Dwight D. Eisenhower : Biography
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| Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D.
Eisenhower : Biography
Dwight D. Eisenhower was born on
October 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas. In 1945 he was appointed U.S. Army chief
of staff. He became the first Supreme Allied Commander of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1951. In 1952 he was elected U.S. president. He
served two terms before retiring to Gettysburg in 1961. Eisenhower died on
March 28, 1969, at the Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C.
Early Life
Dwight D. Eisenhower was born on
October 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas, to David Jacob Eisenhower and Ida
Elizabeth Stover Eisenhower. Dwight was the third of his parents’ seven sons.
His parents had moved from Abilene, Kansas, to Denison, Texas, before he was
born. In Denison, the family lived in a tiny house near the railroad tracks
while David cleaned train engines for a living.
When Dwight was a year and a half old,
his family moved back to Abilene so David could take a better job at his
brother-in-law's creamery.
In Abilene, Dwight's 3-year-old
brother Paul died of diphtheria when Dwight was 6 years old. Despite the
tragedy, Dwight formed happy childhood memories in Abilene that he would
cherish throughout his life. Among these were his days playing baseball and
football at Abilene High School.
After Eisenhower graduated from high
school in 1909, he joined his father and uncle at the Bell Springs Creamery
while also moonlighting as a fireman. Eisenhower used the money he earned to
pay his younger brother Edgar’s tuition at the University of Michigan. The brothers
had a deal: After two years, they’d switch places—with Edgar then working to
support Eisenhower's college education. Luckily for Edgar, he never had to live
up to his end of the deal.
In 1911, Dwight landed an appointment
at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, where attendance
was free of charge. Once again he was a star on the football field, until a
series of knee injuries forced him to stop playing. In 1915, Eisenhower proudly
graduated from West Point at the top of his class, and was commissioned as a
second lieutenant.
Military Career
After graduation, Eisenhower was
stationed in Texas, where he met and started dating 18-year-old Mamie Geneva
Doud from Denver, Colorado. The couple married nine months later, on July 1,
1916. Eisenhower was promoted to first lieutenant on his wedding day.
For the first few years of
Eisenhower's military career, he and Mamie moved from post to post throughout
Texas, Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In 1917, Mamie gave
birth to the couple's first son, Doud Dwight. That same year, the United States
entered WWI. Although Eisenhower hoped to be commissioned overseas, he was
instead appointed to run a tank training center at Camp Colt in Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania. Throughout the war and afterward, Eisenhower continued to rise
through the ranks. By 1920, he was promoted to major, after having volunteered
for the Tanks Corps, in the War Department's first transcontinental motor
convoy, the previous year.
In 1921, tragedy struck at home, when
the Eisenhowers' firstborn son, Doud Dwight, died of scarlet fever at the age
of 3. Mamie gave birth to a second son, John Sheldon Doud, in 1922. That year,
Eisenhower assumed the role of executive officer to General Fox Conner in the
Panama Canal Zone. In 1924, at Conner's urging, Eisenhower applied to the
Army's prestigious graduate school, the Command and General Staff School at Ft.
Leavenworth, and was accepted. He graduated first in his class in 1926, with a
firm reputation for his military prowess.
From 1927 to 1929 Eisenhower toured
and reported for the War Department, under General John Pershing. After
finishing his tour in 1929, Eisenhower was appointed chief military aide under
General Douglas MacArthur. From 1935 to 1939 Eisenhower served under MacArthur
as assistant military advisor to the Philippines. Eisenhower returned to the
United States in early 1940.
Over the next two years he was
stationed in California and Washington state. In 1941, after a transfer to Fort
Sam Houston, Eisenhower became chief of staff for the Third Army. Eisenhower
was soon promoted to brigadier general for his leadership of the Louisiana
Maneuvers. Late that year he was transferred to the War Plans division in
Washington, D.C. In 1942, he was promoted to major general. Just months later,
he became commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces and led Operation Torch, the
Allied invasion of North Africa.
By D-Day, Eisenhower was promoted to
five-star rank. Upon Germany's surrender in 1945, he was made military governor
of the U.S. Occupied Zone. Eisenhower then returned home to Abilene and
received a hero's welcome. A few months later, he was appointed U.S. Army chief
of staff. In 1947, he was elected president of Columbia University, a position
he held until December of 1950. In 1951, Eisenhower decided to leave Columbia
to assume an appointment as first Supreme Allied Commander of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization. While in Paris with NATO, Eisenhower was
encouraged by Republican emissaries to run for president of the United States.
U.S. Presidency
In 1952 Eisenhower retired from active
service and returned to Abilene to announce his candidacy for the Republican
Party nomination. On November 4, 1952, after winning the election by a
landslide, Eisenhower was elected the United States' 34th president. His
domestic policy picked up where Roosevelt's New Deal and Fair Deal programs
left off. In foreign policy, Eisenhower made reducing Cold War tensions through
military negotiation a main focus of his administration.
In 1953 he orchestrated an armistice
that brought peace to South Korea's border. Also that year, Eisenhower made his
famous "Atoms for Peace" speech at the United Nations General
Assembly. The United States and Russia had both recently developed atomic bombs,
and the speech promoted applying atomic energy to peaceful uses, rather than
using it for weaponry and warfare. In 1955, Eisenhower met with Russian,
British and French leaders at Geneva to further quell the threat of atomic war.
In 1956 Eisenhower was a reelected to
a second term, winning by an even wider margin than in his first election,
despite the fact that he had just recently recovered from a heart attack. Over
the course of his second term, Eisenhower continued to promote his Atoms for
Peace program. In his second term, he also grappled with crises in Lebanon and
the Suez.
Accomplishments during his
administration include creating the U.S. Information Agency, and establishing
Alaska and Hawaii as states. Eisenhower also supported the creation of the
Interstate Highway System during his time in office. His other distinctions
include signing the 1957 Civil Rights Act and setting up a permanent Civil
Rights Commission. Eisenhower was additionally responsible for signing the bill
to form the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Poised to depart office in January of
1961, Eisenhower gave a televised farewell address in which he warned the
nation against the dangers of the Cold War "military-industrial
complex."
Later Life
Following his presidency, Eisenhower
retired to a farmhouse in Gettysburg with his wife, Mamie. Although he had
resigned his commission as a general when he became president, when he left
office his successor, President Kennedy, reactivated his commission. He also
kept an office at Gettysburg College for the remainder of his life, where he
held meetings and wrote his memoirs.
Eisenhower died on March 28, 1969, at
the Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C., following a long period of
suffering from a heart-related illness. In addition to a state funeral in the
nation's capital, a military funeral was held in Eisenhower's beloved hometown
of Abilene, Kansas.
General
Eisenhower’s Message Sent Just Prior to the Invasion
Message from General Eisenhower
Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied
Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon a great crusade, toward which
we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The
hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you. In company
with our brave Allies and brothers in arms on other fronts, you will bring
about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi
tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a
free world.
Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is
well trained, well equipped and battle hardened, he will fight savagely.
But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since
the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the
Germans great defeats, in open battle, man to man. Our air offensive has
seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on
the ground. Our home fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in
weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of
trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are
marching together to victory!
I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to
duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory!
Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessings of
Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.
-- Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower
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