History UsefulNotes / DwightDEisenhower

Eisenhower proved to be a very moderate President, upholding the surviving New Deal agencies of Roosevelt and Truman and even expanding Social Security. For most of his two terms, Congress was controlled by the Democrats (future President UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson was the Senate Majority Leader), and he established a good record of bipartisan compromises and maintaining friendly relations between both parties. Indeed, many voters at the time thought that Eisenhower rose above the petty political squabbles of Washington and maintained his integrity. While Eisenhower was President, infamous Senator UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy was leading a witch hunt against (actual and imaginary) communists in the federal government. When [=McCarthy=] began to target the Atomic Energy Commission, Eisenhower ordered that its employees not reveal anything for the sake of "public interest", technically making him the father of executive privilege. Despite being criticized for failing to stop [=McCarthy=], Eisenhower worked behind the scenes to get the [=McCarthy=]-Army hearings televised, leading to [=McCarthy=]'s downfall when the public got a look at how utterly unlikable and out-of-touch with reality he was. He made five appointments to the Supreme Court. The most consequential of these were of Earl Warren as Chief Justice and of William J. Brennan, Jr., as an Associate Justice. The former had been the Republican Attorney General and then Governor of UsefulNotes/{{California}}, in a nod to the growing importance of the West;[[note]]Incidentally, Warren is also the last major elected politician to have been appointed to the Supreme Court. ("Major" because Lewis Powell had previously been elected to a local school board position in Virginia; "politician" because Sandra Day O'Connor had held state-level judicial posts in Arizona, which has an elected judiciary.)[[/note]] the latter man was a Democrat and Associate Justice of the UsefulNotes/NewJersey Supreme Court whom Eisenhower appointed in a bipartisan move to cement support in the Northeast in 1956. Despite expectations that Chief Justice Warren would lead the Court in a conservative direction, the Warren Court gave many liberal rulings on topics as varied as civil rights, the [[MirandaRights rights of accused citizens]], the supremacy of federal laws over state laws, and education. Eisenhower called his nominations of Warren and Brennan to the Court his "great mistakes as President." Most historians disagree, for the record, considering Warren the greatest Chief Justice of the 20th century and most likely second-greatest of all time (it's hard to surpass John Marshall), and recognizing Brennan as not only a top-rate legal mind (and incredibly long-lived, not retiring until ''1990'') but also incredibly influential and a master of building coalitions of justices to decide cases.

Eisenhower saw a number of promotions throughout UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, eventually reaching the ranks of General of the Army (five-stars) and Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. He was one of the most gifted leaders on the Allied side, and was responsible for some of the most important American victories in the European and North African theaters. He was the commander of both Operation Torch (the Allied landings on North Africa) and Operation Husky (the invasion of Sicily). President UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt then chose him to plan the Allied invasion of northern Europe. Codenamed Operation Overlord, but best known as D-Day[[note]] In military parlance, "D-Day" is the day the operation is set to commence, with "H-Hour" being the specific time at which the order will be given. There were literally ''hundreds'' of D-Days throughout the war (and Korea, and Vietnam), many of them having nothing to do with amphibious landings. For some reason, pop culture quickly came to associate the term specifically with Operation Overlord (the actual name of the Normandy invasion), and for this reason Allied planners deviated from the norm by identifying the days on which the main phases of [[HopelessWar Operation Downfall (the planned invasion of Japan)]] would commence as X-, Y-, and Z-Days.[[/note]], the Allied landings on the beaches of Normandy (part of northern France) were a very risky move (he actually had a speech [[ItsAllMyFault assuming full responsibility]] ready in case it failed) that, luckily, paid off. His record on strategic choices during the drive across France is mixed, but two things rarely in dispute are that he never passed the buck to others when things went wrong, and that he was a master at coalition warfare, keeping the British, Americans, Canadians, French, Poles, and others focused on fighting the Germans rather than on their disagreements with each other. Eisenhower continued to supervise the western front for the remainder of the war and was present at the German surrender. He was also one of the first Allied leaders to see the concentration camps in Germany, and he ordered both the military and news crews to document everything they saw knowing some would deny it really happened. He famously wrote "We are told the American soldier does not know what he is fighting for. Now, at least, he will know what he is fighting against."[[note]]Eisenhower - who was very religious and had a deep knowledge of [[{{Literature/TheBible}} The Bible]] - was quoting from Ephesians 6:12: ''"we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places."'' He was literally saying the German Reich was an EldritchAbomination.[[/note]]

Outside of three stinging but very brief recessions, Eisenhower’s two terms oversaw a period of excellent economic outgrowth, and he managed to significantly reduce federal deficits. Three of his eight years actually saw a balanced budget. The Bureau of Labor Statistics gave out its lowest ever unemployment rate during his presidency - ''2.5%'' during May and June of 1953. "White collar" workers surpassed "blue collar" workers for the first time in 1956, signifying that America was now a post-industrial economy, and union membership reached its peak in 1954 before slowly declining. This is partly because of corruption and connection to organized crime in many unions, including Jimmy Hoffa's notorious Teamster's Union. Eisenhower signed the Landrum-Griffin Act to combat the illegal activities of such labor leaders. Despite the growing Civil Rights Movement and the Cold War paranoia, the Eisenhower years are remembered as a period of peace and prosperity following almost 25 years of [[TheGreatDepression depression]] and two wars. The 1950's are often known as the Eisenhower Era.

He’s famous for his nickname “Ike,” which he got from his parents. In fact, all of his brothers were nicknamed Ike as well, which doesn’t make a lot of sense, but for some reason he was the one to be stuck with it for the rest of his life. Ike was actually first named David Dwight Eisenhower; his mother switched the order of his names when he was a year old, because [[OneSteveLimit having three Davids in the family was confusing to everyone]]. One gets the feeling from all of this that the Eisenhowers had trouble with names. To this day, some people believe that she did it so he wouldn't have a nickname -- this despite the fact that she was the one who thought up Ike!

[[quoteright:305:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dwight_d_eisenhower.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:305:Who doesn't like Ike?]]

Despite his deeply religious mother’s beliefs on war, Eisenhower went to the famed MilitaryAcademy at West Point and graduated in 1915; this class is famous for producing 58 future generals (including Omar Bradley, another major World War II General and Ike’s good friend) and has been nicknamed “the class the stars fell on” by military historians. During UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, Eisenhower trained tank crews at Gettysburg, though, to his disappointment, he never saw action. Between the wars, he studied military history and strategy, rose up the ranks to lieutenant colonel, and served for a few years under UsefulNotes/DouglasMacArthur (who was already a four-star general and Army Chief of Staff, before serving as a general in World War II) in the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}. All of this proved to be invaluable for preparing him for his future leadership in the next world war.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dwight_d_eisenhower.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Who doesn't like Ike?]]

Dwight David Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was a five-star general during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and later the 34th President of the United States ([[TheFifties 1953–61]]). He took office after UsefulNotes/HarrySTruman and was succeeded by UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy. He was the last President born in the 19th century and was the 13th from the Republican Party. Eisenhower was the first President who was limited to two terms by the 22nd Amendment (Harry Truman was grandfather-claused, as his first term was merely FDR's uncompleted fourth term). He was also only the second Republican to serve two full terms in office, after UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant.[[note]]UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln and UsefulNotes/WilliamMcKinley were assassinated at the beginning of their second terms. UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt served the remainder of the latter’s term, and UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge served the remainder of UsefulNotes/WarrenGHarding’s term when he died of a heart attack, before both were elected to terms in their own right.[[/note]]

He’s famous for his nickname “Ike,” which he got from his parents. In fact, all of his brothers were nicknamed Ike, which doesn’t make a lot of sense. For some reason, he was the only one it stuck with for the rest of his life. Ike was actually first named David Dwight Eisenhower; his mother changed the order of his names when he was a year old [[OneSteveLimit because having three Davids in the family was confusing everyone]]. One gets the feeling from all of this that his family had trouble with names. To this day, some people believe that she did it so he wouldn't have a nickname -- this despite the fact that she was the one who thought up Ike!

Despite his deeply religious mother’s beliefs on war, Eisenhower went to famed MilitaryAcademy West Point and graduated in 1915; this class is famous for producing 58 future generals (including Omar Bradley, another major World War II General and Ike’s good friend) and has been nicknamed “the class the stars fell on” by military historians. During UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, Eisenhower trained tank crews at Gettysburg, though, to his disappointment, he never saw action. Between the wars, he studied military history and strategy, rose up the ranks to lieutenant colonel, and served for a few years under UsefulNotes/DouglasMacArthur (who was already a four-star general and Army Chief of Staff, before serving as a general in World War II) in the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}. All of this proved to be invaluable for preparing him for his future leadership in the next world war.

* He appears in the Creator/MegRyan romantic comedy ''I.Q.'', dumbfounding mechanic Ed Walters (Creator/TimRobbins) in the process. "Ike?" Apparently a close friend of UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein.

Eisenhower proved to be a very moderate President, upholding the surviving New Deal agencies of Roosevelt and Truman and even expanding Social Security. For most of his two terms, Congress was controlled by the Democrats (future President UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson was the Senate Majority Leader), and he established a good record of bipartisan compromises and maintaining friendly relations between both parties. Indeed, many voters at the time thought that Eisenhower rose above the petty political squabbles of Washington and maintained his integrity. While Eisenhower was President, infamous Senator UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy was leading a witch hunt against (mostly imaginary) communists in the federal government. When [=McCarthy=] began to target the Atomic Energy Commission, Eisenhower ordered that its employees not reveal anything for the sake of "public interest", technically making him the father of executive privilege. Despite being criticized for failing to stop [=McCarthy=], Eisenhower worked behind the scenes to get the [=McCarthy=]-Army hearings televised, leading to [=McCarthy=]'s downfall when the public got a look at how utterly unlikable and out-of-touch with reality he was. He made five appointments to the Supreme Court. The most consequential of these were of Earl Warren as Chief Justice and of William J. Brennan, Jr., as an Associate Justice. The former had been the Republican Attorney General and then Governor of UsefulNotes/{{California}}, in a nod to the growing importance of the West;[[note]]Incidentally, Warren is also the last major elected politician to have been appointed to the Supreme Court. ("Major" because Lewis Powell had previously been elected to a local school board position in Virginia; "politician" because Sandra Day O'Connor had held state-level judicial posts in Arizona, which has an elected judiciary.)[[/note]] the latter man was a Democrat and Associate Justice of the UsefulNotes/NewJersey Supreme Court whom Eisenhower appointed in a bipartisan move to cement support in the Northeast in 1956. Despite expectations that Chief Justice Warren would lead the Court in a conservative direction, the Warren Court gave many liberal rulings on topics as varied as civil rights, the [[MirandaRights rights of accused citizens]], the supremacy of federal laws over state laws, and education. Eisenhower called his nominations of Warren and Brennan to the Court his "great mistakes as President." Most historians disagree, for the record, considering Warren the greatest Chief Justice of the 20th century and most likely second-greatest of all time (it's hard to surpass John Marshall), and recognizing Brennan as not only a top-rate legal mind (and incredibly long-lived, not retiring until ''1990'') but also incredibly influential and a master of building coalitions of justices to decide cases.

* ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryDoubleFeature'': In 1954, Eisenhower's administration was [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse forced to accept]] a treaty with an alien race that allows the latter to abduct 5000 Americans a year for experimentation into creating a [[HalfHumanHybrid hybrid race]], in exchange for [[ETGaveUsWiFi technological advances]]. Later, in 1963, Ike and Nixon shared the existence of this treaty with Kennedy when he started investigating the black budget, and it's all but outright stated that they [[HeKnowsTooMuch had him killed when he threatened to go public]].

Dwight David Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was a five-star general during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and later the 34th President of the United States ([[TheFifties 1953–61]]). He took office after UsefulNotes/HarrySTruman and was succeeded by UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy. He was the last President born in the 19th century and was the 13th from the Republican Party. Eisenhower was the first President who was limited to two terms by the 22nd Amendment (Harry Truman was grandfather-claused, as his first term was merely FDR's uncompleted fourth term). He was also only the second Republican to serve two full terms in office, after UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant.[[note]]UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln and UsefulNotes/WilliamMcKinley were assassinated at the beginning of their second terms. UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt served the remainder of the latter’s term, and UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge served the remainder of UsefulNotes/WarrenHarding’s term when he died of a heart attack, before both were elected to terms in their own right.[[/note]]

Dwight David Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was a five-star general during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and later the 34th President of the United States ([[TheFifties 1953–61]]). He took office after UsefulNotes/HarryTruman and was succeeded by UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy. He was the last President born in the 19th century and was the 13th from the Republican Party. Eisenhower was the first President who was limited to two terms by the 22nd Amendment (Harry Truman was grandfather-claused, as his first term was merely FDR's uncompleted fourth term). He was also only the second Republican to serve two full terms in office, after UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant.[[note]]UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln and UsefulNotes/WilliamMcKinley were assassinated at the beginning of their second terms. UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt served the remainder of the latter’s term, and UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge served the remainder of UsefulNotes/WarrenHarding’s term when he died of a heart attack, before both were elected to terms in their own right.[[/note]]

-->'''Mike:''' It's getting like politics in America is only for the rich!
-->'''Archie:''' Who's been feeding you that Commie crapola?
-->'''Mike:''' President Eisenhower said that.
-->'''Archie:''' He did not! Eisenhower was a great president who never said nothin'!

'''Dwight David Eisenhower''' (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was a five-star general during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and later the 34th President of the United States ([[TheFifties 1953–61]]). He took office after UsefulNotes/HarryTruman and was succeeded by UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy. He was the last President born in the 19th century and was the 13th from the Republican Party. Eisenhower was the first President who was limited to two terms by the 22nd Amendment (Harry Truman was grandfather-claused, as his first term was merely FDR's uncompleted fourth term). He was also only the second Republican to serve two full terms in office, after UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant.[[note]]UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln and UsefulNotes/WilliamMcKinley were assassinated at the beginning of their second terms. UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt served the remainder of the latter’s term, and UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge served the remainder of UsefulNotes/WarrenHarding’s term when he died of a heart attack, before both were elected to terms in their own right.[[/note]]

Eisenhower proved to be a very moderate President, upholding the surviving New Deal agencies of Roosevelt and Truman and even expanding Social Security. For most of his two terms, Congress was controlled by the Democrats (future President UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson was the Senate Majority Leader), and he established a good record of bipartisan compromises and maintaining friendly relations between both parties. Indeed, many voters at the time thought that Eisenhower rose above the petty political squabbles of Washington and maintained his integrity. While Eisenhower was President, infamous Senator UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy was leading a witch hunt against (mostly imaginary) communists in the federal government. When [=McCarthy=] began to target the Atomic Energy Commission, Eisenhower ordered that its employees not reveal anything for the sake of "public interest", technically making him the father of executive privilege. Despite being criticized for failing to stop [=McCarthy=], Eisenhower worked behind the scenes to get the [=McCarthy=]-Army hearings televised, leading to [=McCarthy=]'s downfall when the public got a look at how utterly unlikable and out-of-touch with reality he was. He made five appointments to the Supreme Court. The most consequential of these were of Earl Warren as Chief Justice and of William J. Brennan, Jr., as an Associate Justice. The former had been the Republican Attorney General and then Governor of California, in a nod to the growing importance of the West; the latter man was a Democrat and Associate Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court whom Eisenhower appointed in a bipartisan move to cement support in the Northeast in 1956. Despite expectations that Chief Justice Warren would lead the Court in a conservative direction, the Warren Court gave many liberal rulings on topics as varied as civil rights, the [[MirandaRights rights of accused citizens]], the supremacy of federal laws over state laws, and education. Eisenhower called his nominations of Warren and Brennan to the Court his "great mistakes as President." Most historians disagree, for the record, considering Warren the greatest Chief Justice of the 20th century and most likely second-greatest of all time (it's hard to surpass John Marshall), and recognizing Brennan as not only a top-rate legal mind (and incredibly long-lived, not retiring until ''1990'') but also incredibly influential and a master of building coalitions of justices to decide cases.

Eisenhower changed the name of the presidential retreat from "Shangri-La" to "Camp David" in honor of his grandson. UsefulNotes/AirForceOne started to be used for security purposes after a rather embarrassing incident where a plane carrying Eisenhower and a commercial flight with the same call sign entered the same airspace. He was also the first President to appoint a White House Chief of Staff and the first to appear on color television. A heart attack in 1955 left him in the hospital for six weeks, but he recovered soon enough that it was forgotten in time for the 1956 election. The phrase "under God" was controversially added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954. Alaska and Hawaii were both admitted to the Union in 1959, bringing the number of states to 50. He endorsed Nixon’s first run for President in 1960 and wasn’t happy when Kennedy won, but he did live long enough to see Nixon enter the office at the end of UsefulNotes/TheSixties. Eisenhower gave a famous televised farewell speech when he warned the nation of what he called “the military-industrial complex”, or a partnership between government forces and the defense industrial base. What most people tend not to remember was the fact that he also warned against those seeking to impede its place as a legitimate part of the American arsenal ''as well as'' those who sought to have it gain too much power. He had to resign his position as General of the Army when he entered office, though he was recommissioned after leaving it.

Eisenhower saw a number of promotions throughout UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, eventually reaching the ranks of General of the Army (five-stars) and Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. He was one of the most gifted leaders on the Allied side, and was responsible for some of the most important American victories in the European and North African theaters. He was the commander of both Operation Torch (the Allied landings on North Africa) and Operation Husky (the invasion of Sicily). President UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt then chose him to plan the Allied invasion of northern Europe. Codenamed Operation Overlord, but best known as D-Day[[note]] In military parlance, [[YouKeepUsingThatWord "D-Day"]] is the day the operation is set to commence, with "H-Hour" being the specific time at which the order will be given. There were literally ''hundreds'' of D-Days throughout the war (and Korea, and Vietnam), many of them having nothing to do with amphibious landings. For some reason, pop culture quickly came to associate the term specifically with Operation Overlord (the actual name of the Normandy invasion), and for this reason Allied planners deviated from the norm by identifying the days on which the main phases of [[HopelessWar Operation Downfall (the planned invasion of Japan)]] would commence as X-, Y-, and Z-Days.[[/note]], the Allied landings on the beaches of Normandy (part of northern France) were a very risky move (he actually had a speech [[ItsAllMyFault assuming full responsibility]] ready in case it failed) that, luckily, paid off. His record on strategic choices during the drive across France is mixed, but two things rarely in dispute are that he never passed the buck to others when things went wrong, and that he was a master at coalition warfare, keeping the British, Americans, Canadians, French, Poles, and others focused on fighting the Germans rather than on their disagreements with each other. Eisenhower continued to supervise the western front for the remainder of the war and was present at the German surrender. He was also one of the first Allied leaders to see the concentration camps in Germany, and he ordered both the military and news crews to document everything they saw knowing some would deny it really happened. He famously wrote "We are told the American soldier does not know what he is fighting for. Now, at least, he will know what he is fighting against."[[note]]Eisenhower - who was very religious and had a deep knowledge of [[{{Literature/TheBible}} The Bible]] - was quoting from Ephesians 6:12: ''"we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places."'' He was literally saying the German Reich was an EldritchAbomination.[[/note]]

Eisenhower proved to be a very moderate President, upholding the surviving New Deal agencies of Roosevelt and Truman and even expanding Social Security. For most of his two terms, Congress was controlled by the Democrats (future President UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson was the Senate Majority Leader), and he established a good record of bipartisan compromises and maintaining friendly relations between both parties. Indeed, many voters at the time thought that Eisenhower rose above the petty political squabbles of Washington and maintained his integrity. While Eisenhower was President, infamous Senator UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy was leading a crusade against communistm in the federal government. When [=McCarthy=] began to target the Atomic Energy Commission, Eisenhower ordered that its employees not reveal anything for the sake of "public interest", technically making him the father of executive privilege. Despite being criticized for failing to stop [=McCarthy=], Eisenhower worked behind the scenes to get the [=McCarthy=]-Army hearings televised, leading to [=McCarthy=]'s downfall when the public got a look at how utterly unlikable and out-of-touch with reality he was. He made five appointments to the Supreme Court. The most consequential of these were of Earl Warren as Chief Justice and of William J. Brennan, Jr., as an Associate Justice. The former had been the Republican Attorney General and then Governor of California, in a nod to the growing importance of the West; the latter man was a Democrat and Associate Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court whom Eisenhower appointed in a bipartisan move to cement support in the Northeast in 1956. Despite expectations that Chief Justice Warren would lead the Court in a conservative direction, the Warren Court gave many liberal rulings on topics as varied as civil rights, the [[MirandaRights rights of accused citizens]], the supremacy of federal laws over state laws, and education. Eisenhower called his nominations of Warren and Brennan to the Court his "great mistakes as President." Most historians disagree, for the record, considering Warren the greatest Chief Justice of the 20th century and most likely second-greatest of all time (it's hard to surpass John Marshall), and recognizing Brennan as not only a top-rate legal mind (and incredibly long-lived, not retiring until ''1990'') but also incredibly influential and a master of building coalitions of justices to decide cases.

Eisenhower proved to be a very moderate President, upholding the surviving New Deal agencies of Roosevelt and Truman and even expanding Social Security. For most of his two terms, Congress was controlled by the Democrats (future President UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson was the Senate Majority Leader), and he established a good record of bipartisan compromises and maintaining friendly relations between both parties. Indeed, many voters at the time thought that Eisenhower rose above the petty political squabbles of Washington and maintained his integrity. While Eisenhower was President, infamous Senator UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy was leading a witch-hunt against (mostly imaginary) communists in the federal government. When [=McCarthy=] began to target the Atomic Energy Commission, Eisenhower ordered that its employees not reveal anything for the sake of "public interest", technically making him the father of executive privilege. Despite being criticized for failing to stop [=McCarthy=], Eisenhower worked behind the scenes to get the [=McCarthy=]-Army hearings televised, leading to [=McCarthy=]'s downfall when the public got a look at how utterly unlikable and out-of-touch with reality he was. He made five appointments to the Supreme Court. The most consequential of these were of Earl Warren as Chief Justice and of William J. Brennan, Jr., as an Associate Justice. The former had been the Republican Attorney General and then Governor of California, in a nod to the growing importance of the West; the latter man was a Democrat and Associate Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court whom Eisenhower appointed in a bipartisan move to cement support in the Northeast in 1956. Despite expectations that Chief Justice Warren would lead the Court in a conservative direction, the Warren Court gave many liberal rulings on topics as varied as civil rights, the [[MirandaRights rights of accused citizens]], the supremacy of federal laws over state laws, and education. Eisenhower called his nominations of Warren and Brennan to the Court his "great mistakes as President." Most historians disagree, for the record, considering Warren the greatest Chief Justice of the 20th century and most likely second-greatest of all time (it's hard to surpass John Marshall), and recognizing Brennan as not only a top-rate legal mind (and incredibly long-lived, not retiring until ''1990'') but also incredibly influential and a master of building coalitions of justices to decide cases.

Dwight David Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was a five-star general during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and later the 34th President of the United States ([[TheFifties 1953–61]]). He took office after UsefulNotes/HarryTruman and was succeeded by UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy. He was the last President born in the 19th century and was the 13th from the Republican Party. Eisenhower was the first President who was limited to two terms by the 22nd Amendment (Harry Truman was grandfather-claused, as his first term was merely FDR's uncompleted fourth term). He was also only the second Republican to serve two full terms in office, after UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant.[[note]]UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln and UsefulNotes/WilliamMcKinley were assassinated at the beginning of their second terms. UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt served the remainder of the latter’s term, and UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge served the remainder of UsefulNotes/WarrenHarding’s term when he died of a heart attack, before both were elected to terms in their own right.[[/note]]

On the foreign policy front, Eisenhower’s “New Look” policy supported the containment and, eventually, the “rolling back” of communism throughout the world. To do this, he used a method of UsefulNotes/PeaceThroughSuperiorFirepower, massively increasing the number of nuclear weapons owned by the United States. Eisenhower didn’t seem to ever want to use these weapons, though; he repeatedly turned down any attempt by his advisors to use them against RedChina or other communist nations, and originated America's "No First Strike" policy which mandated that America's strategic nuclear arsenal could only be used in retaliation for the Soviets or Chinese using theirs first. Note that this never applied to ''tactical'' warheads deployed on an active battlefield, only strategic weapons targeted at population centers. Some historians have theorized that Ike actually built so many nukes in order to ''prevent'' World War III by the concept of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutually_assured_destruction mutually-assured destruction]] - if both sides had enough nuclear power to pretty much destroy all human life on Earth, they would do everything in their power to not go to war and, eventually, the UsefulNotes/ColdWar would end. If this is true, history has proven that he was right. Additionally, he openly promoted the use of atomic and nuclear power for peaceful purposes, such as energy, rather than the creation of weapons. However, Ike wasn't opposed to using ''conventional'' weapons for the same purpose. His administration established and operated under the "domino theory", which stated that if one country falls to communism, its neighbors would eventually fall too if significant anti-communist support was not given. One of the unfortunate effects of this was the escalation of American involvement in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar[[note]]American involvement in Vietnam began in 1942, when the OSS began supporting Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh guerillas against the Japanese and Vichy collaborators in French Indochina. Things turned sour in 1946, when [[UngratefulBastard Ho]] officially cast his lot with the communists (though he hadn't done a great job of hiding his red leanings when he was [[EnemyMine asking for American guns and ammo]] to fight the Japanese), which prompted Truman to support the French reasserting their control in Southeast Asia (many historians think the whole thing could have been resolved without violence had General LeClerc not [[DroppedABridgeOnHim died in a sudden and suspicious car accident in Paris]] the day before he was supposed to fly to Hanoi). The general consensus today is that the US had no dog in this fight, but the proverbial die was cast. The OSS and its successor, the CIA, became increasingly more active in Indochina/Vietnam throughout the 40s and 50s. Eisenhower was just the first to officially deploy troops as "advisers." [[/note]] during his time in office, though he only sent a few hundred troops there and the next few administrations were the ones to expand it.

* Franchise/IndianaJones told his Commie captors in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'' that he likes Ike.

Dwight David Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was a five-star general during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and later the 34th President of the United States ([[TheFifties 1953–61]]). He took office after UsefulNotes/HarryTruman and was succeeded by UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy. He was the last President born in the 19th century and was the 13th from the Republican Party. Eisenhower was the first President who was limited to two terms by the 22nd Amendment (Harry Truman was grandfather-claused, as his first term was merely FDR's uncompleted fourth term). He was also only the second Republican to serve two full terms in office, after UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant.[[note]]UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln and UsefulNotes/WilliamMcKinley were assassinated at the beginning of their second terms. UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt served the remainder of the latter’s term, and UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge served the remainder of UsefulNotes/WarrenHarding’s term when he died in office, before both were elected to terms in their own right.[[/note]]

Dwight David Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was a five-star general during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and later the 34th President of the United States ([[TheFifties 1953–61]]). He took office after UsefulNotes/HarryTruman and was succeeded by UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy. He was the last President born in the 19th century and was the 13th from the Republican Party. Eisenhower was the first President who was limited to two terms by the 22nd Amendment (Harry Truman was grandfather-claused). He was also only the second Republican to serve two full terms in office, after UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant.[[note]]UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln and UsefulNotes/WilliamMcKinley were assassinated at the beginning of their second terms. UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt served the remainder of the latter’s term, and UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge served the remainder of UsefulNotes/WarrenHarding’s term when he died in office, before both were elected to terms in their own right.[[/note]]

* As a humorous take on an instance of NamesTheSame, his campaign slogan "We like Ike!" was used in ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'' to cheer on another guy named [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Ike]].

Dwight David Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was a five-star general during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and later the 34th President of the United States ([[TheFifties 1953–61]]). He took office after UsefulNotes/HarryTruman and was succeeded by UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy. He was the last President born in the 19th century and was the 13th from the Republican Party. Eisenhower was the first President who was limited to two terms by the 22nd Amendment (Harry Truman was grandfather-claused).

He's famous for his nickname “Ike,” which he got from his parents. In fact, all of his brothers were nicknamed Ike, which doesn’t make a lot of sense. For some reason, he was the only one it stuck with for the rest of his life. Ike was actually first named David Dwight Eisenhower; his mother changed the order of his names when he was a year old [[OneSteveLimit because having three Davids in the family was confusing everyone]]. One gets the feeling from all of this that his family had trouble with names. To this day, some people believe that she did it so he wouldn't have a nickname -- this despite the fact that she was the one who thought up Ike!

Eisenhower proved to be a very moderate President, upholding the surviving New Deal agencies of Roosevelt and Truman and even expanding Social Security. For most of his two terms, Congress was controlled by the Democrats (future President UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson was the Senate Majority Leader), and he established a good record of bipartisan compromises and maintaining friendly relations between both parties. Indeed, many voters at the time thought that Eisenhower rose above the petty political squabbles of Washington and maintained his integrity. While Eisenhower was President, infamous Senator UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy was leading a witch-hunt against (mostly imaginary) communists in the federal government. When [=McCarthy=] began to target the Atomic Energy Commission, Eisenhower ordered that its employees not reveal anything for the sake of "public interest", technically making him the father of executive privilege. Despite being criticized for failing to stop [=McCarthy=], Eisenhower worked behind the scenes to get the [=McCarthy=]-Army hearings televised, leading to [=McCarthy=]'s downfall when the public got a look at how utterly unlikable and out-of-touch with reality he was. He made five appointments to the Supreme Court. The most consequential of these were of Earl Warren as Chief Justice and of William J. Brennan, Jr., as an Associate Justice. The former had been the Republican Attorney General and then Governor of California, in a nod to the growing importance of the West; the latter man was a Democrat and Associate Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court whom Eisenhower appointed in a bipartisan move to cement support in the Northeast in 1956. Despite expectations that Chief Justice Warren would lead the Court in a conservative direction, the Warren Court gave many liberal rulings on topics as varied as civil rights, the rights of accused citizens, the supremacy of federal laws over state laws, and education. Eisenhower called his nominations of Warren and Brennan to the Court his "great mistakes as President." Most historians disagree, for the record, considering Warren the greatest Chief Justice of the 20th century and most likely second-greatest of all time (it's hard to surpass John Marshall), and recognizing Brennan as not only a top-rate legal mind (and incredibly long-lived, not retiring until ''1990'') but also incredibly influential and a master of building coalitions of justices to decide cases.

Efforts were underway to award him the Medal Of Honor after the war, due to his extraordinary leadership. He personally stopped this, as he believed the Medal of Honor should only be awarded for bravery in combat, even though there ''was'' precedent for awarding it for other reasons, as Lindbergh had been awarded it for his solo flight across the Atlantic. (Not that Eisenhower attempted to avoid combat; his underlings often had to scramble to prevent him from going too close to the front. In addition, both Churchill and Roosevelt were very aware of how crucial his leadership was and made it clear to his staff and the other Allied generals that he simply could not be placed in a position where there was a possibility he might be killed or captured.)