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Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, born David Dwight
Eisenhower on October 14, 1890, United
States|American Military of the United
States|soldier and Politics of the United
States|politician, was the 34th President of the
United States (1953–1961) and Supreme
Commander of the Allied Expeditionary
Force|Supreme Commander of the Allies|Allied
forces in Europe during World War II, with the
rank of General of the Army (USA)|General of the
Army.  

==Early life and family==
Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas, the third
of seven sons born to David Jacob Eisenhower and
Ida Elizabeth Stover, and their only child born in
Texas. He was named David Dwight, but quickly
began to go by his middle name. The Eisenhower
family came from Forbach, Alsace, but had lived in
America since the 18th century. The family moved
back to Abilene, Kansas, in 1892. Eisenhower
graduated from Abilene High School in 1909 and he
worked at Belle Springs Creamery from 1909 to
1911. 

Eisenhower married Mamie Eisenhower|Mamie Geneva
Doud (1896–1979), of Denver, Colorado on
July 1, 1916. They had two children, Doud Dwight
Eisenhower, who died four years later
(1917–1921), and John Sheldon David Doud
Eisenhower (born 1922). John Eisenhower served in
the United States Army, then became an author and
served as U.S. Ambassador to Belgium. John's son,
David Eisenhower, after whom Camp David is named,
married Richard Nixon's daughter Julie Nixon
Eisenhower|Julie in 1968.

Eisenhower's family was originally River Brethren.
Beginning when he was five years old, Eisenhower's
mother converted to the religion now known as
Jehovah's Witness and young Dwight was raised in
the Jehovah's Witness faith. His mother was active
in the Jehovah's Witnessess from 1895 until she
died, while his father was an active member only
early in Dwight's life.fn|1 There is no record
that Dwight ever formally joined the congregation,
and he abandoned the Jehovah Witnesses before
joining United States Military Academy|West Point.
Eisenhower was baptized, confirmed, and became a
communicant in the Presbyterian church in a single
ceremony on February 1, 1953, just weeks after his
first inauguration as president. In his retirement
years, he was a member of the Gettysburg
Presbyterian Church in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
http://www.gettysburg.com/communit/gpc.htm

== Military career==
Eisenhower enrolled at the United States Military
Academy, West Point, New York, in June, 1911 and
graduated in 1915. He served with the infantry
until 1918 at various camps in Texas and Georgia
(U.S. state)|Georgia. During World War I,
Eisenhower was active in the tank corps and rose
to Lieutenant Colonel in the National Army. Upon
the conclusion of hostilities, Eisenhower reverted
to his regular rank of Captain (and was promoted
to Major the next day) before assuming duties at
Camp Meade, Maryland where he remained until 1922.

He was next assigned as executive officer to
General Fox Conner in the Panama Canal Zone, where
he served until 1924. In 1925 and 1926 he attended
the Command and General Staff College at Fort
Leavenworth, Kansas, and then served as a
battalion commander, at Fort Benning, Georgia
(U.S. state)|Georgia, until 1927.


During the late 1920s and early 1930s Eisenhower's
career in the peacetime Army stagnated. He was
assigned to the American Battle Monuments
Commission, directed by General John J. Pershing,
then to the Army War College in Washington, D.C.,
and then served as executive officer to General
George V. Moseley, Assistant Secretary of War,
from 1929 to 1933. He then served as chief
military aide to General Douglas MacArthur, Army
Chief of Staff, until 1935, when he accompanied
MacArthur to the Philippines, where he served as
assistant military advisor to the Philippine
government. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel
in 1936 after sixteen years as a Major.

Eisenhower returned to the U.S. in 1939 and held a
series of staff positions in Washington, D.C.,
California, and Texas. In June 1941 he was
appointed Chief of Staff to General Walter
Kreuger, Commander of the 3rd Army, at Fort Sam
Houston, Texas. He was promoted to
Brigadier-General in September 1941. Although his
administrative abilities had been noticed, on the
eve of the U.S. entry into World War II he had
never held an active command and was far from
being considered as a potential commander of major
operations.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,
Eisenhower was assigned to the General Staff in
Washington, where he served until June 1942. He
was appointed Deputy Chief in charge of Pacific
Defenses under the Chief of War Plans Division,
General Leonard Gerow, and then succeeded Gerow as
Chief of the War Plans Division. Then he was
appointed Assistant Chief of Staff in charge of
Operations Division under the Chief of Staff,
General George C. Marshall. It was his close
association with Marshall which finally brought
Eisenhower to senior command positions. Marshall
recognized his great organizational and
administrative abilities.

===Wartime commander===

In June 1942 Eisenhower was appointed Commanding
General, European Theater of Operations (ETOUSA)
and was based in London. In November he was also
appointed Supreme Commander Allied (Expeditionary)
Force of the North African Theater of Operations
through the new operational Headquarters
AFHQ|A(E)FHQ. The word Expeditionary was dropped
soon after his appointment for security reasons.
In February 1943 his authority was extended as
commander of AFHQ across the Mediterranean Sea
basin to include the British 8th Army, commanded
by General Bernard Montgomery. The 8th Army had
advanced across the Western Desert
Campaign|Western Desert from the east and was
ready for the start of the Tunisia Campaign.
Eisenhower gained his fourth star and gave up
command of ETOUSA to be commander of NATOUSA.
After the capitulation of Axis Powers|Axis forces
in North Africa, Eisenhower remained in command of
the renamed Mediterranean Theater of Operations
(MTO) keeping the operational title and continued
in command of NATOUSA redesignated MTOUSA. In this
position he oversaw the Operation Husky|invasion
of Sicily and the Allied invasion of
Italy|invasion of the Italian mainland.

In December 1943 it was announced that Eisenhower
would be Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. In
January 1944 he resumed command of ETOUSA and the
following month was officially designated as the
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary
Force|Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied
Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), serving in a dual
role until the end of hostilities in Europe in May
1945. In these positions he was charged with
planning and carrying out the Allied Battle of
Normandy|assault on the coast of Normandy in June
1944 under the code name Operation Overlord, the
liberation of western Europe and the invasion of
Germany.  A month after the Normandy D-Day on June
6, 1944, the Operation Dragoon|invasion of
southern France took place, control for the forces
which took part in the southern invasion passed
from the AFHQ to the SHAEF. From then until the
The end of World War II in Europe|end of the War
in Europe on May 8 1945,  Eisenhower through SHAEF
had supreme command of all operational Allied
forces#Notes|2, and through his command
of ETOUSA, administrative command of all U.S.
forces, on the Western Front (WWII)#1944 –
1945|Western Front north of the Alps.

As recognition of his senior position in the
Allied command, on December 20, 1944, he was
promoted to General of the Army equivalent to the
rank of Field Marshal in most European armies. In
this and the previous high commands he held,
Eisenhower showed his great talents for leadership
and diplomacy. Although he had never seen action
himself, he won the respect of front-line
commanders such as Omar Bradley and George Patton.
He dealt skillfully with difficult allies such as
Winston Churchill, Field Marshal Bernard
Montgomery and General Charles de Gaulle. He had
fundamental disagreements with Churchill and
Montgomery over questions of strategy, but these
rarely upset his relationships with them. He
negotiated with Soviet Union|Soviet Georgy
Zhukov|Marshal Zhukov, and such was the confidence
that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had in him,
he sometimes worked directly with Joseph
Stalin|Stalin. Eisenhower was offered the Medal of
Honor for his leadership in the European Theater
but refused it, saying that it should be reserved
for bravery and valour.

It was never a certainty that Overlord would
succeed. The tenuousness surrounding the entire
decision including the timing and the location of
the Normandy invasion might be summarized by a
short speech that Eisenhower himself wrote, in
advance, in case he might need it. In it, he took
full responsibility for catastrophic failure,
should that be the final result. Long after the
successful landings on D-Day and the BBC broadcast
of Eisenhower's brief speech concerning them, the
never-used second speech was found in a shirt
pocket by an aide. It read:

:"Our landings have failed and I have withdrawn
the troops. My decision to attack at this time and
place was based on the best information available.
The troops, the air and the Navy did all that
bravery could do. If any blame or fault attaches
to the attempt it is mine alone."

Following the Nazi Germany|German unconditional
surrender on May 8, 1945, Eisenhower was appointed
Military Governor of the U.S. Occupation Zone,
based in Frankfurt-am-Main. Germany was divided
into four Occupation Zones, one each for the U.S.,
Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. He made the
controversial decision to reclassify German
prisoners of war or POWs in U.S. custody as
Disarmed Enemy Forces or DEFs. As DEFs, they could
be compelled to serve as unpaid conscript labor.
An unknown number may have died in custody as a
consequence of malnutrition, exposure to the
elements, and lack of medical care (see Eisenhower
and German POWs). 

Eisenhower was named Chief of Staff of the U.S.
Army in November 1945, and in December 1950 was
named Supreme Commander of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization, and given operational command
of NATO forces in Europe. Eisenhower retired from
active service on May 31, 1952, upon entering
politics.



===Dates of Rank===
* Second Lieutenant, United States Army: June 12,
1915
* First Lieutenant. United States Army: July 1,
1916
* Captain, United States Army: May 15, 1917
* Major, National Army: June 17, 1918
* Lieutenant Colonel, National Army: October 14,
1918
* Captain (reverted to permanent rank), Regular
Army: June 30, 1920
* Major, Regular Army: July 2, 1920
* Lieutenant Colonel, Regular Army: July 1, 1936
* Colonel, Regular Army: March 11, 1941
* Brigadier General, Regular Army: September 29,
1941
* Major General, Army of the United States: March
27, 1942
* Lieutenant General, Army of the United States:
July 7, 1942
* General, Army of the United States: February 11,
1943
* General of the Army, Army of the United States:
December 20, 1944
* General of the Army rank made permanent in the
Regular Army: April 11, 1946

===Awards and decorations===

====United States====
* Distinguished Service Medal (USA)|Army
Distinguished Service Medal with four oak leaf
clusters
* Navy Distinguished Service Medal
* Legion of Merit
* World War I Victory Medal
* European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
with one silver and four bronze service stars
* American Campaign Medal
* American Defense Service Medal with "Foreign
Service" Campaign clasp|clasp
* World War II Victory Medal
* Mexican Border Service Medal
* Army of Occupation Medal with "Germany" clasp
* National Defense Service Medal

====International Awards====
* Order of the Bath|British Order of the Bath
* Order of Merit| British Order of Merit
* Africa Star|British African Star 
* Order of Leopold|Belgian Order of Leopold
* Croix de Guerre|Belgian Croix de Guerre
* Légion d'honneur|French Legion of Honor
* Croix de Guerre|French Croix de Guerre
* French Liberation Medal
* Luxembourg War Cross
* Luxembourg Medal of Merit
* Order of the White Lion|Czechoslovakian Order of
the White Lion
* Golden Star of Victory|Czechoslovakian Golden
Star of Victory
* Order of the Elephant|Danish Order of the
Elephant
* Order of Ouissan Alaouite|Moroccan Order of
Ouissan Alaouite
* Order of the Lion|Netherlands Grand Cross of the
Order of the Lion
* Order of Victory|Russian Order of Victory
* Order of Suvorov|Russian Order of Suvorov
* Virtuti Militari|Polish Virtuti Militari
* Polish Cross of Grunwald
* Polish Rastituta Chevalier
* Argentinian Great Cross of the Order of the
Liberator
* Brazilian Grand Cross Order of Military Merit
* Brazilian Grand Cross Order of Aeronautical
Merit
* Brazilian National Order of the Southern Cross
* Brazil War Medal
* Brazil Campaign Medal
* Chief Commander of the Chilean Order of Merit
* Chinese Grand Cordon of the Order of Yun Hui
* Chinese Grand Cordon of the Order of Yun Fei
* Ecuadorian Star of Abdon Calderon
* Egyptian Grand Cordon of the Order of Ismal
* Ethiopian Order of Solomon
* Greek Order of George I with Swords
* Guatemalan Cross of Military Merit
* Haitian Great Cross of the Order of Honor and
Merit
* Grand Cross of the Italian Military Order
* Order of Mexican Military Merit
* Mexican Aztec Eagle
* Medal of Mexican Civic Merit
* Norwegian Order of St. Olaf
* Panamanian Order of Vasci Nunez de Balboa
* Tunisian Grand Cordon of the Nishan Iftikar

In addition, Eisenhower's name was given to a
variety of streets, avenues, etc. in cities around
the world, including Paris, France.

==Eisenhower's Presidency==
After his many wartime successes, General
Eisenhower returned to the U.S. a great hero. It
would not be long before many supporters were
pressuring him to run for public office. 

Eisenhower was generally considered a political
moderate, and it was not immediately clear which
party he would choose to join. Eventually he
settled on the Republican Party, and in 1952 he
was nominated as the party's star candidate in the
1952 U.S. presidential election. Eisenhower easily
defeated Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson and
became the first war general since Ulysses S.
Grant to be elected President. He would be the
only professional soldier to serve as President in
the 20th century.

===Foreign affairs===


Eisenhower's presidency was dominated by the Cold
War, the prolonged confrontation with the Soviet
Union which had begun during Harry S.
Truman|Truman's term of office.

During his campaign, Eisenhower had promised to
end the stalemated Korean War, and indeed a
cease-fire was signed in July 1953. He signed
defense treaties with South Korea and the Republic
of China, and formed an anti-Communist alliance
with Asian and Pacific countries, SEATO, to halt
the spread of Communism in Asia.

Eisenhower, while accepting the doctrine of
containment originally developed by George F.
Kennan|George Kennan, sought to fight the USSR
through more active means as detailed in the State
Department memorandum NSC-68. He, along with
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, developed
the tactic of covert action, taking advantage of
the newly created CIA to interfere with suspected
Communist governments abroad. The first major use
of covert action was against the socialist, and
suspected pro-Soviet, Iranian prime minister
Mossadeq in 1953. Eisenhower ejected him from
power and replaced him with Mohammad Reza Pahlavi,
an authoritarian. 

Covert action continued throughout Eisenhower's
administration. In the newly independent but
chaotic Republic of Congo, the Soviet Union and
the KGB had intervened in favor of popularly
elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba.
Anti-Communism had become an issue and the U.S.
and CIA gave weapons and covert support to
pro-Western and Democratic CIA assets Joseph
Kasavubu and his subordinate, Colonel Joseph
Mobutu. The initial struggle came to a close in
December 1960, after Kasavubu and Mobutu overthrew
Lumumba and proceeded to turn the country (later
known as Zaire) into an autocracy which was
unstable long after the end of Eisenhower's term.
Mobutu assassinated Lumumba shortly after his
overthrow, and some allege that the CIA (Sidney
Gottlieb), collaborated with Mobutu in the
assassination.

In 1956, Eisenhower strongly disapproved of the
actions of United Kingdom|Britain and France in
sending troops to Egypt in the dispute over
control of the Suez Canal (see Suez crisis). He
used the economic power of the U.S. to force his
European allies to back down and withdraw from
Egypt.

During his second term he became increasingly
involved in Middle East|Middle Eastern affairs,
sending troops to Lebanon in 1957.

Under Eisenhower's presidency the U.S. became the
world's first global nuclear power, and the world
lived in fear of a Third World War which might
involve nuclear weapons. American chagrin at the
Soviets' 1957 surprise launch of Sputnik, the
first artificial satellite, led to many Sputnik
crisis|strategic initiatives, including the
creation of NASA in 1958. Eisenhower hoped that
after the death of Stalin in 1953, it would be
possible to come to an agreement with subsequent
Russian leaders to halt the nuclear arms race.
Several attempts at such summit conference were
made. The last  attempt failed in 1960 when Nikita
Khrushchev withdrew following the shooting down of
an American Lockheed U-2|U-2 spy plane over the
Soviet Union.

===Domestic affairs===
Like most Republican presidents, Eisenhower
believed that a free enterprise economy should run
itself, and he took little interest in domestic
policy. Although his 1952 landslide gave the
Republicans control of both houses of the
Congress, Eisenhower believed that taxes could not
be cut until the budget was balanced. "We cannot
afford to reduce taxes, reduce income," he said,
"until we have in sight a program of expenditure
that shows that the factors of income and outgo
will be balanced." The Democrats regained control
in the 1954 U.S. Senate election, 1954|Senate and
U.S. House election, 1954|House elections,
limiting his freedom of action on domestic policy.
He forged a good relationship with Congressional
leaders, particularly House Speaker Sam Rayburn.



Eisenhower appointed a Cabinet full of businessmen
and gave them wide latitude in handling domestic
affairs. He allowed them to take credit for
domestic policy and allow him to concentrate on
foreign affairs. With respect to the emerging
civil rights movement, he has been criticized by
left-wing|liberals for being reluctant to exercise
leadership unless forced to. In 1957, however, he
sent federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas after
Governor Orval Faubus attempted to defy a Supreme
Court of the United States|Supreme Court ruling
that ordered the desegregation of all public
schools.

Eisenhower was also criticized for not taking a
public stand against Senator Joseph McCarthy's
anti-communist campaigns. Privately he held
McCarthy in contempt for the senator's attacks on
his friend and World War II colleague, General
George Marshall, Secretary of State under Truman.
He stated "I just won't get down in the gutter
with that man". This was little comfort to the
many people whose reputations were ruined by
McCarthy's allegations of Communist conspiracies.
Later, it was revealed that Eisenhower worked
behind the scenes to bring McCarthy down. Yet, in
a speech delivered in Milwaukee on October 3,
1952, just after being chosen as the Republican
nominee, Eisenhower opted not to make any
statement defending Marshall. A full paragraph in
the sixth draft of that speech was written for
that purpose, but Eisenhower decided to drop the
paragraph.

Eisenhower endorsed the United States Interstate
Highway Act, in 1956. It was the largest public
works program in U.S. history, providing a
41,000-mile highway system. Eisenhower had been
impressed during the war with the German Autobahn
system, and also recalled his own involvement in a
military convoy in 1919 that took 62 days to cross
the U.S. Another achievement was a 20% increase in
family income during his presidency, of which he
was very proud. He added a tenth cabinet position,
creating the United States Department of Health
and Human Services|Department of Health,
Education, and Welfare, and achieved a balanced
budget in three of the years that he was
President.



Eisenhower retained his popularity throughout his
presidency. In 1956 he was re-elected by an even
wider margin than in 1952, where he employed John
Arthur Garber, Sr.'s advertising portfolio for his
re-election, again defeating Stevenson, and
carrying such traditional Democratic states as
Texas and Tennessee. 

However, there were three recessions during
Eisenhower's administration — July 1953 through
May 1954, August 1957 through April 1958, and
April 1960 through February 1961. Real GDP growth
averaged just 2.5 percent over those eight years.

Eisenhower had mixed feelings about his Vice
President, Richard Nixon, and only reluctantly
endorsed him as the Republican candidate at the
U.S. presidential election, 1960|1960 Presidential
election. Nixon campaigned against John F.
Kennedy|Kennedy on the great experience he had
acquired in eight years as Vice President, but
when Eisenhower was asked to name a decision Nixon
had been responsible for in that time, he replied
(intending a joke): "Give me a week and I might
think of something." This was a severe blow to
Nixon, and he blamed Eisenhower for his narrow
loss to Kennedy.

==Cabinet==

{| cellpadding="1" cellspacing="4"
style="margin:3px; border:3px solid #000000;"
align="left"
!bgcolor="#000000" colspan="3"|
|-
|align="left"|OFFICE||align="left"|NAME||align="le
ft"|TERM
|-
!bgcolor="#000000" colspan="3"|
|-
|align="left"|President of the United
States|President||align="left" |Dwight D.
Eisenhower||align="left"|1953–1961
|-
|align="left"|Vice President of the United
States|Vice President||align="left"|Richard M.
Nixon||align="left"|1953–1961
|-
!bgcolor="#000000" colspan="3"|
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of
State|State||align="left"|John Foster
Dulles||align="left"|1953–1959
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Christian A.
Herter||align="left"|1959–1961
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of the
Treasury|Treasury||align="left"|George M.
Humphrey||align="left"|1953–1957
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Robert B.
Anderson||align="left"|1957–1961
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of
Defense|Defense||align="left"|Charles E.
Wilson||align="left"|1953–1957
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Neil H.
McElroy||align="left"|1957–1959
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Thomas S.
Gates|Thomas S. Gates,
Jr.||align="left"|1959–1961
|-
|align="left"|Attorney General of the United
States|Justice||align="left"|Herbert Brownell,
Jr.||align="left"|1953–1957
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|William P.
Rogers||align="left"|1957–1961
|-
|align="left"|Postmaster General of the United
States|Postmaster General||align="left"|Arthur E.
Summerfield||align="left"|1953–1961
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of the
Interior|Interior||align="left"|Douglas
McKay||align="left"|1953–1956
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Fred A.
Seaton||align="left"|1956–1961
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of
Agriculture|Agriculture||align="left"|Ezra Taft
Benson|Ezra T.
Benson||align="left"|1953–1961
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of
Commerce|Commerce||align="left"|Sinclair
Weeks||align="left"|1953–1958
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Lewis L.
Strauss||align="left"|1958–1959
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Frederick H.
Mueller||align="left"|1959–1961
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of
Labor|Labor||align="left"|Martin P.
Durkin||align="left"|1953
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|James P.
Mitchell||align="left"|1953–1961
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of Health,
Education, and Welfare|HEW||align="left"|Oveta
Culp Hobby||align="left"|1953–1955
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Marion B.
Folsom||align="left"|1955–1958
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Arthur S.
Flemming||align="left"|1958–1961
|}



==Supreme Court Appointments==
Eisenhower appointed the following Justices to the
Supreme Court of the United States:

* Earl Warren - Chief Justice - 1953
* John Marshall Harlan II - 1955
* William J. Brennan - 1956
* Charles Evans Whittaker - 1957
* Potter Stewart - 1958

== States Admitted to the Union ==
* Alaska – January 3, 1959
* Hawaii – August 21, 1959

==White House Staff and Advisors==
* Emmet John Hughes

==Retirement, death, and legacy==


On January 17, 1961, Eisenhower gave his final
televised speech from the Oval Office. In his
farewell speech to the nation, Eisenhower raised
the issue of the Cold War and role of the U.S.
armed forces. He described the Cold War saying:
"We face a hostile ideology global in scope,
atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose and
insidious in method...A vital element in keeping
the peace is our military establishment. Our arms
must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that
no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his
own destruction."

Earlier in his remarks he had warned about what he
saw as unjustified government spending proposals
and continued with a warning that "we must guard
against the acquisition of unwarranted influence,
whether sought or unsought, by the
Military-industrial complex...Only an alert and
knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper
meshing of the huge industrial and military
machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and
goals, so that security and liberty may prosper
together."

Three days later, when he handed over the
presidency to John F. Kennedy, the youngest
elected president at 43, he was the oldest
president to serve at 70 years and 98 days –
a record since broken by Ronald Reagan. Eisenhower
was the first president affected by the 22nd
Amendment, limiting presidential terms, and the
first Republican president to be elected to two
full terms since William McKinley, who did not
live to serve them both.

Once Eisenhower left office his reputation
declined, and he was seen as having been a
"do-nothing" President. This was partly because of
the contrast between Eisenhower and his young,
activist successor, John F. Kennedy, but also due
to his reluctance to support the civil rights
movement or to stop McCarthyism. Such omissions
were held against him during the liberal climate
of the 1960s and 1970s. Eisenhower's reputation
has risen since that time, largely due to an
increased appreciation of how difficult it is
today to maintain a prolonged peace. In Historical
rankings of U.S. Presidents|recent surveys of
historians, Eisenhower is often ranked in the top
ten among all U.S. Presidents.

Of his appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court,
Eisenhower is purported to have said that his
September 1953 appointment of California Governor
Earl Warren to Chief Justice of the United States
was "the biggest damn fool mistake I ever made".
Some sources place this act on Eisenhower's own
list of "My Top Five Lifetime Mistakes". 
Eisenhower disagreed vigorously with several of
the Chief Justice's decisions. Warren's
appointment was perhaps in appreciation of his
swinging his California delegates to support "Ike"
at a crucial point of the 1952 Republican National
Convention.

Eisenhower retired to the place where he and Mamie
had spent much of their post-war time, a working
farm adjacent to the battlefield at Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania. The Gettysburg farm is a National
Historic Site http://www.nps.gov/eise/. In
retirement, he did not completely retreat from
political life; he spoke at the 1964 Republican
convention, and also appeared with Barry Goldwater
in a Republican campaign commercial from
Gettysburg.http://livingroomcandidate.movingimage.
us/election/index.php?nav_action=election&nav_suba
ction=overview&campaign_id=168



Due to the legality of holding a military rank
while in a civilian office, Eisenhower resigned
his permanent commission as General of the Army
before entering the office of President of the
United States. Upon completion of his Presidential
term, his commission was reactivated and
Eisenhower was again commissioned a five star
general in the United States Army. With the
exception of George Washington, who was appointed
a Lieutenant General after serving as President,
Eisenhower is the only United States President
with military service to reenter the United States
armed forces after leaving the office of
President.

"Ike" Eisenhower died at 12:25 PM on March 28,
1969, at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington
D.C., after a long illness at the age of 78. He
was honored with a state funeral at Washington
National Cathedral and a full military funeral in
Abilene, Kansas|Abilene, Kansas
http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/Last_Salute/ch29.
htm. He lies alongside his wife and their first
child, who died in childhood, in a small chapel
called the Place of Meditation, at the Eisenhower
Presidential Library, located in Abilene.

Eisenhower's portrait was on the dollar coin from
1971 to 1978.  Nearly 700 million of the
copper-nickel clad coins were minted for general
circulation, and far smaller numbers of
uncirculated and proof issues (in both
copper-nickel and 40% silver varities) were
produced for collectors. Ike reappeared on a
commemorative silver dollar issued in 1990,
celebrating the 100th anniversary of his birth.

President Eisenhower is the only American awarded
the British Order of Merit, as well as one of but
a few Americans made a Order of the Bath|Knight
Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, both
memberships being honorary, due to his American
citizenship.
 
Eisenhower has been portrayed by several actors,
including Tom Selleck in the 2004 television
program "Ike: Countdown to D-Day" which depicts
the 90 days leading up to the D-Day|D-Day
Invasion. On June 6, of that year, Eisenhower's
grandson, David, along with Roosevelt's grandson,
David, and Arabella Churchill (charity
founder)|Arabella Churchill, granddaughter of
British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill,
appeared on MSNBC during the network's coverage of
the 60th anniversary of D-Day and talked about the
roles their respective grandfathers played during
the allied invasion.fn|3

== Quotes ==
Every gun that is made, every warship launched,
every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a
theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those
who are cold and are not clothed. This world in
arms is not spending money alone. It is spending
the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its
scientists, the hopes of its children.  This is
not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under
the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a
cross of iron.

-- Dwight Eisenhower, April 16, 1953

I like to believe that people in the long run are
going to do more to promote peace than our
governments.  Indeed, I think that people want
peace so much that one of these days governments
had better get out of the way and let them have
it.

-- Dwight D. Eisenhower

In the councils of government, we must guard
against the acquisition of unwarranted influence,
whether sought or unsought, by the
military-industrial complex. The potential for the
disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will
persist.
 
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address January
17, 1961 (source: Fortune program)

Should any political party attempt to abolish
social security, unemployment insurance, and
eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would
not hear of that party again in our political
history. There is a tiny splinter group, of
course, that believes you can do these things.
Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his
background), a few other Texas oil millionaires,
and an occasional politician or business man from
other areas. Their number is negligible and they
are stupid.

-- Dwight D. Eisenhower in a letter to his brother
Edgar, November 8, 1954,
http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/ike.asp
Snopes page

== Footnotes ==
*fnb|1 All of the Eisenhower boys left the
Jehovah's Witness religion when they reached
adulthood and openly opposed major aspects of
Watchtower teaching, although some of the values
they learned from their Bible studies probably
influenced them throughout their lives. Some
Watchtower values may even have been reflected in
Eisenhower's statements against war made in his
latter life. Nonetheless, the Eisenhowers
endeavored to hide the full extent of their
mother's and family's Watchtower involvement
although they did at times admit their affiliation
with them. 

*fnb|2 As V-E Day came, Allied forces in Western
Europe not including Italy consisted of 4.5
million men, including 9 armies (5 of them
American—one of which, the Fifteenth, saw
action only at the last), 23 corps, 91 divisions
(61 of them American), 6 tactical air commands (4
American), and 2 strategic air forces (1
American). The Allies had 28,000 combat aircraft,
of which 14,845 were American, and they had
brought into Western Europe more than 970,000
vehicles and 18 million tons of supplies. At the
same time they were achieving final victory in
Italy with 18 divisions (7 of them American).
http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/AMH/AMH-22.htm

*fnb|3 Web reference|title=An Eisenhower, A
Roosevelt, A Churchill|work=MSNBC D-Day 60th
Anniversary Special
Report|URL=http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5139714|date=Ma
rch 29|year=2005

==Media==
multi-video start
multi-video item |
  filename      =  Eisenhower video montage.ogg|
  title         =  Eisenhower video montage|
  description   =Collection of video clips of the
president.  (7.5 Megabyte|MB, ogg/Theora format).
|
  format        = Theora

multi-video end

== Related articles ==
* U.S. presidential election, 1952
* U.S. presidential election, 1956
* History of the United States (1945-1964)|History
of the United States (1945–1964)
* Military-industrial complex, a term coined by
Eisenhower
* Atoms for Peace, a speech to the UN General
Assembly in December, 1953
* People to People Student Ambassador Program
* Mount Eisenhower
* Kay Summersby
* Eisenhower Presidential Center
* Eisenhower National Historic Site
* Eisenhower and German POWs

== External links ==

Wikisource author
commons|Dwight D. Eisenhower
*
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/presiden/inaug/e
isen1.htm First Inaugural Address
*
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/presiden/inaug/e
isen2.htm Second Inaugural Address
*
http://vvl.lib.msu.edu/showfindingaid.cfm?findaidi
d=EisenhowerD Audio clips of Eisenhower's speeches
*
http://sources.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military-Industr
ial_Complex_Speech Farewell Address, Wikisource
* http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov The Dwight D.
Eisenhower Library
*
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/de34.
html White House biography

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succession box|title=Military Governor of the U.S.
Occupation Zone in Germany|
before=(none)|after=Gen. Joseph T. McNarney|
years=1945
succession box|title=Chief of Staff of the United
States Army|before=Gen. George C.
Marshall|after=Gen. Omar N.
Bradley|years=1945-1948
succession box|title=Columbia University|President
of Columbia University|before=Frank D.
Fackenthal|after=Grayson Kirk|years=1948-1953
succession box|title=Supreme Allied Commander
Europe (NATO) | before=(none)|after=Matthew B.
Ridgway|years=1951-1952
succession box|title=United States Republican
Party|Republican Party President of the United
States|Presidential :