Dwight D. Eisenhower, Warrior King. Not.

Note:   There are many complete biographies of President Eisenhower.  Mine's just a fun nod to this great man.  I intend to post about each of the presidents between 1912 and 1963, but in a positive way.  This isn't meant to spark political rioting.  I'm a history buff and I appreciate the balance necessary to our form of government.  I'll also be posting about other people in that time period who have inspired me.

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Before the birth of the United States, it was rare that a triumphant warrior would have the humility necessary to refuse being crowned king or dictator for life or some other such thing.  And successful warriors are typically too narcissist to be benevolent civilian leaders.
 

As vice president, Harry S. Truman became president of the United States when the beloved President Roosevelt died just weeks before victory was declared in Europe at the close of World War II.  He authorized the Bomb and just a few years later got us into the Korean War.

These two presidents were Democrats, by the way. 

I think it’s pretty much impossible for my generation and younger to comprehend how it felt to be an American back then. 

Millions of people around the world died in World War II, including brothers and fathers and sisters and mothers.  It was horrible.  The nation was shell-shocked.  This is why it would have been easy for Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander who led the D-Day Invasion which literally saved the world, to become president or king or whatever and pretty much get away with anything.  Like George Washington, he refused.

But, some people got together and eventually convinced him to run for president.  Draft Eisenhower Movement   Of course, he won and President Eisenhower led our nation for two terms, from 1953 to 1961. 

The 1950s are nowadays criticized for many things, but there’s a growing movement of folks who appreciate the good things that went on.  Sure, there were negatives, but it was also a time of optimism and appreciation for the family.  The economy was booming and so were the babies.  World War II was finally behind us and I don’t think parents talked about it enough with their children, probably too painful. 

The Korean War ended and the Armed Forces were desegregated (a process started by Truman.) When Arkansas balked at desegregation in their schools, Eisenhower called up the National Guard and nine African American students were escorted safely to class.  Eisenhower also signed two Civil Rights Acts into law.  I like to think it was the courageous service of African Americans, like the  Tuskegee Airmen  during World War II which made this domestic issue so important to Eisenhower. 

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. thanked him for his efforts:   "The overwhelming majority of southerners, Negro and white, stand firmly behind your resolute action to restore law and order in Little Rock”
 

Oh, sure, there were nasty things going on around the world, but there was also Elvis Presley  

and    I Love Lucy  at home.

And my mother went to college.

 

After a two-term president, Americans almost always vote in a president of the opposite party.  Guess we just like change, but change is good and balance is essential to our form of government, I do believe.  Eisenhower was a Republican and his successor was a young Democrat named John F. Kennedy.

President Eisenhower at Biography.Com

Hey, did you notice Indy said, "I Like Ike," at one point in the last movie.  Watch it again, if you can't remember.  I think the scene with him running through the pretend 1950s neighborhood set up for the nuclear test was a stroke of imaginative genius.   Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Chrystal Skull