President Dwight Eisenhower
Eisenhower(1993) This insightful two-and-one-half-hour American Experience biography, narrated by David McCullough, presents a cohesive view of a man whose smile was his greatest public asset. His delicate balancing of Allied prima donnas before and after Operation Overlord, display a firmness as well as congeniality that sustained a delicate Allied coalition. With his military background, the command of Allied forces in Europe was a more natural role for General Eisenhower than was his two-term presidency.
Eisenhower’s political popularity, especially during his second term, did not provide broad political coattails for the Republicans. After acceding to a cease fire in Korea, his first term was dominated by McCarthyism and other flash points, including the aftermath of the unanimous Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, which triggered gradual school desegregation. The documentary, while acknowledging Eisenhower’s failure to refute McCarthy’s assault on General Marshall as a ‘traitor,’ does illustrate how Ike, behind the scenes, sought to circumscribe McCarthy. Also, Eisenhower is portrayed as a thoughtful, complex leader with far more grit than the press often acknowledged.
Despite a major heart attack, President Eisenhower chose to run again. His second term had a number of setbacks, including the Soviet launching of Sputnik. The temporary Soviet lead in missilery led to charges that the United States was militarily unprepared. Eisenhower bristled at such charges and stated, with clear anger, that, as a professional military man, he was the best judge of America’s military status—which was ‘excellent.’ His decision to send the 101 Airborne to protect nine black students integrated into Little Rock’s Central High School, was, according to his biographer, Stephen Ambrose, his greatest single disappointment during his presidency.
The documentary skims over his modest domestic legislation record, including his minimal support for civil rights initiatives. As a conservative, Eisenhower clearly was not on the cusp of the New Frontier. Eisenhower was a military man dedicated to seeking a more peaceful world. A crowning achievement towards this goal was intended to be a Paris summit conference, followed by a visit to the Soviet Union. The shooting down of a U-2 prior to the summit, and Eisenhower’s ultimate acknowledgement that he had authorized this intelligence over flight of the Soviet Union short circuited the summit meeting and scuttled the Moscow visit.
While Eisenhower left office with a strong Gallup Poll rating, historians and the media at the time ranked his presidency as mediocre. Subsequently his ranking in historians’ polls have risen sharply in recognition that, under his leadership, the country was at peace and the economy, despite a recession, flourished. For college and high school students, clips from this documentary would be highly useful in highlighting several of the key events of the Eisenhower administration, as well as his earlier military career.
