremely dangerous level almost overnight. The second was China's growing interest in the civil war in Vietnam. Over the next couple of months, Eisenhower negotiated a cease fire in Korea and the war was over.
During the time that Eisenhower was in office, the Cold War was in full swing. Wanting peace between the United States and Russia, Ike proposed to the Soviets that the two countries exchange blueprints of each other military complexes. He also proposed that they exchange aerial photographs of their military complexes annually to make sure that each other know the other countries military strength. The Soviets greeted the proposed plan with silence. During the meetings, tensions between the two countries relaxed slightly, but it was only the bottom of a hill in the roller coaster ride called the Cold War.
Eisenhower did not change the domestic policies set into place by former presidents Truman and Roosevelt. He did set into place the funding for a national highway system, costing over $30 billion. The project allowed for an unprecedented amount of Americans to drive thousands of miles on long strips of concrete without encountering one stop sign. By 1971, the system had become the largest public works project in American history.
Mild economic recessions affected only the years 1953-54 and 1957-58, but that is to be expected. During his term, unemployment was low and prosperity was widespread. The stock market was on a "bullish" climb to an unprecedented high. Approximately 60 percent of Americans were in the "middle" class based on income. Inflation was minimal, close to 1.5 percent per year. New toys, such as TV sets, synthetic fabrics, ballpoint pens, and the first credit cards became household items.
With a healthy economy, Eisenhower felt that there was no problem with appointing business men as regulators of the same corporations in which they held special interests. Ike's willingness to allow the states and corporate interests guide most domestic policies was represented by the Submerged Lands Act of 1953. The legislation transferred $40 billion worth of offshore oil fields from federal hands to the gulf coast states. Critics of Eisenhower claimed that by loosening the grip of the government regulations would destroy the bayous of Louisiana and Florida's tropical areas. They backed this up by stating that the warehouses of toxic chemicals, most importantly DDT, a chemical known to harm birds and other wildlife, would make for many incidents of contamination and cost the government millions of dollars.
For the first time in presidential history, Eisenhower used the power of the television media to talk to the American people. Using this and many other means, Eisenhower kept his popularity rating between 70 and 80 percent throughout both of his terms.
In 1955, Eisenhower suffered a major heart attack in Denver, Colorado. He recovered quickly and got back to work. He again won the election by a landslide against Adlai Stevenson, his previous opponent, and went back to work as President of the United States. He retired to Pennsylvania in 1961, after making an emotional farewell speech
Eisenhower left life the same way he lived it. Surrounded by his family and doctors, he softly issued his final order, "I want to go; God take me." He died on March 28, 1969.
In conclusion, I have learned that Eisenhower was one of the most respected presidents in American history. I like Ike! I also learned that research is not easy, but when you take the time to do it right, you won't regret it! This paper has taught me many things about Dwight Eisenhower.
I thought that you all would like to read my term paper that I wrote on Dwight D. Eisenhower. Tell me what you think!!!
Jason Toft
American National Government
Professor Strauss
March 29, 2003
Dwight David Eisenhower
Dwight David Eisenhower was born in October of 1890 in the great state of Texas, and was raised in Abilene, Kansas. Many things played a role in the shaping of the man named Eisenhower. In a physical frame of mind, Ike inherited a tough body, very good looks, and a grin to die for. Ike was very competitive, just like his parents. Along with this, Eisenhower inherited a bad temper, a belief in unconditional love for the right things and people, and stern self-discipline. Also, his parents made him read his bible aloud and taught him to control his emotions, mostly his temper! All of his life, when Ike would say a swear word such as "hell" or "****" in front of a lady, he would blush and apologize because of his strong beliefs.
Eisenhower was in the military for many years before he became president. He believed that the key to peace in the world was a strong military, therefore, he decided to become a military officer at a young age. Ike wanted to be in the Navy, but when he took the entrance exams to the schools, he marked either where you chose which school to go to, West Point or Annapolis. Because of this, the Army's school, West Point, accepted him. He graduated in 1915, 61st in a class of 164. This class was later called "The Class that the Stars Fell on," because 58 of the students earned at least one Generals' Star, including Eisenhower. He achieved the highest rank of the entire class-that of Five-Star General of the Army. During his time in the military, Dwight Eisenhower increased in both rank and stature. Eisenhower served alongside prominent people such as Douglas MacArthur, John C. Pershing, and Walter Krueger. Ike was a military advisor to both MacArthur and Pershing in the Philippines. Although he did not achieve many of his goals for the first twenty-five years of his career, goals such as getting to war and getting to a very high rank, his experience increased to the point when one day in the early 1940's, his patience paid off.
When the Allies began to start the retaking of Europe, Eisenhower was in command of four hundred and twenty thousand troops in field training in Louisiana, working with an old West Point Colleague, General George Patton. Here, in Louisiana, Eisenhower demonstrated his gift for strategy and coordination and Patton demonstrated his ability to lead an armored division with skill and precision. After the United States entered World War II, Eisenhower received a call from General George C. Marshall, who, at the time, was Chief of Staff of the Army in Washington, D.C. General Marshall requested Eisenhower come to Washington to help draw up war plans. The military leaders in Washington were very impressed with Eisenhower's abilities and they sent him to Europe to serve as liaison between the American and British planners.
Eisenhower made such a commendatory impression on both British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the American leaders in Europe that they commissioned him to draw up plans for "Operation Overlord," also known as the Allied Assault on Europe, which began with the Normandy invasion. What we see here is that Eisenhower rose up from a lowly Lieutenant Colonel in the Philippines to the commander of the finest military force in history! One of the most famous decisions that Eisenhower made during his time in Europe was that of giving the order to start the Normandy invasion in inclement weather. This quote, "Okay, let's go," was met with devotion and admiration by the military and the civilians of London and other European cities. Whenever people that worked with Eisenhower described him, there was only one word that they used. Trust. They believed that his human qualities were his strongest strength. People believed that once Eisenhower smiled at you, you were drawn in close and immediately trusted him.
General Eisenhower, after his tour in Europe, went back to the U.S. and received a hero's welcome, along with all the other troops that served in the war there. As peace came to Europe, Eisenhower found himself caught up in the political controversy of his being the leader of American occupation forces. He found himself making hard decisions, which is to be expected as a leader. He had to relieve his colleague, General Patton, as military governor of Bavaria because he was using former Nazi's as government officials.
Returning to Washington after his short stint as the occupation leader, Eisenhower served as a advisor to then-president Harry Truman. Near the end of World War II, the President was deciding whether or not to use the atomic bomb on Japan, Eisenhower strongly disagreed with this plan. He believed that Japan was already beaten and was trying to make peace. He also thought that it would taint the United States' image as a leader in the war. After the fateful week in August of 1945, the bombs were dropped, and the war was over just about three weeks later.
After all of this, Eisenhower served two years as Chief of Staff of the Army. During this time, he demobilized the army, dropping the amount of soldiers from eight to one million. Later, after serving a very short time as president of Columbia University, Eisenhower decided to become the commander of NATO, at President Truman's calling. NATO, at the time, consisted of only eleven nations, including the United States.
In 1948, President Truman secretly offered Eisenhower the chance to become President. Truman wanted Eisenhower to run for President on the Democratic ticket, with Truman as Vice President. Ike politely declined the offer because he believed that a professional military officer should not be President.
Near the time for the 1952 election, Truman again asked Eisenhower for him to run alongside him. Eisenhower listened, but showed no interest in running with Truman. A Massachusetts Senator, Henry Cabot Lodge, then began an "Eisenhower for President" drive. In the New Hampshire primary election, Eisenhower beat his opponent, Senator Robert Taft (son of former President William Taft), by almost ten thousand votes, out of the eighty thousand votes cast. Ike was running as a Republican. At the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Eisenhower won the Presidential slot on the ticket.
Although Eisenhower had a personal allure that was captivating, it didn't matter to him. Eisenhower's campaign focused on ignoring his opponent and attacking Truman. The campaign also focused on twenty-five states and effectively using informal radio and television appearances to cover the nation with Eisenhower's charm. When Eisenhower was asked why he was running for president, he gave two reasons. One, he wanted to keep his main opponent, Senator Taft, from running because Taft was a dangerous isolationist who thought that America should lead the world by example and not by military force. Two, he wanted to keep the Democrats from creating big government, or statism, and welfare socialism in the United States.
The Democratic candidate, Adlai Stevenson, the former Governor of Illinois, gave thought provoking speeches that stirred up the liberal and moderate democrats, was Eisenhower's opponent. Stevenson had many captivating traits, he was a Princeton educated lawyer, special advisor to the State Department, special assistant to the Secretary of the Navy in 1941, and an instrumental factor in the creation of the United Nations. Although these credentials are impressive, they are no match to Eisenhower's.
Eisenhower's running mate was Richard Nixon. Eisenhower never liked Nixon, mainly because of a secret slush fund that he received, consisting of $18,000, all for personal expenses. As mentioned above, Eisenhower was raised with strong morals and was trustworthy. Ike was ready to drop Nixon as his running mate, but just before he could, Nixon made a televised speech, denying any wrongdoing. The result was an outpouring of support by the American people, and Ike reluctantly kept Nixon on his ticket.
In the final days of the campaign, President Truman joined the Democratic side of the campaign. The sudden appearance of a new threat to Eisenhower campaign almost tipped its wagon, in a manner of speaking. Truman spoke about things that were not true of Eisenhower, such as that he was a "puppet to a dangerous crew of isolationists," and that Ike was campaigning against his own morals. To retaliate against this attack on his campaign, Eisenhower promised that if he was elected, he would go to Korea and personally try to end the war there. This retaliation was successful, thus, an outpouring of support was shown for Eisenhower's campaign. Even Democratic voters wore "I Like Ike" buttons.
Upon the arrival of election day, Ike's campaign won the popular vote by 10.7% over Adlai Stevenson. Eisenhower won the electoral college vote in a landslide with over 350 more votes than Stevenson. Although the Republicans were successful in the winning of the president by a large margin, they barely won a majority in the House of Representatives by only one seat, and lost a Senate majority by one seat, which was filled by Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy, who would win the presidency in the early sixties.
Soon after entering office, Eisenhower, as promised during his campaign, went to Korea. While in Korea, there were two factors that Ike considered when making his decisions. One, Stalin had recently died, moving Russia's foreign attitudes from a safe level to a extremely dangerous level almost overnight. The second was China's growing interest in the civil war in Vietnam. Over the next couple of months, Eisenhower negotiated a cease fire in Korea and the war was over.
During the time that Eisenhower was in office, the Cold War was in full swing. Wanting peace between the United States and Russia, Ike proposed to the Soviets that the two countries exchange blueprints of each other military complexes. He also proposed that they exchange aerial photographs of their military complexes annually to make sure that each other know the other countries military strength. The Soviets greeted the proposed plan with silence. During the meetings, tensions between the two countries relaxed slightly, but it was only the bottom of a hill in the roller coaster ride called the Cold War.
Eisenhower did not change the domestic policies set into place by former presidents Truman and Roosevelt. He did set into place the funding for a national highway system, costing over $30 billion. The project allowed for an unprecedented amount of Americans to drive thousands of miles on long strips of concrete without encountering one stop sign. By 1971, the system had become the largest public works project in American history.
Mild economic recessions affected only the years 1953-54 and 1957-58, but that is to be expected. During his term, unemployment was low and prosperity was widespread. The stock market was on a "bullish" climb to an unprecedented high. Approximately 60 percent of Americans were in the "middle" class based on income. Inflation was minimal, close to 1.5 percent per year. New toys, such as TV sets, synthetic fabrics, ballpoint pens, and the first credit cards became household items.
With a healthy economy, Eisenhower felt that there was no problem with appointing business men as regulators of the same corporations in which they held special interests. Ike's willingness to allow the states and corporate interests guide most domestic policies was represented by the Submerged Lands Act of 1953. The legislation transferred $40 billion worth of offshore oil fields from federal hands to the gulf coast states. Critics of Eisenhower claimed that by loosening the grip of the government regulations would destroy the bayous of Louisiana and Florida's tropical areas. They backed this up by stating that the warehouses of toxic chemicals, most importantly DDT, a chemical known to harm birds and other wildlife, would make for many incidents of contamination and cost the government millions of dollars.
For the first time in presidential history, Eisenhower used the power of the television media to talk to the American people. Using this and many other means, Eisenhower kept his popularity rating between 70 and 80 percent throughout both of his terms.
In 1955, Eisenhower suffered a major heart attack in Denver, Colorado. He recovered quickly and got back to work. He again won the election by a landslide against Adlai Stevenson, his previous opponent, and went back to work as President of the United States. He retired to Pennsylvania in 1961, after making an emotional farewell speech
Eisenhower left life the same way he lived it. Surrounded by his family and doctors, he softly issued his final order, "I want to go; God take me." He died on March 28, 1969.
In conclusion, I have learned that Eisenhower was one of the most respected presidents in American history. I like Ike! I also learned that research is not easy, but when you take the time to do it right, you won't regret it! This paper has taught me many things about Dwight Eisenhower.
