Author: Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight David Eisenhower (nicknamed “Ike”; 1890–1969) was the 34th President of the United States, serving two terms from 1953 to 1961. Born in Denison, Texas, and raised in Abilene, Kansas, Eisenhower attended West Point and served a long and distinguished career in the US Army. During World War II, he was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. After the war, he served as President Harry S. Truman’s Chief of Staff of the Army until 1948, and then became the first Supreme Allied Commander, Europe for NATO in 1951. He assumed the Office of the Presidency on January 20, 1953. During his time as president, he brought the Korean War to a close and continued America’s anticommunist policies as part of the Cold War with the USSR. On the domestic front, he oversaw the formation of the Interstate Highway System and the launch of NASA, and he led efforts to combat racial discrimination, including enforcing desegregation in the Armed Forces and sending federal troops to Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas to enforce desegregation in the public school system under the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision. 

Centennial of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

Dwight D. Eisenhower
To commemorate the centennial of the Gettysburg Address, President John F. Kennedy (1917–63) was asked to speak during a special event at the Gettysburg National Cemetery. Already scheduled on a trip to Texas, Kennedy declined the invitation, and former President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) stepped in to honor Lincoln’s memory.

On the Situation in Little Rock

Dwight D. Eisenhower

In September 1957, nine black students attempted to enroll in the previously all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Arkansas governor Orval Faubus first called out the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the students from entering the school, and later reneged on a promise to President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) that he would thereafter keep the Guard at the school to maintain order so that the students might peacefully enroll.

Order of the Day: 6 June 1944

Dwight D. Eisenhower

After almost five years of devastating war in the European theater, the Allies mounted what turned out to be the decisive operation in the liberation of France and the final defeat of Nazi Germany. On June 5, 1944, Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969), Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, gave the order to commence Operation Overlord, the invasion of France.