Following his presidency, Eisenhower returned to private life living at his farm near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Shortly after leaving office, an act of Congress restored him to the rank of General of the Army on March 30, 1961. During his retirement, Eisenhower remained only moderately involved in politics, preferring instead to spend his final years traveling, farming, fishing, oil painting, golfing, and playing bridge. On December 16, 1950, the member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) unanimously selected Eisenhower as the organization’s first Supreme Allied Commander, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Europe (SHAPE). Eisenhower took leave from Columbia and headed off to Brussels, Belgium.

In this role, he oversaw the Operation Torch landings in North Africa that November. As Allied troops drove Axis forces into Tunisia, Eisenhower’s mandate was expanded east to include General Sir Bernard Montgomery’s British 8th Army which had advanced west from Egypt. Promoted to general on February 11, 1943, he led the Tunisian Campaign to successful a conclusion that May. Remaining in the Mediterranean, Eisenhower’s command was redesignated the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. Crossing to Sicily, he directed the invasion of the island in July 1943 before planning for landings in Italy. Critics contended that there were frequent disparities between the administration’s words and its deeds in the field of foreign relations.

World War II Begins

Chief of Staff Marshall summoned him to Washington in December 1941 to develop plans for mobilizing the army and conducting the war. Eisenhower impressed Marshall immediately, and he quickly worked his way up the ladder on Marshall’s staff. One month later, on March 27, he was promoted to major general (temporary), a rank appropriate for his important prominent office. Together with Marshall, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Eisenhower helped develop the strategic plan to defeat the Axis powers in Europe before waging an all-out effort against Japan. In October 1918, the army promoted Eisenhower to lieutenant colonel (temporary) and ordered him to embark for France on November 18.

Though he clashed with Churchill over strategy, such as the British-opposed Operation Dragoon landings in Southern France, Eisenhower worked to balance Allied initiatives and approved Montgomery’s Operation Market-Garden in September. Pushing east in December, Eisenhower’s biggest crisis of the campaign came with the opening of the Battle of the Bulge on Dec. 16. With German forces breaking through the Allied lines, Eisenhower quickly worked to seal the breach and contain the enemy advance. Over the next month, Allied troops halted the enemy and drove them back to their original lines with heavy losses.

Dwight David Eisenhower, 1890–1969

Despite Eisenhower’s indisputable talents, he would not receive another promotion for twelve years. Known locally as Little Ike, young Eisenhower enjoyed the outdoors where he developed a lifelong love of fishing. Like his brothers, Eisenhower attended local public schools where he developed an early and lasting interest in military history. In 1909, Little Ike graduated from Abilene High School where he was a bright student and talented athlete. During his last years in office, he hoped to improve US-Soviet relations and negotiate a nuclear test ban treaty. But in May 1960 the Soviets shot down an American U2 spy plane over their territory, which ended any hope of better relations before Eisenhower left office.

After the war, Conner served as Pershing’s chief of staff when Pershing became Chief of Staff of the Army. Though popular throughout his administration, he faltered in the protection of civil rights for African Americans by failing to fully enforce the Supreme Court’s mandate for the desegregation of schools in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). On the domestic front, Eisenhower governed as a moderate conservative who continued New Deal agencies and expanded Social Security. He covertly opposed Joseph McCarthy and contributed to the end of McCarthyism by openly invoking executive privilege. He signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and sent Army troops to enforce federal court orders which integrated schools in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Where was Dwight D. Eisenhower educated?

Dwight David Eisenhower (October 14, 1890–March 28, 1969) was a decorated war hero, having participated in two World Wars, holding many titles. After retiring from active duty, he entered politics and served as president of the United States from 1953–1961. Eisenhower’s parents originally gave him the same first name as his father—David.

Dwight David Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States and the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe during the Second World War. Although he graduated before the United States entered the First World War, he never received the combat command in France that he coveted. Instead, Eisenhower served in administrative assignments under such military luminaries as John J, Pershing, Fox Conner, and Douglas MacArthur until the U.S. entered the Second War War.

World War I (1914–

After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor that December, U.S. Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall called Eisenhower to Washington, D.C. Beginning in November 1942, Eisenhower headed Operation Torch, the successful Allied invasion of North Africa. He then directed the amphibious invasion of Sicily and the Italian mainland in 1943 that led to the fall of Rome in June 1944. As president, Eisenhower also initiated the “up or out” policy that still prevails in the US military. Officers who are passed over for promotion twice are then usually honorably but quickly discharged to make way for younger and more able officers.

Many Republicans, including Nixon, spoke of pro-communist disloyalty within the Truman administration and called for stringent antisubversive measures. The Eisenhower-Nixon ticket won handily, carrying what are the 2 axes in the eisenhower box 39 states, winning the electoral vote 442 to 89, and collecting more than 33 million popular votes. The Republican Party won control of Congress by a slim margin but lost both houses two years later.

Army Chief of Staff

One day he would sign the legislation officially adding the phrase “under God ” to the Pledge of Allegiance. In domestic policy the President pursued a middle course, continuing most of the New Deal and Fair Deal programs, emphasizing a balanced budget. As desegregation of schools began, he sent troops into Little Rock, Arkansas, to assure compliance with the orders of a Federal court; he also ordered the complete desegregation of the Armed Forces.

Serving until May 31, 1952, he retired from active duty and returned to Columbia. Leading the final drives into Germany, Eisenhower coordinated with his Soviet counterpart, Marshal Georgy Zhukov and, at times, directly with Premier Joseph Stalin. Aware that Berlin would fall in the Soviet occupation zone after the war, Eisenhower halted Allied troops at the Elbe River rather than suffer heavy losses taking an objective that would be lost after the end of fighting. With the surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945, Eisenhower was named Military Governor of the U.S. As governor, he worked to document Nazi atrocities, deal with food shortages, and aid refugees. Though born David Dwight, Eisenhower had gone by his middle name for most of his life.

Then a major, he graduated first in a class of 275 in 1926 and two years later graduated from the Army War College. He then served in France (where he wrote a guidebook of World War I battlefields) and in Washington, D.C., before becoming an aide to Army Chief of Staff Gen. Douglas MacArthur in 1933. He returned to the United States shortly after Germany’s invasion of Poland initiated the European phase of World War II, and in March 1941 he became a full colonel. Three months later he was made chief of staff of the Third Army, and he soon won the attention of Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall for his role in planning war games involving almost 500,000 troops. The right wing of the Republican Party clashed with the president more often than the Democrats did during his first term. The bill fell only one vote short; it was a victory for the president’s extensive lobbying campaign.

• Leading the final drives into Germany, Eisenhower coordinated with his Soviet counterpart, Marshal Georgy Zhukov and, at times, directly with Premier Joseph Stalin.
• Eisenhower’s basically conservative views on domestic affairs were shared by his secretary of the treasury, George M. Humphrey.
• To preserve party unity, Eisenhower refrained from publicly criticizing McCarthy, though he privately disliked the senator and worked behind the scenes to diminish McCarthy’s influence and eventually discredit him.
• On June 7, 1948, the trustees of Columbia University, appointed Eisenhower as president of the university.
• After the last Christmas season of his presidency, President Eisenhower, on January 17, 1961, addressed the nation with his valedictory and his greatest speech.
• The Eisenhower-Nixon ticket won handily, carrying 39 states, winning the electoral vote 442 to 89, and collecting more than 33 million popular votes.