⭐Dwight D. Eisenhower

34th President · 1953–1961

Before he was elected president, Dwight Eisenhower commanded the largest invasion in military history. As Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during World War II, he directed the D-Day landings at Normandy that began the liberation of France. As president, he ended the Korean War, expanded Social Security, launched the Interstate Highway System, and left office with one of the most prescient farewell addresses in American history.

Kansas Boyhood and West Point

Born in Texas and raised in Abilene, Kansas, Eisenhower grew up one of seven brothers in a modest household. He entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1911, graduating in 1915 as part of "the class the stars fell on" — 59 of its 164 members eventually became generals. Between the two world wars, he served under Generals John Pershing, Douglas MacArthur, and George Marshall, earning a reputation for administrative skill that would prove decisive in the next war.

D-Day and Germany's Surrender

In December 1943, with the Allies preparing to invade Nazi-occupied Europe, Eisenhower was chosen as Supreme Allied Commander of the Expeditionary Force. He bore the final responsibility for launching Operation Overlord — the invasion of Normandy — on June 6, 1944, sending more than 150,000 Allied troops across the English Channel by sea and air. The night before, he drafted a short message accepting personal blame in case the landings failed: "If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone." The landings succeeded, and eleven months later Nazi Germany surrendered. Eisenhower accepted the surrender at his headquarters in Reims, France on May 7, 1945.

The Road to the White House

After the war, Eisenhower served as Army Chief of Staff, president of Columbia University, and first Supreme Allied Commander of NATO. Both parties courted him. He publicly committed to the Republicans in early 1952 and was elected president in November over Democrat Adlai Stevenson. His running mate was a young California senator named Richard Nixon.

Ending Korea, Building the Interstates

Eisenhower's 1952 campaign pledge was to go to Korea and end the war. He did — an armistice was signed in July 1953. Domestically, he signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, which created the 41,000-mile Interstate Highway System. The interstates were the largest public works project in American history. He also sent the 101st Airborne to Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957 to enforce the Supreme Court's desegregation order, and he signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first federal civil rights legislation since Reconstruction.

Cold War and Sputnik

Eisenhower presided over the opening decade of the Cold War. The Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik in October 1957 spurred his administration to create NASA and to massively increase federal funding for science and engineering education. He negotiated cautiously with Soviet leaders, refused to intervene militarily in Hungary (1956) or at Suez (1956), and authorized covert operations in Iran (1953) and Guatemala (1954).

The Farewell Address

In his January 17, 1961 farewell address, Eisenhower — a career soldier — issued one of the most-quoted warnings in American political rhetoric: "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex." Three days later, John F. Kennedy was inaugurated.

Eisenhower Trivia

• He is the only 20th-century president who never lost an election of any kind.
• His nickname "Ike" came from family shorthand — all the Eisenhower brothers were nicknamed "Ike" at various points.
• Alaska and Hawaii became states during his presidency — the only president under whom new states were admitted since William Taft.
• He added the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 and made "In God We Trust" the national motto in 1956.
• The initial "D" in his name stood for David; his mother reversed his first and middle names at birth from David Dwight to Dwight David.

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