Thirty-fourth US President Dwight Eisenhower is the first to come to power after twenty years of continuous rule by the Democratic Party. Read more about himself, his course in foreign and domestic policy next.
Brief biography of the future president
The thirty-fourth president of the United States was born at the end of the nineteenth century, in 1890, in Texas, but his childhood passed in Kansas, where the family moved only a year after his birth in search of a job. The parents of the future political leader were convinced pacifists, but the young man himself sought to study military affairs. In many ways, his future life was decided precisely by the Military Academy, which he graduated in 1915 - in the midst of the First World War. The mother, in whose family there had been no military men for four centuries, respected the choice of her son and did not condemn him.
Dwight Eisenhower was promoted to captain a few days after the United States entered the war. The ambitious young man sought to prove himself in battle battles, but he was stubbornly not wanted to be sent to the front. Throughout the war, Dwight was in America and trained recruits to be sent overseas. For outstanding success in this field, Dwight was awarded the rank of major and awarded a medal. By the way, he still got permission to go to the front, but a few days before the dispatch came a message that Germany had signed the surrender.
In the interwar period, the young man continued to serve. He was on the Panama Canal, which in those years was occupied by the United States. For a while, Eisenhower fell under the leadership of General Douglas MacArthur. Further and until 1939, the future leader was in the Philippines.
The United States was drawn into World War II on December 7, 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. At first, Eisenhower held senior positions in the Army Headquarters under General George Marshall, and in 1942-1943. he commanded an offensive in Italy and North Africa. He carried out coordination of military operations together with the Soviet major general Alexander Vasiliev. When the Second Front was opened, Eisenhower became Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force. Under his leadership, the landing of American troops in Normandy took place.
The only dark spot on the biography of Dwight Eisenhower at that time was the initiation of the creation of a new class of prisoners, who were called the Disarmed Forces of the Enemy. These prisoners of war were not conditionally covered by the terms of the Geneva Convention. This led to the fact that German prisoners of war in the USA were dying en masse due to their refusal in basic living conditions.
After the war, Dwight became president of Columbia University. He received many degrees and awards in the field of science, but he perfectly understood that this was just a tribute to his actions in wartime. In 1948, he published the first part of his memoirs, which received great publicity and brought the author nearly half a million dollars in net profit.
Political career
The beginning of the political career of the future US leader can be considered the moment when Harry Truman invited him to become the commander of NATO forces in Europe. Eisenhower believed in the future of NATO and sought to create a single military organization that would contain the aggression of communists around the world.
He ran for president of the United States when Truman's popularity fell due to a long war with Korea. Both the Republican and Democratic parties are ready to nominate him as their candidate. The party affiliation of Dwight Eisenhower was determined by his own decision, the future leader chose the Republican Party. Eisenhower quite easily managed to gain the confidence of voters during the election race, and in 1953 he became the leader of the United States.
Course in domestic politics
US President Dwight Eisenhower immediately began to say that he did not study politics and did not understand anything about it. The leader said the same thing about the economy. He planned to end the persecution of leftist views, build highways throughout the country, and increase the state monopoly in the economic sphere. He decided to continue the programs of Roosevelt and Truman (“New Deal” and “Fair Deal”), raised the minimum wage, created a department of education, health and social welfare, and strengthened social assistance programs.
Social and economic development
The years of the reign of Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961) are characterized by the rapid growth of the monopoly of the state and capitalism as a whole. The budget deficit that Harry Truman Eisenhower “inherited” was only reduced by 1956-1957. In addition, the president was not able to fully fulfill his election promises regarding the reduction of military spending - the arms race not only required money, but also significantly weakened the country's economy and generated inflation. The anti-inflationary measures proposed by President Dwight Eisenhower were not taken by Congress, suggesting directly opposite actions.
Under Eisenhower, the United States suffered several economic crises. America's share in world industrial production fell, and the number of unemployed increased significantly. The response of the president was very, very modest. He put in high positions energetic and truly talented people, hoping for their experience, but he was bound by the principles of the party and corporations, which had a great influence on politics.
Domestic policies
So, the main directions of Dwight Eisenhower’s domestic policy are:
- Social policy, but now the Republicans have transferred some of the authority to the places: states, cities, unions.
- Large-scale construction of housing and roads, which contributed to the creation of new jobs.
- Tax cuts, the abolition of certain measures taken by the previous government in order to stabilize the economy of the United States.
- Removing pricing and salary controls, raising minimum wages.
- Beginning of the Black American Civil Rights Movement.
- The crowding out of small farms to larger farms, and so on.
Anti-communist politics
In foreign and domestic politics, Dwight Eisenhower adhered to anti-communist principles. In 1950, even before Eisenhower came to power, a well-known US nuclear scientist who was engaged in a secret nuclear project, was arrested and sentenced to prison. The reason was in connection with Soviet intelligence, Klaus Fuchs transmitted information to the USSR that could accelerate the creation of the atomic bomb by Soviet scientists. The investigation led to the Rosenberg couple, who also worked for Soviet intelligence. The husband and wife did not plead guilty, the process ended with their execution in an electric chair. A request for clemency was then rejected by Dwight David Eisenhower.
Senator Joseph McCarthy made a career in this process. Two years before Eisenhower took office, he shocked the whole country with a list of Communists who work in the United States government. In fact, there was no list; in Congress there would be no one communist, not even fifty (or even more), as McCarthy claimed. But even after Eisenhower sat in the presidency, McCarthyism still continued to have a significant impact on American society and politics.
Adherents of McCarthyism accused the new leader of being too lenient with respect to the "red threat", although the president nevertheless fired several thousand government and federal officials on charges of anti-American orientation.
Eisenhower refrained from publicly criticizing the actions of Senator McCarthy, although he did not like him very much as a person. The president worked more and more on this issue in the shadows, realizing that open criticism of such an influential person, even by the leader of the nation, would be unjustified and would not bring the desired result. When Republican Joseph McCarthy's course violated American civil liberties, military interrogations were shown on television. This caused even greater public outcry, and on December 2, 1954, the Senate condemned McCarthy. By the end of the year, the movement suffered a complete defeat.
The issue of racial segregation in the army
Attempts to resolve the issue of racial segregation are also among the main directions of Dwight Eisenhower’s domestic policy. During the war, approximately 9% of the US military personnel were black. Most of them (more than 90%) were engaged in hard work, only 10% served in military units, but almost no one rose above the rank of lieutenant.
Allied Commander-in-Chief Dwight Eisenhower dealt with this problem back in 1944. He issued a decree “On equal opportunities and rights …”, however, four years later he advocated the isolation of blacks in the army, because a nasty incident could threaten the interests of themselves.
At the same time, society has actively raised the question that racial persecution and oppression of blacks is a shame on America. Young negroes who distinguished themselves on the battlefields of World War II were especially aggressive. Eisenhower understood how relevant this topic was, so during the election race I did not forget to mention that it would serve the interests of all Americans, regardless of race or religion. But during the presidency, Dwight Eisenhower’s domestic policy was tacit on this issue. His rule was marked by several serious racial conflicts.
American "world leadership"
“Domestic and foreign policy, ” Dwight Eisenhower now and then did not forget to mention it, “are connected, inextricable.” An aggressive position in the international arena only provokes additional military spending, which, in turn, aggravate the state budget.
The Eisenhower Doctrine - an important document according to which the American president remained "positively neutral", occupies a special place in the foreign policy of the then American government. This position was voiced by the president in 1957. According to the document, any country in the world can ask the US for help and not be rejected. This included both economic and military assistance. Of course, Dwight Eisenhower emphasized the Soviet threat (after all, it happened during the Cold War), but he also called for protecting the integrity and independence of countries in need of help.
US Foreign Policy in Europe
The foreign policy of the American leader was aimed at strengthening the position of the United States in various regions. In 1951, the Commander-in-Chief decided that the United States needed help from West Germany in placing military positions. America has achieved the entry of West Germany into NATO, and even raised the issue of unification. True, in ten days the Warsaw Pact was signed, and the unification occurred only after 34 years, and Europe was again divided into two camps.
Korean question
At a meeting of foreign ministers in 1954, two issues were resolved - Indochinese and Korean. America refused to withdraw troops from Korea, although already in 1951 the advantage was on the US side, and it became clear to everyone that it would not be possible to achieve victory by war. Dwight Eisenhower visited Korea before taking office to find out on the spot. The ceasefire was adopted after taking office, in 1953, but a real peace agreement between North and South Korea has not yet been signed. Formally, the agreement was concluded back in 1991, but in 2013, the DPRK canceled the document.
Middle East Politics
The main directions of Dwight Eisenhower's foreign policy include a course in the Middle East. The nationalization of the oil industry in Iran ran counter to the interests of the imperialist states and most of all the UK. Then the British government in the person of Churchill appealed to the US president for support of the British position on the Iranian issue. Eisenhower remained neutral, but actively contributed to the creation of a military-political bloc called the Baghdad Pact.
US actions in South America
With regard to Latin America, there was an “anti-communist resolution” imposed by the policies of the Eisenhower administration. This document made third-party interference legitimate in those countries whose government will take the path of a democratic regime. This, in essence, gave the United States a legal right to overthrow any "objectionable" regime in South America.
The USA actively supported the dictators of Latin America so that a communist regime would not be established in the nearest countries. It even came to the point that the US military provided decisive assistance to the dictatorial regime of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic.
