The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s

I know that my title may seem a little disrespectful for a man who not only led American and Allied forces to victory in WWII, but also through a successful two term presidency. The 50s was the father knows best era, and Dwight D. Eisenhower led us safely through the reconstruction of Europe even after WWII and then America overwhelmingly desired his care over our nation. It was repeated over and over throughout this book that Eisenhower was a lonely man, for as much as he often sought the wise counsel of the people he chose for his cabinet, it was his own counsel he ultimately relied upon along with with prayer. Eisenhower was certainly everything America wanted in their heroes of the time, he was humble and yet as home in a fine club or ballroom as he was in stable or the barracks with recovering troops. He was plain spoken,meet well educated and had a thorough understanding of economics and the working of the government machine and how its wheels turned… to include who he needed to grease them. This was a fascinating biography, mostly of Eisenhower’s time in the White House and the challenges he faced there. Eisenhower wasn’t a big believer in showing all the workings of diplomacy and how the sausage was made so to speak, and allowed the American people to feel like government was primarily running smoothly with little or no intervention required. Of course, all the work Ike did in the background to make American’s safe was used against him by his replacement in years to come. J. F. Kennedy suggested that Eisenhower’s mode of governing was old and unengaged which couldn’t have been further from the truth. William I Hitchcock did a wonderful job of laying out the facts without bias, and this was certainly not a fan’s account of a presidency. There are both lauds and criticisms in relatively equal measure, but perhaps more criticism which makes the lauds mean more to me. A great deal happened in the eight years Eisenhower was president and it set us up for the intelligence apparatus we have today, and I believe it could be said that Eisenhower changed America for the good. This was Avery detailed, if anything too detailed biography that is both fascinating and perhaps important for scholars of American Civics. 4 1/2 stars and I only took of a half for excessive wordiness.

Great history of Eisenhower, as well as history of world events at the time. Gives a nice glimpse into the turbulent 50's and beyond

In an age when too many historians have agendas or appear incapable of handling subject matter without injecting 21st-century academic sensibilities, Hitchcock provides a generally positive but even-handed and sober assessment of Eisenhower's years as president. The book is well-written and at some 500 pages is also accessible.

I very much enjoyed this scholarly work. Hitchcock made the comment that he worked about eight years on this, and it certainly shows. His notes and bibliography are extensive and the author should be commended for such thorough research. I remember Eisenhower as the president although I was very young and I memories of many of the things that transpired during his time. I will not into a summary of this great book, but will limit my impressions to a few things that may be of interest. First of all, Eisenhower was a great man and his sense of discipline was astounding. He had a 4 pack a day addiction to cigarettes during his crusade in Europe, and when he decided to stop, he did it overnight. For those of us who have kicked that habit, it is an addiction that is very powerful. During his long years in the wilderness (between wars and chances of promotion very slim) he was an excellent poker and bridge player, to the point that he was taking too much money from fellow officers. Later, it was amazing to me that he wanted to boot Nixon as the candidate for VP. Nixon had nothing wrong but Ike did not want to carry baggage that may come to haunt him. He was very smart in using our advantage at that time of atomic weapons, but he left the French to their own mistakes without getting America involved. He handled the Suez Crisis much to the dismay of the British, French, and Israelis. He would not take a firm leadership role in the civil rights struggle. He never wanted to confront the criticism of issues of controversy and he would not hesitate to put an associate on the front line to take the fire. Unfortunately, Dulles and company started up with the CIA, and after two successful regime changes, they thought they could do anything. Ike used the CIA and kept increasing their budget, and in effect, he unleashed a monster that did much damage to the prestige of America. And on a personal note, I ended up in Vietnam. The first day I was there I knew it was a boondoggle. He was tough and had high ratings, but I do not think anyone really knew him.

Eisenhower was a good and modest man of his time and a good & prudent president for the time he served his country.

One of the best accounts that I have ever read, pertaining to this accomplished and complicated president. I was somewhat mislead by the prologue to the history, which seemed to suggest that the author was about to offer an overglorified rendition of this presidency. I could not have been more wrong. The author describes in details all of Ike's mistakes, his stumbles, and his periods of indecision. All this does is round out this history, resulting in a balanced, thoughtful, and wholely satisfying look into the political life of a great American. It may be that the author is a little biased toward his subject, but this never detracts from the value of this historical masterpiece. Truly outstanding and highly recommended

I grew up in the fifties and always looked at this period as one of prosperity and peace. And it was. Learning now about what his administration did in their fight against the spread of Communism globally puts a new perspective on his presidency. Fascinating.

I was drawn to this book because I really enjoyed his previous award-winning book about the collateral damage of the Second World War in Western Europe. There he convincingly shattered the myth that everyone in Europe was thrilled with the Allies liberation. Aspects of the liberation were very hard on some large groups of people despite what we remember from the films of Allied tanks rolling through Paris, covered in cheering locals’ flowers and girls showering kisses upon infantrymen. This book does the same for Eisenhower’s entire presidency. Many film clips show Eisenhower in his later years of the presidency playing golf and we have a collective myth of him phoning in his presidency from the golf course. But the author’s hard work at the Presidential Archives has unearthed the real story, that Ike had truly life-hacked the presidency, working extremely hard in the office in order to free up spare time, all of which he spent on the golf course. Since he spent all his free time on the golf course where cameras were rolling, that is our image of him. But this book paints the picture of his life behind the desk in the Oval Office where he played a pivotal role during the most dangerous part of the Cold War when Russia’s Joseph Stalin got his hands on the ultimate weapon, the Hydrogen bomb, and was not afraid to use it. I highly recommend this book as a tool to understand the entire span of his working life and I look forward to William A. Hitchcock’s next book.

That's what a poll of historians decided in 2017. Hitchcock's well-written book provides support for this rating. A remarkable comeback for a President whose reputation was in decline when he left office. Ike felt Nixon's defeat to Kennedy in 1960 was also a verdict on the Eisenhower years and himself. Castigated by opponents as a do-nothing President, old, sickly and out of touch. Long past his sell-by date and leading his nation only into decline. Such was the campaign waged by Kennedy which forced Nixon onto the back foot in having to defend a 1950's legacy which seemed at best defensive and at worst bumbling. The Cold War and Anti-Communism dominated these years. Having 'lost' China to the Reds in 1949, America's policy of Containment became the central if rather ill-defined response to the 'spread of Communism'. But what yardsticks existed to decide what exactly constituted a Communist threat or 'subversion' - or whether the US had successfully neutralised such threats? The answer is none. Eisenhower had to rise to this challenge as the world's two new superpowers squared up to each other with their increasing nuclear arsenals. Dangerous times indeed. Ike's detractors said he had not done enough. Ending the Korean War in 1953 still left Communists holding the North. The same with North Vietnam. Many said something more should have been done to help Hungary in their 1956 Uprising. Then came the Sputnik Scare in 1957 and the spectre of a 'missile gap' leaving the US exposed to a Soviet strike. Then 'losing' Cuba in 1959 and finally the U-2 debacle in 1960. Eisenhower seemed reactive rather than proactive. By 1960 both Republican Rightists like Goldwater and Democrat Liberals like JFK were each talking the language of 'rollback' rather than mere containment. Defence of Freedom and Democracy required the US to flex its muscles in some vigorous but always ill-defined way. Such was Ike's immediate legacy in 1960-1. The problem for both Ike and Nixon was that their secret intelligence reports showed the US had a clear lead over the USSR in all areas of new technology. The Reds may have put a beeping satellite up in 1957 but after 1959 the US had its Corona spy satellites collecting photographic evidence of Soviet capabilities. Only declassified in the 1990's. By 1960 the U-2 spy plane cat was out of the bag but its downing by a Soviet missile seemed more of a defeat than an affirmation of US ingenuity. Any US President of this era had to show he was being tough enough in combating the Communist menace. The problem was how. Such pressure led JFK into the Bay of Pigs and LBJ into Vietnam. Hitchcock performs a useful service in showing us that Ike was Cold War Warrior Number One. In one of his pre-inaugural talks with JFK, Ike revealed plans underway to oust Castro and to send troops to Laos if the Communist threat intensified. We are left feeling a little sorry for the young JFK on whose inexperienced shoulders was placed the expectation that something must be done about Cuba. Different times have different dynamics. Ike steered clear of land wars in the 1950's but there is no guarantee he would have done this in the 1960's. Ike's military career made him particularly well-qualified to be President in the 1950's. He had vast experience in both the organisation of war and the politics of statesmanship. He understood the capabilities and limitations of military action but had to work out the new exigencies of nuclear weapons for himself. He showed great wisdom and restraint in steering his country and the world through the crises which erupted. In particular, he never stopped looking for a peaceful accommodation with the USSR. He repeatedly drew attention to the money being wasted on arms which could be put to better purposes. Irony haunts history. Ike was a small-state, fiscal conservative who managed to balance budgets and left the USA a creditor nation. By 1971 it had become a debtor and was forced off the gold standard. Yet Ike also presided over the mushroom growth of a military-industrial complex which he warned about in 1961. He disliked New Deal and Fair Deal big government which he thought sapped the American spirit. And yet social security expanded under his watch. He sent paratroopers to enforce desegregation in Little Rock although he publicly stated that 'laws cannot change the hearts of men'. Ike built the new Interstate Highway System. Federal government had never been bigger than under Ike. The Presidency had indeed become 'Imperial'. He invoked executive privilege 44 times during 1955-60 in order to protect his presidency from the prying eyes of Congress. Hitchcock omits to mention that Ike was the first president to receive a pension and bodyguard upon retiring. Ike believed very much in self-discipline and the work ethic. Golf was his recuperation from a punishing work schedule. Yet the amazing rise in American living standards under his watch brought new anxiety about Christian spirituality being undermined by excessive materialism. The first ever President baptised in office, Ike resurrected the homespun religiosity he had experienced as a boy and genuinely thought that God made men free in a way that atheistic Communism did not. And yet as their President became more religious in old age many Americans seemed to be turning from God to Mammon. Hitchcock deplores the disastrous effects of Ike's covert CIA activities in the Third World. US paranoia about 'losing' states to Communism meant that millions of newly-independent Third World people were denied the chance of social justice. Land redistribution, nationalisation of foreign-held assets, sovereign assertion of the right to control the indigenous economy all smacked of Communism. The result was CIA-backed coups or attempted coups in Guatemala, Iran, Indonesia, Congo and Cuba. Thuggish, murdering right-wing dictators held sway for decades over much of the Third World with US support and blessing. The Mobutus and Somozas. This, of course, was both Irony and Hypocrisy writ large. The great anti-Imperialist USA now developed its own indirect form of imperialism. Having wrested independence from European colonial powers, Third World countries now became beholden to the USA as to what type of government they could have. Mere pawns in the new Titanic struggle between the superpowers. In fighting for Freedom and Democracy, the USA only succeeded in crushing both in many countries. Assassinations, coups, economic pressure, media manipulation. No holds barred. The author does not go into much detail about the role of corporations in American domestic and foreign politics during this period. He does mention the corporate bosses who became Ike's buddies and hosts. The interests of corporate America and the USA itself had in fact become synonymous. American Fruit Company profits gained from exploiting cheap labour in Guatemala had to be protected from leftist reformers. Castro in Cuba threw up the same nightmare scenario. Geopolitics is an unholy mix of Profit and Power. Ike was a pragmatist and a moderate conservative but he was also a Warrior. He built up America's arsenal as a necessity and then warned about it's threat to American democracy. He may have agreed with General Smedley Butler (died 1940) that 'War is a racket'. I do believe that Ike was pacifically inclined. But his main life experience from 1941 to 1961 was two decades of war, hot and cold. The price of peace is eternal vigilance. The author suggests that the realities of power forced leading lights in the Kennedy Administration to believe they were merely copying Ike rather than achieving a fresh start. Only in giving a moral leadership with civil rights did JFK distance himself from Ike. But different times, different dynamics. Hitchcock tries to deflect criticism of Ike's record in this matter by suggesting that many leading Negroes were satisfied with his actions. Such matters are difficult to quantify. Did LBJ really water down the 1957 Civil Rights Act ? Ike's reputation has improved because of changing perspectives. Vietnam War, debtor status, deindustrialisation, unsatisfactory wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have combined to make the the 1950's appear as halcyon days - on both sides of the Atlantic. The French have their Trente Glorieuses, the Brits their 'You've never had it so good.' The Yanks now apparently have their Age of Eisenhower. An excellent overview. Highly recommended.

O livro aborda a época do talvez presidente americano mais forte, com as instituições mais sólidas e mais confiáveis até Nixon. Desenha toda a política externa do país, as grandes transformações da década de 1950, uma decênio que viu mais nações do que se tinha visto em qualquer época da humanidade, é discutido o movimento terceiro-mundista, as disputas coloniais, os golpes e contra-golpes e toda a redimensão da geopolítica internacional. Dentro dos Estados Unidos é comentado a Primavera McCarthy, a ascensão do movimentos dos direitos civis dos negros, o estado de bem estar e toda a propaganda da vida americana. O autor não endeusa o biografado, enxerga seus erros e seus acertos, em suma, um excelente livro.

Very interesting. Read many books about General Eisenhower during World War II but not about him during the 1950s as President etc.

Pretty much an enjoyable bio...a good and easy read..

It is a valuable book.