Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight D. Eisenhower, born David Dwight Eisenhower on October 14, 1890, in Denison, TexasTexasTexas is a U.S. state in the south-central United States, with its capital at Austin and its largest city Houston. It was admitted to the Union on December 29, 1845, as the 28th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 29,145,505 residents.Open the full entry, was the third of seven sons of David Jacob Eisenhower and Ida Elizabeth Stover Eisenhower; he went by Dwight to avoid confusion with his father.⁠[1]

His father, David, worked as a mechanic in a local creamery; his mother, Ida, a Mennonite, was a religious pacifist who opposed war.⁠[2]

In 1892 the family moved back to Abilene, KansasKansasKansas is a state of the United States bordered by Nebraska to the north, Missouri to the east, Oklahoma to the south, and Colorado to the west; its capital is Topeka and its largest city is Wichita. It was admitted to the Union on January 29, 1861, as the 34th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 2,937,880.Open the full entry. Eisenhower graduated from Abilene High School in 1909 and worked at the Belle Springs Creamery from 1909 to 1911.⁠[1]

On June 14, 1911, Eisenhower entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, where the nickname “Ike” stuck. He played football until he suffered a serious knee injury. On June 12, 1915, he graduated 61st out of 164 and was commissioned a second lieutenant.⁠[1][2][2]

In October 1915, while a second lieutenant at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, Eisenhower met Mamie Geneva Doud. Their engagement was announced on February 14, 1916, and they married in Denver, ColoradoColoradoColorado is a U.S. state classified as one of the Mountain states, with Denver as its capital. It was admitted to the Union on August 1, 1876, as the 38th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 5,773,714.Open the full entry, on July 1, 1916, the day he was promoted to first lieutenant.⁠[1][2]

Eisenhower served at infantry posts in Texas and Georgia from 1915 to 1918 and in the Tank Corps from 1918 to 1922, including at Camp Colt, PennsylvaniaPennsylvaniaPennsylvania (officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) is a Middle Atlantic state of the United States; its capital is Harrisburg, and Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are its two great metropolitan areas. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on December 12, 1787, the second state to do so. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 13,002,700.Open the full entry. At Camp Meade, MarylandMarylandMaryland is a Middle Atlantic state of the United States, deeply indented by Chesapeake Bay and bordered by Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, the District of Columbia and West Virginia; its capital is Annapolis and its largest city is Baltimore. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on April 28, 1788, as the seventh state to do so, and had a population of 6,177,224 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry, he became friends with George S. Patton.⁠[1][2]

In 1920 Eisenhower and Patton published articles urging the Army to make better use of tanks; Army authorities threatened him with a court-martial if he again challenged official views on infantry warfare.⁠[2]

From 1922 to 1924 Eisenhower served as executive officer to General Fox Conner in the Panama Canal Zone, and Conner became his patron. He then attended the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, graduating first in a class of 245 officers on June 18, 1926.⁠[1][2]

Eisenhower attended the Army War College in Washington, D.C., in 1927–1928, revised a battlefield guidebook and worked in the European office in Paris in 1928–1929, and was executive officer to General George V. Moseley, assistant secretary of war, from 1929 to 1933. He served as an aide first to General John J. Pershing, commander of U.S. forces in World War I, and then to Douglas MacArthur, as whose chief military aide he served from 1933 to 1935, working under him during the dispersal of the “Bonus Marchers.”⁠[1][2]

In 1935 Eisenhower followed MacArthur to the Philippines to organize and train its army, serving as assistant military adviser to the Philippine government from 1935 to 1939; in all he spent seven years with MacArthur.⁠[1][2]

Eisenhower served at Fort Lewis, Washington, in 1940–1941 and in 1941 became chief of staff of the Third Army at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. His performance in the LouisianaLouisianaLouisiana is a state in the southern United States on the Gulf of Mexico, bordered by Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas; its capital is Baton Rouge and its largest city is New Orleans. It entered the Union on April 30, 1812, as the 18th state, and had a population of 4,657,757 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry maneuvers, involving more than 400,000 troops, earned him promotion to (temporary) brigadier general on September 29, 1941.⁠[1][2]

Days after Pearl Harbor, Eisenhower went to the General Staff in Washington, D.C., where in December 1941 he became deputy chief in charge of Pacific defenses under the chief of the War Plans Division, General Leonard Gerow, and in February 1942 was designated chief of the War Plans Division, impressing Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall; in April 1942 he became assistant chief of staff of the Operations Division under Marshall.⁠[1][2]

In June 1942 Eisenhower became commanding general of the European Theater in London. In November 1942, as commander in chief of Allied Forces in North Africa, he led the Allied invasion of North Africa (Operation Torch); in 1943 he directed the invasions of Sicily and Italy, and on February 11, 1943, he was promoted to (temporary) four-star general.⁠[1][2]

In December 1943 Eisenhower was named Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces for Operation Overlord. On June 6, 1944, he commanded the Allied landings in Normandy, having made the terse decision “Okay, let’s go” despite the chance of poor weather.⁠[1][2]

On December 20, 1944, Eisenhower was promoted to five-star General of the Army, a rank made permanent on April 11, 1946.⁠[1]

After Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, Eisenhower was appointed military governor of the U.S. occupied zone, based in Frankfurt, and received hero’s welcomes in Washington, London, Moscow and Paris. He was criticized for allowing the Red Army to liberate Berlin, and he relieved George S. Patton as military governor of Bavaria for violating orders on the use of former Nazis.⁠[1][2]

At the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, Eisenhower advised Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson that the atomic bomb was unnecessary because Japan was on the verge of surrender; Harry S. TrumanHarry S. TrumanHarry S. Truman (1884–1972) was an American politician who served as a U.S. senator from Missouri and as vice president in 1945, succeeding Franklin D. Roosevelt on his death that year and serving as the 33rd president of the United States from 1945 to 1953, a period spanning the end of World War II and the early Cold War.Open the full entry nonetheless authorized its use against Hiroshima and Nagasaki.⁠[2]

On November 19, 1945, Eisenhower became Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, serving for two years. After leaving that post he wrote a popular memoir of his wartime experiences, Crusade in Europe.⁠[1][2]

On June 7, 1948, Eisenhower was inaugurated in New York City as the 13th president of Columbia UniversityColumbia UniversityColumbia University, formally Columbia University in the City of New York, is a private research university in New York City and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1754 by royal charter from King George II as King's College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in New York State and the fifth oldest in the United States. It was renamed Columbia College in 1784 and adopted the university name and moved to Manhattan's Morningside Heights in 1896. It has 17 schools and four affiliated colleges, with 35,978 students enrolled in fall 2025. Legal scholar Jennifer L. Mnookin became president on July 1, 2026.Open the full entry, serving from 1948 to 1953. During his tenure he founded the Columbia Center for Oral History (1948) and the Lamont Geological Observatory (1949), later the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.⁠[1][3]

After the Korean War began, Eisenhower took a leave from Columbia and returned to uniform. On December 19, 1950, the North Atlantic Council appointed him the first Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) of NATO, a post he called the “most important military job in the world today.”⁠[4][3][2]

Eisenhower retired from active service on May 31, 1952, and resigned his commission that July; on June 4 he announced his Republican presidential candidacy in Abilene. At the Republican convention in Chicago, after his managers secured seats for disputed delegates, he won the nomination on the first ballot over his main rival, Robert A. Taft, and chose Senator Richard NixonRichard NixonRichard Nixon (1913–1994) was an American politician who represented California in the U.S. House and Senate, served as vice president from 1953 to 1961 and was the 37th president of the United States from 1969 to 1974. His administration opened relations with China, signed strategic arms limitation agreements with the Soviet Union and ended U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War; he resigned over the Watergate scandal on August 9, 1974, the only U.S. president to do so.Open the full entry of California as his running mate.⁠[1][5]

On September 23 Nixon defended himself over campaign funds in a televised address, and Eisenhower kept him on the ticket. Late in the campaign Eisenhower pledged, “If elected, I shall go to Korea.” He defeated the Democratic nominee, Adlai Stevenson, with about 55 percent of the popular vote and more than 33 million votes, carrying 39 states and winning the electoral vote 442 to 89; the Republicans also won control of Congress by a slim margin.⁠[5][6]

Eisenhower was inaugurated on January 20, 1953, with Richard Nixon as vice president, and served two terms until January 20, 1961. Shortly before his inauguration he visited Korea, and he resigned from Columbia effective January 1953.⁠[7][6][3]

The Miller Center’s essay describes his “Modern Republicanism” as rejecting both the “Old Guard” Republican rollback of New Deal programs and the statism of Harry S. Truman’s Fair Deal, seeking to lead the country “down the middle of the road.”⁠[8]

The Korean War ended with an armistice on July 27, 1953, setting the 38th parallel as the border between North and South Korea. BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopedia first published in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1768; the name also refers to its publisher, Chicago-based Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (which presents itself as The Britannica Group). The print edition ended in 2012, and the company’s main businesses since then have been the online encyclopedia Britannica.com, digital education products for schools and libraries, and Merriam-Webster dictionaries.Open the full entry attributes the truce partly to Joseph Stalin’s death in March 1953 and partly to Eisenhower’s hint that he might use nuclear weapons.⁠[7][6]

That year the Department of Health, Education and Welfare was created on March 12, and on July 20 he signed the Small Business Act, establishing the Small Business Administration; on August 19–22 the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran was ousted and replaced by a regime loyal to the Shah. On December 8 Eisenhower delivered his “Atoms for Peace” speech at the United Nations, proposing an international atomic energy agency and peaceful nuclear development.⁠[7]

On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that segregated public schools were unconstitutional; Eisenhower did not endorse the decision.⁠[7][8]

Senator Joseph R. McCarthy charged that communist spies or sympathizers held high government positions and in 1954 held televised hearings on communist influence in the U.S. Army; Eisenhower declined to condemn him publicly. The Senate censured McCarthy on December 2, 1954.⁠[8][6][7]

That year, after the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, the Geneva Accords partitioned Vietnam at the 17th parallel; the Southeast Asia Defense Treaty (SEATO) was signed on September 8; the St. Lawrence Seaway bill authorizing joint U.S.–Canadian construction was passed on May 13; and the first atomic submarine, USS Nautilus, was launched on January 21.⁠[7]

In July 1955 Eisenhower proposed “Open Skies” at the Geneva summit. On September 24, 1955, he suffered a heart attack.⁠[7]

The Federal Highway Act of June 29, 1956, funded the interstate highway system, creating a 41,000-mile road network that the Miller Center calls his most ambitious domestic project.⁠[7][8]

That year brought the Suez Crisis, in which Britain, France and Israel mobilized against Egypt, and Soviet forces crushed the Hungarian revolt; the administration limited itself to protests and offered to admit Hungarian refugees.⁠[9][7][6]

In August 1956 the Republicans renominated Eisenhower and Nixon. They again defeated Adlai Stevenson, whose running mate was Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, winning nearly 58 percent of the popular vote and 41 states, including Louisiana, the first Republican victory there since Reconstruction.⁠[5]

In January 1957 Eisenhower announced the Eisenhower Doctrine, under which countries threatened by armed aggression could request U.S. economic aid, military assistance or both; he singled out aggression from “any nation controlled by international communism.” Congress approved the doctrine in March 1957.⁠[9]

On September 9, 1957, he signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, which provided new federal protection for voting rights.⁠[7][8]

In September 1957 Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus used the state National Guard to keep African American students out of Central High School in Little Rock. Eisenhower met Faubus in Newport, Rhode IslandRhode IslandRhode Island (officially the State of Rhode Island) is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Ocean; its capital and largest city is Providence. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on May 29, 1790, the last of the original 13 to do so. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 1,097,379.Open the full entry, on September 14; after a federal judge issued an injunction on September 20, Faubus withdrew the Guard, but angry crowds gathered when the students entered the school on September 23.⁠[10]

On September 24 Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10730, placing the Arkansas National Guard and Air National Guard in federal service and authorizing the use of U.S. armed forces to enforce the federal court’s enrollment orders, and addressed the nation, declaring, “Mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of our courts.” On September 25 soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division escorted the Little Rock Nine into the school; the troops stayed for the entire school year.⁠[10][8]

The Soviet launch of Sputnik on October 4, 1957, prompted calls for greater U.S. investment in defense and technology. On November 25 Eisenhower suffered a mild stroke.⁠[7]

Explorer I, the first American satellite, was launched on January 31, 1958. NASANASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the U.S. federal agency responsible for the civilian space program, aeronautics research and space science. Established by law in 1958 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., it has run programs including Mercury, the Apollo Moon landings, the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station and Artemis.Open the full entry was established on July 29, and on September 2 Eisenhower signed the National Defense Education Act.⁠[7]

In July 1958, at the request of Lebanese President Camille Chamoun, Eisenhower sent U.S. troops to Lebanon to help maintain order. He never formally invoked the Eisenhower Doctrine, but the deployment also signaled to the Soviet Union that the United States would protect its interests in the Middle East.⁠[7][9]

AlaskaAlaskaAlaska is the largest U.S. state by area and borders Canada to the east; its capital is Juneau and its largest city is Anchorage. Alaska was admitted to the Union on January 3, 1959, as the 49th state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 733,391.Open the full entry was proclaimed the 49th state on January 3, 1959, and HawaiiHawaiiHawaii is a U.S. state consisting of a group of volcanic islands in the central Pacific Ocean; its capital is Honolulu, on the island of Oʻahu. Hawaii was admitted to the Union on August 21, 1959, as the 50th state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 1,455,271.Open the full entry was admitted as the 50th state, effective August 21. The St. Lawrence Seaway opened on April 25 and was officially opened by Eisenhower and Queen Elizabeth II on June 26. On September 15–27 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev visited the United States.⁠[7]

On May 1, 1960, a U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union, and the Paris Summit collapsed on May 16. That year Eisenhower signed a second civil rights law, which provided only small advances over the 1957 law. In November John F. KennedyJohn F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy (1917–1963) was an American politician who represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate and served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 to 1963. The youngest person elected president and the first Roman Catholic to hold the office, he was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963.Open the full entry defeated Richard Nixon in the presidential election.⁠[7][8]

In his Farewell Address on January 17, 1961, Eisenhower warned of the “military-industrial complex.”⁠[7][1]

In March 1961 Eisenhower was returned to the Army’s active list under Public Law 87-3, signed by John F. Kennedy. From January 1961 to March 1969 he kept an office at Gettysburg College and lived on his farm near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.⁠[1]

The farm, bought in 1950, covered 189 acres with a home, a barn and outbuildings; it kept dairy cows until 1954 and then bred Aberdeen Angus cattle, ending the breeding operation in 1966.⁠[11]

On November 27, 1967, Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower transferred the deed to their Gettysburg home and farm to Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, and it became the Eisenhower National Historic Site.⁠[12]

Eisenhower died at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C., on March 28, 1969, at age 78, and was buried in the Place of Meditation in Abilene, Kansas, on April 2.⁠[1][13]

His wife, Mamie Geneva Doud Eisenhower, was born on November 14, 1896, in Boone, IowaIowaIowa is a state in the Midwestern United States; its capital and largest city is Des Moines. It was admitted to the Union on December 28, 1846, as the 29th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 3,190,369.Open the full entry, to John Sheldon and Elivera Mathilda Carlson Doud, and moved with her family to Denver in 1905. She lived in Paris in 1950 while Eisenhower served as NATO commander, was first lady from 1953 to 1961, and died in Washington, D.C., on November 1, 1979; she is buried in the Place of Meditation beside her husband and first son.⁠[1]

Their first son, Doud Dwight, was born on September 24, 1917, and died of scarlet fever on January 2, 1921, aged three; their second son, John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower, was born in Denver on August 3, 1922, and died in 2013. Eisenhower was a Presbyterian.⁠[1][14]

Eisenhower signed legislation expanding Social Security and increasing the minimum wage. Three of his eight budgets were in the black; domestic spending rose from 31 percent of the federal budget in 1953 to 49 percent in 1961, while federal spending as a share of the economy declined from 20.4 to 18.4 percent. Mild recessions slowed growth in 1953–1954, 1957–1958 and 1960.⁠[8]

The Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum & Boyhood Home in Abilene, Kansas, is part of the National Archives and Records Administration. The library describes Eisenhower as devoting his presidency, after four decades of military service, to “waging peace,” and his administration as known for eight years of peace and prosperity.⁠[15][7]

The Eisenhower National Historic Site, managed by the National Park Service, preserves the Eisenhower farm next to the Gettysburg battlefield, which served as the couple’s weekend retreat from Washington and as a place where Eisenhower met world leaders.⁠[16]

Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum & Boyhood Home: Official website: https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[15]

Eisenhower National Historic Site: Official website: https://www.nps.gov/eise/index.htm (opens in a new window).⁠[16]

Columbia University: Official website: https://www.columbia.edu/ (opens in a new window).⁠[3]

NATO: Official website: https://www.nato.int/ (opens in a new window).⁠[4]