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 By Louis Galambos
Dwight David Eisenhower left the United States
of America and its people a great legacy that deserves our respect
today and in future generations. As a military leader, as the nation’s
President, and as a citizen deeply dedicated to democracy, Eisenhower
compiled a record of public service that has won for him a unique
place in the history of this country and the world in the twentieth
century.
 In
the realm of military and national security affairs, Eisenhower’s
vision, his character, and his outstanding leadership are analyzed
in the following report by General Andrew J. Goodpaster (chair),
Robert R. Bowie, and Carlo D’Este. As supreme commander of
the Allied military coalition in World War II — in the Mediterranean
and then in Northwest Europe — General Eisenhower made the
crucial and frequently controversial decisions that led to victory.
He held together the military alliance. The shining moment for his
command came at DDay in early June 1944, when he led his successful
Allied forces in the greatest amphibious invasion in history. By
the war’s end in 1945, he was one of the most acclaimed men
of the century, and in the years that followed, this distinguished
public servant was in turn Chief of Staff of the Army, President
of Columbia University, and first supreme commander of the military
forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He relentlessly
promoted unity among the nations allied in opposition to communist
aggression, as he did among the services in the U.S. military establishment.
One of his most important innovations after he became President
of the United States was to place all military operations in a unified
command structure. As President, he led the nation through repeated
challenges from the U.S.S.R. and China and developed the basic strategy
that would guide our policy for the remaining three decades before
the Soviet collapse. He was masterful in his handling of the Suez
Crisis in 1956-57, and it was a tribute to his leadership that he
was able to keep the alliance with our leading European allies together
after peace was restored.
The Eisenhower Presidency (1953-61) was distinguished
above all by peace and prosperity. As the report by Daun van Ee
(chair), Michael J. Birkner, and John H. Morrow, Jr., demonstrates,
Eisenhower, who was firm when directly challenged, was nevertheless
always prepared to make the kind of fruitful compromises that were
as essential to international relations as they were to democratic
government at home. He brought the Korean War to an end and then
prepared the U.S. defense establishment for a long struggle to maintain
the containment policy without damaging the American economy or
breaking down the civil liberties that were essential to our democratic
government. There was pressure to overspend on defense, especially
after the Soviet Union launched its Sputnik earth satellite in 1957.
Fear that the United States had fallen behind the communist countries
and was threatened by long-range atomic attacks yielded a sense
of panic and a rush to respond. Eisenhower responded by calming
the public fear while guiding the government towards eventual victory,
both in space and armaments, at a reasonable cost. Steering between
war and conciliation, President Eisenhower dealt forcefully with
the Chinese effort to seize the islands off the mainland held by
America’s Chinese Nationalist allies. Throughout, he insisted
on a show of good faith before he would negotiate in summit conferences,
and he sought always to avoid unrealistic expectations about what
such meetings could accomplish. As the French and British empires
collapsed, he worked hard to maintain the support of these allies
in Europe while helping to ease them out of their colonial possessions.
At home, he stayed on the Middle Way, seeking to balance the budget
(a goal achieved for three budget years), facilitate creative change
in civil rights for African-Americans, and promote economic development
with a new federally sponsored interstate highway system. Challenged
on civil rights in Little Rock, Arkansas, he forcefully demonstrated
that neither mobs nor a belligerent governor could defy the federal
courts. The keys to his leadership as president were “strength
and civility.” Eisenhower’s presidency was indeed a
triumph of character.
Central to the Eisenhower legacy was his relationship
to the American public, a relationship based securely on a shared
democratic ethic. Michael Beschloss (chair), Kiron Skinner, and
Richard Norton Smith explore the manner in which Eisenhower’s
basic values were shaped by his upbringing in Abilene, Kansas, where
he learned from an early age to balance team play with leadership,
cooperation with competition, and individual striving with service
to others. In the years that followed he never lost his faith in
the ability of the people to decide for themselves who their leaders
should be and what policies they should implement. His values were
reinforced at the U.S. Military Academy, and the motto “Duty,
Honor, Country” became the bedrock for his life of service
to the nation. In effect, the story of that life of service became
an essential part of his legacy to the people he loved and led.
As a leader, he was interested in making society and its basic institutions
successful and efficient. Precise about responsibilities and authority,
he was a relentlessly positive and forceful commander and executive.
He worked endlessly to promote cooperation and compromise in every
institution he served. His conviction as President that the middle
way between extremes was the best way for a democracy to succeed
was deeply grounded in his fundamental values and his experiences
as a military officer, president of a leading educational institution,
and commander of the military forces in Europe for the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization. While promoting individualism and cooperation,
he fully understood that the United States could not always avoid
conflict and needed strong national programs if the country was
going to continue to lead the free world against communist aggression.
He improved and strengthened the nation’s military forces,
established the guiding principles for U.S. exploration of space,
and promoted the transportation infrastructure the country needed
for national security and economic prosperity. By blending traditional
American values with a vigorous emphasis upon internationalism,
he helped usher the nation into a new age. |
