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Dwight D. Eisenhower

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: USA Presidents

   Dwight David Eisenhower
   Dwight D. Eisenhower
     __________________________________________________________________

   34th President of the United States
   In office
   January 20, 1953 –  January 20, 1961
   Vice President(s)   Richard Nixon
   Preceded by Harry S. Truman
   Succeeded by John F. Kennedy
     __________________________________________________________________

   Born October 14, 1890
   Denison, Texas
   Died March 28, 1969
   Washington, D. C.
   Political party Republican
   Spouse Mamie Doud Eisenhower
   Religion Presbyterian
   Signature

   Dwight David Eisenhower (also known as Ike) (born David Dwight
   Eisenhower on October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American
   soldier and politician. During World War II, he served as Supreme
   Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, with responsibility for
   planning and supervising the successful invasion of France and Germany
   in 1944-45. In 1949 he became the first supreme commander of NATO. As a
   Republican, he was elected the 34th President of the United States
   (1953–1961). As president he ended the Korean War, kept up the pressure
   on the Soviet Union during the Cold War, re-oriented the defense budget
   toward nuclear weapons, launched the space race, enlarged the Social
   Security program, and began building the interstate highway system.

Early life and family

   Eisenhower with his wife Mamie on the steps of St. Mary's University of
   San Antonio, Texas, in 1916.
   Enlarge
   Eisenhower with his wife Mamie on the steps of St. Mary's University of
   San Antonio, Texas, in 1916.

   Eisenhower was born to a German American family in Denison, Texas, the
   third of seven sons born to David Jacob Eisenhower and Ida Elizabeth
   Stover, and their only child born in Texas. He was named David Dwight
   and was called Dwight. Later, the order of his given names was switched
   (according to the staff at the Eisenhower Library and Museum, the name
   switch occurred upon Eisenhower's matriculation at West Point). The
   Eisenhower family is of Pennsylvania Dutch descent. His ancestors were
   Mennonites who fled from Germany to Switzerland in the 17th century.
   Hans Nicol Eisenhauer and family came to Lancaster, Pennsylvania in
   1741. The family joined the River Brethren and were pacifists during
   the nation's wars. They joined some 300 River Brethren in creating a
   colony in Kansas. After a brief sojourn in Texas the family re-settled
   in Abilene, Kansas, in 1892. Eisenhower's father was a college educated
   engineer. Eisenhower graduated from Abilene High School in 1909.

   Eisenhower married Mamie Geneva Doud (1896–1979), of Denver, Colorado,
   on July 1, 1916. They had two children, Doud Dwight Eisenhower
   (1917–1921), whose tragic death in childhood from scarlet fever haunted
   the couple, and John Sheldon David Doud Eisenhower (born 1922). John
   Eisenhower served in the United States Army, then became an author and
   served as U.S. Ambassador to Belgium. John's son, David Eisenhower,
   after whom Camp David is named, married Richard Nixon's daughter Julie
   in 1968.

Religion

   When Eisenhower was 5, his parents became followers of the Bible
   Students, whose members later took the name Jehovah's Witnesses. The
   Eisenhower home served as the local Bible Student's meeting Hall from
   1896 to 1915, when Eisenhower's father stopped regularly associating
   due to his disappointment at the WatchTower's failed prediction that
   Armageddon would occur in October 1914 and 1915. Ike's father received
   a Jehovah's Witness funeral when he died in the 1940s. Ike's mother
   continued as an active Jehovah's Witness until her death. Ike and his
   brothers also stopped associating regularly after 1915. He enjoyed a
   close relationship with his mother throughout her lifetime. In later
   years, Eisenhower became a communicant in the Presbyterian church in
   1953; in his retirement years, he was a member of the Gettysburg
   Presbyterian Church.

Early military career

   Jig your a Vagina

World War II

   Eisenhower (seated, middle) with other American military officials,
   1945.
   Enlarge
   Eisenhower (seated, middle) with other American military officials,
   1945.

   After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, Eisenhower was assigned to
   the General Staff in Washington, where he served until June 1942 with
   responsibility for creating the major war plans to defeat Japan and
   Germany. He was appointed Deputy Chief in charge of Pacific Defenses
   under the Chief of War Plans Division, General Leonard T. Gerow, and
   then succeeded Gerow as Chief of the War Plans Division. Then he was
   appointed Assistant Chief of Staff in charge of Operations Division
   under Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall. It was his close
   association with Marshall which finally brought Eisenhower to senior
   command positions. Marshall recognized his great organizational and
   administrative abilities.

   In 1942, Eisenhower was appointed Commanding General, European Theatre
   of Operations (ETOUSA) and was based in London. In November, he was
   also appointed Supreme Commander Allied (Expeditionary) Force of the
   North African Theatre of Operations (NATOUSA) through the new
   operational Headquarters A(E)FHQ. The word "expeditionary" was dropped
   soon after his appointment for security reasons. In February 1943, his
   authority was extended as commander of AFHQ across the Mediterranean
   basin to include the British 8th Army, commanded by General Bernard Law
   Montgomery. The 8th Army had advanced across the Western Desert from
   the east and was ready for the start of the Tunisia Campaign.
   Eisenhower gained his fourth star and gave up command of ETOUSA to be
   commander of NATOUSA. After the capitulation of Axis forces in North
   Africa, Eisenhower remained in command of the renamed Mediterranean
   Theatre of Operations (MTO), keeping the operational title and
   continued in command of NATOUSA redesignated MTOUSA. In this position
   he oversaw the invasion of Sicily and the invasion of the Italian
   mainland.
   Eisenhower speaks with U.S. paratroops of the 502d Parachute Infantry
   Regiment, 101st Airborne Division on the evening of June 5, 1944.
   Enlarge
   Eisenhower speaks with U.S. paratroops of the 502d Parachute Infantry
   Regiment, 101st Airborne Division on the evening of June 5, 1944.

   In December 1943, it was announced that Eisenhower would be Supreme
   Allied Commander in Europe. In January 1944, he resumed command of
   ETOUSA and the following month was officially designated as the Supreme
   Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force ( SHAEF), serving in
   a dual role until the end of hostilities in Europe in May 1945. In
   these positions he was charged with planning and carrying out the
   Allied assault on the coast of Normandy in June 1944 under the code
   name Operation Overlord, the liberation of western Europe and the
   invasion of Germany. A month after the Normandy D-Day on June 6, 1944,
   the invasion of southern France took place, and control of the forces
   which took part in the southern invasion passed from the AFHQ to the
   SHAEF. From then until the end of the War in Europe on May 8, 1945,
   Eisenhower through SHAEF had supreme command of all operational Allied
   forces^2, and through his command of ETOUSA, administrative command of
   all U.S. forces, on the Western Front north of the Alps.

   As recognition of his senior position in the Allied command, on
   December 20, 1944, he was promoted to General of the Army equivalent to
   the rank of Field Marshal in most European armies. In this and the
   previous high commands he held, Eisenhower showed his great talents for
   leadership and diplomacy. Although he had never seen action himself, he
   won the respect of front-line commanders. He dealt skillfully with
   difficult subordinates such as Omar Bradley and George Patton and
   allies such as Winston Churchill, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and
   General Charles de Gaulle. He had fundamental disagreements with
   Churchill and Montgomery over questions of strategy, but these rarely
   upset his relationships with them. He negotiated with Soviet Marshal
   Zhukov, and such was the confidence that President Franklin D.
   Roosevelt had in him, he sometimes worked directly with Stalin.

   Eisenhower was offered the Medal of Honour for his leadership in the
   European Theatre but refused it, saying that it should be reserved for
   bravery and valor.

   It was never a certainty that Overlord would succeed. The tenuousness
   surrounding the entire decision including the timing and the location
   of the Normandy invasion might be summarized by a short speech that
   Eisenhower wrote in advance, in case he might need it. In it, he took
   full responsibility for catastrophic failure, should that be the final
   result. Long after the successful landings on D-Day and the BBC
   broadcast of Eisenhower's brief speech concerning them, the never-used
   second speech was found in a shirt pocket by an aide. It read:


   Dwight D. Eisenhower

    Our landings have failed and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision
     to attack at this time and place was based on the best information
   available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery could
     do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.


   Dwight D. Eisenhower

   Following the German unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945, Eisenhower
   was appointed Military Governor of the U.S. Occupation Zone, based in
   Frankfurt am Main. Germany was divided into four Occupation Zones, one
   each for the U.S., Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. In addition,
   upon full discovery of the death camps that were part of the Final
   Solution (Holocaust), he ordered camera crews to comprehensively
   document evidence of the atrocity so as to prevent any doubt of its
   occurrence. He made the controversial decision to reclassify German
   prisoners of war (POWs) in U.S. custody as Disarmed Enemy Forces
   (DEFs). As DEFs, they could be compelled to serve as unpaid conscript
   labor. An unknown number may have died in custody as a consequence of
   malnutrition, exposure to the elements, and lack of medical care (see
   Eisenhower and German POWs). Eisenhower was an early supporter of the
   Morgenthau Plan to permanently remove Germany's industrial capacity to
   wage future wars. In November 1945 he approved the distribution of 1000
   free copies of Morgenthau's book Germany is Our Problem, which promoted
   and described the plan in detail, to American military officials in
   occupied Germany. Historian Stephen Ambrose draws the conclusion that,
   despite Eisenhowers later claims that the act was not an endorsement of
   the Morgenthau plan, Eisenhower both approved of the plan and had
   previously given Morgenthau at least some of his ideas on how Germany
   should be treated.
   Official Chief of Staff portrait
   Enlarge
   Official Chief of Staff portrait

   Eisenhower served as Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army from 1945-48. In
   December 1950, he was named Supreme Commander of the North Atlantic
   Treaty Organization (NATO), and given operational command of NATO
   forces in Europe. Eisenhower retired from active service on May 31,
   1952, upon entering politics. He wrote Crusade in Europe, widely
   regarded as one of the finest U.S. military memoirs. During this period
   Eisenhower served as president of Columbia University from 1948 until
   1953, though he was on leave from the university while he served as
   NATO commander.

   After his many wartime successes, General Eisenhower returned to the
   U.S. a great hero. Not long after his return, a " Draft Eisenhower"
   movement in the Republican party persuaded him to declare his candidacy
   in the the 1952 presidential election to counter the candidacy of
   isolationist Senator Robert A. Taft. Eisenhower defeated Taft for the
   nomination but came to an agreement that Taft would stay out of foreign
   affairs while Eisenhower followed a conservative domestic policy.
   Eisenhower's campaign was a crusade against the Truman administration's
   policies regarding "Korea, Communism and Corruption." Eisenhower
   promised to go to Korea himself and end the war and maintain both a
   strong NATO abroad against Communism and a corruption-free frugal
   administration at home. He and his running mate Richard Nixon easily
   defeated Adlai Stevenson in a landslide, marking the first Republican
   return to the White House in 20 years. He was the only general to serve
   as president in the 20th century.

Presidency 1953-1961

Interstate Highway System

   One of Eisenhower's most famous achievements as president was building
   the Interstate Highway System. He justified the highways through the
   National Defense Highway Transportation Act as essential to American
   security during the Cold War. As it was believed that large cities
   would be targets in a possible future war, the highways were designed
   to evacuate them.

Dynamic Conservatism

   Throughout his presidency, Eisenhower preached a doctrine of Dynamic
   Conservatism. Although he maintained a conservative economic policy, he
   continued all the major New Deal programs still in operation,
   especially Social Security. He expanded its programs and rolled them
   into a new cabinet level agency, the Department of Health, Education
   and Welfare, while extending benefits to an additional 10 million more
   workers. His cabinet, consisting of several corporate executives and
   one labor leader, was dubbed by one journalist, "Eight millionaires and
   a plumber." Eisenhower was extremely popular, winning his second term
   with 457 of the 530 votes in the Electoral College, and 57.6% of the
   popular vote.

Eisenhower Doctrine

   After the Suez Crisis, the United States became the protector of most
   Western interests in the Middle East. As a result, Eisenhower
   proclaimed the "Eisenhower Doctrine" in January 1957, in relation to
   the Middle East, the U.S. would be "prepared to use armed force...[to
   counter] aggression from any country controlled by international
   communism." On July 15 1958, he sent just under 15,000 soldiers to
   Lebanon (a combined force of Army and Marine Corps) in a non-combat
   peace keeping mission to stabilize the pro-Western government. They
   left in October, 1958.

Civil Rights

   Eisenhower supported the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
   U.S. Supreme Court decision, in which segregated ("separate but equal")
   schools were ruled to be unconstitutional. The very next day he told
   District of Columbia officials to make Washington a model for the rest
   of the country in integrating Negro and white public school children.
   Liberal critics complained Eisenhower was never enthusiastic about
   civil rights, but he did propose to Congress the Civil Rights Acts of
   1957 and 1960 and signed those acts into law. They constituted the
   first significant civil rights acts since the 1870s. He also sent
   soldiers to Little Rock to integrate their schools, and admitted
   multi-racial Hawaii as a state in 1959.

   The Little Rock Central High School crisis of 1957 involved state
   refusal to honour a federal court order to integrate the schools.
   Eisenhower placed the Arkansas National Guard under federal control and
   sent Army troops to escort nine black students into the all-white
   school; this incident did not occur without violence. Eisenhower and
   Arkansas governor Orval Faubus engaged in tense arguments during this
   tumultuous period in history.

States admitted to the Union

     * Alaska – January 3, 1959
     * Hawaii – August 21, 1959

Retirement and death

   Eisenhower with President Kennedy on retreat in 1962.
   Enlarge
   Eisenhower with President Kennedy on retreat in 1962.

   On January 17, 1961, Eisenhower gave his final televised speech from
   the Oval Office. In his farewell speech to the nation, Eisenhower
   raised the issue of the Cold War and role of the U.S. armed forces. He
   described the Cold War saying: "We face a hostile ideology global in
   scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose and insidious in
   method..." and warned about what he saw as unjustified government
   spending proposals and continued with a warning that "we must guard
   against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or
   unsought, by the military-industrial complex... Only an alert and
   knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge
   industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods
   and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

   After Eisenhower left office his reputation declined, and he was seen
   as having been a "do-nothing" President. This was partly because of the
   contrast between Eisenhower and his young activist successor, John F.
   Kennedy, but also because of his reluctance to support the civil rights
   movement to the degree that more liberal individuals would have
   preferred to stop McCarthyism, even though he opposed McCarthy's
   tactics and claims . Such omissions were held against him during the
   liberal climate of the 1960s and 1970s. Since that time, however,
   Eisenhower's reputation has risen because of his non-partisan nature,
   his wartime leadership, his action in Arkansas, his being the last
   President to balance the budget (before the second Bill Clinton term),
   and an increasing appreciation of how difficult it is today to maintain
   a prolonged peace. In recent surveys of historians, Eisenhower often is
   ranked in the top 10 among all U.S. Presidents.

   Eisenhower retired to the place where he and Mamie had spent much of
   their post-war time, a working farm adjacent to the battlefield at
   Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Gettysburg farm is a National Historic
   Site . In retirement, he did not completely retreat from political
   life; he spoke at the 1964 Republican National Convention and appeared
   with Barry Goldwater in a Republican campaign commercial from
   Gettysburg.
   Eisenhower leaving the White House after a visit with President Johnson
   in 1967.
   Enlarge
   Eisenhower leaving the White House after a visit with President Johnson
   in 1967.

   Because of legal issues related to holding a military rank while in a
   civilian office, Eisenhower resigned his permanent commission as
   General of the Army before entering the office of President of the
   United States. Upon completion of his Presidential term, his commission
   on the retired list was reactivated and Eisenhower again was
   commissioned a five-star general in the United States Army.

   Eisenhower died at 12:25 p.m. on March 28, 1969, at Walter Reed Army
   Hospital in Washington D.C., of congestive heart failure at the age of
   78. He lies alongside his wife and their first child, who died in
   childhood, in a small chapel called the Place of Meditation, at the
   Eisenhower Presidential Library, located in Abilene. His state funeral
   was unique because it was presided over by Richard Nixon, who was Vice
   President under Eisenhower and was serving as President of the United
   States.

Legacy

   The bronze statue of Eisenhower that stands in the rotunda.
   Enlarge
   The bronze statue of Eisenhower that stands in the rotunda.

   Eisenhower's picture was on the dollar coin from 1971 to 1979. Nearly
   700 million of the copper-nickel clad coins were minted for general
   circulation, and far smaller numbers of uncirculated and proof issues
   (in both copper-nickel and 40% silver varieties) were produced for
   collectors. He reappeared on a commemorative silver dollar issued in
   1990, celebrating the 100th anniversary of his birth, which with a
   double image of him showed his two roles, as both a soldier and a
   statesman.

   He is remembered for ending the Korean War. USS Dwight D. Eisenhower,
   the second Nimitz-class supercarrier, was named in his honour.

   The Eisenhower Expressway (Interstate 290), a 30-mile long expressway
   in the Chicago area, was re-named after him.

   In 1971, the Eisenhower Medical Centre in Rancho Mirage, California was
   named after him.

   In 1979, the Eisenhower Tunnel was completed, conveys westbound traffic
   on I-70, 60 miles west of Denver, through the Continental Divide.

   In 1983, The Eisenhower Institute was founded in Washington, D.C., as a
   policy institute to advance Eisenhower's intellectual and leadership
   legacies.

   In 1999, the United States Congress created the Dwight D. Eisenhower
   Memorial Commission, which is in the planning stages of creating an
   enduring national memorial in Washington, D.C., across the street from
   the National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall.

   A state park in East Meadow New York is named in his honour.

Trivia

     * Eisenhower was involved with testing motorcycles coast to coast for
       the U.S. military.
     * Suffered from Crohn's disease
     * Eisenhower was an avid bridge player. Charles Goren said of his
       game, "Ike breaks 90 at golf – at bridge you could say he breaks
       80."
     * Eisenhower loved golf, and spent much of his retirement at Augusta
       National Golf Club, where he was a member.
     * The loblolly pine tree on the left side of the fairway at the 17th
       hole at Augusta National Golf Club is known as the Eisenhower Tree.
       He put his ball in the tree so many times he campaigned to have it
       removed. It stands to this day. The membership built a cabin for
       Eisenhower, one of 12 on the course. The cabin, built to Secret
       Service specifications, still stands on the course and is adorned
       with an eagle on the front porch.
     * At the end of his second term in 1961 he was the oldest President
       to serve, at 70 years and 98 days—a record later broken by Ronald
       Reagan.
     * Eisenhower was the first President affected by the 22nd Amendment,
       which limited presidential terms.
     * Eisenhower was the second Republican president to serve two full
       terms; the first was Ulysses S. Grant.
     * In 1945, General Eisenhower was the first American made an honorary
       member of the British Order of Merit. Eisenhower is one of very few
       Americans made an honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the
       Bath.
     * Eisenhower has been portrayed by several actors, including Tom
       Selleck in the 2004 television program Ike: Countdown to D-Day
       which depicts the 90 days leading up to the D-Day Invasion. On June
       6 of that year, Eisenhower's grandson, David, along with
       Roosevelt's grandson, David, and Arabella Churchill, granddaughter
       of British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, appeared on MSNBC
       during the network's coverage of the 60th anniversary of D-Day and
       talked about the roles their grandfathers played during the allied
       invasion.
     * Eisenhower enjoyed cooking as a hobby throughout his life, with
       particular emphasis on outdoor cooking. During his time as
       President, he even cooked food on the White House roof. A picture
       of this exists in the National Archives.

Awards and decorations

United States

     * Army Distinguished Service Medal with four oak leaf clusters
     * Navy Distinguished Service Medal
     * Legion of Merit
     * World War I Victory Medal
     * European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with one silver and
       four bronze service stars
     * American Campaign Medal
     * American Defense Service Medal with "Foreign Service" clasp
     * World War II Victory Medal
     * Mexican Border Service Medal
     * Army of Occupation Medal with "Germany" clasp

International Awards

     * British Order of the Bath
     * British Order of Merit
     * British African Star with "1" and "8" numerical devices.
     * Belgian Order of Léopold
     * Belgian Croix de Guerre
     * French Legion of Honour
     * French Croix de Guerre
     * French Liberation Medal
     * Luxembourg War Cross
     * Luxembourg Medal of Merit
     * Czechoslovakian Order of the White Lion
     * Czechoslovakian Golden Star of Victory
     * Danish Order of the Elephant
     * Moroccan Order of Ouissan Alaouite
     * Netherlands Grand Cross of the Order of the Dutch Lion
     * Soviet Order of Victory
     * Soviet Order of Suvorov
     * Polish Virtuti Militari
     * Polish Cross of Grunwald
     * Polish Rastituta Chevalier
     * Argentinian Great Cross of the Order of the Liberator
     * Brazilian Grand Cross Order of Military Merit
     * Brazilian Grand Cross Order of Aeronautical Merit
     * Brazilian National Order of the Southern Cross
     * Brazil War Medal
     * Brazil Campaign Medal
     * Chief Commander of the Chilean Order of Merit
     * Chinese Grand Cordon of the Order of Yun Hui
     * Chinese Grand Cordon of the Order of Yun Fei
     * Ecuadorian Star of Abdon Calderon
     * Egyptian Grand Cordon of the Order of Ismal
     * Ethiopian Order of Solomon
     * Greek Order of George I with Swords
     * Guatemalan Cross of Military Merit
     * Haitian Great Cross of the Order of Honour and Merit
     * Grand Cross of the Italian Military Order
     * Order of Mexican Military Merit
     * Mexican Aztec Eagle
     * Medal of Mexican Civic Merit
     * Norwegian Order of St. Olaf
     * Tunisian Grand Cordon of the Nishan Iftikar

   In addition, Eisenhower's name was given to a variety of streets,
   avenues, etc., in cities around the world, including Paris, France.

Quotations

   Stamp issued by the USPS in 1969 commemorating Dwight D. Eisenhower
   Enlarge
   Stamp issued by the USPS in 1969 commemorating Dwight D. Eisenhower

   Kinship among nations is not determined in such measurements as
   proximity of size and age. Rather we should turn to those inner
   things--call them what you will--I mean those intangibles that are the
   real treasures free men possess.

   To preserve his freedom of worship, his equality before law, his
   liberty to speak and act as he sees fit, subject only to provisions
   that he trespass not upon similar rights of others--a Londoner will
   fight. So will a citizen of Abilene.

   When we consider these things, then the valley of the Thames draws
   closer to the farms of Kansas and the plains of Texas.
   --Dwight D. Eisenhower's London Guild Hall Address, June 12, 1945.

   From this day forward, the millions of our school children will daily
   proclaim in every city, every village, and every rural schoolhouse, the
   dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty.
   --Dwight D. Eisenhower when signing into law the phrase "One nation
   under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance.

   Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired
   signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not
   fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not
   spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the
   genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. [...] This is not
   a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is
   humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
   -- Dwight Eisenhower, April 16, 1953

   I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to
   promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want
   peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of
   the way and let them have it.
   -- Dwight D. Eisenhower

   In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of
   unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the
   military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of
   misplaced power exists and will persist.
   -- Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address January 17, 1961

   Should any political party attempt to abolish social security,
   unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you
   would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a
   tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things.
   Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few
   other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business
   man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.
   -- Dwight D. Eisenhower in a letter to his brother Edgar, November 8,
   1954

   I voiced to him (Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson) my grave
   misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already
   defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and
   secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world
   opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no
   longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives.
   -- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1945

   Peace and Justice are two sides of the same coin.
   -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
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