FREE READER ✓ DOC Eisenhower 9780671747589 ´ STEPHEN E AMBROSE

BOOK Eisenhower

FREE READER ✓ DOC Eisenhower 9780671747589 ´ STEPHEN E. AMBROSE Â Stephen E Ambrose draws upon extensive sources an unprecedented degree of scholarship and numerous interviews with Eisenhower himself to offer the fullest richest most objective rendering yet of the soldier who became president He gives Ll Mamie his son John and Kay Summersby as well as Franklin D Roosevelt Winston Churchill Charles de Gaulle Harry Truman Nixon Dulles Khrushchev Joe McCarthy and indeed all the American and world leaders of his time This superb interpretation of Eisenhower's life confirms Stephen Ambrose's position as one of our finest historians This book was interesting and informative I learned about the man who was President the era before my birthDwight Eisenhower “Ike” was born on October 14 1890 in Denison Texas His family moved to Abilene Kansas in 1891 when a relative found his father a mechanic position at the Belle County Creamery His parents ultimately had six boys and Dwight was the third oldest His family was generally poor Religion was important to his father as he believed in hard work and the strong sense of community Ike did well in school and loved military history He also enjoyed sports especially football and baseball and it was in playing these sports that he learned about leadership and being an organizer He organized hunting and camping trips He organized the Abilene High School Athletic Association In High School he injured his knee and when it became infected the doctors wanted to amputate it As Ike kept falling in and out of consciousness he asked his older brother Edgar to stay at his bedside to make certain that the doctors would not amputate his leg By the second week the poison and fever left Ike’s body and he began to recover completelyIn September 1910 Ike took an exam to enter the Naval Academy where he hoped to play football His test results were not good enough for him to enter the Naval Academy but they were good enough for him to go to West Point Sports remained the center of his life until he twisted his knee The cartilages and tendons were badly torn He suffered from severe depression in learning that he would never be able to play football again His football coach suggested he coach junior varsity and he agreed and did it well He graduated from West Point in June 1915 and he set off for his first assignment at Fort Sam Houston Texas It was there that he met Mary Geneva Doud nicknamed “Maime” and they fell in love They were married in spring 1916 Their first son Icky died while he was three years old from Scarlet Fever Their second son John was born on August 3 1922During Eisenhower’s career as a soldier and later a general Eisenhower was often separated from his wife He had a wonderful relationship with his secretary Kate Summersby and it was often was speculated that their relationship was than a friendship and good working relationship However they were never alone and it was obvious that Ike loved his wife Mamie very much His love for Mamie remained strong in love letters he wrote to her During the WWII General Eisenhower became uite popular He was a good leader and made good decisions and for the most part got along well with others He was an excellent public speaker and became recognized as a principal speaker of the War Department Although he never took classes in public speaking he was natural and sincere and his listeners admired him When the war was finally over Ike was looking forward to spending time with Mamie Eisenhower was urged by his friends and politicians to run for the Presidency He took the job as President of Columbia University hoping that while administrating the University it might remove his name from political speculation Then on June 25 1950 the North Koreans invaded South Korea and President Truman sent in the military to help defend South Korea Truman offered Eisenhower the position to command the NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s military operations and live and work at NATO’s headuarters in Paris Eisenhower looked forward to helping with war efforts and took the job However still friends and politicians continued to urge him to run for President They said that Americans needed his strong leadership Finally he agreed that he would run and decided that if he was going to do this he was going to give it his best fight to winIn running for President for the Republican Party he chose Richard Nixon as his running mate even though he did not know him well At thirty nine years old Nixon was young enough to be a son of Eisenhower as Eisenhower was sixty two years of age before the election of 1952 Nixon proved to be power hungry and Eisenhower often had to show him who was the boss because Nixon would overstep his boundaries The public liked Eisenhower and Richard Nixon and they won the election Dwight Eisenhower became the 34th President of the United States During his Presidency Eisenhower met with the press regularly to reach out to Americans He felt it was important to communicate to the public He had a good relationship with reporters Sometimes he would play golf with some of them Sometimes however they would attack his politics but Eisenhower would get upset as if they were attacking him personally He would be vague in his responses if he purposely wanted to confuse issues that he did not have an answer to If on the other hand he were clear on his response he would use the media to educate and inform the public Eisenhower did not want any Americans dying in Korea Thousands of men were killed or wounded and Eisenhower wanted to put a stop to the fighting Six months after Eisenhower became President of the United States he ended the war in Korea This was perhaps one of Eisenhower’s greatest achievements during his time in office In the 1950s tensions were high regarding nuclear war Memories of the attack on Pearl Harbor frightened people knowing that H bombs could destroy an entire city Eisenhower wanted to come up with a disarmament policy of nuclear weapons as he felt that the H bomb could cause horrific death and damage He proposed using atomic power for peaceful activities He proposed “Atoms for Peace” However at this time there was no response No one could foresee the opportunities for peaceful uses of atomic power Eisenhower proposed that the Americans and Russians open their air space to each other This would make it impossible for either party to proceed with an undetected nuclear attack Eisenhower was going to use technology to take high altitude photos of the Soviet Union Satellites were in the process of being developed However the Soviets launched the first man made satellite into space in October 1957 They named their satellite Sputnik which meant “traveling companion”Eisenhower flew to Geneva to discuss his open space policy with Russian leaders The proposal was called “Open Skies” However the Russians were not agreeable Although at this Geneva Summit Eisenhower did not obtain the results he had hoped for it was a strong achievement for the Cold War between the two countries Prior to the Geneva Summit the fear of nuclear was as constant Things were calmer after the Summit perhaps due to a mutual respect between the two parties after their leaders had metIn September 1955 Eisenhower suffered a heart attack Maime was worried and upset To help ease some tension she decided to respond personally to the thousands of letters of concern sent to her husbandEisenhower was not interested in running again for a second term of the Presidency in 1956 He was planning his retirement However Maime and others felt that Eisenhower would be better off mentally and physically to continue working They could not envision him being inactive Eisenhower said that if the doctors felt him well enough he would run The doctors did and his advisors and friends encouraged him to “dump Nixon” from being his running mate for his second term of Presidency Some did not like him and thought he would hurt Eisenhower’s changes against his competitors However Eisenhower could not find anyone else to fit the position and decided to keep Nixon on if he wanted it and he did Eisenhower and Nixon were reelected During his second term Eisenhower was forced to deal with civil rights Tensions between blacks and whites continued particularly in the South where attempts were made to desegregate schools pursuant to a new federal law arising from Chief Justice Earl Warren’s ruling in the Brown vs Topeka case that made it unconstitutional for racial segregation in public schools In Little Rock Arkansas a mob of angry people gathered at Central High on an early September morning in 1957 to protest integration Nine black students slipped into the school through a side entranceway and when the mob found out they became angrier and there were threats of violence and so the students had to be escorted out of the school by police The next day hundreds of paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division broke up the mob and the nine students again entered Central High with Army guard protection and sat through an entire day of class About a month later Eisenhower was able to remove the armed forces By October 23rd the students were able to enter Central High and attend classes with out military protection Congress wanted to pass a civil rights bill Many blacks in the south were not allowed to register to vote Eisenhower felt stuck He said that he had lived in the south and had friends in the south So he signed a bill that gave minimum rights and light penalties for violation Eisenhower failed in wanting to deal with the civil rights movement He wanted to leave it to the President who would proceed after him On November 25 1957 the President had a mild stroke while at the Oval Office After a uick recovery he kept working There was pressure to put a satellite into space The first went up in December 1957 caught fire and fell right back to earth right after take off and was completely destroyed The second attempt was a satellite entitled Explorer I and it was successful but weighed only 31 pounds It was embarrassing especially when the Russians launched its second satellite Sputnik II into space in May 1958 and it weighed 3000 pounds Initially Eisenhower opposed the creation of a separate Department of Space He wanted all space activities to go through the Secretary of Defense But through the pressure of Eisenhower’s critics he asked Congress to form the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA a civilian space agencyThe Republicans wanted to spend money on military defense weapons Eisenhower wanted to keep costs down feeling that it was unnecessary to spend money in defense and that the costs would harm the economy Unfortunately no one would support Eisenhower in his efforts to hold down the costs on defense spending not the Department of Defense not even the press Eisenhower felt that the United States’ defense was already strong but he was being attacked that he was neglecting US securityEisenhower was also pressured to spend money on space exploration There was talk about putting a man on the moon To Eisenhower pursuing this was just a waste of money and he felt that it was a lack of common sense to even consider such a thing During his second term in office Eisenhower tried to concentrate on keeping peaceful relations with all countries including all of Europe However it seemed that every other politician in American were interested in concentrating their efforts on the next election On the eve of January 17 1961 Eisenhower went on national television and radio to deliver his farewell speech He spoke mostly of the Cold War He was disappointed that he could not accomplish peace but he was glad that war had been avoided John F Kennedy followed Eisenhower and became the next President of the United StatesAfter the Presidency Eisenhower was able to tell his side of the story by writing his memoirs He also wrote a book entitled At Ease Stories I Tell My Friends He also wrote articles for Reader’s Digest and The Saturday Evening Post He would receive thousands of letters each month and would respond to as many as he could by dictating his responses to a secretary to have typed up by her or one of her assistants When Lyndon B Johnson became President after Kennedy’s assassination he would often seek Eisenhower’s advice and recommendations particularly in regards to foreign affairs Eisenhower thought Johnson was too liberal with domestic affairs Eisenhower was appalled by the trends of the 1960s draft dodgers rock and roll marijuana and LSD When Johnson announced that he declined to run for reelection for a second term in office Eisenhower endorsed Nixon for the Republican Party In November 1965 Eisenhower suffered his second heart attack Then again in April 1968 he suffered his third major heart attack In August of that year he suffered yet another heart attack He survived but his health declined He died on March 28 1969 Eisenhower would go home again to be buried in Abilene Kansas