Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Dwight David Eisenhower 34th President of the United States (January 20, 1953 to January 20, 1961) Nickname: “Ike” Born: October 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas Died: March 28, 1969, in Washington, D.C.

Father: David Jacob Eisenhower Mother: Ida Elizabeth Stover Eisenhower Married: Mary “Mamie” Geneva Doud Eisenhower (1896-1979), on July 1, 1916 Children: Doud Dwight Eisenhower (1917-21); John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower (1922-2013) Religion: Presbyterian Education: Graduated from U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y. (1915) Occupation: Soldier Political Party: Republican Other Government Positions:

• None

Presidential Salary: $100,000/year + $50,000 expense account

Vice President: Richard M. Nixon (1953-61) Cabinet:

Secretary of State

John Foster Dulles (1953-59)

Christian A. Herter (1959-61)

Secretary of the Treasury

George M. Humphrey (1953-57)

Robert B. Anderson (1957-61)

Secretary of Defense

Charles E. Wilson (1953-57)

Neil H. McElroy (1957-59)

Thomas S. Gates, Jr. (1960-61)

Attorney General

Herbert Brownell, Jr. (1953-57)

William P. Rogers (1957-61)

Postmaster General

Arthur E. Summerfield (1953-61)

Secretary of the Interior

Douglas J. McKay (1953-56)

Frederick A. Seaton (1956-61)

Secretary of Agriculture

Ezra Taft Benson (1953-61)

Secretary of Commerce

Sinclair Weeks (1953-58)

Lewis Strauss (1958-59)

Frederick H. Mueller (1959-60)

Secretary of Labor

Martin P. Durkin (1953)

James P. Mitchell (1953-61)

Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare

Oveta Culp Hobby (1953-55)

Marion B. Folsom (1955-58)

Arthur S. Flemming (1958-61)

Supreme Court Appointments:

Chief Justice

Earl Warren (1953-69)

Associate Justice

John Marshall Harlan (1955-71)

William J. Brennan, Jr. (1956-90)

Charles Evans Whittaker (1957-62)

Potter Stewart (1958-81)

Notable Events:

• 1953

• • The Department of Health, Education and Welfare is created
  • Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed
  • An armistice ends the Korean War
  • The Mossadegh government is overthrown in Iran
  • The Soviet Union tests the H-bomb

• 1954

• • The McCarthy hearings take place
  • The Supreme Court pronounces judgement in the Brown v. Topeka Board of Education case
  • The Geneva Accords bring the First Indochina War to an end
  • SEATO is created

• 1955

• • The Geneva Summit is attended by the heads of the ‘Big Four’ (US, France, Britain and the Soviet Union)
  • Rosa Parks is arrested

• 1956

• • The Federal Aid Highway Act is enacted
  • Suez Crisis

• 1957

• • Eisenhower Doctrine
  • The Civil Rights Act of 1957 is enacted
  • Federal troops are deployed to Little Rock, Arkansas
  • The Soviet Union launches Sputnik

• 1958

• • Alaska becomes a state
  • Internal political tensions in Lebanon escalates into an armed conflict attracting US military intervention
  • Fidel Castro overthrows the Batista dictatorship in Cuba

• 1959

• • Hawaii becomes a state

• 1960

• • Civil Rights Act of 1960 enacted

• 1961 

• • US relations with Cuba severed in January

Internet Biographies:

Dwight D. Eisenhower — from The Presidents of the United States of America

Compiled by the White House.

Dwight D. Eisenhower — from American Presidents: Life Portraits — C-SPAN

Biographical information, trivia, key events, video, and other reference materials. Website created to accompany C-SPAN’s 20th Anniversary Television Series, American Presidents: Life Portraits.

Dwight Eisenhower — from U.S. Presidents

From the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, in addition to information on the Presidents themselves, they have first lady and cabinet member biographies, listings of presidential staff and advisers, and timelines detailing significant events in the lives of each administration.

Dwight D. Eisenhower — from Character Above All

From a PBS broadcast by the same name, this essay excerpt by Stephen Ambrose discusses some of the issues and events that molded Eisenhower.

Historical Documents:

First Inaugural Address (1953)

Second Inaugural Address (1957)

Farewell Address (1961)

Media Resources:

Audio

From his 1953 inaugural address. (0:55)

MP3 (433K)

From the Vincent Voice Library at Michigan State University.

A speech on the geopolitical considerations of the war in Indochina relative to France and the United States. (0:55)

MP3 (871K)

Eisenhower’s Presidential Farewell speech, more commonly known as his “Military / Industrial Complex” speech, it its entirety. (9:41)

MP3

From The Dwight Eisenhower Presidential Library

Audio & Video

The American Presidency Project’s Presidential Audio/Video Archive for Dwight D. Eisenhower site

Other Internet Resources:

Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library

Information on the Abilene, Kansas library, along with biographical sketches of Eisenhower and his wife.

Eisenhower National Historical Site

Tourist information, history, a timeline of Eisenhower’s life, and quotations from Eisenhower. Maintained by the National Park Service.

Points of Interest:

• Dwight Eisenhower held the first ever televised presidential press conference in 1955.
• Eisenhower continued Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, while criticizing Harry Truman’s Fair Deal ones.
• The Pearl Harbor bombings led Eisenhower to cancel a planned trip with his wife to visit his son John, who was a cadet at the time.
• Eisenhower commanded the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe from 1943 till the end of WWII.
• He was made the Chief of Staff of the US Army on his return to the US.
• Eisenhower was also the president of Columbia University from 1948-1953.

Previous President: Harry S. Truman | Next President: John Fitzgerald Kennedy

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