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Dwight D. Eisenhower, by Tom Wicker
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An American icon and hero faces a nation-and a world-in transition
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.
- Sales Rank: #513144 in Books
- Brand: Times Books
- Published on: 2002-11-05
- Released on: 2002-11-05
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.45" h x .73" w x 5.75" l, .65 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 176 pages
- Great product!
Amazon.com Review
"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
From Publishers Weekly
The latest in the American Presidents series of brief biographies (edited by Arthur Schlesinger Jr.), journalist Wicker's chronicle of Eisenhower offers a solid account, plus a unique personal view, of the much-loved and maligned politician. Wicker (One of Us: Richard Nixon and the American Dream), who covered politics for the New York Times for 30 years, spent a week with Eisenhower in 1962. Wicker had been a left-leaning Stevenson supporter and critic of Eisenhower's policies in the 1950s, but he found himself entranced by the ex-president and by the end of the week became a lifelong booster of Eisenhower the man, if not Eisenhower the president. Wicker says he has tried to factor out his personal fondness for Eisenhower while composing this biography, and he does manage a lively evenhandedness-not an oxymoron in this circumstance-in weighing the accomplishments and pitfalls of his administration. Only a few pages are devoted to his first 62 years on earth-the real beginning is Eisenhower's 1952 presidential campaign. A fine introduction to 1950s political history, the biography covers the domestic and international crises that occurred on Eisenhower's watch, including the Supreme Court's decision to racially integrate public schools, the poisonous influence of Sen. Joe McCarthy, tensions with the Soviet Union and the threat of nuclear war. Thanks to Wicker's limber prose (his talents as an oft-published novelist are on display), careful research and personal touch, the learning is easy.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Another in the "American Presidents" series edited by Arthur Schlesinger Jr., this brief review of the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower by one of the nation's most respected journalists is a valuable addition to the literature of the administration and its times. While necessarily cursory owing to the page limitations imposed by the series, this work nonetheless captures the key events of the Eisenhower presidency in a way that is highly accessible and intellectualy compelling. Wicker examines aspects of Ike's administration with an eye not only to the 1950s, but to our own era as well. This is especially evident in his examination of the roots of "executive privilege," a concept first used by Eisenhower and of vital importance to the presidency today, and of Ike's use of covert actions around the globe. Wicker (One of Us: Richard Nixon and the American Dream) concludes that Eisenhower was a great man, but not necessarily a great president. He does, however, give Ike rather high marks for his accomplishments while calling him to task for his failings (e.g., his mild response to McCarthy and his failure to exercise moral leadership in desegregation). This is one of the finest single-volume treatments of the Eisenhower presidency available. Michael A. Genovese, Loyola Marymount Univ., Los Angeles
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
More a reflection on the author than on the subject
By David E. Levine
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.
12 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
Disappointing Look at a National Hero
By Craig M. Farnham
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."
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Only Lip Service
By Zachary Koenig
It is almost unfair to review this biography of President Dwight D. Eisenhower from Tom Wicker because after even just the first few pages it becomes painfully obvious that he is the wrong choice to pen this edition.
While reading through the American Presidents series, I had usually always been impressed by the authors' ability to maintain some semblance of objectivity. With this installment, though, it is made impeccably clear that Wicker disliked the Eisenhower Administration. Wicker rarely says a good word about Ike the entire book, and even when he does, those statements are backed by a lot of "buts" and "ifs". Basically, Wicker blames President Eisenhower for all his failings but doesn't give him any credit for his successes.
This was terribly disappointing to me, because I know that there is so much more to Ike than what I just slogged through. This book gives very little detail about the man himself (the parts I really like about this series) and spends almost no time on his "formative years" out of office (remember how those were key passages in the earlier books?).
I realize that so many glowing books have been written about Eisenhower that some balance is needed, but this is not the series for that to happen. Wicker should have gone out and wrote his own book on the subject...not force armchair historians like myself to wade through his veiled (and sometimes even not-so-veiled) critiques.
Yet, like I said, I cannot fully blame Wicker himself for this book, as he wrote about Eisenhower as he saw fit and I can respect that. Perhaps more of the attention should fall to overseer Arthur Schlesinger, who apparently chose Wicker...the wrong man for this particular job.
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