History UsefulNotes / DwightDEisenhower

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. The 13th US president from the Republican Party and the last to be born in the 19th century, Eisenhower was also the first president who was limited to two terms by the 22nd Amendment (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]] (who coincidentally was [[TheAmericanCivilWar also a war hero]] before becoming president).

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. The 13th US president from the Republican Party and the last to be born in the 19th century, Eisenhower was also the first president who was limited to two terms by the 22nd Amendment (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]] (who coincidentally was [[AmericanCivilWar also a war hero]] before becoming president).

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. The 13th US president from the Republican Party and the last to be born in the 19th century, Eisenhower was also the first president who was limited to two terms by the 22nd Amendment (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]]

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.) [[UsefulNotes/RedsWithRockets The Soviet side]] granted him in June 1945 the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Victory Order of Victory]] -- highest and rarest military decoration ''ever'', awarded specifically to General officers for exquisite leadership and only 5 times outside the Red Army itself[[note]]Official description of the Order in the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum says "General Eisenhower is one of five non-Russians to receive it". Neither were all Red Army Generals to receive it Russian: Joseph Stalin was Georgian, Konstantin Rokossovsky was Polish, Rodion Malinovsky and Semyon Timoshenko were Ukrainians and Aleksei Antonov was Kryashen Tatar[[/note]]

Eisenhower was made the Governor of the American Zone in Germany, where he helped bring in food and medicine for the German citizens. He served as Chief of Staff for President Harry S Truman and, later, as the first supreme commander of NATO during the beginning years of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. He was courted by both major parties in 1948, but declined to run. He was "drafted" by Republicans in 1952 and won the general election in a ten-point victory and Electoral College landslide. It was the first time a Republican nominee won since UsefulNotes/HerbertHoover in 1928.[[note]]In fact, the main reason why he finally decided to run for president as a Republican was because he felt that the country needed a change in leadership after 20 years of the Democrats winning the White House.[[/note]] Additionally, he won reelection in 1956 by an even larger margin. His campaign slogan was "I Like Ike", which was meant to be worn on buttons and bumper stickers to show support. The unpopular and sour-faced UsefulNotes/RichardNixon, then a commie-fighting Senator from California, was his running mate; Ike tried to make Nixon a Cabinet member during his second term, but Tricky Dicky insisted on staying on as the VP. Eisenhower was also president of [[UsefulNotes/IvyLeague Columbia University]] from 1948 to 1953, which gave him administrative experience for his years as the nation's president.[[note]]Ike joked that Columbia really meant to ask for his brother Milton, an accomplished academic who was President of Johns Hopkins University, but sent the letter to him by mistake and were too embarrassed to correct themselves. He is also responsible for Columbia's well-regarded pavement layout, which came about because groundskeeping staff kept on complaining that students were walking on the grass to get to and from class and Eisenhower suggested that they note where the grass was worn down the most and pave over those sections.[[/note]]

* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' has Al Bundy attempting to prove his theory that his neighbor Jefferson is actually a spy by challenging him to see which of them could name the most U.S. Presidents. Jefferson names several, while Al's only response to each is "...''Ei''senhower".

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 (he was just about the only person who could corral Patton and Montgomery, who despised 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]]

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.) [[UsefulNotes/RedsWithRockets The Soviet side]] granted him in June 1945 the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Victory Order of Victory]] - highest and rarest military decoration ''ever'', awarded specifically to General officers for exquisite leadership and only 5 times outside the Red Army itself[[note]]Official description of the Order in the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum says "General Eisenhower is one of five non-Russians to receive it". Neither were all Red Army Generals to receive it Russian: Joseph Stalin was Georgian, Konstantin Rokossovsky was Polish, Rodion Malinovsky and Semyon Timoshenko were Ukrainians and Aleksei Antonov was Kryashen Tatar[[/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 the corruption and connection to organized crime (especially UsefulNotes/TheMafia) 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.

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.

Relations with the Soviet Union proved to be very testy during his eight years. During his first year in office, UsefulNotes/JosefStalin died. Eisenhower met with Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev a few times with the hopes of slowly ending the Cold War, but these conferences only produced a few results. The USSR's brutal crushing of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 was one of the tenser moments of the Cold War, but Eisenhower kept his head and refused to risk causing a nuclear war. Following Nixon’s visit to the Soviet Union and Khrushchev’s visit to America, the chance for peace started to look better. However, on the eve of another summit in Paris, an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over USSR territory. Eisenhower begrudgingly admitted to an outraged Khrushchev that he ordered this flight as well as others, embarrassing the American government. Khrushchev left the summit in protest, Eisenhower had to cancel his planned trip to the USSR, and relations between the two countries returned to their previous state. Speaking of the Cold War, UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace started when the Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite into space in 1957. He responded by creating both UsefulNotes/{{NASA}} to lead the American space program and DARPA to expand scientific knowledge and technological progress. The Nuclear Navy also got its start during the 1950's - under the leadership of Hyman G. Rickover, it had a record of zero reactor accidents which continues to this day.

Eisenhower visited the Korean peninsula in 1952 after winning and concluded that the stalemate in UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar was not worth the money being poured into it. Upon entering office in 1953, he negotiated an end to the fighting with an armistice (Technically speaking, the war is still ongoing because a peace treaty was never signed). That same year, he authorized a UsefulNotes/{{CIA}}-led coup d’etat in UsefulNotes/{{Iran}} to overthrow the (pro-oil nationalization, anti-Soviet but pragmatically aligned with them, mind you) prime minister and reinstate the Iranian monarchy. This was the start of major American involvement in the Middle East and would eventually lead to the spectacular embarrassment of the Iranian hostage crisis during UsefulNotes/JimmyCarter’s presidency. When Israel, the UK, and France [[UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict invaded Egypt in 1956 to seize the Suez Canal]], Eisenhower ordered them to leave Egypt and return the canal. He also sent troops to UsefulNotes/{{Lebanon}} two years later to prevent the nation from falling to revolutionaries. The CIA led other covert operations, including in UsefulNotes/{{Guatemala}} and the UsefulNotes/DemocraticRepublicOfTheCongo. UsefulNotes/{{Cuba}} fell to communism in 1959, and Eisenhower ordered the CIA to plan an invasion of Cuba that would end up happening during UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy’s time in office. The Formosa Resolution, which promises UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}} that America will provide military defense against RedChina, was passed in 1955 and continues to this day. During the Eisenhower administration, America and UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} worked together to create the St. Lawrence Seaway and UsefulNotes/TheFrancoRegime in UsefulNotes/{{Spain}} was recognized by the United States government.

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.) [[RedsWithRockets The Soviet side]] granted him in June 1945 the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Victory Order of Victory]] - highest and rarest military decoration ''ever'', awarded specifically to General officers for exquisite leadership and only 5 times outside the Red Army itself[[note]]Official description of the Order in the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum says "General Eisenhower is one of five non-Russians to receive it". Neither were all Red Army Generals to receive it Russian: Joseph Stalin was Georgian, Konstantin Rokossovsky was Polish, Rodion Malinovsky and Semyon Timoshenko were Ukrainians and Aleksei Antonov was Kryashen Tatar[[/note]]

Despite regretting the Warren Court's liberalism, Eisenhower was firmly behind the Court on one issue--civil rights. As a general, he had always deeply respected the work that black troops did (especially because black soldiers generally did support work, which Eisenhower, who believed ''logistics'' to be the single most important thing in war, saw as being as at least as important as combat to the war effort), and this carried over to civilian life, as well. The unanimous Supreme Court ruling in ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'' (1954) outlawed school segregation and seriously kicked off the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement. In support of this, ruling, Eisenhower ordered the desegregation of DC schools (per ''Bolling v. Sharpe'') and would later send down the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the inclusion of black students in the high school at Little Rock, Arkansas after Governor Orval Faubus called up the Arkansas National Guard to block desegregation. He also proposed two Civil Rights Acts to Congress in 1957 and 1960, which were the first passed since Reconstruction ended in 1877, created the Commission on Civil Rights, and completed Truman’s process of desegregating the military. Eisenhower has often been criticized for not doing enough to support the Civil Rights Movement; he did ''personally'' support it, but he believed that the President could only help them to a limited extent and that changing things suddenly would lead to some people taking violent action to try and stop it. Other notable moments of the Civil Rights Movement during his time include the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the murder of black youth Emmett Till, African American student Autherine Lucy's admittance to the University of Alabama via court order, and the start of the sit-in movements. In 1958, Eisenhower met with notable African American leaders, including Martin Luther King, Jr. He also supported the very unfortunate policy of "termination," where Native Americans were forced to move off of reservations and into cities in order to assimilate into white culture. Like nearly all things the federal government has done to Native Americans, this did not help them in the slightest, though unlike most federal measures, this one was at least ''intended'' to help them.

* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' has Al Bundy attempting to prove his theory that his neighbor and RichIdiotWithNoDayJob Jefferson is actually a spy by challenging him to see which of them could name the most U.S. Presidents. Jefferson names several, while Al's only response to each is "...''Ei''senhower".

* Is played by Creator/RobinWilliams in Lee Daniels' ''Film/TheButler''.

* Ike plays a minor role early in Darwyn Cooke's graphic novel ''ComicBook/DCTheNewFrontier'', mainly to represent the "old guard" before Kennedy's election at the end. He's slightly more prominent in a "special missing chapter" published a few years later, where he conscripts Franchise/{{Superman}} to arrest Franchise/{{Batman}} in a clever parody of UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan's role in ''Comicbook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns''.

* Ike appears at the beginning of ''ComicBook/SupermanRedSon'', first announcing the existence of Soviet Superman to the United States, and later privately lamenting the forthcoming UsefulNotes/ColdWar escalation to his aides, one of whom is ComicBook/JimmyOlsen, who in that universe is the government agent that Ike assigns to monitor ComicBook/LexLuthor's progress on coming up with a way to beat Superman.

* In ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' , Meg asks Lois who the President was when she was born, and Lois starts to answer with Eisenhower's name before remembering that [[HotMenAtWork the handyman she wants to seduce]] is in the room with her, so she lies and says "[[UsefulNotes/BillClinton Clinton]]. Dwight D. Clinton." Cue {{cutaway gag}} with the following voiceover played on real footage of Eisenhower giving a speech.

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