Our Presidents
                      Dwight David Eisenhower
                              Thirty-Fourth
                               1953 - 1961

"President Dwight David Eisenhower", our thirty-fourth President was born in "Denison, Texas".  A beautiful, picturesque, sleepy town where he spent his early years. The Victorian home with the white picket fence is one of beauty and grace, before his family moved to Abilene, Kansas. President Eisenhower's father was a construction engineer.

In 1911 President Eisenhower was appointed to "West Point, New York". A year after graduation, President Eisenhower met and married "Mamie Geneva Doud". President Eisenhower and Mamie Geneva Doud Eisenhower were blessed with two sons.

For the next twenty-four years, President Eisenhower was assigned to various Army posts around the world, until in 1941, President Eisenhower was called to "Washington, D.C." after the Japanese attack on "Pearl Harbor, Hawaii".

At Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, President Eisenhower worked in the "War Plans Division" of the Army's staff headquarters. In 1942, President Eisenhower was promoted to Lieutenant General and "Commander of the United States Armed Forces in Europe". President Eisenhower directed the "Allied Invasion of North Africa",  the "Allied Invasion of Sicily", and the "Allied Invasion of Italy".

President Eisenhower became "Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in 1944" and remained in that post until the final armistice a year later. On President Eisenhower's return from Europe, President Eisenhower became "Chief of Staff" until 1948, when President Eisenhower retired from the Army to become the "President of Columbia University" for two years.

In 1950, "President Harry S. Truman" sent President Eisenhower to Europe to command the newly organized "NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) troops, and it was there President Eisenhower was approached by the Republicans to run for the office of Presidency in 1952. Both political parties had wanted President Eisenhower to run for office, but at first he had declined to run at all.

President Eisenhower was persuaded this time that the country needed him and he consented to run. "President Richard Milhous Nixon" became the Vice Presidential Candidate. President Eisenhower's distinguished service during "World War II" had won the admiration of the American people and he was elected overwhelmingly.

In the campaign, President Eisenhower had promised to bring the "Korean War" to an end. The following July, President Eisenhower went to Korea and was successful in working out an armistice.

In President Eisenhower's first term of office, inexperienced in government, left most post war problems of peace, disarmament, the economy, and civil rights, to his advisors and to Congress. In 1954, the United States supported the French against the "Vietnamese Communists", a defense agreement was signed among "Southeast Asian countries" and the "Supreme Court" ordered desegregation of all public schools.

In 1955 President Eisenhower suffered a heart attack, but was back at work in a few months. President Eisenhower was re-elected in 1956, again by a large majority. In President Eisenhower's second term, he became less dependent on personal advisors and set out to try to bring lasting peace to a world still plagued with little skirmishes or wars.

At a meeting called in "Paris, France" in 1960 to discuss "Russian American relations", hopes for good will were dashed when the Russians discovered the United States had been flying spy planes over Russia.

President Eisenhower retired to his home in "Gettysburg, Pennsylvania" after his second term was completed. He became a very avid farmer and enjoyed his time at Gettysburg as he was also an avid amateur historian. President Eisenhower died eight years later after suffering a long illness.

Written by:
Karen Palumbo
Photography  "NOT" by:
Robert Palumbo
7/12/2010 (c)