Dwight D. Eisenhower

Of all the men to serve in the White House, Dwight D. Eisenhower enjoyed one of the easiest ventures to the executive branch. George Washington was able to ride his position as commander of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War to the White House; James Monroe was able to ride the collapse of the Federalist Party and thus universal support for his Democratic-Republican Party to the White House; Andrew Jackson rode his status as a hero of the War of 1812 to the presidency; Warren G. Harding rode the stress Americans felt during the controversial presidency of Democrat Woodrow Wilson to the White House; Herbert Hoover rode his humanitarian efforts during and immediately after WW1 to the helm of the executive branch; FDR rode the - as it turned out - extreme unpopularity of Hoover to the White House. Eisenhower's quick-heeled horse to Washington DC came in the form of his work during WW2. Eisenhower had secured global fame and unending praise for leading Allied forces during D-Day. Easily becoming the Republican nominee in 1952, he endured no hardship in defeating Democrat Adlai Stevenson in the generals. On January 20, 1953, Eisenhower took the oath of office, replacing Harry S. Truman as president.

I believe that Eisenhower was one of the greatest presidents in American history. For me, the amazing accomplishments and beneficial choices populating his stay in the Oval Office easily land him a spot to share with Lincoln, Washington, Truman, and FDR. However, he did have several flaws as president, most of which were confined to his foreign policy. For example, when Eisenhower was inaugurated, Iran was led by Muhammad Mossadeqq. Mossadeqq, early into Eisenhower's first term, decided to nationalize the Iranian oil industry so that American and British corporations could no longer exploit it. Eisenhower responded to this by assisting the Iranian military in a coup that toppled Mossadeqq on August 19, 1953. In 1954, Eisenhower perpetrated a similar coup in Guatemala. When a socialist revolution took place in Iraq, Eisenhower became paranoid and sent armed forces to Lebanon, hoping that that would prevent revolutionary fervor from spreading to Lebanese territory. To Eisenhower's credit, he withdrew troops from Lebanon after only a few months, but his actions here still hurt his score.

From March to May 1954, forces affiliated with Ho Chi Minh's Democratic Republic of Vietnam and those affiliated with Bao Di (a puppet monarch installed in southern Vietnam by France) fought at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. After the skirmish, Vietnamese and Western delegates met at Geneva and signed a treaty splitting Vietnam into a socialist north and capitalist south, with a reunification referendum scheduled for 1956. In the meantime, Eisenhower began supporting Ngo Dinh Diem, an anti-communist who led South Vietnam with about as brutal methods as the Marxists he condemned. This began US involvement in Vietnam, which culminated in the Vietnam War under Lyndon B. Johnson. Even before the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, Eisenhower was trying to assist Bao Di. He tried to convince other Western nations to do the same so that France's efforts wouldn't be seen for the neo-colonialism it embodied. He also tried to dispel these allegations, however, by working to ensure Southeast Asian independence after the war, which was a positive goal.

Eisenhower also planned out the Bay of Pigs Invasion (which actually took place under John F. Kennedy) and severed diplomatic ties with Cuba. Regarding domestic policy, he resisted demands to pardon the Rosenbergs, a couple falsely accused of giving secrets to the Soviet Union, before they were executed. He also issued an executive order that banned queer people from working for the federal government. However, I would say that these issues are largely the beginning and end of what was wrong with the Eisenhower Administration. Everything else was extremely positive and bestowed wonderful benefits upon both the United States and the outside world. Since most of Eisenhower's flaws rested in foreign policy, I'll dissect his accomplishments there first. While Eisenhower's anti-communist convictions led to unjustified foreign intervention, he also worked to reduce tensions between the US and the Soviet Union. He tried to broker arms limitation deals with the Soviet Union on several occasions and let the US and USSR inspect each other's militaries. He even invited Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to visit America!

Soon after entering office, Eisenhower concluded the Korean War by signing the Korean Armistice Agreement, which altered the North Korean-South Korean border from being a straight line along of the middle of the peninsula to a more asymmetrical barrier favoring South Korea territorially. It also allowed prisoners of war to decide whatever country they wanted to move into. Furthermore, Eisenhower sponsored the Alpha Plan, in which Israel would have ceded some of its lands to Arab neighbors like Jordan, Egypt, and Lebanon in exchange for pledges by those countries never to launch offensive attacks against Israel. Had the Alpha Plan succeeded, tensions in the Middle East today would be far less severe. Eisenhower also initiated the People-to-People program, which reduced Cold War tensions by sending American humanitarians and medical professionals to help people suffering across the globe, even if they lived in Soviet or Chinese satellite states.

The greatest accomplishment of the Eisenhower Administration's foreign policy was its response to the Suez Crisis. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Egypt was building a structure known as the Aswan Dam, largely with the financial backing of the United States. However, when Gamal Abdel Nasser (the leader of Egypt) decided to recognize the government in Beijing as the real China rather than the government in Taipei, that support was withdrawn. So, desperate to fund the Aswan Dam, Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal on July 26, 1956, requiring foreign ships to pay a toll to cross through the area. For many of Egypt's rivals, this was the last straw. A series of border skirmishes with Egypt since its establishment in 1948 had caused Israel to dislike Egypt, as had lingering tensions from Egypt's request to have British troops removed from its territory created conflict with Britain. France had also heard false rumors that Egypt was supporting an independence rebellion in the French colony of Algeria. On October 29, 1956, these 3 countries retaliated by invading the Suez Canal, sparking the Suez Crisis. Israeli troops arrived first, followed by British and French forces on October 31, 1956.

Khrushchev, wanting to garner the respect of Middle Eastern countries and so set up Soviet influence in the region, threatened to nuke Israel, Britain, and France if they didn't withdraw their soldiers from the Suez Canal. Eisenhower then realized how intense this situation had become and so started looking to dissolve the tensions. On November 7, 1956, he threatened to unleash economic sanctions on Israel, Britain, and France unless they withdrew from Egypt. Eisenhower's words accomplished what they intended, scaring the West into leaving Egypt and the Suez Canal alone. In doing this, Eisenhower both prevented nuclear catastrophe and preserved Egyptian sovereignty, one of the greatest accomplishments of any president!

Domestic policy was another area where Eisenhower excelled. For example, he signed the first civil rights bill since Rutherford B. Hayes ended Reconstruction back in 1877. On September 9, 1957, Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Although the 15th Amendment (enacted in 1870 during Reconstruction) prohibited the government from abridging voting rights on the basis of race, southern states had spent the closing years of the 19th century and opening years of the 20th century opening up loopholes to this fact. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 launched an effort to sew these loopholes shut, making it illegal to prevent an American who is legally and Constitutionally eligible to vote from casting a ballot. Eisenhower's bill also set up the Civil Rights Commission to enforce laws aimed at expanding the rights of racial minorities. Furthermore, Eisenhower desegregated Washington DC.

In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, prohibiting racial segregation in public schools. On September 4, 1957, a group of 9 black students in Little Rock, Arkansas, known collectively as "the Little Rock Nine", became the first African-American students to attend a previously all-white school under the terms of Brown v. Board of Education. The governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, defied federal edicts by sending the Arkansas State Militia into the Little Rock Central High School (where the Little Rock Nine was trying to study) in order to force the teens out. Fabus claimed he was doing this to protect the Little Rock Nine, but he was very obviously just being racist. On September 22, 1957, the Little Rock Nine tried a second time to attend the school, but were chased out by a violent riot. They bravely continued to go to the Little Rock Central High School even after this incident and Eisenhower quickly chose to send federal troops to shelter the students as they joined the school.

Furthermore, Eisenhower instituted several positive economic reforms. To begin, he raised the minimum wage. He also dramatically expanded social security. He allowed people to subscribe to the SSA's services on the basis of disability and/or reliance on someone with a disability. He increased the income of people receiving social security checks, allowed people to receive social security checks while also working, and sought to expand the financial assistance given to SSA subscribers by instructing social security staff to ignore the 4- or 5-lowest earning years of an applicant's career. The rest of Eisenhower's domestic policy was also beneficial. He supported the 23rd Amendment, which gave Washington DC representation in the Electoral College, for example. He also admitted Hawaii and Alaska into the Union (making him, at least as of writing this article in 2023, the last president to convert territories into states), extending Congressional and Electoral College representation to the people in these areas.

Although Eisenhower did a lot to curb the spread of Soviet influence to the rest of the world, he didn't stand for the unconstitutional persecution of Marxists at home. Joseph McCarthy was a Republican Senator known for falsely accusing celebrities, politicians, and academics of being communists or having ties to Moscow. McCarthy's rampant paranoia and bloodthirsty fearmongering cost people their lives and reputations. Eisenhower could never bring himself to tolerate any of this. From the beginning, he despised McCarthy. In fact, while on the campaign trail in 1952, Eisenhower even considered abstaining from any rallies or demonstrations in Wisconsin, as that was the state McCarthy represented in Congress. His campaign advisors convinced him not to do this, however. As president, Eisenhower opposed McCarthyism. He even pioneered televised press conferences (the first press conferences were held by William McKinley and made a regular occurrence by Calvin Coolidge) to leak embarrassing or cringeworthy clips of McCarthy to the public. Many claimed Eisenhower supported McCarthy as he never condemned the Senator, but Eisenhower simply didn't want to give McCarthy the dignity of having his behavior acknowledged in a presidential condemnation.

Lastly, many important government agencies saw their origin under Eisenhower. The US Information Agency was founded by Eisenhower, for instance. Eisenhower also created the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Ever since, the HEW Department also split up to become some of the most recognized and thanked cabinet departments. Jimmy Carter summoned from the activities of HEW the Department of Education, while the Department of Health and Human Services also was preceded by HEW. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union became the first country in all of human history to launch a rocket into Space. This revelation terrified Americans, sparking both the fear that the United States was lagging behind the USSR scientifically and the fear that the Soviet Union would be able to aim weapons at the US from Space. For this reason, Eisenhower founded NASA (with the help of future-President Lyndon B. Johnson!) to improve America's Space exploration program.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was, almost without question, one of America's best presidents. His imperialist foreign policy, discrimination against queer government employees, and failure to recognize the innocence of the Rosenbergs lock him out of the top 3, but he remains a terrific leader worthy of a spot in the top 5. He prevented nuclear catastrophe by ending the Suez Crisis, ended the Korean War, reduced Cold War tensions, fulfilled many of the demands of the Civil Rights Movement, raised the minimum wage, fleshed out the social security system, created NASA, stood up to McCarthyism, tried to create a resolution between Israel and its Arab rivals, founded the US Information Agency, and supported the 23rd Amendment, alongside many other amazing accomplishments. Perhaps the bulk of the Eisenhower legacy continues to rest in Eisenhower's brilliant leadership as a WW2 general, liberating Northern Africa, Italy, and France from fascist tyranny. But regardless, his presidency proved nearly, if not equally, as sophisticated and helpful as his work in the Second World War.