Biography of ike eisenhower

Dwight Eisenhower  ©Eisenhower was the supreme Allied commander in Europe in World War Two and later 34th president of the United States.

Dwight David Eisenhower, nicknamed 'Ike', was born in Denison, Texas on 14 October 1890 and brought up in Kansas.

Eisenhower graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point in 1915. He served in the army through the 1920s and 1930s, including a posting to the Philippines in the late 1930s.

Shortly after the United States entered World War Two, Eisenhower went to work in Washington, where he impressed the chief of staff General George C Marshall. In June 1942, he was appointed commanding general in the European theatre. This was later extended to include the Mediterranean and North Africa. In February 1944, he was named the supreme commander of the Allied expeditionary forces in Western Europe. He oversaw the successful Allied assault on the coast of Normandy in June 1944 and the Allied liberation of western Europe. On 7 May 1945 he accepted Germany's surrender and then commanded the US occupation zone in Germany.

In November 1945, Eisenhower returned to the US as army chief of staff. He was made president of Columbia University in 1948, but in December 1950 left to become supreme commander of NATO forces in Europe.

In 1952, the popularity which Eisenhower had gained during the war helped him win the Republican nomination for presidency and then the presidency itself. His time in office was dominated by the Cold War. In July 1953, he agreed to an armistice to end the fighting in Korea. He also guaranteed US protection for South Vietnam. In 1956, Eisenhower surprised Britain and France by refusing to back them in the Suez crisis.

At home, Eisenhower expanded social security provision and instigated the interstate highway system, the largest construction project in history. He was criticised for failing to publicly condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy for his anti-communist 'witchhunt'.

Bringing to the Presidency his prestige as commanding general of the victorious forces in Europe during World War II, Dwight D. Eisenhower obtained a truce in Korea and worked incessantly during his two terms to ease the tensions of the Cold War. He pursued the moderate policies of "Modern Republicanism," pointing out as he left office, "America is today the strongest, most influential, and most productive nation in the world."

Born in Texas in 1890, brought up in Abilene, Kansas, Eisenhower was the third of seven sons. He excelled in sports in high school, and received an appointment to West Point. Stationed in Texas as a second lieutenant, he met Mamie Geneva Doud, whom he married in 1916.

In his early Army career, he excelled in staff assignments, serving under Generals John J. Pershing, Douglas MacArthur, and Walter Krueger. After Pearl Harbor, General George C. Marshall called him to Washington for a war plans assignment. He commanded the Allied Forces landing in North Africa in November 1942; on D-Day, 1944, he was Supreme Commander of the troops invading France.

After the war, he became President of Columbia University, then took leave to assume supreme command over the new NATO forces being assembled in 1951. Republican emissaries to his headquarters near Paris persuaded him to run for President in 1952.

"I like Ike" was an irresistible slogan; Eisenhower won a sweeping victory.

Negotiating from military strength, he tried to reduce the strains of the Cold War. In 1953, the signing of a truce brought an armed peace along the border of South Korea. The death of Stalin the same year caused shifts in relations with Russia.

New Russian leaders consented to a peace treaty neutralizing Austria. Meanwhile, both Russia and the United States had developed hydrogen bombs. With the threat of such destructive force hanging over the world, Eisenhower, with the leaders of the British, French, and Russian governments, met at Geneva in July 1955.

Jobs and School

Work joined history, school, and sport as another formative element of Ike's Abilene days. He baked and sold tamales; grew and sold sweet corn and cucumbers; harvested wheat, picked apples, and hammered out steel grain bins. He joined the Belle Springs Creamery after graduating from Abilene High School in 1909, toiling as a fireman from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. seven days a week.

With his creamery proceeds, he supported his brother Edgar through two years of college at the University of Michigan. The plan was for Edgar to work the next two years for Ike's schooling. Instead, Ike won an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, and left the creamery and Abilene in 1911.

He returned to Abilene for the summer following his sophomore or "Yearling" term at West Point in 1913. Following graduation, he spent the summer of 1915 at home courting a young woman while awaiting orders to his first military posting. Homecomings were rare after that, until the end, when he returned one last time for interment in the Place of Meditation on the grounds of the Eisenhower Center on April 2, 1969.

Dwight David Eisenhower was born the year the U.S. census pronounced the frontier closed and died the year man walked on the moon. In between those milestones he planned and led the greatest amphibious military assault in history and waged eight years of peace and prosperity as President. Yet on reflection of this eventful life, he declared: 

"The proudest thing I can claim is that I am from Abilene."