Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) is the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961.

He had previously been a five-star general in the United States Army during World War II and served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe; he had responsibility for planning and supervising the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch in 1942–43 and the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45 from the Western Front.

In 1951, he became the first supreme commander of NATO.

iEisenhower is of Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry andis raised in a large family in Kansas by parents with a strong religious background.

He attends and graduates from West Point and later marries and had two sons.

After the Second World War, Eisenhower serves as Army Chief of Staff under President Harry S. Truman, then assumes the post of President at Columbia University.

Eisenhower entersthe 1952 presidential race as a Republican to counter the non-interventionism of Senator Robert A. Taft and to crusade against "Communism, Korea and corruption".

He wins by a landslide, defeating Democrat Adlai Stevenson and ending two decades of the New Deal Coalition.

In the first year of his presidency, Eisenhower deposes the leader of Iran in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état and uses nuclear threats to conclude the Korean War with China.

His New Look policy of nuclear deterrence gives priority to inexpensive nuclear weapons while reducing the funding for conventional military forces; the goal is to keep pressure on the Soviet Union and reduce federal deficits.

In 1954, Eisenhower first articulates the domino theory in his description of the threat presented by the spread of communism.

The Congress agrees to his request in 1955 for the Formosa Resolution, which enables him to prevent Chinese communist aggression against Chinese nationalists and establishes the U.S. policy of defending Taiwan.

When the Soviets launch Sputnik in 1957, he has to play catch-up in the space race.

Eisenhower forces Israel, the UK, and France to end their invasion of Egypt during the Suez Crisis of 1956.

In 1958, he sends 15,000 U.S. troops to Lebanon to prevent the pro-Western government from falling to a Nasser-inspired revolution.

Near the end of his term, his efforts to set up a summit meeting with the Soviets collapse because of the U-2 incident.

On the domestic front, he covertly opposes Senator Joseph McCarthy and contributes to the end of McCarthyism by openly invoking the modern expanded version of executive privilege.

He otherwise leaves most political activity to his Vice President, Richard Nixon.

He is a moderate conservative who continues New Deal agencies and expands Social Security.

Among his enduring innovations, he launches the Interstate Highway System; the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which leads to the internet, among many invaluable outputs; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), driving peaceful discovery in space; the establishment of strong science education via the National Defense Education Act; and encouraging peaceful use of nuclear power via amendments to the Atomic Energy Act.

In social policy, he sends federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, for the first time since Reconstruction to enforce federal court orders to desegregate public schools.

He also signs civil rights legislation in 1957 and 1960 to protect the right to vote.

He implements desegregation of the armed forces in two years and makes five appointments to the Supreme Court.

He is the first term-limited president in accordance with the 22nd Amendment.

Eisenhower's two terms are peaceful ones for the most part and see considerable economic prosperity except for a sharp recession in 1958–59.

Eisenhower is often ranked highly among the U.S. presidents.

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