Ike's Letters to a Friend, 1941–1958

Ike's Letters to a Friend, 1941–1958
Author: Robert W. Griffith
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2021-10-08
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0700631526

“Swede Hazlett was one of the people to whome I ‘opened up.’”—Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight D. Eisenhower and E. E. (“Swede”) Hazlett grew up together in Abilene, Kansas, and remained close, corresponding regularly from 1941 until Hazlett’s death in 1958. The letters collected in this volume, many of them surprisingly revealing, contain Eisenhower’s views on a wide range of diplomatic, military, and political issues. Taken together they constitute a remarkable inner history of Eisenhower’s public career. Robert Griffith’s introductory essay is a masterful account of the Eisenhower-Hazlett relationship and of the insights provided by their correspondence for understanding the Eisenhower years. Griffith’s substantial headnotes give additional detail and context where necessary and provide a sense of narrative continuity to the correspondence. The Eisenhower who emerges from these pages bears little resemblance to the bumbling caricature produced by journalists in the 1950s.But neither does he fit the role assigned to him by so many people today, whether liberal critics of the Cold War, conservative opponents of Democratic fiscal policy, or White House aides attempting to “Eisenhowerize” Ronald Reagan. He is, rather, a complex and multidimensional historical figure whom we must study, on his own terms, if we are to fully understand our recent past.

Eisenhower and the Cold War Economy

Eisenhower and the Cold War Economy
Author: William M. McClenahan Jr.
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2011-12-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1421403625

Throughout his two-term presidency, Dwight D. Eisenhower faced the challenge of managing a period of peacetime prosperity after more than two decades of depression, war, and postwar inflation. The essential issue he addressed was how the country would pay for the deepening Cold War and the extent to which such unprecedented peacetime commitments would affect the United States economy and its institutions. William M. McClenahan, Jr., and William H. Becker explain how Eisenhower’s beliefs and his experiences as a military bureaucrat and wartime and postwar commander shaped his economic policies. They explore the macro- and microeconomic policies his administration employed to finance the Cold War while adapting Republican ideas and Eisenhower's economic principles to new domestic and foreign policy environments. They also detail how Eisenhower worked with new instruments of government policy making, such as the Council of Economic Advisers and a strengthened Federal Reserve Board. In assessing his administration's policies, the authors demonstrate that, rather than focusing overwhelmingly on international political affairs at the expense of economic issues, Eisenhower’s policies aimed to preserve and enhance the performance of the American free market system, which he believed was inextricably linked to the successful prosecution of the Cold War. While some of the decisions Eisenhower made did not follow conservative doctrine as closely as many in the Republican Party wanted, this book asserts that his approach to and distrust of partisan politics led to success on many fronts and indeed maintained and buttressed the nation's domestic and international economic health. An important and original contribution, this examination of the Eisenhower administration's economic policy enriches our understanding of the history of the modern American economy, the presidency, and conservatism in the United States.

The Eisenhower Presidency, 1953-1961

The Eisenhower Presidency, 1953-1961
Author: Richard Damms
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2016-09-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317879198

This seminar study examines the Eisenhower presidency. The author argues that the presidency marked an important stage in the evolution of modern America, but left a decidedly mixed legacy for future presidents. Domestically Eisenhower pursued a 'middle way'. Imbued with a profound district of politics and politicians, Eisenhower sought as much as possible to concentrate public policy making in the hands of an enlightened elite of public and private experts. Internationally, Eisenhower's policies exacerbated the nuclear arms race, institutionalised the Cold War, and extended the East-West struggles to new arenas in the Third World. This new account offers an up-to-date synthesis of this newly emerging literature, and reviews Eisenhower's record - from the mishandling of the Civil Rights movement to the escalation of the arms race and the intensification of the Cold War.

God in Eisenhower's Life, Military Career, and Presidency

God in Eisenhower's Life, Military Career, and Presidency
Author: Jerry Bergman
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 227
Release: 2019-03-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1532660677

As the Supreme Allied Commander in the fight against the Nazis, General Dwight Eisenhower was one of the most important leaders of the last century. His position as a five-star general was crucial in achieving a positive outcome in World War II. Today, he is considered one of the most respected US presidents, but the critical role that his religious beliefs played in his life and work is widely ignored. As one historian wrote, Eisenhower was the most religious president in the twentieth century. He was critical in influencing the nation’s enlarged accommodation to faith, specifically the Christian faith. The central role Eisenhower’s faith played in his life, from growing up in Abilene, Kansas, to becoming the most powerful leader in the world, is thoroughly documented for the first time in this book. Indeed, Eisenhower’s belief in God made him who he was and allowed him to achieve the work that made him one of the most respected leaders of the free world. This book sets the record straight about common erroneous beliefs concerning President Eisenhower and his family. It is necessary to understand the forces that shaped him so we can put his life and many achievements into perspective.

The China Threat

The China Threat
Author: Nancy Bernkopf Tucker
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2014-03-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 0231159250

Nancy Bernkopf Tucker confronts the coldest period of the cold warÑthe moment in which personality, American political culture, public opinion, and high politics came together to define the Eisenhower AdministrationÕs policy toward China. A sophisticated, multidimensional account based on prodigious, cutting edge research, this volume convincingly portrays EisenhowerÕs private belief that close relations between the United States and the PeopleÕs Republic of China were inevitable and that careful consideration of the PRC should constitute a critical part of American diplomacy. Tucker provocatively argues that the Eisenhower AdministrationÕs hostile rhetoric and tough actions toward China obscure the presidentÕs actual views. Behind the scenes, Eisenhower and his Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, pursued a more nuanced approach, one better suited to ChinaÕs specific challenges and the stabilization of the global community. Tucker deftly explores the contradictions between Eisenhower and his advisorsÕ public and private positions. Her most powerful chapter centers on EisenhowerÕs recognition that rigid trade prohibitions would undermine the global postwar economic recovery and push China into a closer relationship with the Soviet Union. Ultimately, Tucker finds EisenhowerÕs strategic thinking on Europe and his fear of toxic, anticommunist domestic politics constrained his leadership, making a fundamental shift in U.S. policy toward China difficult if not impossible. Consequently, the president was unable to engage congress and the public effectively on China, ultimately failing to realize his own high standards as a leader.

Caught in the Middle East

Caught in the Middle East
Author: Peter L. Hahn
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
Total Pages: 422
Release: 2006-02-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780807857007

Postwar American officials desired, in principle, to promote Arab-Israeli peace in order to stabilize the Middle East. This book shows how, during the Truman and Eisenhower administrations, the desire for peace was not always an American priority. Instead, they consistently gave more weight to their determination to contain the Soviet Union.

Eisenhower

Eisenhower
Author: Günter Bischof
Publisher: LSU Press
Total Pages: 328
Release: 1995-04-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780807119426

In observance of Dwight David Eisenhower's one-hundredth birthday in 1990, the Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans sponsored a series of lectures by distinguished American and European scholars who espouse an exciting breadth of interpretation regarding the man and his times. In Eisenhower: A Centenary Assessment, Günter Bischof and Stephen E. Ambrose have assembled thirteen of those lectures, revised and updated, thus providing an important contribution to scholarship on the thirty-fourth United States president.The collection is truly balanced in the interpretive sense, with essays by leading revisionist and postrevisionist scholars on Eisenhower. Four of the essays address Eisenhower historiography and his role as military commander, two concern his presidential domestic policies, and the remainder represent an assortment of ongoing research into select areas of his foreign policy by a younger generation of scholars, demonstrating how much the evaluation of Eisenhower's handling of foreign affairs remains in ferment. Ambrose concludes the volume with a broad summary of Eisenhower's achievements and legacies.As Bischof and Ambrose state in their Introduction, Eisenhower played a central role for so long and so crucial a period in twentieth-century history that his impact, contributions, successes, and failures will be subject to reinterpretation and debate for as long as Western civilization lasts. His reputation has already undergone ups and downs -- from the negative opinions of his contemporaries to the enthusiasm of revisionists in the late seventies and early eighties to the more critical assessments of postrevisionist scholars in the late eighties and the nineties. Such is the inevitable cycle of scholarship, to look at old problems with new perspectives, using new documentation or innovative methods, to arrive at new conclusions. This centennial reexamination of Eisenhower's place in history will remain a milestone in years to come.

Eisenhower at Columbia

Eisenhower at Columbia
Author: Travis Jacobs
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 608
Release: 2018-01-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1351326465

From the beginning of World War II until he left the White House in early 1961, Dwight David Eisenhower played a leadership role on the world stage. This was longer than any American since George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams. His Columbia presidency was part of this period, yet the story has not been told. Scholars have repeated earlier critical contemporary assessments and largely dismissed or ignored that part of his career. Jacobs seeks to answer many of the open-ended questions about Eisenhower's tenure as successor to Nicholas Murray Butler, whom many consider the greatest university president of the century. Jacobs examines previously unused sources to analyze Eisenhower's leadership and accomplishments, his goals and intentions, and whether his presidency at Columbia, generally considered a failure, ever had a chance of succeeding.This insightful, well-written volume covers the years that played such a vital role in Dwight D. Eisenhower's journey to the White House. Jacobs reviews Eisenhower's appointment as chief of staff after his return from Europe after V-E Day, and, concurrently, looks at Columbia's difficulties in its troubled search for a president. He examines the deliberations on both sides before Eisenhower's acceptance of Columbia's presidency, and the circumstances surrounding his arrival and installation. Jacobs covers Eisenhower's subsequent leave of absence and return to duty at the Pentagon as NATO commander and the impact of his extended absence from Columbia. He resigned on the eve of his inauguration as president of the United States. Jacobs recounts the hostility of campus liberal intellectuals who had increasingly resented Eisenhower's presidency and were offended by the New York Times's endorsement of Eisenhower over Adlai E. Stevenson for the 1952 presidential campaign. Jacobs views Eisenhower's years as university president as playing a significant role in preparing him for his White House years.A thorough assessment of Eisenhower's career on Morningside Heights is long overdue. Jacobs' insights on Eisenhower's presidency at Columbia will be of interest to Eisenhower's biographers, college and university administrators, American studies students, and the general public, curious about Eisenhower's public service as a civilian, before he became U. S. president.

Presidential Lightning Rods

Presidential Lightning Rods
Author: Richard J. Ellis
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2021-10-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0700631496

H. R. Haldeman, President Nixon's former chief of staff, is said to have boasted: "Every president needs a son of a bitch, and I'm Nixon's. I'm his buffer and I'm his bastard. I get done what he wants done and I take the heat instead of him." Richard Ellis explores the widely discussed but poorly understood phenomenon of presidential "lightning rods"-cabinet officials who "take the heat" instead of their bosses. Whether by intent or circumstance, these officials divert criticism and blame away from their presidents. The phenomenon is so common that it's assumed to be an essential item in every president's managerial toolbox. But, Ellis argues, such assumptions can oversimplify our understanding of this tool. Ellis advises against indiscriminate use of the lightning rod metaphor. Such labeling can hide as much as it reveals about presidential administration and policymaking at the cabinet level. The metaphor often misleads by suggesting strategic intent on the president's part while obscuring the calculations and objectives of presidential adversaries and the lightning rods themselves. Ellis also illuminates the opportunities and difficulties that various presidential posts-especially secretaries of state, chiefs of staff, and vice presidents-have offered for deflecting blame from our presidents. His study offers numerous detailed and instructive examples from the administrations of Truman (Dean Acheson); Eisenhower (Richard Nixon, John Foster Dulles, Herbert Brownell, and Ezra Taft Benson); LBJ (Hubert Humphrey); Ford (Henry Kissinger); and Reagan (James Watt). These examples, Ellis suggests, should guide our understanding of the relationship between lightning rods and presidential leadership, policymaking, and ratings. Blame avoidance, he warns, does have its limitations and may even backfire at times. Nevertheless, President Clinton and his successors may need to rely on such tools. The presidency, Ellis points out, finds itself the object of increasingly intense partisan debate and microscopic scrutiny by a wary press. Lightning rods can deflect such heat and help the president test policies, gauge public opinion, and protect his political power and public image. Ellis's book is an essential primer for helping us understand this process.

Prologue

Prologue
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 84
Release: 2001
Genre: Archives
ISBN: