Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Official portrait, 1959
34th President of the United States
In office January 20, 1953 – January 20, 1961
Vice President	Richard Nixon
Preceded by	Harry S. Truman
Succeeded by	John F. Kennedy
1st Supreme Allied Commander Europe
In office April 2, 1951 – May 30, 1952
President	Harry S. Truman
Deputy	Bernard Montgomery
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Matthew Ridgway
16th Chief of Staff of the Army
In office November 19, 1945 – February 6, 1948
President	Harry S. Truman
Deputy	J. Lawton Collins
Preceded by	George C. Marshall
Succeeded by	Omar Bradley
Military Governor of the U.S. Occupation Zone in Germany
In office May 8, 1945 – November 10, 1945
President	Harry S. Truman
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	George S. Patton (acting)
13th President of Columbia University
In office June 7, 1948 – January 19, 1953
Preceded by	Frank D. Fackenthal (acting)
Succeeded by	Grayson L. Kirk
Born	14 October 1890(1890-10-14) Denison, Texas, U.S.
Died	28 March 1969 (aged 78) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Resting place	Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home
Political party	Republican (1952–1969)
Spouse(s)	∞ 1 July 1916 Mary Geneva "Mamie" Doud
Children	Doud Dwight (24 September 1917 – 2 January 1921) John Sheldon Doud (3 August 1922 – 21 December 2013)
Occupation	Military officer politician
Military service
Nickname(s)	"Ike"
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1915–1953 1961–1969
Rank	General of the Army
Battles/wars	Pancho Villa Expedition World War I World War II
Awards	Army Distinguished Service Medal (5) Navy Distinguished Service Medal Legion of Merit

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (14 October 1890 – 28 March 1969), born David Dwight Eisenhower, was a US-American officer and politician. He was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in (Western) Europe during WWII, postwar military governor in occupied Germany, and President of the United States between 1953 and 1961.

Life

Born in Texas in 1890, brought up in Abilene, Kansas, Eisenhower was the third of seven sons. He excelled in sports in high school, and received an appointment to West Point. Stationed in Texas as a second lieutenant, he met Mamie Geneva Doud, whom he married in 1916. In his early Army career, he excelled in staff assignments, serving under Generals John J. Pershing, Douglas MacArthur, and Walter Krueger. After Pearl Harbor, General George C. Marshall called him to Washington for a war plans assignment. He commanded the Allied Forces landing in North Africa in November 1942; on D-Day, 1944, he was Supreme Commander of the troops invading France. After the war, he became President of Columbia University, then took leave to assume supreme command over the new NATO forces being assembled in 1951. Republican emissaries to his headquarters near Paris persuaded him to run for President in 1952. “I like Ike” was an irresistible slogan; Eisenhower won a sweeping victory. Negotiating from military strength, he tried to reduce the strains of the Cold War. In 1953, the signing of a truce brought an armed peace along the border of South Korea. The death of Stalin the same year caused shifts in relations with Russia. New Russian leaders consented to a peace treaty neutralizing Austria. Meanwhile, both Russia and the United States had developed hydrogen bombs. With the threat of such destructive force hanging over the world, Eisenhower, with the leaders of the British, French, and Russian governments, met at Geneva in July 1955. The President proposed that the United States and Russia exchange blueprints of each other’s military establishments and “provide within our countries facilities for aerial photography to the other country.” The Russians greeted the proposal with silence, but were so cordial throughout the meetings that tensions relaxed. Suddenly, in September 1955, Eisenhower suffered a heart attack in Denver, Colorado. After seven weeks he left the hospital, and in February 1956 doctors reported his recovery. In November he was elected for his second term. In domestic policy the President pursued a middle course, continuing most of the New Deal and Fair Deal programs, emphasizing a balanced budget. As desegregation of schools began, he sent troops into Little Rock, Arkansas, to assure compliance with the orders of a Federal court; he also ordered the complete desegregation of the Armed Forces. “There must be no second class citizens in this country,” he wrote. Eisenhower concentrated on maintaining world peace. He watched with pleasure the development of his “atoms for peace” program–the loan of American uranium to “have not” nations for peaceful purposes. Before he left office in January 1961, for his farm in Gettysburg, he urged the necessity of maintaining an adequate military strength, but cautioned that vast, long-continued military expenditures could breed potential dangers to our way of life. He concluded with a prayer for peace “in the goodness of time.” Both themes remained timely and urgent when he died, after a long illness, on March 28, 1969.

Debated partial Jewish ancestry and Jewish connections

Eisenhower has been argued to have had partial Jewish ancestry, which would explain some of his views and actions.

Others have argued that the evidence mostly supports that Eisenhower did not have Jewish ancestry, instead belonging to the German Texan family of "Eisenhauer". Therefore, the family of Dwight D. Eisenhower and his wife, Mamie, consists predominantly of German and Pennsylvania Dutch (Pennsylvania Germans) background. They are related by marriage to the family of Richard Nixon, who was Eisenhower's vice-president, and was later the 37th president of the United States.

The reasons for Eisenhower's actions have instead been argued to be a Christian Zionist upbringing and a long-term relationship with the powerful Jewish Zionist Bernard Baruch. Baruch is stated to have used his power to elevate Eisenhower to the position of Supreme Allied Commander in Europe over many better qualified men.

The Holocaust and the treatment of Germans during and after the war

"Eisenhower hated Germans, he told his wife Mamie in a letter in September 1944. Why? "Because the German is a beast." In front of the British ambassador to Washington, in August, he said that all the 3,500 or so officers of the German General Staff should be "exterminated." He would include for liquidation all leaders of the Nazi party from mayors on up, plus all members of the Gestapo. This would total about 100,000 people."

During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in (Western) Europe. After the war, he was military governor in occupied Germany. He has been accused of having a responsibility for the mass deaths of German POWs and civilians, during and after the war. See Rheinwiesenlager and Claimed mass killings of Germans by the WWII Allies.

The Jewish Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. claimed that it was actually Eisenhower who instilled in him the idea of extremely harsh postwar treatment of Germans, the Morgenthau Plan, although Eisenhower would later deny this, or plead loss of memory. In November 1945, when Eisenhower was the Military Governor of the U.S. Occupation Zone, he approved the distribution of 1000 free copies of a book by Morgenthau on the plan to American military officials in occupied Germany. Historian Stephen Ambrose draws the conclusion that, despite Eisenhower's later claims that the act was not an endorsement of the Morgenthau plan, Eisenhower both approved of the plan and had previously given Morgenthau at least some of his ideas on how Germany should be treated.

Eisenhower has also been argued to have had a responsibility for the mass deaths of non-German and German prisoners in the Western Holocaust camps at the end of the war. As such, he would have had a strong personal self-interest in blaming such deaths on the Germans.

As Supreme Commander and Military Governor, he would also have had a responsibility for the Allied psychological warfare and Holocaust propaganda that has been argued to have been fabricated by, for example, Allied "Psychological Warfare" units in the Western Holocaust camps. See the article on these camps.

Eisenhower and others, including George S. Patton, inspect an improvised crematory pyre at the Ohrdruf concentration camp, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp, one of the Western Holocaust camps. Wikipedia displays the photo in articles such as "Nazi concentration camps" and "Holocaust denial", possibly as supposed evidence against Holocaust revisionism. Regarding this, see the article on the Western Holocaust camps.

See Western Holocaust camps: Buchenwald on statements made by Eisenhower on visiting Buchenwald and organizing pro-Allied propaganda involving the camp.

The three Allied leaders Eisenhower, Churchill, and de Gaulle wrote very extensive works describing their memories of World War II. "In this mass of writing, which altogether totals 7,061 pages (not including the introductory parts), published from 1948 to 1959, one will find no mention either of Nazi "gas chambers," a "genocide" of the Jews, or of "six million" Jewish victims of the war."

Death of General George S. Patton

General George S. Patton died in December 1945 (at the start of the International Military Tribunal), allegedly after having suffered injuries in an accidental car crash. A 2008 book presented detailed evidence for that Patton had been killed in order to silence him. One example of this evidence is a confession by the argued assassin. The author argued that Eisenhower would not have become president if Patton had lived to say the things he wanted to say.

Participation in coups

The Eisenhower administration participated in coups in 1953 and 1954, which overthrew elected governments in Iran and Guatemala. In Iran, the pro-Israel Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi became an autocratic ruler. In Guatemala, the coup has been argued to be one factor leading to the long Guatemalan Civil War. The coups have also been seen as contributing to long-lasting resentment against the United States in Iran and Latin America.

Judicial appointments

Supreme Court

Eisenhower appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:

• Earl Warren, 1953 (Chief Justice)
• John Marshall Harlan II, 1954
• William J. Brennan, 1956
• Charles Evans Whittaker, 1957
• Potter Stewart, 1958

States admitted to the Union

Two states were admitted to the Union during Eisenhower's presidency.

• Alaska – January 3, 1959 (49th state)
• Hawaii – August 21, 1959 (50th state)

Promotions

• Cadet, United States Military Academy: June 14, 1911
• Second Lieutenant, Regular Army: June 12, 1915
• First Lieutenant, Regular Army: July 1, 1916
• Captain, Regular Army: May 15, 1917
• Major, National Army: June 17, 1918
• Lieutenant Colonel, National Army: October 20, 1918
• Captain, Regular Army: June 30, 1920 (Reverted to permanent rank.)
• Major, Regular Army: July 2, 1920
• Captain, Regular Army: November 4, 1922 (Discharged as major and appointed as captain due to reduction of Army.)
• Major, Regular Army: August 26, 1924
• Lieutenant Colonel, Regular Army: July 1, 1936
• Colonel, Army of the United States: March 6, 1941
• Brigadier General, Army of the United States: September 29, 1941
• Major General, Army of the United States: March 27, 1942
• Lieutenant General, Army of the United States: July 7, 1942
• General, Army of the United States: February 11, 1943
• Brigadier General, Regular Army: August 30, 1943
• Major General, Regular Army: August 30, 1943
• General of the Army, Army of the United States: December 20, 1944
• General of the Army, Regular Army: April 11, 1946

See also

• Rheinwiesenlager
• Morgenthau Plan
• Claimed mass killings of Germans by the WWII Allies