President Dwight D. Eisenhower

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the beloved and protective father figure of post-World War II, is perhaps most revered for his competence, and whose leadership as a Commander-In-Chief kept a nation safe during an unsettling period of the Cold War. He is highly regarded as one of our country’s greatest military leaders; however, he is considered a good, but not a great president. ‘Great presidents’ inherently ‘possess’ a visionary leadership role; that is they know the direction in which they want to steer the country to, where it came from, and where it currently is. They are leaders with a moral compass in a sense, as they are able to clarify and quantify the ‘needs‘, wants, and ‘anxieties’ of the American citizenry during a particular crisis. It is through these crises that a great president seizes upon opportune moments with bold and decisive action, for better, or for worse. My favorite President Dwight D. Eisenhower though, missed his defining moments on at least two different occasions. His response to the Supreme Court ruling of Brown v. Board of Education (1954) best illustrate his indecisiveness in uniting a country away from racial segregation. Additionally the United State’s initiated, but deadlocked, nuclear test-ban treaty which was the centerpiece of US/Russia disarmament, was ultimately shattered by Eisenhower’s ill-advised authorization of the disastrous U-2 flight reconnaissance debacle. Born in Texas on October 14, 1890 Dwight David Eisenhower was raised in Abilene, Kansas where he received most of his formal education. Along with five other brothers, he was reared in a modest single story cottage until he came of age whereupon he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point in upstate New York (1911-1915). While growing up in Abilene he absorbed the “simple and unquestioned values” which were impressed upon him through his community and especially by his parents who inculcated within his moral character “honesty, self-reliance,