Newly-promoted Lieutenant-General Dwight D Eisenhower (1890 - 1969), supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe, and later 34th President of the United States of America. (Photo by Fox Photos)
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
1944
General Dwight D Eisenhower (1890 - 1969), Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, watches the Allied landing operations from the deck of a warship in the English Channel during World War II, June 1944. Eisenhower was later elected the 34th President of the United States. (Photo by Keystone)
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
1944
England, UK
Portrait of Allied military commanders as they pose around a table, England, Spring, 1944. Pictured are, sitting from left, British Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder (1890 - 1967), American General (and future US President) Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969), and British General Bernard Montgomery (1887 - 1976); standing, from left, American Lieutenant General Omar Bradley (1893 - 1981), British Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay (1883 - 1945), British Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory (1892 - 1944), and Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith (1895 - 1961). (Photo by PhotoQuest)
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
1944
London, England, UK
General Dwight Eisenhower standing in front of a large wall map in his office, London, January 17th, 1944. (Photo by Keystone)
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
1944
General Eisenhower behind the wheel of a Jeep (Photo by Hulton-Deutsch)
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
1945
Studio portrait of General Dwight D. Eisenhower in uniform, wearing a Legion of Merit and Distinguished Service emblem. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
1945
301 Park Ave, New York, NY 10022, United States
General of the Army and Supreme Commander, Dwight D. Eisenhower sat for this portrait during a press conference at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel here June 19, during his triumphal tour of the city.
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
1946
St Andrews KY16 9JD, United Kingdom
General Dwight Eisenhower playing golf, on the 16th green of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, Scotland, October 10th, 1946. (Photo by Central Press)
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
1950
American General Dwight Eisenhower (1890 - 1969), after the war he served two terms as the thirty-fourth President of the United States. (Photo by Central Press)
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
1953
President Dwight D. Eisenhower enjoys a round of golf.
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
1954
Washington, DC, USA
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
1955
Headshot portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the thirty-fourth President of the United States, who served for two terms from 1953 to 1961. (Photo by Hulton Archive)
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
1955
Dwight David Eisenhower, the American military leader whose triumph as Allied Supreme Commander during World War II led to his becoming the 34th President of the United States. (Photo by MPI)
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
1955
Headshot portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the thirty-fourth President of the United States, who served for two terms from 1953 to 1961. He established the truce that ended the Korean War in 1953. (Photo by Hulton Archive)
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
1956
Dwight D Eisenhower, American General and 34th President of the United States, on his re-election as president. (Photo by Bert Hardy)
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
1956
Dwight D Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States of America. (Photo by Bert Hard)
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
1956
1855 S Harbor Blvd, Anaheim, CA 92802, United States
Serious of President Dwight D. Eisenhower addressing group of supporters gathered at Sheraton Park Hotel on election night. (Photo by Hank Walker)
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
1956
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States
President Eisenhower Sitting at Desk in Oval Office
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
1956
San Francisco, California, USA
Republican candidate and incumbent President Dwight D. Eisenhower, commonly known as 'Ike', with the slogan "Peace Prosperity Progress" during the Republican Convention in San Francisco, California, 22nd August 1956. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives)
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
1957
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States
Queen Elizabeth II with US president Dwight D Eisenhower at a White House State banquet. Eisenhower is wearing the British Order of Merit awarded him by King George VI after World War II. (Photo by Keystone)
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
1959
Canada
American President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), Mamie Eisenhower (1896-1979), Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, and Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker (1895-1979) and his wife attend the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, 26th June 1959. (Photo by Express Newspapers/Getty Images)
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
1959
President Dwight D. Eisenhower during the dedication of Lincoln Center. (Photo by Ed Clark)
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
1959
General Dwight D. Eisenhower. (Photo by Harry Warnecke)
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
1959
2604 Washington Rd, Augusta, GA 30904, United States
President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) pictured, wearing his green jacket, standing with his wife Mamie Eisenhower outside their vacation cabin at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, the United States in November 1959. (Photo by Rolls Press)
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
1961
Catoctin Mountain Park, 10, Hauvers, MD 21788, United States
President John F. Kennedy meeting with former President Dwight Eisenhower at Camp David. (Photo by Ed Clark)
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower, smiling while holding up his hand for victory. (Photo by Hank Walker)
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
President Dwight D. Eisenhower shortly before President John F. Kennedy's Inauguration. (Photo by Ed Clark)
Gallery of Dwight Eisenhower
Dwight D Eisenhower (1890-1969) taken by J C A Redhead (1886-1954), during World War Two. (Photo by SSPL)
Newly-promoted Lieutenant-General Dwight D Eisenhower (1890 - 1969), supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe, and later 34th President of the United States of America. (Photo by Fox Photos)
General Dwight D Eisenhower (1890 - 1969), Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, watches the Allied landing operations from the deck of a warship in the English Channel during World War II, June 1944. Eisenhower was later elected the 34th President of the United States. (Photo by Keystone)
Portrait of Allied military commanders as they pose around a table, England, Spring, 1944. Pictured are, sitting from left, British Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder (1890 - 1967), American General (and future US President) Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969), and British General Bernard Montgomery (1887 - 1976); standing, from left, American Lieutenant General Omar Bradley (1893 - 1981), British Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay (1883 - 1945), British Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory (1892 - 1944), and Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith (1895 - 1961). (Photo by PhotoQuest)
Studio portrait of General Dwight D. Eisenhower in uniform, wearing a Legion of Merit and Distinguished Service emblem. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
General of the Army and Supreme Commander, Dwight D. Eisenhower sat for this portrait during a press conference at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel here June 19, during his triumphal tour of the city.
General Dwight Eisenhower playing golf, on the 16th green of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, Scotland, October 10th, 1946. (Photo by Central Press)
American General Dwight Eisenhower (1890 - 1969), after the war he served two terms as the thirty-fourth President of the United States. (Photo by Central Press)
Headshot portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the thirty-fourth President of the United States, who served for two terms from 1953 to 1961. (Photo by Hulton Archive)
Dwight David Eisenhower, the American military leader whose triumph as Allied Supreme Commander during World War II led to his becoming the 34th President of the United States. (Photo by MPI)
Headshot portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the thirty-fourth President of the United States, who served for two terms from 1953 to 1961. He established the truce that ended the Korean War in 1953. (Photo by Hulton Archive)
Republican candidate and incumbent President Dwight D. Eisenhower, commonly known as 'Ike', with the slogan "Peace Prosperity Progress" during the Republican Convention in San Francisco, California, 22nd August 1956. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives)
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States
Queen Elizabeth II with US president Dwight D Eisenhower at a White House State banquet. Eisenhower is wearing the British Order of Merit awarded him by King George VI after World War II. (Photo by Keystone)
American President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), Mamie Eisenhower (1896-1979), Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, and Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker (1895-1979) and his wife attend the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, 26th June 1959. (Photo by Express Newspapers/Getty Images)
2604 Washington Rd, Augusta, GA 30904, United States
President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) pictured, wearing his green jacket, standing with his wife Mamie Eisenhower outside their vacation cabin at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, the United States in November 1959. (Photo by Rolls Press)
(Five-star General Dwight D. Eisenhower was arguably the s...)
Five-star General Dwight D. Eisenhower was arguably the single most important military figure of World War II. For many historians, his memoirs of this eventful period of the United States history have become the single most important record of the war. Crusade in Europe tells the complete story of the war as Eisenhower planned and lived it. Through his eyes, the enormous scope and drama of the war - strategy, battles, moments of fateful decision - become fully illuminated in all their fateful glory.
(The story of his first administration, told by the 34th P...)
The story of his first administration, told by the 34th President of the United States. Here, Dwight D. Eisenhower, one of the major figures of the twentieth century, writes an account of the events, as he saw them, leading up to a sweeping mandate, and then pursues the theme of change in the years 1953-1956.
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Vols. 1-5: The War Years
(This five-volume set begins the publication of the papers...)
This five-volume set begins the publication of the papers of Dwight David Eisenhower and contains his letters, memos, cables, etc. that he personally wrote or dictated or had a major part in preparing, concentrating on major matters that were part of his role as Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe, eliminating routine items not important to the history and items prepared by others and issued in his name.
Eisenhower: The Prewar Diaries and Selected Papers, 1905-1941
(Dwight D. Eisenhower's meteoric rise to prominence during...)
Dwight D. Eisenhower's meteoric rise to prominence during World War II was not - as popular myth would have us believe - accidental, but the logical outcome of years of preparation.
(The diaries of the late Dwight D. Eisenhower are unique d...)
The diaries of the late Dwight D. Eisenhower are unique documents, in that they alone, in the mass of Ike’s prose, reveal the innermost thoughts of the soldier-statesman.
Dwight Eisenhower was an American politician. Eisenhower was the 34th president of the United States. Before becoming the president, he was a five-star general in the United States Army and played a pivotal role in World War II. He also became the first Supreme Allied Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1951.
Background
Ethnicity:
Dwight Eisenhower's ancestry was German [including Swiss-German and Alsatian German], and 1/64th English.
Dwight Eisenhower was born on October 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas, the United States. He was the third of seven sons born to David J. Eisenhower and Ida Stover. Having failed financially as a shopkeeper, Dwight's father worked at a creamery. When Dwight was a year old, the family moved to Abilene, Kansas, where ancestral Eisenhowers had earlier lived as part of a Mennonite community. In Abilene, his 10-month-old brother Paul died of diphtheria when Eisenhower was four years old. Despite the tragedy, he formed happy childhood memories in Abilene that he would cherish throughout his life.
Eisenhower’s parents originally gave him the same first name as his father - David. However, the future president’s mother, Ida, soon had second thoughts. She didn’t want her boy mistakenly called David Eisenhower Jr. (his father, David Jacob Eisenhower, had a different middle name) or deal with the confusion of having two Davids in the house, so she transposed his name to Dwight David Eisenhower. His original birth name, however, remained inked in the family Bible and was printed in his high school yearbook.
Education
Ida Eisenhower was a strong influence on her sons. She taught them that the only way to get what they wanted in life was to work for it. The boys attended public school, filling up the rest of their hours with work. They raised vegetables for the family meals and took outside jobs to help support the household. Their poverty was reflected in their school clothes. Dwight was the only boy in the fifth-grade class picture wearing overalls. For a short time, he even had to wear his mother's shoes to school because the family could not afford new shoes for everyone.
When the Eisenhower boys became the subjects of other children's teasing, Dwight became a pretty good fighter. Otherwise, his early life was not much different from that of a typical farm boy in Kansas. He found time to engage in sports and to play pranks on the neighbors, meanwhile earning average or better grades in school, working on the family's small farm plot, and selling some of the vegetables to neighbors.
He was athletic, bright, an above-average student, and ambitious. He did his schooling at Abilene High School, in Kansas, and graduated in 1909. Dwight was a fairly good student, but his real love was sports. Along with football, Eisenhower played baseball and was head of a new athletic association formed by the high school students to gain community support for the athletic program. He was an avid reader of history as well, and many thought he would become a history professor.
After graduating from Abilene High School in 1909, he worked for two years at the creamery to help pay for an older brother's college education. In 1911, Eisenhower, known as "Ike," received a scholarship to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. While at West Point, Eisenhower became a football star in his first years, but then he suffered a serious knee injury that forced him to quit sports. In 1915, he graduated and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the infantry at Fort Sam Houston in Texas.
In 1924, at Conner's urging, Eisenhower applied to the Army's prestigious graduate school, the Command and General Staff School at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, and was accepted. He graduated first in his class of 245 in 1926, with a firm reputation for his military prowess.
After being commissioned, Eisenhower initially served at various camps in Texas and Georgia. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, he immediately requested an overseas combat assignment. Eisenhower was in charge of tank training camps in the United States and was about to go overseas when the war ended. Following the war, he served in several assignments and, encouraged by one of his commanders, decided to become a student of military science.
Eisenhower continued to rise through the ranks. By 1920, he was promoted to major, after having volunteered for the Tank Corps, in the War Department's first transcontinental motor convoy, the previous year. From 1922 to 1924 he was assigned to the Panama Canal Zone, and there he came under the inspiring influence of his commander, brigadier-general Fox Conner. With Conner’s assistance, Eisenhower was selected to attend the army’s Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
From 1927 to 1933, Eisenhower built a reputation as a resourceful, energetic staff officer. In 1933, while he was working in the office of the assistant secretary of war, Eisenhower was assigned to serve under General Douglas MacArthur, a flamboyant, opinionated figure who appreciated Eisenhower's even temper and considerable administrative skills. When MacArthur was sent to the Philippines to serve as a military advisor to that country's army, Eisenhower accompanied him; MacArthur's flamboyant style led Eisenhower to say later that he spent those years studying "dramatics" under MacArthur.
Four years later, Eisenhower returned to the United States and, now a lieutenant colonel, was made chief of staff for General Walter Krueger, commander of the Third Army at Fort Sam Houston. Just before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in late 1941, the Third Army took part in the biggest war games (a way of practicing warfare in order to prepare officers and troops for the real thing) the army had ever held. The brilliant strategies Eisenhower devised for this operation drew admiration from his superiors, and he was promoted to brigadier general.
After the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, Eisenhower was assigned to the General Staff in Washington and was given the responsibility to formulate the major war plans to defeat Japan and Germany. In 1942, he was promoted to major general. Just months later, he became commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces and led Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, Eisenhower commanded the Allied forces in the Normandy invasion. In December of that year, he was promoted to five-star rank.
After Germany's surrender in 1945, he was made military governor of the United States Occupied Zone. Eisenhower then returned home to Abilene and received a hero's welcome. A few months later, he was appointed United States Army chief of staff. In 1948, he was elected president of Columbia University, a position he held until December of 1950 when he decided to leave Columbia to accept an appointment as first Supreme Allied Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. While in Paris with NATO, Eisenhower was encouraged by Republican emissaries to run for president of the United States.
As early as 1943 Eisenhower was mentioned as a possible presidential candidate. His personal qualities and military reputation prompted both parties to woo him. As the campaign of 1952 neared, Eisenhower let it be known that he was a Republican, and the eastern wing of the party, headed by Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York, made an intensive effort to persuade him to seek the Republican presidential nomination. His name was entered in several state primaries against the more conservative Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio.
Although the results were mixed, Eisenhower decided to run. In June 1952 he retired from the army after 37 years of service, returned to the United States, and began to campaign actively. At the party convention in July, after a bitter fight with Taft supporters, Eisenhower won the nomination on the first ballot. His running mate was Senator Richard M. Nixon of California. The Democrats nominated Governor Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois for president and Senator John Sparkman of Alabama for vice president.
Despite his age (61), Eisenhower campaigned tirelessly, impressing millions with his warmth and sincerity. His wide, friendly grin, wartime heroics, and middle-class pastimes - he was an avid golfer and bridge player and a fan not of highbrow literature but of the American western - endeared him to the public and garnered him vast support. On November 4, 1952, after winning the election by a landslide, Eisenhower was elected the United States' 34th president.
His domestic policy picked up where Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and Harry Truman's Fair Deal programs left off. In foreign policy, Eisenhower made reducing Cold War tensions through military negotiation the main focus of his administration. In 1953 he orchestrated an armistice that brought peace to South Korea's border. Also that year, Eisenhower made his famous "Atoms for Peace" speech at the United Nations General Assembly. The United States and Russia had both recently developed atomic bombs, and the speech promoted applying atomic energy to peaceful uses, rather than using it for weaponry and warfare. In 1955, Eisenhower met with Russian, British and French leaders at Geneva to further quell the threat of atomic war.
In 1956 Eisenhower was reelected to a second term, winning by an even wider margin than in his first election, despite the fact that he had just recently recovered from a heart attack. Over the course of his second term, Eisenhower continued to promote his Atoms for Peace program. In his second term, he also grappled with crises in Lebanon and the Suez. Poised to leave office in January of 1961, Eisenhower gave a televised farewell address in which he warned the nation against the dangers of the Cold War "military-industrial complex."
Although his administrations had a great many critics, Eisenhower remained extraordinarily popular. When he left office, Congress restored his rank as general of the army. He retired to his farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and devoted much of his time to his memoirs. In 1963 he published Mandate for Change, which was followed in 1965 by Waging Peace. A lighter work, At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends, appeared in 1967.
Eisenhower died on March 28, 1969, at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C., following a long period of suffering from a heart-related illness. In addition to a state funeral in the nation's capital, a military funeral was held in Eisenhower's beloved hometown of Abilene, Kansas.
Dwight was raised in an atmosphere of hard work and strong religious tradition. The family would read from the Bible together every night. His parents were members of a fundamentalist Christian group called the River Brethren, and religious faith was an important element in the Eisenhower household. Eisenhower became a professional soldier despite his denomination's philosophy. Although his parents disapproved of his entering the military, they nonetheless allowed him to choose his own career.
Prior to ascending to the presidency following his election in 1952, Eisenhower was not a particularly religious man, despite his upbringing. Eisenhower became a devout Presbyterian upon ascending to the presidency. Having experienced the horrors of war up close, his newfound religious faith coincided with his increasing pacifist leanings. During his second term in office, he signed a bill, adding under God after one nation, at the conclusion of the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge concluded with "one nation." Now, it concludes with "one nation under God."
Politics
Eisenhower's strength as a political leader rested almost entirely upon his disinterestedness and his integrity. He had little taste for political maneuvers and was never a strong partisan. His party, which attained a majority in both houses of Congress in 1952, lost control in 1954, and for 6 of 8 years in office, the President was compelled to rely upon both Democrats and Republicans. His personal qualities, however, made this easier than it might have been.
One goal of Eisenhower's first term was to end the conflict in Korea which had started in 1950. The Korean War (1950-1953) involved the Communists who occupied the northern part of the country and the United States-backed South Korea. In July 1953, Eisenhower helped to negotiate a cease-fire and truce, stating that "There is no glory in battle worth the blood it costs."
Other major events of Eisenhower's first term included the 1954 Supreme Court decision to declare segregation (the separation and unequal treatment of black and white people) in public schools unconstitutional, and the campaign of Senator Joe McCarthy to expose and remove suspected Communists from the federal government, military, and other realms of American life. Eisenhower remained quiet on both these issues.
Eisenhower's second term as president was not quite as smooth as his first. Despite his good relationship with both Republican and Democratic congressional leaders, he faced opposition on some of his legislative measures from both parties. And he was forced to take action on the Supreme Court's segregation decision when a mob of angry white southerners blocked the integration of a high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. Eisenhower sent military units to enforce court-ordered integration.
In addition, the progress Eisenhower had made in easing the tension between the United States and the Soviet Union was shattered when Russian premier Nikita Khrushchev refused to take part in a planned summit meeting with Eisenhower. Khrushchev was angered after an American U-2 spy plane that had been taking photographs of military sites in Russia was shot down. Critics faulted Eisenhower for allowing such an espionage operation to jeopardize peace between the two countries.
To attempt to classify Eisenhower as liberal or conservative is difficult. He was undoubtedly sympathetic to business interests and had widespread support from them. He had austere views as to fiscal matters and was not generally in favor of enlarging the role of government in economic affairs. Yet he favored measures such as a far-reaching extension of social security, he signed a law fixing a minimum wage, and he recommended the formation of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. After an initial error, he appointed to this post-Marion B. Folsom, an outstanding administrator who had been a pioneer in the movement for social security in the 1930s.
Views
Eisenhower concentrated on maintaining world peace. He strongly opposed the use of atomic weapons in 1945. He watched with pleasure the development of his "atoms for peace" program - the loan of American uranium to "have not" nations for peaceful purposes.
Quotations:
"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."
"Peace and Justice are two sides of the same coin."
"War is a grim, cruel business, a business justified only as a means of sustaining the forces of good against those of evil."
"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity."
"The freedom of the individual and his willingness to follow real leadership are at the core of America’s strength."
"The proudest human that walks the earth is a free American citizen."
"Neither a wise man or a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him."
"Don't join the book burners. Don't think you are going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book, as long as that document does not offend our own ideas of decency. That should be the only censorship."
"The proudest human that walks the earth is a free American citizen."
"Censorship, in my opinion, is a stupid and shallow way of approaching the solution to any problem. Though sometimes necessary, as witness a professional and technical secret that may have a bearing upon the welfare and very safety of this country, we should be very careful in the way we apply it, because in censorship always lurks the very great danger of working to the disadvantage of the American nation."
Membership
In 1948, Eisenhower became President of Columbia University, an Ivy League university in New York City, and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa society.
Phi Beta Kappa
1948
Personality
By all accounts, Eisenhower was affable, gregarious, and a decent, honorable man who quietly inspired confidence and commanded respect. The famous Eisenhower smile reflected his generally sunny, optimistic disposition. At times he grew depressed or exploded in anger, but never for extended periods. A bit superstitious, he carried in his pocket three lucky coins, a silver dollar, a five guinea gold piece, and a French franc. Eisenhower was a rather poor speaker, notorious for his fractured syntax. Sometimes, however, he hid behind this reputation when he wanted to avoid responding directly to a question.
Eisenhower took up painting as a hobby after watching artist Thomas Stephens paint a portrait of Mamie. During his years in the White House, Eisenhower paid a visit to a small second-floor studio to paint for 10 minutes before lunch. Among his more than 200 paintings were landscapes and portraits of his wife, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln. His works were even displayed at a 1967 show in a New York art museum.
Eisenhower smoked three or four packs of cigarettes a day, picking up the habit while he was a student at West Point and quitting only a few years before he became President. His initial attempt involved excising tobacco and the related accouterments from his daily life, but it didn’t work, so he went in the other direction. "I decided to make a game of the whole business and try to achieve a feeling of some superiority when I saw others smoking while I no longer did," he said. The politician crammed cigarettes and lighters into every nook of his office. "I made it a practice to offer a cigarette to anyone who came in and I lighted each while mentally reminding myself as I sat down, ‘I don’t have to do what that poor fellow is doing.’"
Physical Characteristics:
Eisenhower stood 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighed 178 pounds on becoming president. He had a fair complexion, blue eyes, light brown hair, although he was almost completely bald as president, square shoulders and large hands. His most distinctive feature was his broad grin. He wore reading glasses. He had a trick knee, the result of a football injury. He caught colds easily and suffered from bursitis and ileitis from time to time. While president, he in 1955 suffered a heart attack, described by doctors as "moderate," underwent an intestinal bypass operation in 1956, and had a slight stroke in 1957 that impaired his speech for 24 hours.
Quotes from others about the person
"Eisenhower was known as a harmonizer, a man who could get diverse factions to work toward a common goal... Leadership, he explained, meant patience and conciliation, not "hitting people over the head." - David M. Oshinsky
"No doubt history will say that Eisenhower was a soldier. For my part, I will remember, above all, his goodness. He was a fundamentally good man who knew how to be loved by the Americans. I was fond of Ike." - Muhammad Reza Pahlavi
Interests
painting, poker, contract bridge
Politicians
Richard Nixon
Writers
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain, On War by Carl von Clausewitz, The History of the United States by George Bancroft, William Shakespear
Artists
Thomas E. Stephens
Sport & Clubs
golf, fencing, football, baseball
Music & Bands
Jim Reeves, Johnny Cash, The Boswell Sisters, Ludwig van Beethoven, The Five Satins
Connections
In 1915, Eisenhower graduated and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. There, he met Marie "Mamie" Doud, daughter of a wealthy Denver, Colorado, meatpacker. They married in 1916. In 1921, tragedy struck at home, when the Eisenhowers' firstborn son, Doud Dwight, died of scarlet fever at the age of three. Mamie gave birth to a second son, John Sheldon Doud, in 1922. John went on to join the United States Army and later on also served as United States Ambassador to Belgium.
Eisenhower in War and Peace
In this extraordinary volume, Jean Edward Smith presents a portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower that is as full, rich, and revealing as anything ever written about America’s thirty-fourth president. Here is Eisenhower the young dreamer, charting a course from Abilene, Kansas, to West Point and beyond.
2012
Eisenhower: Soldier and President
Stephen E. Ambrose draws upon extensive sources, an unprecedented degree of scholarship, and numerous interviews with Eisenhower himself to offer the fullest, richest, most objective rendering yet of the soldier who became president. He gives us a masterly account of the European war theater and Eisenhower's magnificent leadership as Allied Supreme Commander.
1968
How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions
Few people have made decisions as momentous as Eisenhower, nor has one person had to make such a varied range of them. From D-Day to Little Rock, from the Korean War to Cold War crises, from the Red Scare to the Missile Gap controversies, Ike was able to give our country eight years of peace and prosperity by relying on a core set of principles.
Eisenhower
In this engaging, fast-paced biography, Louis Galambos follows the career of Dwight D. "Ike" Eisenhower, offering new insight into this singular man who guided America toward consensus at home and a peaceful victory in the Cold War.