Dwight D

Dwight D. Eisenhower

In the couple of decades following Dwight Eisenhower’s exit from the White House, historians reflected a general media view of Ike as a leader who brought calm—through his grandfatherly image, his love of golf, and his unwillingness/inability to answer directly questions from the press. With Sherman Adams as his in-control Chief-of-staff and Richard Nixon as his political attack dog, so the argument went, Eisenhower stayed above the fray of partisan and Cold War politics. Most biographers and historians praised Ike’s wartime record and barely recognized his 8 years as president.

Beginning in the1970s, historians began to take a fresh look at the career of Dwight Eisenhower, pouring through his papers at the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, KS. They discovered that the assumption that he was not very political belied the fact, as seen in the Military Chronology below, that the Army officer had to be political in order to rise so high in rank during peace time. They found the “hidden hand presidency,” in which it became clear that it was neither Nixon nor Sherman Adams who was in charge, but rather the old general himself.

Eisenhower and the “New Republicanism”

Although more political at the time than most thought, the president did not like politics or politicians. He made that clear in his diary. On Senator William Knowland (CA): “In his case there seems to be no final answer to the question, ‘How stupid can you get?’” On Nelson Rockefeller: “ … He has a personal ambition that is overwhelming.” (Curiously, however, Eisenhower’s diary is silent on what he really thought about Nixon.) Nonetheless, Eisenhower arrived at the White House with a clear understanding of how he thought the Republican Party needed to reform. He believed the party needed to be more progressive and less reactionary. While Eisenhower did not want to expand the welfare programs of the New Deal, he did not want to abolish them. In contrast to the reactionary Republican wing, but more in line with general opinion in the U.S. at the time, Eisenhower supported Social Security(adding 10 million more eligible Americans to the program), labor laws, and farm programs. He created the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) in 1953. And, he never let up, enlisting Arthur Larson, author of A REPUBLICAN LOOKS AT HIS PARTY (1956) and a thoughtful moderate, to draft many of his speeches. Still, the “New Republicanism” did not capture the leadership or the rank-and-file and Eisenhower failed in his attempt to reform the party. While John F. Kennedy’s victory of Richard Nixon was very close, the Democrats controlled Congress from 1955 into the 1980s.

Eisenhower and the Media

Eisenhower had an easier relationship with the media than did Richard Nixon, but that did not mean that the president liked the media or respected its members or that all in the press held him in high esteem. Eisenhower had cultivated the press during World War II; his winning personality helped. But he believed that the members of the press thought too much of themselves and their importance. We know now that he often confused the press corps with his answers (or non-answers) to their questions in order to ensure as much room for maneuver as possible. The classic case concerned Quemoy and Matsu:

Would the president use atomic bombs to defend the islands? (from attack by Chinese Communist troops)

Eisenhower: Every war is going to astonish you in the way it occurred, and in the way it is carried out. So that for a man to predict, particularly if he has the responsibility for making the decision, to predict what he is going to do it, would I think exhibit his ignorance of the war; that is what I believe.

Even today, historians do not know if Ike was bluffing or not in this and other cases of atomic diplomacy.

Eisenhower’s Response to Sputnik

In October 1957 the Soviets scored an ideological victory in the Cold War when they orbited the first man-made satellite, named Sputnik. President Eisenhower saw the feat for what it was—a publicity stunt—but many did not. The president was able to use the hysteria to promote his plan to reorganize the defense establishment, to create NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), and to increase funds to higher education. These were reasonable policy responses, but Eisenhower did not try very hard to persuade the American people that the threat was minimal. Here, then, the president had a policy success but a leadership failure. (See For Further Reading)

A separate link has some more information on the place of religion in Eisenhower’s private and public life. Eisenhower&Religion

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Eisenhower’s Illnesses

During his presidency, Eisenhower dealt with three major illnesses: 1955: a heart attack; 1956: an operation for ileitis; 1957: a stroke. There has been some controversy among historian’s about Eisenhower’s health, as noted in the book review below. Still, Eisenhower was more forthcoming than any president before him about his illnesses, and certainly more forthcoming than his predecessor, John F. Kennedy.

Copyright © 1998 The Johns Hopkins University Press. All rights reserved.

Bulletin of the History of Medicine 72.1 (1998) 161-162

Eisenhower's Heart Attack: How Ike Beat Heart Disease and Held on to the Presidency

Clarence G. Lasby. Eisenhower's Heart Attack: How Ike Beat Heart Disease and Held on to the Presidency. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1997. xiii + 384 pp. Ill. $29.95.

The abiding plight of those who would write the history of presidential illness is the dearth of accessible medical records. This is not the case with Dwight D. Eisenhower, however: because of his military connection, we have a monumental array of medical information covering most of his adult life--including actual histories, physical examinations, and progress notes on all his known illnesses, supported by hundreds of laboratory reports, electrocardiograms, X rays, and even nurses' notes. His personal physician, Howard Snyder, kept exhaustive progress notes during some of the presidential years. Snyder and Thomas Mattingly, Eisenhower's most trusted cardiac consultant, compiled independent narratives of the medical record after his death, with the unrealized intention of publishing accounts of their famous patient's health.

Eisenhower's presidential years coincided with my training in internal medicine, so the nuances of the records are easily familiar to me. Yet, when I began preparing lectures on Ike's health, the first hurdle was how to deal with such an immense clinical cornucopia. Clarence Lasby's assimilation and condensation of this complex medical material is a remarkable feat. His grasp not only of literal meanings but of clinical subtleties is far beyond impressive. Add his deft interpolation of the political, social, and personality aspects of Eisenhower's story, and it is unimaginable to me that anyone will try to improve on this account.

Eisenhower had two acute illnesses during his first term, and one in his second. In 1955 he suffered the famous heart attack that led to a salutary revision of the public's perception of coronary artery disease. The following year he underwent emergency surgery for intestinal obstruction due to ileitis, and thereby finally learned the nature of an undiagnosed condition that had been his major health nemesis for more than thirty years. Because of these two episodes, he and the public agonized over his capability to serve a second term, which story forms the main thrust of Lasby's book. In 1957 the president had a transient decrease in the blood supply to the speech area of the brain, which had no major sequelae beyond the fear of a major stroke that it engendered in him and his supporters. [End Page 161]

Eisenhower is justly admired as the first president to deal candidly with his illness, but two historians have recently come to a different conclusion. In 1949 and again in 1953 Eisenhower had bouts of serious illness that were unknown to the public until he recounted them after leaving office. Snyder reported both as gastrointestinal events, but Mattingly was convinced that they were heart attacks, and that Snyder, perhaps with his patient's complicity, had deliberately disguised their nature to protect Eisenhower's political future. This conclusion is shared by Robert Ferrell in Ill-Advised: Presidential Health and Public Trust (1992) and somewhat more cautiously by Robert Gilbert in The Mortal Presidency: Illness and Anguish in the White House (1992). Both relied too heavily on Mattingly's estimate. Employing solid medical reasoning and the historian's ultimate tool, common sense, Lasby threads his way through these clinical thickets to what I believe is the correct conclusion: the two attacks were caused by the same intestinal condition that had struck Ike repeatedly over the years.

Still, there was a good deal of deception associated with Eisenhower's health. Although the president made certain that the important aspects of his three major illnesses were known, he soon realized that insignificant details were not always perceived as insignificant in a president, and grew more cautious in what he allowed the public to know. At times he also altered his regimen without his physician's knowledge. The larger deceptions involved those around him. For example, Snyder did not inform his patient that X rays taken a month before the emergency surgery of 1956 had revealed the cause of the mysterious intestinal attacks dating back three decades. He also withheld data from his consultants, revealed things to Mamie without Ike's knowledge, and fudged on laboratory reports because he knew that his patient was obsessed with the numbers. Press secretary Hagerty was not above putting his own spin on medical events, although his sins were distinctly venial by today's standards.

The most egregious cover-up involved the 1955 heart attack. Eisenhower was stricken at the Doud home in Denver in the early hours of 24 September. Snyder issued a deceptive press report, and did not arrange the confirmatory electrocardiogram until after noon. Contrary to prevailing medical practice, he then walked the president down the stairs and out to a car. In response to the ensuing criticism, Snyder revised the notes he had kept during the attack and mounted an elaborate campaign to salvage his reputation. Lasby's analysis here is superb, severely critical but balanced, and without a hint of gratuitous "doctor-bashing." Indeed, he summarizes Snyder's overall care of his patient with praise that would please any physician. And justly so: after a life of heavy stress and many illnesses, Eisenhower's years ran well past the biblical quota.

In addition to its inherent merit, Lasby's achievement will stand as a landmark in the history of medicine generally. Never again can a reasonable case be made for the proposition (mea culpa) that complex clinical chronicles are beyond the reach of nonphysician historians.

Robert P. Hudson
Kansas University Medical Center

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The Miller Center at the University of Virginia is a wonderful source for political history. Go to http://millercenter.virginia.edu/ and note especially the link http://www.whitehousetapes.org/, where you may find audio links of the presidents’ voices. Actors often listen to recordings and watch films and video of historical characters they are portraying in order to understand their characters better.

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Cabinet Members and Other Officials: Eisenhower Administration

Office	Name	Term
Vice President	Richard M. Nixon	19531961
Secretary of State	John Foster Dulles	19531959
	Christian A. Herter	19591961
Secretary of the Treasury	George M. Humphrey	19531957
	Robert B. Anderson	19571961
Secretary of Defense	Charles E. Wilson	19531957
	Neil H. McElroy	19571959
	Thomas S. Gates, Jr.	19591961
Attorney General	Herbert Brownell, Jr.	1953 1958
	William P. Rogers	19581961
Postmaster General	Arthur E. Summerfield	19531961
Secretary of the Interior	Douglas McKay	19531956
	Fred A. Seaton	19561961
Secretary of Agriculture	Ezra Taft Benson	19531961
Secretary of Commerce	Sinclair Weeks	19531958
	Frederick H. Mueller	19591961
Secretary of Labor	Martin P. Durkin	1953
	James P. Mitchell	19531961
Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare	Oveta Culp Hobby	19531955
	Marion B. Folson	19551958
	Arthur S. Flemming	19581961
National Security Advisor	Robert Cutler	19531955
	Dillon Anderson	19551956
	Robert Cutler	19571958
	Gordon Gray	19581961
United Nations Representative	Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.	19531960
	James J. Wadsworth	19601961
Chief of Staff	Sherman Adams	19531958

Source: http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=0139680-00&templatename=/article/article.html

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Dwight D. Eisenhower Library & Museum: http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/

Eisenhower Military Chronology

1911

Eisenhower leaves his hometown, Abilene, Kansas to enter the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.

1914

World War I erupts in Europe.

1915

Eisenhower graduates from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, 61st in a class of 164. In mid-September he reports to the 19th Infantry Regiment at Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

1917

On April 6, the United States declares war on Germany. Eisenhower is promoted to captain and in September he is sent to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia to train officer candidates. In December he is sent to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas to serve as an instructor.

1918

Eisenhower is appointed to his first independent command at Camp Colt, an Army Tank Corps training center in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He receives a temporary promotion to major, and then to lt. colonel on Oct. 14. World War I ends November 11.

1919

Eisenhower is assigned to Camp Meade, Maryland. He volunteers for an Army convoy that spends the summer traveling across the U.S. along the Lincoln Highway (U.S. Highway 30) to study the time it takes to move military equipment from coast to coast.

1920

Eisenhower is returned to the permanent rank of captain in a post-war reduction in rank. In August he is promoted to the rank of major.

1921

Eisenhower graduates from Infantry Tank School and is assigned command of the 301st Tank Battalion.

1922

Eisenhower joins the 20th Infantry Brigade at Camp Gaillard, Panama under General Fox Connor. He receives the Distinguished Service Medal for his work in World War I.

1924

Eisenhower returns to Camp Meade, Maryland to coach football. He is temporarily assigned to Ft. Logan, Colorado as a recruiter.

1925

Eisenhower attends Command and General Staff School, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, graduating first in a class of 275.

1926

Eisenhower serves as executive officer, 24th Infantry, Fort Benning, Georgia and coaches football. In December he reports to Washington, D.C. to work for the Battle Monuments Commission under General Pershing.

1927

Eisenhower writes a battlefield guide to American involvement in World War I. In September Eisenhower enters the Army War College, Fort McNair, Washington, D.C.

1928

Eisenhower graduates from the War College in June. In August he travels to Paris, France, as a member of the Battle Monuments Commission to revise the battlefield guidebook and gain first-hand familiarity with the battlefields of World War I.

1929

In November Eisenhower is assigned to the Office of Assistant Secretary of War to prepare plans for the mobilization of American industry and manpower in case of future war.

1933

Eisenhower becomes General MacArthur's personal assistant in February.

1935

Eisenhower is sent to the Philippines with MacArthur to prepare the Filipino Army for independence.

1936

Eisenhower is promoted to lieutenant colonel with the rest of his West Point class.

1939

Germany invades Poland on September 1 beginning World War II. Eisenhower leaves the Philippines for San Francisco in December.

1940

Eisenhower becomes Chief of Staff of the Third Division at Fort Lewis, Washington and conducts field maneuvers.

1941

Eisenhower is transferred to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, as Chief of Staff, Third Army. He participates in the Louisiana Maneuvers in August and receives a temporary promotion to brigadier general. The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor on December 7 and the United States enters World War II. General Marshall calls Eisenhower to Washington, D.C. to review the Philippines situation and work in the War Department.

1942

Eisenhower is named Assistant Chief of Staff in charge of War Plans. He receives a temporary promotion to major general in March and is named Assistant Chief of Staff of the New Operations Division. Eisenhower arrives in London in May to study joint defense and is appointed Commander of the European Theatre of Operations on June 15. He receives a temporary promotion to lieutenant general in July. On November 8 Eisenhower commands the Allied invasion of North Africa.

1943

Eisenhower is promoted to temporary rank of full general in February. He completes the invasion of North Africa in May and directs the invasion of Sicily in July and August. Eisenhower receives permanent promotion to brigadier general and major general on August 30. Eisenhower commands the invasion of Italy in September and attends the Cairo Conference in November. In December Eisenhower is appointed Supreme Commander of Allied Expeditionary Forces to command Operation Overlord, the invasion of Europe.

1944

Eisenhower arrives in London in January to set up Supreme Headquarters. He directs the invasion of Normandy on June 6, D-day. On December 20 Eisenhower is promoted to General of the Army and receives his fifth star.

1945

Eisenhower accepts Germany's unconditional surrender on May 7 and is appointed commander of the United States occupation zone in Germany. In November Eisenhower returns to the United States to become Chief of Staff, United States Army.

1948

Eisenhower retires from active service in February and writes Crusade in Europe. While serving as President of Columbia University, in December, Eisenhower begins three months service as a military consultant to the first Secretary of Defense, James Forrestal.

1949

In an informal capacity, Eisenhower serves as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under the newly created defense department.

1950

The Korean War begins on June 25. On December 18, at the request of President Truman and the 12 NATO nations, Eisenhower accepts the position of Supreme Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

1951

In January Eisenhower leaves for NATO headquarters in Paris.

1952

Eisenhower resigns as Supreme Commander in June to return to the United States to campaign for the presidency. After the election, Eisenhower visits Korea. He resigns his commission as General of the Army to assume the presidency.

1961

On completion of his second term, Congress re-instates his five-star rank.

1969

Eisenhower dies March 28 and is buried with full military honors in Abilene, Kansas.

From: http://www.nps.gov/eise/chrono1.htm

Eisenhower appeared on 18 covers of TIME MAGAZINE between 1942 and 1994. Click the images below for larger ones.

Eisenhower Presidential Chronology

1952

Nov. 4 Eisenhower defeats Adlai Stevenson in presidential election. First Republican president in 20 years.

1953

Jan. 20 Eisenhower and Nixon inaugurated.

Apr. 11 Department of Health, Education and Welfare established.

July 26 U.S. and North Korea sign armistice to end Korean War.

Aug. 19-22 Leftist government of Premier Mossadegh in Iran ousted with help from CIA.

Oct. 5 California Governor Earl Warren, Eisenhower's Supreme Court appointee, takes oath as Chief Justice.

Dec. 8 Eisenhower delivers his "Atoms for Peace" speech at United Nations proposing a world wide development of atomic energy.

1954

Apr. 7 Fearing spread of Communism in Southeast Asia, Eisenhower introduces the Domino Theory.

Apr. 22-June 17 Army-McCarthy Senate hearings in the U.S. Senate are televised. Americans dislike Joe McCarthy's methods and his power wanes.

May 13 Saint Lawrence Seaway Act signed between United States and Canada.

May 17 The Supreme Court rules that segregated schools are illegal in Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka.

June 29 CIA sponsored coup overthrows elected government in Guatemala.

1955

Jan. 28 Congress gives president the power to use U.S. forces to defend Formosa Straits from Communist attacks.

Sept. 24 Eisenhower suffers first heart attack.

1956

June 29 Eisenhower signs Federal Highway Bill authorizing construction of interstate highway system.

Oct.-Nov. Suez Crisis. Egyptian leader Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal. Israel, Great Britain and France invade Egypt. Eisenhower opposes the invasion and brokers a cease-fire.

Oct.-Nov. Soviet forces crush the Hungarian Revolt.

Nov. 6 Eisenhower and Nixon defeat Stevenson and Kefauver by nine million votes in presidential election.

1957

Mar. 9 Eisenhower Doctrine established to resist Communist aggression in the Middle East.

Sept. 9 Eisenhower and Lyndon Johnson push through Congress the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first civil rights legislation in 82 years.

Sept. 24 Eisenhower sends troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to enforce school desegregation.

Oct. 4 Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the world's first satellite.

1958

July 15 Eisenhower sends U.S. Marines into Lebanon at request of Lebanese government.

July 29 Eisenhower signs bill establishing NASA.

Nov. Soviet Premier Khrushchev threatens war unless western powers withdraw troops from West Berlin.

1959

Jan. 3 Eisenhower signs bill admitting Alaska as the 49th state.

Aug. 21 Eisenhower signs bill admitting Hawaii as the 50th state.

Sept.15-27 Soviet Premier Khrushchev visits the U.S. and meets with Eisenhower at Camp David.

Dec. Eisenhower travels on a goodwill mission to 19 nations in the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and Asia.

1960

Jan. 18 Eisenhower balances the federal budget for the third time in eight years.

May 1 U-2 spy plane shot down over Soviet Union. Pilot Francis Gary Powers is captured. U.S. - Soviet relations deteriorate.

May 16 Khrushchev walks out of Paris summit.

Nov. 8 John F. Kennedy defeats Vice President Richard Nixon in the presidential election.

1961

Jan. 3 Eisenhower breaks off diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Jan. 17 In his Farewell Address to the nation, Eisenhower warns of the Military-Industrial Complex.

Jan. 20 John Kennedy inaugurated 35th president. Eisenhower retires to his Gettysburg farm.

From: http://www.nps.gov/eise/chrono2.htm

Historians have focused mostly on Eisenhower’s military career and his presidency, seemingly skipping from the end of World War II to 1952. The following review of two recent books suggest that enquiry into the years 1945-1952 can help historians understand Eisenhower’s presidency in a new light.

Eisenhower Between the end of WW II and 1952:

Journal of American History 89(September 2002)2

Eisenhower Decides to Run: Presidential Politics and Cold War Strategy. By William B. Pickett. (Chicago: Dee, 2000. xviii, 269 pp. $27.50, ISBN 1-56663-325-7.)

Eisenhower at Columbia. By Travis Beal Jacobs. (New Brunswick: Transaction, 2001. xxii, 354 pp. $39.95, ISBN 0-7658-0036-5.)

Despite a voluminous body of literature on Dwight D. Eisenhower's command of Allied forces during World War II and subsequent presidency, the years of his life between the end of the war in 1945 and his election to the presidency in 1952 have received little attention—even from Eisenhower's biographers. During these years, as the Cold War gathered steam, Eisenhower continued to play a prominent role in public life. He served as chief of staff of the army, president of Columbia University, acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Supreme Allied Commander in Europe (SACEUR) of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He was also one of the country's most popular, and most closely followed, political figures. His notoriety attracted considerable media attention; virtually every public utterance of the wartime hero was considered newsworthy.

William B. Pickett and Travis Beal Jacobs reexamine this period of Eisenhower's life and challenge long-standing interpretations in the historiography. Pickett revisits Eisenhower's decision to campaign for the U.S. presidency. According to conventional wisdom, Eisenhower did not seek the office; it sought him. Pickett thoroughly debunks this notion that Eisenhower was "drafted"—or compelled by popular demand against his wishes—to run for the presidency. He persuasively demonstrates that as early as 1943 Eisenhower was "deeply involved in promoting his presidential fortunes."

Eisenhower recognized that the best way to win the presidency was to appear as if he were not seeking the office. In the fall of 1947, for example, Eisenhower wrote a fascinating letter to his wartime associate Walter Bedell Smith, then serving as U.S. ambassador to Moscow, referring to the history of presidential drafts. Eisenhower commented that such drafts, "at least since Washington's time, have been carefully nurtured, with the full, even though under cover, support of the 'victim.'" Eisenhower coyly refused to admit in the letter that this was the strategy he was pursuing, but at the same time he betrayed more than a passing interest in the office. Expressing his disenchantment with current trends in American politics and foreign policy, Eisenhower admitted to Smith that, under the right conditions, he would accept a nomination as a presidential candidate. Pickett shows that in the ensuing years Eisenhower worked quietly behind the scenes actively to court the Republican partisans who promoted his candidacy. Despite Eisenhower's Machiavellian promotion of his political fortunes, Pickett concludes that he felt compelled to run for the presidency because of his remarkable sense of patriotic duty and his passionate conviction that the Cold War demanded his leadership and expertise.

Pickett's comprehensive study makes a valuable contribution to the literature on Eisenhower, American politics, and the early Cold War. The study extends well beyond the events surrounding Eisenhower's decision to run for the presidency to explore broader developments in the history of American politics and foreign policy from 1946 to 1952. The resulting account is arguably the most thorough and comprehensive treatment of these years of Eisenhower's life. It is also an insightful history of American politics during the early Cold War that should interest a wide audience.

Travis Beal Jacobs's study of Eisenhower's tenure as president of Columbia University also challenges the existing historiography. Most historians have assessed Eisenhower's years at Columbia critically, suggesting that his decision to accept the position as president of the university was a mistake for Eisenhower and a disaster for Columbia. According to Jacobs, however, Columbia owes its vaunted reputation as a premier institution—at least in part—to Eisenhower and the prestige he brought to the university. Jacobs concludes that Eisenhower "had a dramatic impact on Columbia, and his appointment was a publicity coup for the University. . . . Eisenhower brought Columbia's name to people who had not known what or where Columbia was."

The overall picture that emerges from Jacobs's narrative, however, supports the assessments of the historians he seeks to revise. Whatever the public relations benefits of Eisenhower's tenure at Columbia, he was clearly an uninterested and detached university president. Eisenhower viewed the position primarily as an opportunity for semiretirement—a chance to write his memoirs, give an occasional speech, and indulge in painting, yachting, and golfing. He disliked the job; he avoided administration; he dodged fund raisers; and he alienated the faculty. The one area in which Eisenhower exerted any leadership was to promote the teaching of American citizenship as a premier goal of the university. This view was opposed by the faculty who believed, as one professor commented, they "were not there to propagandize the American way of life."

In numerous cases, Jacobs provides his readers with tantalizing references to Eisenhower's views on domestic politics and the emerging Cold War with the Soviet Union. These references (together with Pickett's book) suggest that Eisenhower was as involved in foreign policy and domestic politics as he was in Columbia University's administration, if not more so. Jacobs, however, mentions these issues only in passing. He thus skims over a central component of Eisenhower's public life during this period. The book is narrowly focused—one might say too narrowly focused—on Eisenhower's relationship with Columbia University. The narrative provides a blow-by-blow account of Eisenhower's tenure as university president that is exceedingly detailed on the mundane matters of university business. While this narrative may prove useful to Eisenhower's biographers and readers interested in Columbia University, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that Jacobs missed an opportunity to address a broader audience and to demonstrate the larger significance of his study.

Kenneth A. Osgood

Florida Atlantic University

Boca Raton, Florida

There is in the Eisenhower-Nixon relationship a clear contrast—physical, personal—that underscores, perhaps, the tension between the two. By many accounts, Nixon—despite his brilliance and energy and willingness to serve the party—was simply not a likable person. Eisenhower, by contrast, exuded just the opposite.

From William L. O’Neill, American High: The Years of Confidence, 1945-1960 (1986) (pp. 176-177) (emphasis added):

“ … The most accessible of public men, he [Eisenhower] was on this subject [running for President] the most delphic too, which made for a certain suspense. Eisenhower was in this enviable position not just because of his immense military reputation—others: Marshall, MacArthur, Bradley, were nearly, or equally, as celebrated—but on account of its being joined to a uniquely attractive personality. His friendliness had made Eisenhower a favorite with reporters from his first days as commander of American forces in Europe. Eisenhower was good-looking too. Not conventionally handsome—he was a far cry from Clark Gable or even Gary Cooper, screen idols of the day—he radiated sincerity and conviction, and the camera loved him. Ike’s brilliant, boyish grin was as familiar to the public as that of Jimmy Stewart. Like these actors, Ike owed his popularity to the mass media. There, however, the resemblance ended. He was a leader of huge capacity; and the public, if overly impressed by appearances, did not err in wanting him for President.”

From: http://www.dwightdeisenhower.com/photoalbum.html

1952 Campaign

68-91-6

1956 Campaign

72-1638-4

President and Mamie Eisenhower

From: http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/pers-us/uspers-e/d-eisnhr.htm:

President Eisenhower and Admiral Burke, USS Saratoga, 1957

President Eisenhower practicing golf while enroute to Bermuda for a conference, 1957

Eisenhower and Golf

http://www.beauproductions.com/golfswingsws/ike/main.htm

President Eisenhower started golfing at age 37 and played over 800 rounds while president to escape the pressures of the job. A 14-18 handicap, a playable slice, and impatience on the green marked Ike’s golf game. He broke 80 only three times in his life.

The following document is an example of the kinds of material historians analyzed in order to rethink the Eisenhower presidency. This document shows Eisenhower focused on (and understanding of) the importance of “party politics.”

Document #530; November 7, 1953
To Leonard Wood Hall
Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series ; Category: Memorandum. Personal and confidential

The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIV - The Presidency: The Middle Way
Part III: The Space Age Begins; October 1957 to January 1958
Chapter 7: Beef and Budgets

I have just been visited by Murray Chotiner of California. He was the campaign manager for Mr. Nixon when he ran for the Senate, and was Nixon's political adviser during last year's campaign.¹ He came to me to describe the political situation in California.² In general the complaints expressed were along the lines we have heard before: slowness in making "changes"; slowness and clumsiness in handling patronage matters; lack of proper presentation to the public by the Republican National Committee of the Administration's accomplishments and actions; generally poor public relations.³

Mr. Chotiner seems to be a very observant and energetic young man, and undoubtedly there is much truth in what he has to report. I did suggest to him that I should like to see such complaints reduced to specific and concrete form, and documented. For example, if a Congressman in a district believes that there has not been sufficient change in personnel, then that Congressman should obtain from his district and county chairman a bill of particulars.

This bill of particulars, I think, should show (a) all the information obtainable about the man now occupying the position, (b) whether or not it is a civil service position, (c) whether the man was a political appointee. In certain cases there should also be shown the man now recommended by the appropriate Senator and Congressman for the position.

We had quite a talk along this general line. As a result, it occurs to me to ask you what has been done by the Republican National Committee in getting these complaints reduced to concrete issues and instances. I am certain that "rumblings" and general complaints can never of themselves get desired results. We have to know exactly what the complaint is and the recommendation for curing it. After this, we have to know that the law authorizes the change, and we have to know that we are getting the kind of upright citizen that we are seeking in public positions, and that he is generally capable of executing effectively policies laid down by the Administration. I will not be made a party directly or indirectly to any scheme for destroying the career civil service, but this matter is not involved in any way in what I am now talking about.⁴

As I have told you many times, I completely agree with the theory that a political party that is in control of the Federal government has the right--even the duty--of placing in all positions that are not clearly of the career civil service type, individuals of its own choosing. The only condition I have placed upon making necessary changes is that our own man be one of the finest type available. He must have real capability for the job in question and a splendid reputation in his locality. When these conditions are satisfied, we are quite ready and anxious to make the change.

This is clearly understood here in Washington, so it seems to me that the failure to get some corrective action is not traceable to Washington, but to party machinery and political leaders who indulge merely in generalizations instead of providing recommendations or plans upon which action can be taken.

As for public relations, I certainly am presenting no brief in defense of this phase of the Administration's accomplishments. However, I think that we are justified in assuming that the Republican National Committee must be in a very definite sense the "selling" organization for the Administration and the entire Party. So the next time I see you, will you give me an outline of what assistance you have in this regard? I do not mean merely your office organization for working up necessary pamphlets and other literature; I refer more particularly to the kind of consultant service that may be available to you, as well as the kind of help you have in obtaining real samplings of public opinion. I suppose that your state organizations keep in close touch with you, but some of these are probably not particularly energetic or too enthusiastic about the Administration's program.

In this regard I do believe that it would be well for you, as the National Chairman, to take the Administration program in all its phases, as it has been developed and announced, and place this before your committeemen and women as the Administrations's "Bible." In this way you could uncover those who are not going to support you fully and energetically. It would be far better, I should think, to know just where you stand in this regard than to be indecisive in the matter. It seems to me clear that you will have the vast majority of all Republican individuals right squarely in your corner; they will fight all the harder and persistently if they see you taking a really firm stand in support of the things in which we commonly believe. I think that in your position temporizing with such basic things as political doctrine, loyalty and enthusiasm would be fatal.

You may already have given detailed thought to these matters; if so, just throw this note away. This rambling memorandum is not intended to be particularly logical or coherent. It is written merely as a result of my talk this morning with Mr. Chotiner.⁵

P.S. As I have suggested to you before, I hope you can find time at least once a week to drop in to see me. In this way possibly I can remember the things I want to tell you instead of bothering you with long memoranda.⁶

¹ Murray M. Chotiner, a southern California criminal attorney, had earlier handled Earl Warren's gubernatorial campaign and William Knowland's senatorial campaigns. During the 1952 presidential race, when reports of a political trust fund threatened Richard Nixon's position on the Republican ticket, Chotiner had suggested a direct accounting to the American people. The result was Nixon's "Checkers" speech (see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, nos. 937 and 940; Ambrose, Eisenhower, vol. II, The President, p. 275; and Nixon, Six Crises, pp. 85-96).

² Chotiner's visit was probably precipitated by Republican concerns about the upcoming congressional election in California. Longtime Congressman Norris Poulson had resigned in July to become Mayor of Los Angeles (New York Times, Oct. 25, 1953). The race that fall would be the third to fill former Republican seats in the House, and the Democrats had won the first two (in Wisconsin and New Jersey). These off-year elections were perceived as both a barometer of the electoral strength of the Administration and a dress rehearsal for the 1954 congressional races. The California race attracted additional attention because the Republicans' majority in the House was so slim; a Democratic victory would give them 216 seats, versus the Republicans' 218. The Democrats already had an edge of 48 to 47 in the Senate (ibid., Oct. 15, 1953). As it turned out, Republican State Assemblyman Glenard L. Lipscomb (who, like Chotiner, had assisted in Nixon's 1952 campaign) would win, polling 51 percent of the vote (ibid., Nov. 5, 11, 1953).

³ Earlier Eisenhower had received similar complaints in a public opinion poll of Californians. The poll indicated dissatisfaction with the Administration's communications abilities, citing "publicity, generally, very poor and public relations almost totally lacking" (see no. 439). For Eisenhower's own recent concerns about the Republican National Committee and public relations see no. 482.

⁴ Throughout the year, Eisenhower had endured barbs from Republicans because of his apparent disdain for patronage (see nos. 235, 317, and 357). Eisenhower had commented at a November 4 news conference on the "sanctity" of the civil service system: "What is going on in the localities is a rather difficult, a rather tortuous job of getting in between and protecting the civil service and getting rid of people that are trying to use civil service jobs for politics" (Public Papers of the Presidents: Eisenhower, 1953, pp. 743-44).

⁵ Hall would respond on November 10 with his own analysis of a telephone survey on gubernatorial races the Republicans had just lost in Virginia and New Jersey, the recent congressional defeats in New Jersey and Wisconsin, and various municipal contests. Citing specific factors ranging from scandals that harmed Republican gubernatorial chances in New Jersey to "Republican failure to name a person of Polish extraction for mayor of Buffalo," Hall would emphasize neither the role of patronage nor that of the Republican National Committee, except in the Wisconsin congressional race, where he said that "general dissatisfaction with economic and political conditions" dictated defeat "despite excellent GOP organizational work." Summarizing, Hall would note "a general feeling that the Republican Party nationally had not delivered on its promises . . . the GOP program had not been sold to the people." For developments on public relations see no. 555.

⁶ Eisenhower's ability to remember would receive a boost: on this day equipment was installed in the White House for recording presidential conversations (memorandum, Nov. 7, 1953, AWF/AWD).

Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. Memorandum. Personal and confidential To Leonard Wood Hall, 7 November 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 530. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/530.cfm

An excerpt from an “Eisenhower revisionist”:

Cornelius P. Cotter, “Eisenhower as Party Leader,” Political Science Quarterly Vol. 98, No. 2 (Summer, 1983), pp. 255-283.

“Eisenhower spent a professional lifetime immersed in military politics and a decade rising from tutelage to mastery in the politics of nations before seeking the American presidency. But he lacked a record of party involvement when he deprived ‘Mr. Republican’ Robert A. Taft of the nomination [in 1952]. And he proceeded to win the election in a campaign which relied heavily on anti-organization ‘amateurs’ and the ‘new politics’ of media and advertising.

“His White House staff observed that the president played the party leadership role with some reluctance. Sherman Adams comments on Eisenhower’s ‘distaste for partisan politics,’ as reflected in the ‘lack of any firm or militant command over the Republican party. He preferred to leave the operation of the political machinery to the professionals.’ …

“The record reveals [however] that as president, Eisenhower exerted considerable influence over the Republican party and pursued a well-informed and sustained program to strengthen it. Arguably, he was the most constructive and consistent intervener n party organizational matters of any president after Franklin D. Roosevelt. ….” [from p. 255, 256]

See also Fred Greenstein, The Hidden-Hand Presidency (New York: Basic Books, 1982).