DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER: BIOGRAPHY, MILITARY CAREER, PRESIDENCY, DEATH - ARTE - 2024

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969) was a prominent American military, politician, and president whose participation as a strategist in World War II was fundamental to the outcome of the conflict.

He was the 34th president of the United States, a position he held between 1953 and 1961. He also served as the Supreme Command of the Allied Forces in both Europe and North Africa.

Dwight D. Eisenhower official photo portrait., By White House, via Wikimedia Commons

Many of the great actions that the allies carried out to end the Nazi regime such as Operation Torch, or the Normandy Landing (Operation Overlord) were coordinated by Eisenhower. Eisenhower served as Chief of Staff during the Harry Truman administration. He accepted the Republican Party nomination for 1952.

Dwight Eisenhower's fame as a strong man helped him to gain the national first magistracy by a wide margin. He then had to serve as the American leader at the beginning of the Cold War and managed to put an end to the armed conflict in Korea.

He continued to apply the New Deal as his main internal policy and in 1957 he signed the Civil Rights Act. His greatest infrastructure achievement was the United States Interstate Highway Network.

He tried to bring the Soviet Union and the United States closer to a peaceful resolution of their differences with the ban on the use of nuclear weapons, but this was thwarted when an American plane was captured by the Soviets.

Before the end of his term, Eisenhower expressed his concern about the high expenses in military matters, especially about the strengthening of private industries dedicated to this branch. He died in 1969 at the age of 78, eight years after completing his term as president of the American nation.

Biography

Early years and origins

Dwight David Eisenhower was born on October 14, 1890, came to the world in Denison, Texas where the family was temporarily residing.

His father was David Jacob Eisenhower and his mother Ida Elizabeth Stover. They were originally from Kansas and descended from German Protestants with strong religious values. A creed that they tried to sink into their children.

The Eisenhower family ("Eisenhauer" in German, meaning "iron miner") came from Nassau-Saarbrüken County in Germany and came to Pennsylvania c. 1741. In 1880, Eisenhower's ancestors moved to Kansas and were members of the immigrant community known as "Pennsylvania Dutch."

On the other hand, Ida Elizabeth descended from Protestants from Virginia, also of German origin and who, likewise, moved to Kansas. David Jacob was an engineer and at the time of Dwight's birth they lived near the rail system. There, Eisenhower's father worked as maintenance personnel for the machines.

Two years later they moved to Abilane, in Kansas. There David Jacob had gotten a job at a dairy.

Dwight David was the third son of the Eisenhowers, having six more siblings. During the first years, the family struggled to stay afloat financially, but as the years passed the situation improved and allowed them to live as a middle class.

Training

Before he formally entered school, Eisenhower's parents tried to build strong values ​​in their son. They had strict schedules to learn the Bible, in a kind of family study group.

Both David and Ida were former members of a religious community known as Mennonites, but they later switched to another group called Jehovah's Witnesses. Despite this, Dwight Eisenhower did not adopt any religious affiliation until his adulthood.

The family maintained a schedule for household chores that were distributed among the children and had to be followed with strict discipline.

Young Dwight loved sports from an early age, although he was not very passionate about studies.

However, he developed a particular interest in military history that began when he discovered a collection of his mother's texts. A passion that continued all his life.

Education

Dwight D. Eisenhower attended Abilene High School from which he graduated in 1909. From his school years he highlighted an incident in which he injured his leg. The professional recommendation was to amputate, but he refused to have the operation performed.

Fortunately, he recovered satisfactorily from the injury, although he had to repeat the first year of high school.

His family did not have the resources to send him to college, and neither did his siblings. Consequently, he made a pact with Edgar, one of his brothers with whom he agreed that they would study alternate years at the university so that one of them would work to pay for tuition.

The first shift to work was Dwight's turn and he did it thoroughly, but his brother did not want to interrupt his academic progress and convinced him to let him go back to college instead of following the schedule, which Eisenhower agreed to.

However, that same year a friend of Dwight's told him that he could join the Naval Academy at no cost. The young man sent applications to Annapolis and West Point, where he was accepted in 1911, the year in which he began his military training.

Although his mother was very saddened by Dwight's decision, she never did anything to try to stop him from choosing his destiny.

West point

Dwight Eisenhower's attraction to sports persisted through his years at the academy, but his discipline left much to be desired. He was not a particularly outstanding student in his class, graduating right in the middle.

Notably, Eisenhower was a member of the class of 1915, which became famous for having produced 59 generals. In the academic courses he became interested in some scientific areas.

During his stay at West Point he participated in different sports disciplines, although his performance was compromised after an accident in which he fractured his knee and had to give up sports that required a lot of effort on the lower body.

Military career

The first post Dwight Eisenhower was assigned to upon graduation was as Second Lieutenant at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. There he met a young woman named Mamie Geneva Doud, a native of Iowa and the daughter of a wealthy merchant.

The young men fell in love with each other, and in February 1916, Dwight proposed to her. They got engaged and the union was to be held in November, but decided to move the date to June. On the very day of his wedding, Eisenhower was promoted to first lieutenant.

The couple had their first child in 1917 and they named him Doud Dwight. Although Eisenhower requested to be sent to the front during World War I, this was not granted since his superiors decided to send him to different internal bases in the North American territory.

During the early years of his career, he and his family had to move frequently. They were in Texas, Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.

His discipline and sense of organization allowed him to advance quickly through the military ranks, although he was always within the country.

Eisenhower was momentarily promoted to lieutenant colonel and assigned to a tank unit at Camp Colt in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, but when he was to be sent to the front the armistice was signed.

Later difficulties

Although he was not in the field, he was awarded a Medal for Distinguished Service. However, other soldiers tried to minimize his career later on as he had not gained combat experience.

Despite this, Eisenhower generally surpassed the resource management, organization, and strategy skills of many military personnel.

During 1920 Eisenhower reached the rank of major. It wasn't easy for the Eisenhowers to get over the loss of their young son Doud Dwight a year later, but in 1922 their second and only surviving son arrived: John.

Steady climb

Between 1922 and 1924 he was assigned to General Fox Conner, as executive officer in the Panama Canal.

He took advantage of this period to study both theories and military history at the hand of the general, whom he considered one of the most influential figures in his career.

Conner recommended him to attend the Command and General Staff College in 1925. Eisenhower graduated from this institution first in his class in 1926 and went on to serve as a battalion commander in Georgia.

Eisenhower was later assigned to General John Pershing on the Battle Monuments Commission in 1927. He was also at Army War College and went to France for a year.

When he returned from Europe his designated mission was to serve as an executive officer for General George Mosely, who was serving as an assistant to the War Department.

Eisenhower graduated from Army Industrial College, the same institution that he later began to serve. In this period, his specialty was planning different aspects related to the incursion of the United States in a second armed conflict.

The biggest challenge in this assignment was overcoming the obstacles posed to the Army by the Great Depression, an economic debacle that occurred at the time.

Way to the top

One of the great impulses that Dwight D. Eisenhower had in his career path was to be assigned to the position of "chief military aid" or chief of military assistance for General Douglas McArthur, who held the position of chief of the Army General Staff.

Their personalities clashed constantly, but Eisenhower took it upon himself to serve his superior loyally and carried out all his orders to the letter, even though he might have differences of judgment.

In 1935 Eisenhower and his boss moved to the Philippines, where they had the duty of reorganizing the Commonwealth Army, as well as providing advice on military matters and public order to the local government.

This position was very important for the future American president to forge his character that helped him deal with world leaders later in his career. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel during 1936.

Second World War

His return to America occurred in December 1939, when he was assigned the Command of the 1st Battalion of the 15th Infantry Regiment at Fort Lewis. In March 1941 he was made a colonel and chief of staff of General Keyton Joyce's team.

Months later, Eisenhower was promoted to 3rd Army chief of staff at Fort Sam Houston in Texas.

From there he collaborated with the famous Louisiana Maneuvers, in which he stood out for his managerial qualities that earned him promotion to Brigadier General in October 1941.

That same year his services were requested in Washington, where he has been sent ever since. Eisenhower obtained the rank of major general in March 1942, after the Japanese attack on American territories.

At that time he obtained the position of second chief in Defensas del Pacífico, in the War Planning division.

Allied Commander

After his superior, General Leonard Gerow left office, Eisenhower was left in charge of the War Planning division.

After making a pleasant impression on General George Marshall, then Chief of the War Department, Dwight D. Eisenhower became his assistant.

In that position, he amazed his superior with the strategic and administrative capacity he possessed. Similarly, the President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, considered his talents to be above average.

For this reason, Dwight D. Eisenhower was assigned in November 1942 as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in North Africa to carry out the execution of Operation Torch.

He managed to prevail against the Axis in the conquest of African territory and commanded the invasion of Sicily thanks to which Italy and the fascist regime of Mussolini later fell with Operation Avalanche.

By December 1943, Eisenhower was appointed supreme commander of the Allied Forces in Europe. He then assumed responsibility for planning and executing the famous Operation Overlord, also known as the Normandy Landing.

Nazi end

Against all odds, the Germans maintained their resistance longer than had been considered possible. The steadfastness of the Allied Forces and their troops was maintained throughout the European occupation under the leadership of Dwight D. Eisenhower.

He made visits to all divisions to comfort them and encourage their spirits as they found themselves risking their lives. Due to the importance of his responsibilities, at the end of 1944 he obtained the rank of general of the United States of North America.

To prevent the future spread of the idea that criminal acts that occurred under Nazi rule were the product of a conspiracy, Eisenhower requested that extensive audiovisual documentation be produced on the matter. Later those files were used as evidence in the Nuremberg Trials.

After the German surrender, which took place on May 7, 1945, Eisenhower was appointed governor of the American Occupation Zone, especially the region comprised by southern Germany. There, the American general coordinated the delivery of food and medicine to the locals.

The American government decided to adopt the idea that the German people were its friend and had also been a victim of the Nazi regime, whose former supporters were wanted and punished.

Return to the United States

In November 1945 Dwight D. Eisenhower returned to America and was tasked with taking George Marshall's place as Chief of Staff. Its main objective was to demobilize the immense American army and to centralize its command again.

However, he had to face criticism. Among other reasons, he was questioned why they had not taken the capital of Germany in its entirety, as well as other cities.

To these comments, Eisenhower only replied that to maintain peace with the Soviet Union, the territorial pacts that had been reached in previous meetings had to be honored.

Columbia

Eisenhower served with aplomb as head of the army until 1948. Then he moved to New York and, from then on, began to serve as president of Columbia University, in those years he dedicated his time to nurturing his intellect.

He spent time fine-tuning his memoirs, which he called Crusade in Europe, which became a best-seller, so much so that it gave him a much more affluent economic status than he had until then.

Before the elections of 1948, both President Harry Truman, who was a member of the Democratic Party, and the Republicans were interested in capturing Eisenhower for the vice presidency or the national first magistracy.

At that time it was not in Eisenhower's professional interests to enter politics, claiming that he professed no affiliation. Nor did he consider it appropriate for an active military man to decide to participate in such aspirations.

Eisenhower was extremely interested in studying the consequences that the implementation of the Marshall Plan would bring.

Some think that this process helped him to educate himself in political administration, something of great importance to him when he became president. He also learned a lot about economics.

NATO

In parallel with his career as president of Columbia University, Eisenhower continued to be requested to advise on various matters of state by officials who were within the government at the time.

Many academics resented certain relationships or behaviors at Dwight Eisenhower. Since then criticism and attacks on his person began on the part of the American intelligentsia, with whom he never got along completely.

Although there were factions that openly expressed their dissatisfaction with Eisenhower's tenure at the institution, his request to resign from the presidency of Columbia University was denied in 1950.

However, his special permission to separate from his duties was approved while he took the reins of the Supreme Command of the Forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

He held that position until the end of May 1952, when he decided to retire from active military service and return to Columbia until January of the following year.

Towards the presidency

In 1951 Truman again made a proposal to Dwight Eisenhower, but on that occasion he offered him Democratic support to enter the race as a presidential candidate. The military man felt free to air his preferences and assured him that he shared republican ideas.

The Republicans then proceeded to convince Eisenhower to accept the nomination on behalf of their party. The general won in the primaries against Robert Taft; At this time, the Esienhower slogan "I like Ike" began to become popular.

In his campaign, Eisenhower decided to distance himself from the Democratic administrations with which he had collaborated closely: that of Roosevelt and that of Truman.

He made public the differences of thoughts that existed between him and the presidents on some matters of national importance. He also selected Richard Nixon as his vice president to please the far right of the Republican Party, as well as to bring a fresh face to the presidential team.

The elections were held on November 4, 1952, and Eisenhower had a strident victory over Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson. The Republicans took 39 states, which translated into 442 electoral votes against 89 for the Democrats.

Presidency

Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first Republican president in 20 years, since Democratic candidates had won elections in that period. His presidential inauguration took place on January 20, 1953.

He decided to take a conservative approach to home economics. He baptized in his style "modern republicanism" and his main objectives were to reduce taxes, reduce the burdens of the Federal Government and balance the budget.

During his term, both prices and rents were released in the United States and the minimum wage was increased to $ 1 per hour.

Despite all those reforms, Eisenhower kept the New Deal as one of his main guides, which he demonstrated with the expansion of social security. Also in 1953, the Eisenhower Administration created the Department of Welfare, Health, and Education.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower decided to get much closer to the media than his predecessors. In fact, during his government he held about 200 press conferences.

He stressed that for the Republican Party to continue to exist, it had to show that it could adapt to the new times: that is why it spoke of its doctrines as republican progressivism.

Other actions

The issue of racial separation within the North American borders was one of the problems that Eisenhower faced. In 1954, the Supreme Court declared racial segregation in American public schools unconstitutional, so this matter soon became a fundamental point of national security.

The resolution against segregation led to an escalation in the confrontations over racial conflicts and the groups of white supremacists were strengthened throughout the country.

In 1956, before the end of his first term, Eisenhower signed the Highway Act. He believed that its application was necessary for the Cold War. It was suggested that, should a conflict break out, the main risk was that they would attack the big cities and these should be able to be evacuated quickly.

This freeway system became one of the greatest achievements of the Eisenhower Administration and was undoubtedly one of the largest infrastructure-related projects to date in the United States of America.

Foreign policy

Internationally, Dwight Eisenhower achieved an achievement for diplomacy: he managed to get the armistice of the Korean War signed in 1953. Although he tried to keep a low profile in terms of armed conflicts, several covert operations were carried out in his administration that were made very noticeable.

Among those actions assisted by the CIA, they highlighted the overthrow of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran, who was replaced in 1953 by Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi and in Guatemala, the following year, he carried out a coup against the government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán.

Eisenhower managed to create a defensive treaty with Japan in 1954 and, after this arrangement, it was agreed that the Japanese country could be armed again with the advice of the United States.

The fight against communism was one of the strengths of his government. In 1954 the South East Asian Treaty Organization was created with the fundamental objective of preventing communist expansion in South Asia.

At that time the domino theory was applied, which stated that if certain key countries fell into the hands of communism, many others would follow.

Suez crisis

In 1956 Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal, which was essential for international trade. That is why the coalition between France, Great Britain and Israel decided to take military action to force the passage to be reopened.

Eisenhower decided that it was unwise for the United States to take sides, because it could be interpreted as an imperialist action and that contravened the image they wanted to project as the liberators of communism.

After putting pressure on the warring parties, he obtained a cessation of hostilities days later. In 1957 the Eisenhower Doctrine was announced.

She proposed that the United States would provide the greatest possible assistance to the nations of the Middle East that wanted to stop Communist influence in their territories.

Second term

Although Eisenhower's plans were not to participate again in the presidential race, his environment convinced him that he was what the country needed.

The president had suffered from a heart attack in 1955 and underwent surgery in 1956, but he recovered soon and this did not seriously affect his campaign for his new ticket to the White House.

The Republicans supported his candidacy without hesitation, while the Democrats again proposed Stevenson as his opponent. In the elections, Eisenhower obtained 57% of the popular vote, which translated into 457 electoral votes in his favor and 73 for the Democrats.

During his last term, Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act in 1957 and later sent the police to stop the racist attacks that took place in Little Rock.

At this time Alaska was included as a state (1958) and a year later the same happened with Hawaii. In 1960 he signed another Civil Rights law, this time related to the right to vote.

Race against Russia

On April 10, 1957 Russia launched Sputnik and thus began what was later called the space race. The North American government had the information of what the Soviet Union would do months before the launch took place.

Eisenhower and his advisers decided not to take any action as they considered it beneficial because it would allow them to proclaim that all countries had a right to whatever was in space without having to seek approval from the rest.

He also tried to use this precedent to propose the "open skies" policy, but the Soviets did not share this view.

Finally, in 1958 Eisenhower agreed to the creation of a civil organization for space exploration, thus creating NASA.

Final actions

In 1959, the Eisenhower government approached Soviet leaders to activate a ban on the use of nuclear weapons in warfare. Nikita Khrushchev visited the United States as part of the discussions.

This agreement would be the event that would mark the Eisenhower Administration in history, but it was thwarted at the last minute. The Soviets captured an American pilot after shooting down his U2 model plane.

The name of the American military man was Francis Gary Powers and he carried with him the evidence of the espionage that he had been committing on Russian territory in May 1960. This provoked the ire of Khrushchev who canceled the negotiations on the nuclear issue.

Relations between the Cuban regime of Fidel Castro and the United States were dissolved in January 1961. The Bay of Pigs Operation was later planned, which was carried out by JF Kennedy.

Dwight D. Eisenhower spoke in his farewell speech about the danger posed by the concentration of power that was taking place within the private military industry and the consequences that this could unleash in the country.

Last years

Eisenhower retired with his wife to their farm located in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; in addition, they kept other property in California. He dedicated his last years to painting, one of his favorite hobbies, as well as to the writing of his autobiography.

In 1963 he published Mandate for Change, two years later Waging Peace and finally Stories I tell to friends in 1967. In addition, Eisenhower had other brief political appearances, especially in support of other Republican candidates.

Death

Dwight D. Eisenhower died on March 28, 1969 in Washington, DC due to heart failure. He had been admitted to Walter Reed Army Medical Center and was 78 years old at the time of his death.

The religious services were held at the Washington National Cathedral and then he received a state funeral that was held in the Capitol. His remains were transported by train to Abilane, Kansas, where he was buried.

References

1. En.wikipedia.org. (2020). Dwight D. Eisenhower. Available at: en.wikipedia.org.
2. Reeves, T. (2020). Dwight D. Eisenhower - Cold War, Presidency, & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: britannica.com.
3. Miller Center. (2020). Dwight D. Eisenhower - Key Events - Miller Center. Available at: millercenter.org.
4. Eisenhowerlibrary.gov. (2020). The Eisenhowers - Eisenhower Presidential Library. Available at: eisenhowerlibrary.gov.
5. Pach, Jr., C. (2020). Dwight D. Eisenhower: Life Before the Presidency - Miller Center. Miller Center. Available at: millercenter.org.
6. Truslow, P. (2020). 1956 Eisenhower - Dwight D Eisenhower Timeline - Dwight Eisenhower. Presidentisenhower.net. Available at: Presidenteisenhower.net.