Dwight D. Eisenhower as President - Research Paper Example

(“Biography: Dwight David Eisenhower.”). Eisenhower excelled at sports, particularly football, and was an enthusiastic outdoorsman. The skills he nurtured at Abilene included poker, keen powers of observation and personal assessment, and racial integration. A tireless worker, he produced and sold tamales and vegetables, harvested wheat, and served as a fireman every night of the week (“All About Eisenhower.”). Eisenhower won an appointment to West Point in 1911. He detested hazing, and exhibited natural leadership qualities, graduating in the upper half of his class in 1915.

He married Mamie Geneva Doud in July 1916. They had two sons, Doud Dwight, who died at age three, and John Sheldon Doud. Eisenhower’s military career continued until 1948, when he resigned to become the President of Columbia University. In 1950, he was appointed the Supreme Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He was elected the thirty-fourth President of the United States on 4 November, 1954 and went on to serve a second term. Eisenhower retired from the Presidency to live on Gettysburg Farm in Pennsylvania.

Eisenhower played the role of Elder Statesman, advising the Republican Party and Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. Following a rapid decline in health, he was admitted to the Walter Reed hospital, where he died of heart failure on 28 March, 1969. Eisenhower was buried in his “beloved Abilene” (“Biography: Dwight David Eisenhower.”). Eisenhower’s brilliant military career makes for impressive reading. The newly commissioned second lieutenant was posted at  Ft. Sam Houston, Texas in 1915.

The following years saw him make the round of military posts in Texas, Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. His duties included football coaching, and training recruits for World War I. He served in the War Department's First Transcontinental Motor Convoy. He was deeply disappointed in missing active World War I duty. (“Biography: Dwight David Eisenhower.”). In 1920, after volunteering to be a Tanks Corps observer, Eisenhower authored a critical article “advocating that the Army make better use of tanks to prevent a repetition of the static and destructive trench warfare of World War I” (“American President: Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969)”).

Eisenhower was reprimanded for this. His transfer to the Panama Canal Zone brought him under the mentorship of General Fox Connor, who helped him to enter the elite Command and General Staff School at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. Eisenhower graduated first in his class. As an aide to General Pershing, he toured Europe, gaining valuable insights. He went on to serve as military advisor to General MacArthur in the Philippines, helping to develop an effective Philippine army. On his return to America, Eisenhower’s sterling leadership and planning skills in the Louisiana Maneuvers made him a Brigadier General.

At the outbreak of World War II hostilities, Eisenhower’s Pacific war plans impressed Army Chief of Staff George Marshall, and resulted in Eisenhower’s meteoric rise to a five-star General. He ensured cooperation among the allies as Commanding General, US Army, European Theater; he commanded the Allied troops’ invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch; he directed the invasion of Sicily and Italy; he served as the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in the invasion of Western Europe in Operation