Dwight Eisenhower34th President of the United States
Date of Birth: 14.10.1890
Country: USA |
Content:
- Biography of Dwight Eisenhower
- Early Military Career
- World War II
- Later Career
- Presidency and Later Years
Biography of Dwight Eisenhower
Dwight Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States, was born on October 14, 1890 in Denison, Texas. Shortly after his birth, his family moved to Abilene, Kansas, where he completed high school. In October 1910, he passed the exams for the United States Military Academy at West Point and became a cadet in June 1911. After graduating in 1915, he was assigned to the 19th Infantry Regiment stationed near San Antonio, Texas.
Early Military Career
During World War I, Eisenhower commanded a tank training base at Camp Colt in Pennsylvania. After the war, he led various units in the Tank Corps and in 1922 was appointed assistant commander of the 20th Infantry Battalion stationed in the Panama Canal Zone. In 1924, he graduated from the Command and General Staff School. He served in the commission for military memorials and compiled a handbook on battlefields in France. He attended classes at the Army War College. In the late 1920s, Eisenhower was appointed to the staff of the Assistant Secretary of War, where he worked for three years before becoming assistant chief of staff to General Douglas MacArthur. He served with MacArthur on the Philippines from 1935. Upon his return to the United States in 1940, he commanded the 3rd Division, then the 9th Army Corps, and later the 3rd Army. He was promoted to colonel and then to brigadier general.
World War II
After the United States entered World War II, Eisenhower served in the staff of General George Marshall, where he headed the planning division and was promoted to major general. After a reconnaissance trip to Britain, he was appointed commander of the American forces in Europe. He led the "Torch" operation in French North Africa, where the Allied forces landed on November 8, 1942, facing only brief resistance. Agreements with the Vichy French regime led to the establishment of control over all of French North Africa. This was followed by the Allied invasion of Sicily on July 10, 1943, and the mainland of Italy on September 3, 1943. In December 1943, Eisenhower was appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe. He led the largest offensive operation by the Allies - the invasion of France, which began with the landing of troops in Normandy on June 6, 1944. Overcoming fierce resistance, the forces under his command broke through to St. Lo on July 18, and on August 15, a landing was made in southern France. The liberation of Paris on August 25 seemed to promise an early end to the war, but the German counteroffensive in the Ardennes on December 16 caught the Allies off guard. It was not until March 6, 1945 that the Allied forces were able to cross the Rhine.
Later Career
After the war, Eisenhower participated in the work of the Germany Commission and returned to the United States in November 1945. He was appointed Chief of Staff of the Army. In June 1948, he was elected Chancellor of Columbia University. In 1951, at the initiative of President Harry Truman, he became Supreme Allied Commander of NATO forces. In June 1952, he retired and began campaigning for the presidency as a Republican candidate. At the Republican National Convention in Chicago in July, he was nominated in the first round of voting along with vice presidential candidate Richard Nixon. Eisenhower and Nixon received nearly 34 million votes, defeating Democrats Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman. Fulfilling his campaign promise, Eisenhower traveled to Korea to assess the situation there. The death of Stalin on March 5, 1953, as well as the greater freedom of action of the new American administration, facilitated the conclusion of an armistice on July 27, 1953, and the exchange of prisoners of war with Korea. In July 1955, the president held a high-level meeting in Geneva with the leaders of Britain, France, and the USSR. During this meeting, he proposed an aerial inspection system for arms control. Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles sought to contain communist expansion through the removal of trade barriers, international aid, and the creation of defense alliances.
Presidency and Later Years
Eisenhower and his cabinet sought to balance the budget, reduce taxes, and return some functions of the federal government to the states. However, rising prices, international obligations, and political and social demands placed on the government continued to dictate increased federal spending. The Tax Reform Act of 1954 made some changes to the tax structure, but did not result in significant tax reductions. In 1954, Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy challenged the president, claiming that the federal government and the military were infested with communists. Eisenhower ignored McCarthy's attacks, which culminated in a censure by the Senate in late 1954. As a result of the 1954 elections, the Democrats gained control of both houses of Congress.
President Eisenhower suffered a heart attack while vacationing in Denver, Colorado, in September 1955. He was able to return to his duties in January, and in February announced that he would seek re-election for a second term if his health permitted. In June, the president's condition worsened again due to surgery on his intestines. However, he was again nominated by the Republican National Convention and won the election, receiving an overwhelming majority of votes. Eisenhower's popularity declined during the early years of his second term. Factors contributing to this included the Soviet Union's success in launching satellites, the economic downturn of 1957-1958, and numerous accusations against his chief of staff, Sherman Adams. His popularity in the South declined in September 1957 when he sent federal troops to enforce the desegregation of schools in Little Rock, Arkansas.
During the congressional elections in November 1958, the Republican Party suffered defeat, losing 13 seats in the Senate, 41 seats in the House of Representatives, and 9 governorships to the Democrats, who gained almost double the advantage over the Republicans in both houses of Congress. It was expected that the 1959-1961 Congress would be oriented towards the passage of liberal laws, and the president even called it the "spendthrift Congress". By utilizing all possible opportunities for cooperation with Democratic leaders, Eisenhower was able to continue his political course. In 1959, the issue of admitting Alaska and Hawaii as states in the United States was resolved. However, the agreement with the Democratic Congress was violated in June 1959 when the Senate refused to confirm the nomination of Lewis Strauss as Secretary of Commerce.
After a record peacetime budget deficit in 1959, the president took a firm stance in seeking a balanced budget in 1960. He strongly opposed spending more than the revenue allowed and made this issue, as well as preventing further inflation, central domestic policy issues in the final years of his administration.
In May 1959, the foreign ministers of the United States, Great Britain, France, and the USSR met to discuss the Berlin problem. After 10 weeks of meetings in Geneva, it became clear that further meetings would not yield practical results. However, contacts between the USSR and the US were strengthened as a result of visits to the US by deputy Soviet Premier Anastas Mikoyan and Vice President Richard Nixon's visit to the USSR in July 1959. These visits were seen as harbingers of significant changes in US foreign policy and a reduction in tension in US-Soviet relations. In August 1959, it was announced that Nikita Khrushchev would visit the US and Eisenhower would visit the USSR. Khrushchev's visit to the US took place in September 1959. In May 1960, a high-level meeting was scheduled to take place in Paris, but the Soviet side demanded an apology for the U-2 spy plane incident. Khrushchev canceled Eisenhower's return visit and declared high-level talks meaningless due to the imminent end of his presidential term.
On July 27, 1960, the Republican National Convention in Chicago nominated Vice President Nixon as the presidential candidate. However, the new president on January 20, 1961 was Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy. Dwight Eisenhower died in Washington on March 28, 1969.