Book Description
Drawing on extensive interviews and archival research, Fred Greenstein reveals that there was great political activity beneath the placid surface of the Eisenhower White House. In a new foreword to this edition, he discusses developments in the study of the Eisenhower presidency in the dozen years since publication of the first edition and examines the continuing significance of Eisenhower's legacy for the larger understanding of presidential leadership in modern America.
Customer Reviews:
Was Eisenhower an Effective President?.......2006-07-14
This was a path-breaking book when it first appeared more than twenty years ago, reflecting a rehabilitation of Dwight D. Eisenhower as president. It is an example of "revisionist history," something that should not be considered a negative term. Greenstein argued that the image of Eisenhower as an amiable "do-nothing" president who smiled and played golf while crises threatened to destroy the nation was incorrect. He worked hard behind the scenes while giving the appearance of inaction, and in most instances his indirect approach to leadership was highly effective.
I have found this study valuable in my own work on the history of the U.S. space program. While Greenstein did not spend much time exploring the history of the space program in this study his analysis can be extended to that arena. In the context of the Sputnik crisis of 1957 and the development of early U.S. space policy, Eisenhower was almost alone in concluding that the Soviet American competition in space was a non race. He didn't see the need to treat it as a crisis. And there is much to recommend this position. But if the former image of Eisenhower as a "do-nothing" president was inaccurate, the revisionist interpretation of Greenstein and others of him as a master of hidden-hand politics is somewhat wide of the mark. With American prestige clearly at stake in the Cold War, it is puzzling that the chief executive should have been so reluctant to recognize this fact of life.
I found this an important statement of Eisenhower and his leadership style. It is a benchmark in the historiography of the subject. Enjoy!
Stevenson Supporter Learns Truth!.......2003-01-05
In the preface to this landmark book on the Eisenhower presidency, Greenstein talks about how he had begun a project on presidential leadership, with a quick stop at the Eisenhower Library to get confirmation that Eisenhower was as hands-off as possible, a doddering old fool who let his underlings run the country whilst Ike played golf. But as Greenstein looked at the research in front of him, he discovered Eisenhower was much more of a hands-on president than most accepted. He worked behind the scenes, however, hence this "hidden-hand" description.
Greenstein's book on Eisenhower is significant for all students of Eisenhower. Most revisionist scholars of Eisenhower were also Stevenson supporters in the '50s, and have come away with a better understanding of how Ike worked, and his handling of major crises. (Anyone who thinks the 1950s was "Leave it to Beaver" or "Happy Days" is poorly mis-informed and needs to take himself to the public library to look at all the brinksmanship reported in the newspapers and newsmagazines of the time.)
In this book, Greenstein offers his argument, and then goes through a series of case-studies to look at how Eisenhower worked actively behind the scenes to accomplish his goals.
This is indeed a landmark book for scholars. The general reader, however, may be overwhelmed by the academic use of language. For them, the two-volume book on Eisenhower by Ambrose may be a better book to read.
Reassessment of the Eisenhower Presidency.......2000-04-22
Greenstein was not the first but has certainly assembled the most coherent argument for a fundamental reassessment of Ike's presidency.
Common wisdom held Ike to be a somewhat dodering, benevolent and detached president who routinely mangled english syntax in his press conferences. He is seen as surrounded by powerful men who ran government as THEY saw fit.
Greenstein shows repeatedly that Ike was a deft behind-the-scenes mover and shaker who held all the reins of power in HIS hands. He consistently refused to engage in "personalities" and would deal with political challenges with tact and persuasion, often hidden from public light. His handling of McCarthy, often seen as a do-nothing approach, is re-examined in a new light. Eisenhower is seen pre-empting McCarthy consistently while also refusing to publicly engage him, which in Ike's mind, would have served to legitimize him (McCarthy) in many eyes.
Finaly, Ike has been critized for relying too much on a rigid and formal system of staff and infomation processing. His background in the Army, many critics contend, made him a stickler for procedure. This much is true. However, he used his considerable charm and intellect to draw on a wide group of people (all white and male) to augment his formal structures. Many blame the dismantling of the fromal advising structure by Kennedy to his lack of information during the Bay of Pigs.
A good book for Eisenhower specialists, policital scientists studying the organizational presidency, and presidential students of all stripes.
Fred Greenstein famous title--well, famous for academics.......2000-02-23
Well, if you want to read the experience from academia, go right ahead. For a better insight, see Michael Beschloss or Ike's own biographer, Stephen Ambrose. This book was a hit in the scholastic arena but never caught on in mainstream
Aha! Ike wasn't just a golf-playing war hero!.......1999-10-14
Greenstein processes many of Eisenhower's papers not previously available, and comes to the conclusion that Eisenhower was a deft, behind-the-scenes manipulator. This book has helped solidify Ike's increasing reputation as President, with some in-depth look at his approach to McCarthy.
Amazon.com
"I have been in politics ... most of my adult life. There's no more active political organization in the world than the armed forces of the United States." So said Dwight Eisenhower, the subject of journalist-novelist Tom Wicker's thoughtful--and often critical--Dwight D. Eisenhower, shortly after leaving the presidency.
Eisenhower was never above politics, as his admirers claimed; Wicker shows that he was a political creature through and through, as Patton suspected while serving under him in World War II. ("Ike wants to be president so badly you can taste it," Patton said.) He held all the contradictory positions of a politician, too: a dedicated cold warrior and anti-Communist, he famously decried the power of the "military-industrial complex," resisted American involvement in Vietnam while setting the stage for it, and called himself a "liberal Republican" while doing little to attend to pressing domestic issues, especially in the realm of civil rights. He refused to stand up to Joe McCarthy and chose Richard Nixon as his running mate for reasons of political expediency.
Wicker gives Eisenhower middling marks: "The worst did not happen in his time, but neither did the best." His survey may not cheer Ike's fans, but it's balanced, highly readable, and useful for those seeking a window on American political life half a century ago. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
A bona-fide American hero at the close of World War II, General Dwight Eisenhower rode an enormous wave of popularity into the Oval Office seven years later. Though we may view the Eisenhower years through a hazy lens of 1950s nostalgia, historians consider his presidency one of the least successful. At home there was civil rights unrest, McCarthyism, and a deteriorating economy; internationally, the Cold War was deepening. But despite his tendency toward brinksmanship, Ike would later be revered for keeping the peace. Still, his actions and policies at the onset of his career covered by Tom Wicker, would haunt Americans of future generations.
Customer Reviews:
I like Ike........2007-08-30
Wicker shows the complexities of our 34th President. Eisenhower was a great wartime commander. He led men into battle and exercised diplomacy in his wartime alliance. He was a so-so president who did some memorable things. Ike started the intrastate highway system, warned against the military-industrial complex, toppled two legitimate governments (Iran, Guatemala) and came close to a nuclear test ban treaty. He was a man many Americans treated as a father figure. He won two terms as President. Many people would have voted him a third term if the law allowed it. He was against the Brown vs. Board of Education decision but used the military to back up the judiciary.
Wicker spent a week with Eisenhower in 1962. Even though his admiration of President and General Eisenhower in there, his book is a fair accessment of this great American. Eisenhower may not have been a great President, but he was far better than most of our chief executives.
IT'S OK.....................2007-08-09
FIRST OF ALL, I TEACH HISTORY FOR A LIVING, SO I KNEW QUITE A BIT ABOUT THE SUBJECT MATTER BEFORE READING WICKER AND AMBROSE'S BOOKS. AFTER READING BOTH PIECES OF WORK, I CAN STILL DECLARE "I LIKE IKE." NO QUALITY, RELIABLE PIECE OF HISTORICAL WORK SHOULD HAVE A PERSONAL SLANT BY THE WRITER HIMSELF. IS THIS BOOK PERFECTLY WRITTEN? CERTAINLY NOT. IS IT WORTHY OF BEING READ; CERTAINLY. I HAVE TO ADMIT THOUGH, IT DOES HAVE A VERY NEGATIVE SLANT TOWARD IKE, ALMOST A PERSONALLY NEGATIVE SLANT.
HOWEVER AFTER READING AMBROSE'S WORK ON IKE, YOU ALMOST FEEL AS IF IKE WAS THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. AMBROSE WHITEWASHED IKE'S FLAWS COMPLETELY. I THINK AMBROSE WAS ENAMORED WITH IKE. HELL, WHO WOULDN'T BE? THE MAN LED THE BIGGEST BUNCH OF HEADCASES (PATTON, MONTY, CLARK, MACARTHUR, AND DE GAULLE) IN WWII (OUTSIDE OF THE AXIS POWERS) TO VICTORY! IKE WAS A TREMENDOUSLY FLAWED INDIVIDUAL, BUT WHO ON EARTH ISN'T? I AGREE WITH THE OLD SAYING, "A MAN IS NEITHER GOOD NOR BAD FOR ONE ACTION." OR SEVERAL ACTIONS WITH IKE!
I BELIEVE THAT MAYBE READING BOTH OF THESE GIVES YOU A BETTER PERSPECTIVE ON IKE RATHER THAN JUST PICKING ONE OVER THE OTHER. ONE PRESENTS IKE AS THE ANTI-CHRIST, AND THE OTHER PRESENTS IKE AS CHRIST REBORN. I'LL LET YOU DECIDE WHICH IS WHICH. IT WON'T TAKE YOU LONG.
FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO THINK THAT THIS BOOK IS "TOO CRITICAL OF EISENHOWER", THE FACTS ARE WHAT THEY ARE! HE DID NOT INTEGRATE THE ARMED FORCES, TRUMAN DID. EISENHOWER DID HAVE AN AFFAIR WITH HIS BRITISH SECRETARY AND WAS TRYING TO LEAVE MAMIE, NO MATTER HOW AMBROSE TRIES TO DOWNPLAY IT. EISENHOWER WAS TREMENDOUSLY WEAK IN URGING CIVIL RIGHTS REFORM WHEN HE SPOKE TO SEVERAL KEY SOUTHERN SENATORS AND TOLD THEM THAT HE WAS ONLY SENDING IN FEDERAL TROOPS TO LITTLE ROCK BECAUSE HIS "OFFICE DEMANDED IT, BUT IT WAS GOING TO BE THE MILDEST OF CIVIL RIGHTS REFORM POSSIBLE." IF ANY PRESIDENT HAD THE PUBLIC SUPPORT TO BRING ABOUT RADICAL CIVIL RIGHTS REFORM, IT WAS IKE. HE WASTED THAT OPPORTUNITY COMPLETELY. IKE ALSO HUNG MARSHALL (A CLOSE PERSONAL "FRIEND" AND MENTOR) OUT TO DRY WHEN MCCARTHY BEGAN TO ACCUSE G.C. MARSHALL OF BEING A COMMIE IN THE EARLY 50'S. HE SOLD MARSHALL DOWN THE RIVER TO FURTHER HIS OWN POLITICAL CAREER. TRUMAN'S RELATIONSHIP WITH IKE DID NOT GO SOUTH BECAUSE AS AMBROSE CLAIMED, "IKE WAS A REPUBLICAN", IT WENT SOUTH BECAUSE IKE WAS EXTREMELY RUDE TO TRUMAN'S WIFE, BESS, ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS, AND BECAUSE TRUMAN BELIEVED IN LOYALTY TO YOUR FRIENDS (MARSHALL) NO MATTER HOW MUCH IT MIGHT HURT YOUR POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS. IF ONE REMEMBERS CORRECTLY, TRUMAN ACTUALLY APPOINTED A REPUBLICAN TO THE SUPREME COURT DURING HIS PRESIDENCY. SO THE "REPUBLICAN ARGUMENT" DOESN'T HOLD WATER AND IF AMBROSE HAD READ ANYTHING ON TRUMAN, HE WOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT. IKE ONLY DISTANCED HIMSELF FROM MCCARTHY WHEN IKE FELT MCCARTHY MAY ACTUALLY SAY SOMETHING NEGATIVE ABOUT IKE PERSONALLY, SINCE HE WAS THE FORMER HEAD OF THE ARMY THAT MACCARTHY WAS ACCUSING OF BEING LED BY REDS. BOTH BOOKS ARE FLAWED, AS WAS IKE THE MAN.
Disappointing Look at a National Hero.......2006-06-19
There really could have been so much more said of this man, this General who led our troops during the Second World War, who entered politics in order to preserve the peace. In this short volume (the series is generally short and introductory in nature) the author, Tom Wicker, misses so many chances to engage his reader into discovering Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Something I found especially difficult to ignore was the glaring omission of any mention (I believe there was but one fleating reference) of the Interstate Highway Act...something which arguably did more to change the face of American life and culture than any other measure of the time.
Wicker does manage to capture a bit of character in discussing the 34th President of the United States. We are introduced to a man who served his country as both a military commander and as Commander-in Chief, who, following his first-hand experiences in war beleived that war should always be the option of last resort. Eisenhower's Farewell Address, warning his country against the dangers of an organized military complex, still is remarkable today.
However, what Mr. Wicker does most successfully is present Eisenhower's failures. As president, Eisenhower was unwilling to spend political capital on divisive, politically-charged issues such as the growing tension of the Civil Rights struggle and the anti-communist witch hunts spurned by Senator Joseph McCarthy and HUAC (the House Un-American Activities Commitee). A more compelling figure might have stood up and directed his country through such difficult times; Eisenhower failed to act.
Unfortunately, so does Wicker. The pages here feel as though the author slept through most of the writing. The book skims the surface of any real substantive discovery of what Wicker refers to as "the most popular president of modern times."
More a reflection on the author than on the subject.......2005-05-16
In his great biography of Dwight Eisenhower, Stephen Ambrose states that how Eisenhower's presidency is evaluated says more about the person doing the evaluation than it does about Eisenhower. Tom Wicker looks at Eisenhower's presidency through jaundiced eyes. He concludes this short biography by stating that Eisenhower was a great man but, not a great president. What is not clear is what kind of president Eisenhower was. If not great, was he, sort of like Truman, near great? Was he middling perhaps, or was he a poor president? Although Wicker does not provide that information, it is clear that he, at best, thinks Eisenhower's presidency was middling.
No matter what the event, Wicker takes a critical view of Eisenhower's action. He quotes Ambrose, for example, as follows: "Eisenhower's admiring biographer Stephen Ambrose reluctantly concluded that the president's failure to lead in this instance [support for the Brown v. Board of Education decision] was 'almost criminal.'" First of all, as admiring as Ambrose may have been, his biography was scrupulously fair and often critical. Wicker's characterization of Ambrose's conclusion as reluctant is an attempt to bolster Wicker's harsh criticism of Eisenhower. However, Wicker, unlike Ambrose, fails to give Eisenhower credit for the first Civil Rights legislation since Reconstruction.
If Wicker had been fair, he would have noted that the Civil Rights legislation was sponsored by Eisenhower and that Eisenhower was deeply troubled that citizens (black Americans) were being denied the right to vote. Eisenhower strongly wanted a powerful voting rights law and civil rights legislation did, in fact, pass. It was watered down but certainly, not due to anything the administration did. Rather it was congress, including some very liberal Democrats, who watered it down because the civil rights bill provided for penalties against voting rights violators without affording these violators a jury trial. Yes, many liberals watered that provision down. However, Wicker looks upon this as a failing of the president. In fact, his strong support for a voting rights bill was leadership and ultimately, under the Johnson administration, this provision was stregnthened. It was Eisenhower who put the issue on the table so that it ultimately led to the stronger legislation a few years later.
Wicker excoriates Eisenhower for an incident in the 1952 campaign in which he deleted a defense of general George Marshall. Eisenhower was appearing in McCarthy's home state of Wisconsin and Eisenhower's aids told him that defending Marshall, who had been attacked by McCarthy, would be an insult to McCarthy. Eisenhower would have been the first to admit that, in retrospect, he was not proud of what he had done. However, what Wicker fails to report is that earlier, in a venue other than Wisconsin, Eisenhower strongly defended General Marshall.
In foreign affairs, Wicker blows what he perceives to be failures way out of proportion. He seems to think that Eisenhower's exercise of covert activity in Iran and Guatemala was of biblically disastorous proportions. Meanwhile, he gives Eisenhower credit for keeping us out of war but, the very existence of a crisis in which war was averted, seems to reflect badly on Eisenhower. In fact, we were perilously close to nuclear war on several occasions. It is quite possible that nobody other than Eisenhower could have resisted the pressures to launch a first strike. That did not happen due to Eisnhower's great leadership. Getting us through the perilous 50s the way he did should make Eisenhower at least one of the near great presidents.
Finally, in viewing the failure to reach arms control with the Soviets, Wicker states that Eisenhower attempted to reach an agreement due to Stevenson's pushing the issue in the 1956 presidential campaign. In fact, early on, Eisenhower sought innovative ways to limit arms including, a proposed agreement to have unlimited surveillance of the US by the Soviet Union and of the Soviet Union by the US. Each country would provide airfields for survellance flights to the other. Eisenhower resisted calls from Democrats and Republicans alike for more armaments. In double talk, Stevenson was urging production of more missles due to an alleged "missle gap" at the same time he was calling for arms control. Eisenhower, on the other hand, was resisiting the pressure to engage in an arms race. So, by reading Wicker, you would not know that Eisenhower was an innovative leader on this issue and that Stevenson was speaking out of both sides of his mouth.
The presidential biographies, in this series, are relatively short. Wicker's is a good 15 pages shorter than several others in the series. Wicker would have done well to add 10 or 15 pages to go into a little depth about Eisnhower's heroic leadership as Supreme commander of the Allied forces in WWII. In fact, if he had done so, he could have even raised the rumored sexual affair with Kay Summersby. Of course if he had done so, unlike biographers Ambrose and Geoffrey Perret who both concluded that the two did not have sex, Wicker's jaundiced view would have led to the opoposite conclusion.
I believe that, although this biography does a good job in reporting the facts of Eisenhower's presidency, Wicker's harsh analysis is unfair and, ultimately flawed.
A good, brief biography of Eisenhower the president.......2003-10-30
One reviewer complained that this was not a complete biography, and that is certainly correct. It is a biography of Eisenhower as president, in a series devoted to covering the American presidents. That is the focus of the series, and most of the books in this series ought to share that focus. Apart from a biography on William Henry Harrison and Garfield, the emphasis on all these books should be on the presidential career of each individual.
I will confess that I am an admirer of General Eisenhower, but not of President Eisenhower. He certainly did count many achievements to his credit during his two terms of office, but his administrations were marred by some utterly dreadful events, and not a few failures to take strong moral stands by Eisenhower himself. His administration also established several unfortunate precedents, such as overthrowing foreign governments. Wicker focuses more on the failures than the achievements, but the most he can be accused of here is a slight--and I think it is very slight indeed--lack of balance. In the more recent presidents, we tend sometimes to see what we want to see, and many simply do not want to see the failures of his years in office.
The general assessment of Eisenhower as president is that he had some real achievements in foreign policy but fared far worse in domestic policy. On the former, he is credited with keeping the United States out of war (and getting us out of Korea) during the increasing tension of the Cold War. He also, in what I believe was his greatest moment as president on the foreign front, intervened strongly when France and Britain attempted to seize control of the Suez Canal in conjunction with an Israeli invasion of the Sinai. As Wicker correctly points out, however, this has to be balanced with the tragedy of the Gary Powers incident, which sabotaged a probable arms treaty with the Soviet Union. Worse, Eisenhower supported some morally reprehensible covert operations in Iraq (where we deposed a popular leader and replaced him with the Shah), Guatemala (where we deposed a democratically elected government), and in Cuba (where Eisenhower's folks undertook the planning for what later became the Bay of Pigs--Kennedy's greatest failure being not to reject the plan entirely). Eisenhower also is responsible for our initial involvement in Vietnam, which would deepen tragically in the Kennedy and Johnson years.
Wicker does a fine job of covering the domestic issues, although I think he draws back from a rather obvious conclusion (though many other writers do not): Eisenhower, although himself a moral, good individual, was at best morally timid and at worst a moral coward. In the terms used my countless ministers in my own Southern Baptist church, Eisenhower engaged in sins of omission. He lamented the Brown v. Board of Education, and failed to support it or implement it, although he did intervene in my hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas when our governor Orville Faubus refused to allow the integration of Central High School. But overall, Eisenhower had a dreadful record on Civil Rights, and we know from numerous personal comments--many of which Wicker records--that he was personally not very sensitive on racial matters (and that is putting it somewhat mildly). Also, despite personally deploring Senator Joe McCarthy and his tactics, Eisenhower did not intervene for several years of his presidency and did not condemn McCarthy publicly. Especially tragic was his failure to defend his patron George Marshall, one of America's great public servants (both in running WW II from Washington and later in his tremendous service in the State Department) from explicit charges of treason by McCarthy. On the other hand, Eisenhower did oversee the creation of NASA (though he wouldn't promote it the way that Kennedy did upon becoming president, for whom going to the moon was a mania). Wicker does point out briefly his great achievement in overseeing the building of the Interstate Highway system, and spends rather more time on his largely ineffectual attempt to convince the American populace that no missile or nuclear gap existed between the US and the USSR. Ironically, during the Eisenhower years, it was the Democrats who were pushing for more military spending, with Ike convinced that the US had more than enough to deter and defeat the Soviet Union in any forthcoming war. Significant mention is made of Eisenhower's farewell address, the first significant farewell since Washington's. In that he warned of the expanding influence of the Military-Industrial complex, a warning that we have not yet heeded.
Wicker also does a good job of discussing the bizarre lack of support that Eisenhower gave Nixon, a lack that undermined Nixon's campaign in an excruciatingly tight election that might have cost him the presidency. It remains one of Eisenhower's most perplexing failures. Although I myself would have preferred Kennedy to Nixon, there is good reason to believe that Eisenhower negatively affected the outcome of the election, from a Republican point of view.
This is a good, brief book on the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Wicker, although admiring of Ike as a man, is unsympathetic to him as a president. But I would argue that he is fair. If one wants a full-length biography of Eisenhower, one could turn to Stephen Ambrose's two-volume biography, or Carlo D'Este's superb biography of Eisenhower's military career.
Book Description
Stephen Rabe's timely book examines President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Latin American policy and assesses the president's actions in light of recent "Eisenhower revisionism."
During his first term, Eisenhower paid little attention to Latin America but his objective there was clear: to prevent communism from gaining a foothold. The Eisenhower administration was prepared to cooperate with authoritarian military regimes, but not to fund developmental aid or vigorously promote political democracy. Two events in the second administration convinced Eisenhower that he had underestimated the extent of popular unrest—and thus the potential for Communist inroads: the stoning of Vice-President Richard M. Nixon in Caracas and the radicalization of the Cuban Revolution. He then began to support trade agreements, soft loans, and more strident measures that led to CIA involvement in the Bay of Pigs invasion and plots to assassinate Fidel Castro and Rafael Trujillo. In portraying Eisenhower as a virulent anti-Communist and cold warrior, Rabe challenges the Eisenhower revisionists who view the president as a model of diplomatic restraint.
Customer Reviews:
Goes best with Bitter Fruit and Shattered Hope.......2003-03-26
An enjoyable read! This book is a must if you are interested in the 1954 CIA sponsored coup in Guatemala. Stephen Rabe rounds out the history from a clear U.S. Foreign Policy perspective, and adds depth to the history of this time. This book should be read along side Bitter Fruit and Shattered Hope for the most complete historical perspective.
Customer Reviews:
A decidedly pro-Eisenhower read.......2002-02-24
Robert A. Divine's Eisenhower and the Cold War is a decidedly pro-Eisenhower treatment of American foreign policy during the Republican administration of the 1950s. Divine's Eisenhower is far from the do-nothing Ike whom critics have accused of deferring foreign policy to his subordinates; he is, on the contrary, a rational, calculating, active force exercising full control over decisions involving American security. Blessed with charm, self-confidence even in the midst of crises, and remarkable self-constraint, Divine's Ike appears as an exceptional, perhaps "great" President, unique among post-World War II American Presidents for his broad background in international affairs. Certainly, the author concedes that Eisenhower had certain shortcomings, such as a touchy sensitivity to public criticism and a European-oriented view of the world. Nevertheless, this book dwells heavily on Ike's foreign policy successes: bringing the Korean war to an end within six months of taking office, keeping America out of the crisis over the Suez Canal, refusing to intervene by arms and men in Indochina and Red China, refusing to force a showdown with the Soviets over Berlin, ending the atmospheric explosions of nuclear weapons. All the while, Divine's Eisenhower carefully guides foreign policy on a tough yet moderate course, seeking to decrease Cold War tensions while balancing economic and political imperatives alongside national security requirements.
Divine breaks this study up into four sections: Eisenhower as President, Massive Retaliation and Asia, the Middle East, and the Russians. (He admits that this is no full-scale treatment of Ike's foreign policy.) Divine relies on secondary sources to achieve his objective, namely to demonstrate that "Ike was skillful and active in directing American foreign policy" and to explain why Eisenhower failed in the end to meet his peace objectives. The author asserts that Ike desperately wanted to reduce Cold War anxieties and lessen the threat of nuclear war while also keeping defense spending low. Given these constraints, Ike came to rely more on the threat of nuclear strikes than on the dispersion of American combat forces to all the world's hot spots. While Ike's critics have charged him with deferring foreign policy decisionmaking to Secretary of State Dulles and other close aides, Divine shows that Eisenhower pulled all the strings, often choosing to restrain the anti-Communist zeal of Dulles and to disregard the advice of military advisors. The successes he achieved have been neglected or misunderstood, Divine argues, because they were indirect in execution and negative in realization. In other words, the events that Ike was able to prevent (such as a nuclear war) were more important than any positive, sweeping accomplishments. This kind of success, Divine contends, becomes more evident when compared to the pitfalls of Kennedy and Johnson in the 1960s. Basically, Ike's Presidency is seen as a triumph for common sense and rational decision-making, constrained only by Ike's tendency to see all Third World disturbances as a result of Communist agitation. Nevertheless, had Gary Powers not been shot down and captured by the Soviets on the eve of the Paris summit with Khrushchev, Divine implies that Ike may have secured some of the far-reaching success he had been pursuing throughout his years in office.
Divine's pro-Eisenhower rhetoric gets a bit thick at times. Ike's failures seem due either to the faults of the men around him or to capricious events of chance. The U-2 affair is a case in point. Divine seems to say that Eisenhower had little choice other than to act as he did--namely, lying initially about the true nature of the incident; beyond this, we are told that Ike--on several occasions--wanted to stop flying spy missions over Russia in the days preceding the Paris summit. Because of the U-2 debacle, Divine says Ike was powerless during his final months in office to deal with emerging problems in Cuba, northern Africa, and Southeast Asia--the President was a victim, a "prisoner of events." While the author claims to recognize Eisenhower's weaknesses in conducting foreign policy, he seems always ill-disposed to criticize the President for them.
Great book about a great man.......1997-10-26
A very good, quick read book. Excellent source of information. Reveals many misunderstandings of the Eisenhower administration. If you have an interest in The Cold War, here is the man that but some teeth into US policy (right, wrong, or otherwise)
Book Description
The focus of this revision is not how Eisenhower made policy, but how his decisions shaped American life in the 1950s and beyond. In this first post-revisionist study of the Eisenhower presidency, historian Chester Pach reaches beyond the issues the revisionists raised: Was Eisenhower in command of his own administration? Did he play a significant role in shaping foreign and domistic policy?
Drawing on the wide range of works published within the past decade, Pach expands Elmo Richardson's 1979 study by nearly one third. In addition to new material on national security policy, Pach deepens the analysis of Eisenhower's leadership and managerial style and explores the significance of the decisions Eisenhower made on a whole range of critical issues, from civil rights to atomic testing.
By emphasizing the fundamental failings of Eisenhower's presidency, Pach swims against the stream of recent scholarship. He concludes, for example, that Eisenhower's commitment to support South Vietnam in 1954, with its attendant responsibilities and consequences, was far more important--and ultimately disastrous--than his refusal to intervene with military force in support of the French in 1954. Eisenhower's unleashing of the CIA (in Iran, Guatemala, and elsewhere) also draws sharp criticism, as does his timid and ineffective handling of McCarthy.
This book is part of the American Presidency Series.
Customer Reviews:
Ike finally gets his due.......2007-07-11
Read this for graduate American history course. The Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower by Chester J. Pach, Jf. and Elmo Richardson seeks to provide a lucid, cogent, and relatively brief (263 pages) analysis of the Eisenhower presidency. Many early historical writings about Eisenhower's presidency came to the conclusion that he was beyond his depth in the presidency because he lacked any previous elective political experience. The image of the Eisenhower grin and his generally genial demeanor could not conceal his obvious bafflement when the subject was tax policy, civil rights, or farm subsidies. When he spoke extemporaneously, his statements were frequently so baffling that an assistant frequently had to offer clarification to listeners so they could understand the president's point, assuming there was one. Issues that puzzled or bored him he assigned to subordinates-John Foster Dulles for the daily management of foreign relations, George M. Humphrey shaped economic policy, while Sherman Adams handled a host of domestic matters-and reserved his energies for golf, bridge, and fishing. Eisenhower did not so much run the country, as preside over it; at a time of national complacency, he was able to provide some welcome inertia. This image of Eisenhower was challenged by revisionist and post revisionist historians beginning in the 1970s. According to revisionist scholars, Eisenhower only appeared to be a complacent chief executive: although he willingly let his subordinates take responsibility for decisions, within the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room, he was a dynamic and forceful leader who used the powers of his office vigorously and deftly to shape the policies being implemented (e.g., his successful extrication of the United States from the quagmire of the Korean War and his restraint in avoiding intervention in other conflicts such as the Hungarian uprising and the Suez crisis).
The work is divided into a Preface and ten subsequent chapters: "Duty and Ambition" traces the slow but steady evolution of Eisenhower from military man to presidential candidate, to elected office holder and his apprenticeship at learning how to play political hardball; "Organizing the Presidency" examines the transition difficulties that occurred between the outgoing Truman administration and Ike's incoming administration, and his efforts at organizing a post-New Deal Fair Deal cabinet; "President, Party, and Congress" analyzes Eisenhower's contentious relationship with the congressional leadership of both political parties over the economy and other domestic issues; "Waging Cold War" looks at Eisenhower's efforts to create a foreign policy that would effectively keep the free world secure and neutralize communist aggression through the use of military strength that would not overburden the American economy; "Personal Victories" focuses on Eisenhower surviving his heart attack and being reelected, as well as foreign policy resolutions especially in Hungary and the Suez; "The Hazards of Deliberate Speed" examines Eisenhower's decisive actions to enforce federal authority and public order over state resistance in Little Rock; "The Erosion of Consensus" analyzes the beginning of the loss of popular support for the Eisenhower administration, the Adams-Goldfine Scandal, and the subsequent return to majority power of the Democrats in
Congress during the midterm elections of 1958; "Intervention and Diplomacy" examines ~ Eisenhower administration foreign policy after the death of Secretary of State Dulles; "Beyond his Grasp" looks at Eisenhower's efforts to holds the line on defense spending, even as the U-2 crisis sabotaged any possibility for Soviet-American detente during his administration; "Epilogue" briefly examines the manner that Eisenhower spent his post-presidential years.
According to Pach and Richardson, Eisenhower hoped to contain the reckless spending of the Truman administration, yet he was able to balance the budget only three times and ran up what was then the largest peacetime deficit in American history-$12 billion in fiscal 1959. The
authors also believe that Eisenhower deserves equal credit for holding the line on defense spending, resisting the perils of the garrison state, and keeping much of the New Deal and its programs weakened and amended, but intact.
As a graduate student in philosophy and history, I recommended this book for anyone interested in American history, foreign policy, Cold War history.
Average customer rating:
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Assessing the Adversary: Estimates by the Eisenhower Administration of Soviet Intentions and Capabilities (Brookings Occasional Papers)
Raymond L. Garthoff
Manufacturer: Brookings Institution Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0815730578 |
Average customer rating:
- If you like politics read this book
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Advising Ike: The Memoirs of Attorney General Herbert Brownell
Herbert Brownell , and
John P. Burke
Manufacturer: University Press of Kansas
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
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Eisenhower, Dwight D.
| ( E )
| People, A-Z
| Biographies & Memoirs
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1945 - Present
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ASIN: 0700605908 |
Book Description
In this enlightening volume, Herbert Brownell recounts his achievements and trials as the GOP's most successful presidential operative of the 1940s and 1950s and as Attorney General at a crucial time in American history.
Instrumental in getting Dwight D. Eisenhower to run for office and wielding considerable influence over many of the president's decisions, Brownell had to make many tough and controversial recommendations. In his memoirs he recalls his relationship with the president and provides firsthand insight into an administration that faced not only the wrath of segregationists and Communist witch-hunters but also the resolution of an increasingly unpopular war in Korea and a new definition of American-Soviet relations following Joseph Stalin's death. Particularly notable for Brownell were the gains made in civil rights. Despite personal attacks by the opposition on his integrity, he tenaciously supported and enforced the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. the Board of Education and Little Rock desegregation.
Going beyond the years he spent on Eisenhower's cabinet, Brownell describes the events and people that have influenced his colorful life, including his stints as chairman of the Republican party and manager of Thomas Dewey's two unsuccessful presidential campaigns and his 62-year private law career.
Customer Reviews:
If you like politics read this book.......2000-03-02
This is the true inside information on the nomination of Ike for President. Along the way learn about New York and the New York Young Republicans. A well written story. I feal like I know the man. May he rest in peace.
Book Description
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched a 184-pound metal ball called Sputnik into orbit around the Earth, and America plummeted into a panic. Nuclear weapon designer Edward Teller claimed that the United States had lost "a battle more important and greater than Pearl Harbor," and magazine articles appeared with such headlines as "Are We Americans Going Soft?" In the White House, President Eisenhower seemed to do nothing, leading Kennedy in 1960 to proclaim a "missile gap" in the Soviet's favor. Rarely has public perception been so dramatically at odds with reality. In The Sputnik Challenge, Robert Divine provides a fascinating look at Eisenhower's handling of the early space race--a story of public uproar, secret U-2 flights, bungled missile tests, the first spy satellite, political maneuvering, and scientific triumph. He recreates the national hysteria over the first two Sputnik launches, illustrating the anxious handwringing that the Democrats (led by Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson) aggressively played for political gain. Divine takes us to private White House meetings, showing how Eisenhower worked closely with science adviser James Killian, allowing him to take the lead in creating a civilian agency--NASA--which provided intelligent and forceful leadership for American space programs. But the President also knew from priceless intelligence from U-2 flights over the U.S.S.R. that he had little to fear from the touted missile gap, and he fought to limit the growth and multiplication of military missile programs. Eisenhower's assurance, however, rested on classified information, and he did little to instill his confidence in the public. Nor could he boast of his early support for the secret spy satellite program (which quickly replaced the U-2 plane after Gary Powers was shot down in 1960). So the public continued to worry, feeding the national movement for educational reform as well as congressional maneuvering over funding for numerous strategic projects. Eisenhower, Divine writes, possessed keen strategic vision and a sure sense of budgetary priorities, but ultimately he flunked a crucial test of leadership when he failed to reassure the frightened public that their fears were groundless. As a result, he ultimately failed in his goal to limit military spending as well--which led to a real missile gap in reverse. Incisively written and deeply researched, The Sputnik Challenge provides a briskly-paced history of the origins of NASA, the space race, and the age of the ICBM.
Customer Reviews:
An important Reinterpretation of the Sputnik Crisis.......2003-12-22
"The Sputnik Challenge" is one of several very fine works published since 1990 that have reinterpreted the history of the first years of the space age. The figure of Dwight D. Eisenhower has dominated this recent work, and does so in this important book by Robert A. Divine, and Ike has accordingly emerged as a much more effective leader than thought at the time. Rather than a smiling, do-nothing, golf-playing president, Eisenhower's leadership in handling the Soviet Union in space now increasingly appears far-sighted and rational. To ensure against Soviet aggression, Eisenhower supported the development of ICBM deterrent capabilities and reconnaissance satellites as a means of learning about potentially aggressive actions.
Most important, Eisenhower established the right of international overflight with satellites, making possible the free use of reconnaissance spacecraft in future years. From the perspective of the Eisenhower administration, which was committed to development of an orbital reconnaissance capability as a national defense initiative, an international agreement to ban satellites from overflying national borders without the individual nation's permission was unacceptable. Eisenhower was concerned that if the United States was the first nation to orbit a satellite, the Soviet Union could invoke territorial rights in space. Soviet Sputniks 1 and 2, however, overflew international boundaries without provoking a single diplomatic protest.
As Divine shows in this book, on October 8, 1957, Deputy Secretary of Defense Donald Quarles told the president: "the Russians have...done us a good turn, unintentionally, in establishing the concept of freedom of international space." Eisenhower immediately grasped this as a means of pressing ahead with the launching of a reconnaissance satellite. The precedent held for Explorer 1 and Vanguard 1, and by the end of 1958 the tenuous principle of "freedom of space" had been established. By allowing the Soviet Union to lead in this area, the Russian space program had established the U.S.-backed precedent for free access.
Of course, as Divine demonstrates, Eisenhower displayed a tin ear when asked to listen to the American public in the aftermath of the Sputnik launches in October and November 1957. Eisenhower triefd to reassure U.S. citizens that efforts in space were on track but he was insufficiently successful. He was berated in the media and on the stump for this failure at the time, and there are some appropriate reasons to question his administration's ability to react to public unrest.
At the same time, Ike's leadership in the crisis winter of 1957-1958 yielded some of the most sweeping governmental reorganizations and new programs to be undertaken at the federal level since the New Deal. Divine suggests that overall, Ike made several important changes to react to the Sputnik crisis, taking these decisive actions:
1. Established a Science Advisor, and the President's Science Advisory Committee, to coordinate basic research in the Federal government.
2. Approved additional space research activities.
3. Backed up IGY satellite program with Explorer 1, launched January 31, 1958, "to make sure we fire a satellite at an early date."
4. Established the Advanced Research Projects Agency within the Department of Defense.
5. Sponsored the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, creating a single Federal organization--NASA--to manage space exploration activities.
6. Sponsored the National Defense Education Act of 1958 to stimulate the education, training, and research for science and technology.
These efforts have now been effectively analyzed in Robert Divine's, "The Sputnik Challenge." Most people only remember NASA's creation from this period, but the response was much more sweeping and significant.
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The Eisenhower Legacy
Manufacturer: Bartleby Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Eisenhower, Dwight D.
| ( E )
| People, A-Z
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| 20th Century
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0910155216 |
Book Description
The centennial of Dwight D. Eisenhower's birth came amid a reappraisal of this American Hero's eight years in the White House. Among the many tributes to President Eisenhower's memory, perhaps the most significant was a Centennial Symposium held at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This extraordinary gathering of former cabinet and staff, journalists and historians met for five days in October 1990 to examine anew the pivotal years of President Eisenhower's leadership. The group offers a unique view of the Eisenhower Presidency, much of it from an "inside" perspective. They vividly disclose how executive policy was shaped and political dilemmas were resolved.
THE EISENHOWER LEGACY: Discussions of Presidential Leadership records the highlights of the exciting and sometimes surprising discussions that resulted from the symposium. Throughout their conversations, the participants reveal how President Eisenhower dealt with a wide range of crisis, including the U-2 affair, Senator Joseph McCarthy's hearings, and the confrontation of with Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas over school desegregation. The many first-hand anecdotes in this volume are often humorous, but more importantly allow the reader an insightful look at President Eisenhower's personality. It is unlikely that such an outstanding and knowledgeable group can again assemble to explore the many facets of the Eisenhower presidency. THE EISENHOWER LEGACY will prove invaluable for any future study of our 34th president.
Customer Reviews:
Informative.......2004-12-05
President Eisenhower & Strategy Mgt provides a useful foundation for today's discussion of America's future defense posture. It is also one of the first books to show that Eisenhower, contrary to the conventional view, was the guiding force of US strategic policymaking during this administration.
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