1953-1961

An interpretation of the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower.

Examines Eisenhower's handling of the early space race including the first two Sputnik launches, the formation of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), and the age of the ICBM (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile).

Newly discovered and declassified documents make for a surprising and revealing portrait of the president we thought we knew. Belittled by his critics as the babysitter-in-chief, Eisenhower ground down Joseph McCarthy, stimulated the economy to lift it from recession, and turned an $8 billion deficit in 1953 into a $500 million surplus in 1960. The President Eisenhower of popular imagination is a benign figure, armed with a putter, a winning smile, and little else. The Eisenhower of veteran journalist Jim Newton's rendering is shrewd, sentimental, and tempestuous. Admired as a general, he was a champion of peace. In Korea and Vietnam, in Quemoy and Berlin, his generals urged him to wage nuclear war. Time and again he considered the idea and rejected it. And it was Eisenhower who appointed the liberal justices Earl Warren and William Brennan and who then called in the military to enforce desegregation in the schools.--From publisher description.

Examines the life and achievements of Dwight D. Eisenhower, discussing his childhood, his West Point education, his military service and post-war career, and his two terms as president of the United States.

Primary documents examine the key issues that presidents faced from 1953 to 1969, offering arguments both for and against each president's actions and views.