Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890

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Biography

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. Earlier, during World War II, he became a General of the Army, and was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe. Eisenhower planned and supervised two of the most consequential military campaigns of the War: Operation Torch in the North Africa campaign in 1942–1943 and the invasion of Normandy in 1944.

In Their Own Words (5)

This is a long tough road we have to travel. The men that can do things are going to be sought out just as surely as the sun rises in the morning. Fake reputations, habits of glib and clever speech, and glittering surface performance are going to be discovered.

Letter to Vernon Prichard (27 August 1942), published in The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower (1970) edited by Alfred Dupont Chandler, p. 505 , 1970

I was against it on two counts. First, the Japanese were ready to surrender, and it wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing. Second, I hated to see our country be the first to use such a weapon.

On his stated opposition to the use of the atomic bomb against the Japanese at the end of World War II, as quoted in Newsweek (11 November 1963), p. 107 , 1963

There is -- in world affairs -- a steady course to be followed between an assertion of strength that is truculent and a confession of helplessness that is cowardly.

State of the Union Address (February 2, 1952). Source: Eisenhower Presidential Library. Archived from the original on January 25, 2021. , 1952

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.

As quoted in Time magazine (6 October 1952) , 1952

I'm going to command the whole shebang.

Comment to his wife Mamie, after being informed by George Marshall that he would be in command of Operation Overlord, as quoted in Eisenhower : A Soldier's Life (2003) by Carlo D'Este, p. 307 , 2003

Timeline

The story of Dwight D. Eisenhower, told in moments.

1942 Event

Commands Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa. He's never seen combat. He was a staff officer for 27 years. Marshall and Roosevelt pick him over 366 more senior officers because he's a coalition builder. The British, the French, and the Americans all trust him.

Never seen combat but chosen over 366 senior officers. Was that luck or skill? Did you know you were a coalition builder or did others see it first?

1944 Event

D-Day. Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force. 156,000 troops cross the English Channel. He writes a note in his pocket taking full blame if the invasion fails. It doesn't fail. But he keeps the note.

That note in your pocket taking blame if D-Day failed. When did you write it? 156,000 troops crossing the Channel. Did you sleep the night before?

1952 Event

Elected president in a landslide over Adlai Stevenson. "I Like Ike." He's running as a Republican but he's really running against Robert Taft's isolationism. He wants NATO to hold. It holds.

I Like Ike. Was the slogan your idea or someone else s? Were you really running against Taft s isolationism more than Stevenson?

1956 Event

Sends the 101st Airborne to Little Rock, Arkansas. Nine Black students need to enter Central High School. Governor Faubus has called out the National Guard to block them. Eisenhower federalizes the Guard and sends paratroopers. The students walk in.

Sending paratroopers to escort nine Black students into school. Did that decision cost you politically? Did you hesitate before federalizing the National Guard?

1957 Life

Signs the Federal-Aid Highway Act. 41,000 miles of interstate highways. The largest public works project in American history. He got the idea in 1919, when a military convoy took 62 days to cross the country on dirt roads. He saw the German autobahn in 1945. The two memories converge.

41,000 miles of highways because of a 1919 convoy on dirt roads. Is that really how it started? Did seeing the autobahn in 1945 seal the decision?

1961 Event

Farewell address. Three days before leaving office, he warns the nation about the "military-industrial complex." A five-star general, a war hero, a two-term president, using his last public words to say: watch the defense contractors. Nobody expected it.

Military-industrial complex. Did you know those three words would outlive everything else you said? A five-star general warning about defense contractors. Did that surprise your own party?

1969 Death

Dies at Walter Reed Hospital. He is 78. His last words: "I want to go. God, take me."

I want to go. God, take me. Were you at peace? Which achievement would you want remembered first?