0:01

When Dwight Eisenhower, or Ike, as he

0:04

was universally known, was elected the

0:06

34th President of the United

0:08

States in 1952, the American people weren't

0:10

exactly sure who they had voted for. He

0:13

ran as a Republican, but was he a

0:15

conservative, a moderate, a liberal?

0:18

Ultimately, it didn't really matter. The

0:20

decorated World War II general who had

0:22

waged war now promised to wage

0:25

peace, and the voters trusted he

0:27

would keep that promise. Their

0:29

trust was not misplaced. His

0:31

first major act as president was to resolve

0:33

the conflict in Korea that had begun in

0:35

1950 and cost America 36,000 lives.

0:39

Here's how he did it. He made it clear

0:41

to the Chinese, North Korea's patron, that

0:43

if they didn't agree to a ceasefire,

0:46

he would not hesitate to use nuclear

0:48

weapons. Soon after, an

0:50

agreement was reached, drawing a line between

0:52

North and South Korea at the 38th

0:55

parallel. That agreement stands

0:57

to this day. Would Eisenhower

0:59

have actually followed through on his threat?

1:02

We'll never know, but that was the whole

1:04

point. After Ike made

1:06

peace in Korea, Eisenhower biographer Gene

1:08

Smith wrote, not a single

1:11

American died in combat for the next

1:13

eight years. Throughout his

1:15

time in office, he was urged to use

1:17

American military power to resolve conflicts. And

1:20

for eight years, he resisted. In

1:22

1953, the French wanted him

1:24

to come in on their side

1:26

in Vietnam. In 1955, Chiang Kai-shek,

1:29

the ruler of Taiwan, wanted

1:31

America's help to take on communist China. In

1:34

1956, the Hungarians wanted

1:36

him to back their revolt against Soviet rule.

1:39

Each supplicant made a good case for

1:41

American intervention. Each time,

1:43

Eisenhower refused to commit American

1:45

troops. If he didn't see a

1:48

clear path to victory, the risk in his

1:50

mind was greater than the reward. And

1:53

even though he said he was prepared to use

1:55

nuclear weapons, he greatly feared

1:57

their destructive power. To that

1:59

end, he sought a treaty with the Soviets to end

2:01

the arms race. He proposed that the

2:03

US would open all its military

2:05

facilities to Russian inspection, provided

2:08

the Soviets did the same. But

2:10

the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, declined.

2:13

He dismissed the proposal as an American trick

2:15

to spy on the Soviet Union. It

2:18

wasn't a trick. Eisenhower really meant it. If

2:20

Khrushchev wouldn't make a deal, Eisenhower would

2:22

do what he had to do, make

2:25

sure that America's nuclear capacity far

2:27

outstripped the Soviets. But

2:29

while he recognized the Soviet threat, he

2:32

didn't blindly accept the advice of his

2:34

military chiefs. As a career

2:36

soldier, he knew that the armed services

2:38

always assumed the worst about an adversary's

2:41

capabilities, the better to boost their budgets.

2:44

But Eisenhower never took the bait. In

2:47

fact, he trimmed portions of the military

2:49

budget repeatedly during his tenure. He

2:51

famously worried about what he coined

2:53

the military industrial complex. He brought

2:56

the same pragmatism to the domestic front.

2:59

His philosophy here was not much different

3:01

than his foreign policy philosophy. If

3:04

he could keep the country out of war, in

3:06

this case political war, everything else

3:08

would take care of itself. This

3:11

worked brilliantly in his handling of

3:13

the bombastic Republican Senator from Wisconsin,

3:15

Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy became

3:18

nationally renowned for his thinly

3:20

evidenced exposés of communist infiltration

3:22

in the American government. There

3:25

was communist infiltration in the government,

3:27

but McCarthy, unfortunately, might have

3:29

been the worst person to lead that fight.

3:32

For example, he accused General George

3:34

Marshall, the architect of the Allied victory in

3:36

World War II, trusted advisor

3:39

to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, and

3:41

one of the greatest secretaries of state in

3:43

American history, of being pro-communist,

3:46

an accusation that enraged Eisenhower.

3:49

Ex-Advisors implored him to go on the

3:51

offensive and attack the Wisconsin Senator head

3:53

on, but that wasn't Eisenhower's style. He

3:56

knew it was just a matter of time before

3:58

McCarthy would hang himself. He was right,

4:01

McCarthy couldn't prove his accusations, was

4:03

censured by the full Senate, and eventually

4:06

drank himself to death in 1957.

4:09

This was vintage Ike, accomplishing goals without

4:11

a lot of fanfare. But

4:13

if he needed to make a public show of force,

4:15

he would. He sent federal

4:17

troops to enforce a court ruling

4:19

to integrate schools in Little Rock,

4:21

Arkansas. Eisenhower's been

4:24

criticized, and perhaps rightly so, for

4:26

moving too slowly on civil rights issues.

4:28

But he feared social upheaval if he

4:30

did so. And the

4:32

truth is, blacks made significant economic progress

4:35

in the post-war decades. Between 1940 and

4:38

1960, the black poverty rate fell from 87

4:40

percent to 47 percent. Life

4:44

was better for nearly everyone. It

4:47

was a period of balanced budgets, full

4:49

employment, and low inflation. Government

4:51

projects actually got done.

4:53

Eisenhower conceived of and began the

4:56

interstate highway system, which changed

4:58

America probably more than any other

5:00

single infrastructure project in American history,

5:03

and on which we all still depend. He

5:06

did it despite a Democratic majority in the

5:08

House and Senate during his last six years

5:10

as president. For Eisenhower, it was

5:12

about getting the job done, not

5:14

who got the credit. Indeed, the

5:16

Eisenhower years are widely regarded as the

5:19

period in which America was truly great,

5:21

a time when it dominated the world

5:24

in almost every respect, from science to

5:26

culture, from John Wayne Westerns to

5:28

commercial aviation. The warrior

5:30

had kept his promise. He

5:33

kept the peace. I'm

5:36

John Yoo, professor of law at the

5:38

University of California, Berkeley, for Prager University.

5:42

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5:44

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5:46

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