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EISENHOWER, Dwight David
(1890–1969), American military leader, whose great popularity
as Allied supreme commander during World War II secured him election
as the 34th president of the U.S. (1953–61).
Born in Denison, Tex., on Oct. 14, 1890, Eisenhower grew up
on a small farm in Abilene, Kans. His devout and industrious parents,
David (1863–1942) and Ida (1862–1946), raised six
sons. Interested in sports and history, young Dwight went to West
Point for the free education. Eisenhower was commissioned an infantry
officer upon graduation in 1915 and married Mamie Doud (1896–1979)
the following year. They had two sons, one of whom died in childhood.
Eisenhower did not see combat duty during World War I, but
he was decorated and promoted to lieutenant colonel for his administrative
skills in commanding a tank corps training center. In the interwar years,
he was recognized as a promising leader at the Command and General
Staff school and served as an industrial mobilization planner and
as aide to the army chief of staff and later military adviser to
the Philippines, Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
During training exercises in 1940–41, Eisenhower
won praise in several army staff positions, culminating in that
of chief of staff of the Third Army; at the same time he was promoted
to brigadier general. Called to the War Department as a Philippines
expert a few days after the attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines,
he won further promotion to major general and was named chief of
the newly organized Operations Division of the General Staff three
months later. By this time the army’s top planner, he then
prepared plans for the European theater of operations, and in June
1942 he was given command of U.S. forces in Europe by Army Chief
of Staff George C. Marshall. Subsequently as Allied commander in
the invasions of North Africa, Sicily, and Italy, he demonstrated
outstanding skill in forging the allies into an effective fighting
force and managing the large-scale operations.
Appointed supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force
for the invasion of France, Eisenhower, by then a full general,
began his new assignment in January 1944. In the months prior to
the invasion, on June 6, 1944, he supervised the preparation of
air, sea, and land forces and all other strategic planning and made the
crucial decision on the date of the assault. During the fighting
that ensued until the end of the war in Europe, Eisenhower, who
became General of the Army in December 1944, had the overall responsibility
of strategic and administrative control of an Allied force that
eventually numbered more than 4,500,000. Because it was strategically
safer and logistically sounder, Eisenhower employed a broad-front
strategy, requiring all his armies to advance more or less simultaneously.
This caused disagreement with the British commander, Field Marshal
Bernard Montgomery, who favored the risky single-thrust theory of
concentrating the attack in one area. As supreme commander, Eisenhower
prevailed, skillfully using his knowledge and experience combined
with charm and tact to achieve success in his task, which involved
not only fighting the Germans but also dealing with sometimes difficult
allies and troublesome subordinates.
In the fall of 1945, Eisenhower became army chief of staff.
During his tenure in that office—slightly more than two
years—he had the dual role of demobilizing the wartime
army while maintaining a suitable defense force. Although he accepted
the presidency of Columbia University in 1948, he still served as
a military adviser, and, some three years later, he returned to
Europe as supreme commander for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Although he had previously rejected numerous overtures from members
of both parties to run for the presidency, Eisenhower yielded to
the appeal of liberal Republicans in 1952. As a war hero of enormous
popularity, he appealed to many Democrats as well, and he handily defeated
Adlai Stevenson by more than 6.6 million votes. When he ran again
in 1956, the margin was 9.5 million.
Although his cabinet featured prominent businessmen, and his own
desire was for less government involvement in society and the economy,
Eisenhower pursued a moderate course in domestic affairs to the
evident satisfaction of most Americans. Throughout all but the first
two years of his administration, his power was limited by the Democrats’ control
of Congress. He did trim some government activities but also expanded
the Social Security program, aid to education, and the Interstate Highway
System. Nevertheless, in his farewell address, he returned to his
concern about the dangers of big government with a strong warning
against the “military-industrial complex.” During
his administration, critics pointed out his failure to oppose Senator
Joseph McCarthy’s smear tactics against alleged subversives
in government and his lack of support for the emerging civil rights
movement. McCarthyism soon collapsed without presidential intervention,
however, and Eisenhower did send federal troops to Little Rock,
Ark., to enforce school integration in 1957.
As was natural for a man of his background, Eisenhower took particular
interest in military and diplomatic affairs. This led him to invigorate
the National Security Council, bring a quick end (July 27, 1953)
to the stalemated war in Korea, and reduce the strength of the conventional forces.
His emphasis on airpower, which meant nuclear weapons—a
strategy of massive retaliation rather than response tailored to
the specific situation—evoked strong dissent from army
leaders. Despite temporary thaws, the cold war with the Soviet Union
continued throughout his presidency. Eisenhower supported the strong
moralistic, anti-Communist stance of his secretary of state, John
Foster Dulles. Although Dulles talked of “going to the
brink” of war to gain diplomatic ends, his rhetoric outstripped
the administration’s actions. Eisenhower did not intervene
militarily in Vietnam to save the French (1954) or in Eastern Europe
to aid German and Hungarian revolts against Soviet domination (1953
and 1956). He did, however, dispatch a small expedition to Lebanon
in 1958, and he built up alliances with Third World nations. Soviet
threats, as well as such technological and psychological coups as
the launching of Sputnik, the first artificial
satellite, in October 1957, drew a typically cautious response from
him. In the spring of 1960, his acceptance of responsibility for
a U-2 plane’s spy flight over the USSR brought a temporary
end to hopes for harmonious relations with the Soviet Union. In
retirement, the former president wrote several volumes of memoirs
and enjoyed his hobbies of golf and painting. Both presidents John
F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson consulted the still popular elder
statesman. He died on March 28, 1969, in Washington, D.C.