nd

The Presidents Part 5: The 2 Era

For almost two centuries and five decades, America has existed as a nation. Filled with heroic historic events and profound
contradictions, we have seen its poignant developments. The following Presidents professed wonderful sounding words of
democracy, liberty, and justice. Yet, American society back then and today face a real battle between good and evil.
Righteous people want America to live up to principles of democracy and freedom. Evil human beings use tools of division,
bigotry, hatred, and xenophobia to promote their aim of the total destruction of progressive principles that our ancestors
bled for and died for. Therefore, Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy saw the peak of the Cold
War in which tensions between America and the Soviet Union were so bad, that overt nuclear war could be on the horizon.
Yet, rational men and women worked together to avert that catastrophic reality. American capitalism (Laissez-faire
capitalism is known for growing economic inequality by its nature) and Stalinism (Stalin was a dictator and anti-Semite)
ironically claimed to be diametrically opposed to each other, but they are similar in the sense of monopolizing power,
violating fundamental human freedoms, and promoted wars detrimental to social progress in the world. Therefore, our
minds are clear to evaluate these Presidents to gasp lessons, to advance the aim of human liberation, and to seek a better
world than the past or present. John F. Kennedy was the President whose idealism especially inspired human beings globally.
His assassination was horrendous and vicious. After Kennedy’s time, we saw the peak of the Vietnam War, the expansion
of globalization, some progress made by minorities, and the continued fight for justice for all that we vigorously endorse
without compromise.
Then U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy, with wife Jacqueline,
campaigned in New York City sitting on the back seat of an open
car, October 1960. Sen. Kennedy was the Democratic
presidential candidate. AP Photo is the source of this photo.

“…Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or

ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet
any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to
assure the survival and the success of liberty…”
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy

The Table of Contents

1. Harry Truman

2. Dwight D. Eisenhower

3. John F. Kennedy
 HARRY S. TRUMAN

President Truman was President from 1945 to 1953. He was part of the Democratic Party, and he was once a U.S.
Senator from Missouri from 1935 to 1945. He lived from May 8, 1884, to December 26, 1972. His foreign policy was
different than FDR. He promoted a more confrontational tone against the Soviets, and he was involved in many
interventions during his Presidency. He was born in Lamar, Missouri. He was the oldest child of John Anderson Truman
and Martha Ellen Young Truman. He was named for his maternal uncle, Harrison "Harry" Young. His middle initial, "S",
honors his grandfathers, Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young. A brother, John Vivian, was born soon after
Harry, followed by sister Mary Jane. Truman's ancestry is primarily English with some Scots-Irish, German, and French.
John Truman was a farmer and livestock dealer. The family lived in Lamar, until Harry moved to a farm near
Harrisonville, Missouri. Harry Truman was 10 months old at that time. They moved to Belton, and in 1887 to his
grandparents' 600 acre farm in Grandview. By the time Truman was six, his parents moved into Independence, Missouri,
so he could attend the Presbyterian Church Sunday School. Truman was 8 when he went into a conventional school.
While living in Independence, he served as a Shabbos goy for Jewish neighbors, doing tasks for them on Shabbat that
their religion prevented them from doing on that day. Truman was interested in music, reading, and history, all
encouraged by his mother, with whom he was very close. As president, he solicited political as well as personal advice
from her. He rose at five every morning to practice the piano, which he studied more than twice a week until he was
fifteen, becoming quite a skilled player. Truman worked as a page at the 1900 Democratic National Convention in
Kansas City; his father had many friends active in the Democratic Party who helped young Harry to gain his first political
position. After graduating from Independence High School in 1901, Truman enrolled in Spalding's Commercial
College, a Kansas City business school. He studied bookkeeping, shorthand, and typing but left after a year.
Harry Truman was employed briefly in the mailroom of The Kansas City Star before using his business college
experience to get a job as a timekeeper for construction crews on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, which
required him to sleep in workmen's camps along the rail lines. Truman and his brother Vivian worked as clerks at the
National Bank of Commerce in Kansas City. By 1906, Truman came back to the Grandview farm. He lived there until
entering the Army in 1917. He courted Bess Wallace.

He proposed in 1911, but she turned him down. Truman later said he intended to propose again, but he wanted to
have a better income than that earned by a farmer. To that end, during his years on the farm and immediately after
World War I, he became active in several business ventures, including a lead and zinc mine near Commerce, Oklahoma,
a company that bought land and leased the oil drilling rights to prospectors, and speculation in Kansas City real estate.
Truman occasionally derived some income from these enterprises, but none proved successful in the long term.

Truman is the only president since William McKinley (elected in 1896) who did not earn a college degree. In addition
to having briefly attended business college, from 1923 to 1925 he took night courses toward an LL.B. at the Kansas
City Law School (now the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law) but dropped out after losing reelection as
county judge. He was informed by attorneys in the Kansas City area that his education and experience were probably
sufficient to receive a license to practice law but did not pursue it because he won election as presiding judge. While
serving as president in 1947, Truman applied for a law license. A friend who was an attorney began working out the
arrangements, and informed Truman that his application had to be notarized. By the time Truman received this
information he had changed his mind, so he never followed up. After the discovery of Truman's application in 1996
the Missouri Supreme Court issued him a posthumous honorary law license.

Harry Truman was in the Missouri National Guard in 1905 and served until 1911 in the Kansas City based Battery B,
2nd Missouri Field Artillery Regiment. He achieved the rank of corporal. He did this because he lacked funds for college.
His poor eyesight prevented him from joining the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. At his
induction at the National Guard, his eyesight without glasses was unacceptable 20/50 in the right eye and 20/400 in
the left (past the standard for legal blindness). The second time he took the test, he passed by secretly memorizing
the eye chart. He was described as 5 feet 10 inches tall, gray eyed, dark haired and of light complexion.

When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Truman rejoined Battery B, successfully recruiting new soldiers
for the expanding unit, for which he was elected as their first lieutenant. Before deployment to France, Truman was
sent for training to Camp Doniphan, Fort Sill, near Lawton, Oklahoma when his regiment was federalized as the 129th
Field Artillery. The regimental commander during its training was Robert M. Danford, who later served as the Army's
Chief of Field Artillery. Truman later said he learned more practical, useful information from Danford in six weeks than
from six months of formal Army instruction, and when Truman later served as an artillery instructor, he consciously
patterned his approach on Danford's. Truman ran the camp canteen with Edward Jacobson (a clothing store clerk he
knew from Kansas City). Truman ran a profit returning each soldier's initial 2-dollar investment and $10,000 in
dividends in 6 months. At Fort Sill, he met Lieutenant James M. Pendergast or the nephew of Tom Pendergast (a
Kansas City political boss). The Pendergast political team influenced Truman's political career later in his life. By the
mid 1918 era, about 1 million soldiers of the American Expeditionary Forces were in France. Truman was promoted to
captain effective April 23. By July, he was the commander of the newly arrived Battery D, 129th Field Artillery, 35th
Division. Truman was initially unpopular because of his efforts to restore order. Despite attempts by the men to
intimidate him into quitting, Truman succeeded by making his corporals and sergeants accountable for discipline. He
promised to back them up if they performed capably and reduce them to private if they did not. In an event
memorialized in battery lore as "The Battle of Who Run", his soldiers began to flee during a sudden night attack by
the Germans in the Vosges Mountains; Truman succeeded at ordering his men to stay and fight, using profanity from
his railroad days. The men were so surprised to hear Truman use such language that they immediately obeyed.

Truman's unit fought in the assault on September 26, 1918, at the start of the Meuse Argonne Offensive. Truman
waited for the Germans, then he ordered his men to attack. His actions helped to save the lives of the 28th Division
soldiers who would have otherwise have come under fire from the Germans. Truman was given a dressing down by
his regimental commander, Colonel Karl D. Klemm, who threatened to convene a court-martial, but Klemm never
followed through, and Truman was not punished. Truman's battery provided support for George S. Patton's tank
brigade. Truman's battery fired some of the last shots of the war on November 11, 1918. Battery D never lost any men
under Truman's command in France. The men provided a large loving cup to Truman when he came back to America
after the war as a gift. Truman increased his leadership qualities after WWI. Truman expanded his political career in
Missouri. He avoided revivals and sometimes mocked revivalist preachers. He was brought up in Presbyterian and
Baptist churches. Harry Truman spoke rarely about religion. Many of his friends were Catholics like the soldiers that
he commanded. One of his friends was the 129th Field Artillery's chaplain, Monsignor L. Curtis Tiernan. They were
friends until Tiernan's death in 1960. Truman got along with soldiers who were Christian and of the Jewish faith.

Truman was honorably discharged from the Army as a captain on May 6, 1919. In 1920 he was appointed a major in
the Officers Reserve Corps. He became a lieutenant colonel in 1925 and a colonel in 1932. In the 1920s and 1930s he
commanded 1st Battalion, 379th Field Artillery, 102nd Infantry Division. After promotion to colonel, Truman advanced
to command of the same regiment. After he was elected to the U.S. Senate, Harry Truman was transferred to the
General Assignments Group, a holding unit for less active officers. He was not consulted in advance. Trump didn't
agree with this assignment. He was an active reservist until the early 1940's. Truman volunteered for active military
service during World War II, but was not accepted, partly because of age, and partly because President Franklin D.
Roosevelt desired senators and congressmen who belonged to the military reserves to support the war effort by
remaining in Congress, or by ending their active-duty service and resuming their congressional seats. He was an
inactive reservist from the early 1940s until retiring as a colonel in the then redesignated U.S. Army Reserve on January
20, 1953. Truman was awarded a World War I Victory Medal with two battle clasps (for St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne)
and a Defensive Sector Clasp. He was also the recipient of two-Armed Forces Reserve Medals.

Harry Truman married Bess Wallace on June 28, 1919, at Independence, Missouri. Their one child was Mary Margaret
Truman. He worked in business, and later Jacobson inspired him to support Zionism. That played a role in the U.S.
government decision to recognize the nation of Israel in 1948. Truman was elected in 1922 as a County Court judge
of Jackson Country's eastern district (with led of the Kansas City Democratic machine led by Tom Pendergast). He lost
re-election led by President Coolidge's landslide election of Republicans. He was a presiding judge in 1926 with
support of the Pendergast machine. He was re-elected in 1930. As presiding judge, Truman helped coordinate the
Ten-Year Plan, which transformed Jackson County and the Kansas City skyline with new public works projects, including
an extensive series of roads and
construction of a new Wight and Wight-
designed County Court building. Also in
1926, he became president of the National
Old Trails Road Association, and during his
term he oversaw dedication of 12
Madonna of the Trail monuments to honor
pioneer women. In 1933, Truman was
named Missouri's director for the Federal
Re-Employment program (part of the Civil
Works Administration) at the request of The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki took place on August 6
Postmaster General James Farley. This was and 9, 1945 which was the first and only me when there was the
payback to Pendergast for delivering the usage of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict. This overt act of a
Kansas City vote to Franklin D. Roosevelt in war crime and mass murder caused between 129,000 and 226,000
the 1932 presidential election. The people to die, most of whom were civilians. The vic ms, who
appointment confirmed Pendergast's survived, had burns, radia on poisoning, and other forms of
control over federal patronage jobs in cancer. The Japanese government signed the instrument of
Missouri and marked the zenith of his surrender on September 2, 1945, which ended World War II
power. It also created a relationship officially.
between Truman and Roosevelt's aide
Harry Hopkins and assured Truman's avid support for the New Deal.

Harry Truman was a U.S. Senator of Missouri along with new pro-New Deal Democrats winning elections following the
Great Depression. He spoke out against Wall Street speculators and special interests. He had trouble getting calls
returned from the White House. He served on the high-profile Appropriations and Interstate Commerce Committees.
Pendergast was in prison for income tax invasion. By 1940, Truman ran for Senate again. St. Louis party leader Robert
E. Hannegan supported Truman. That influenced Truman's victory. Senator Truman opposed Nazi Germany and
Communist Russia. Truman used the Truman Committee to try to get rid of waste and corruption in the military
industries. The committee is said to have saved as much as 15 billion dollars (or 220 billion dollars in 2020). By 1945,
people already knew that Roosevelt was going to die soon. So, Henry Wallace was Vice President at the time. Moderate
and conservative Democrats wanted Truman to be Vice President as the conservatives viewed Henry Wallace as too
progressive. Truman didn't want the position at first. Later, he agreed to be on the ticket. The Roosevelt–Truman ticket
achieved a 432–99 electoral-vote victory in the election, defeating the Republican ticket of Governor Thomas E. Dewey
of New York and running mate Governor John Bricker of Ohio. Truman was sworn in as vice president on January 20,
1945. After the inauguration, Truman called his mother, who instructed him, "Now you behave yourself." FDR didn't
meet with Truman at lot. Truman attended Pendergast's funeral which was controversial. Truman didn't know about
the Manhattan Project.

Truman had been vice president for 82 days when President Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945. Truman, presiding over
the Senate, as usual, had just adjourned the session for the day and was preparing to have a drink in House Speaker
Sam Rayburn's office when he received an urgent message to go immediately to the White House, where Eleanor
Roosevelt told him that her husband had died after a massive cerebral hemorrhage. Truman asked her if there was
anything he could do for her; she replied, "Is there anything we can do for you? For you are the one in trouble now!"
He was sworn in as president at 7:09 pm in the West Wing of the White House, by Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone.

President Truman had to be up to speed on what was going on. Truman was supported by the establishment, so
Truman got rid of the Roosevelt holdovers. His cabinet was understaffed. He didn't trust journalists. He used his old
friends in his cabinet. Many of them knew very little of their fields, like Harry H. Vaughan, Fred Vinson, and John Snyder.
Truman loved his poker, telling stories, and sipping bourbon. His first term was from 1945 to 1949. On his first full day,
Truman told reporters: "Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now. I don't know if you fellas ever had a load of hay fall
on you, but when they told me what happened yesterday, I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen
on me." Truman shared Churchill's hatred of Communism. He was more militant against Stalin than FDR. That was
shown in the Potsdam meeting in July 1945. Truman was told that atomic weapons were in development. April 25,
1945, was when the Secretary of War Henry Stimson told him about the atomic bomb in more detail. Stalin knew of
the atomic test since Stalin used his spies to gather information on the Manhattan Project. Japan refused to surrender
at Potsdam. So, Truman used atomic bombs in Japan. Truman claimed that thousands of U.S. casualties would exist in
an invasion of Japan. This was a lie as U.S. military leaders said that the atomic bomb used in Japan was
unnecessary. Hiroshima was bombed on August 6, and Nagasaki three days later, leaving 105,000 dead. The Soviet
Union declared war on Japan on August 9 and invaded Manchuria. Japan agreed to surrender the following day. Critics
have argued that the use of nuclear weapons was unnecessary, given that conventional attacks or a demonstrative
bombing of an uninhabited area would have forced Japan's surrender and therefore assert that the attack constituted
a crime of war. Truman defended his war crimes of dropping atomic weapons on civilian locations. After the war,
Truman dealt with an economy that must transition from war. Inflation grew, strikes existed, and farmers refused to
sell grain. Europe faced starvation. Similarly, industrial laborers sought wage increases. In January 1946 a steel strike
involving 800,000 laborers became the largest in the nation's history. It was followed by a coal strike in April and a rail
strike in May; however, public opinion on labor action was mixed with one poll reporting a majority of the public in
favor of a ban on strikes by public service workers and a year's moratorium on labor actions. When a national rail strike
threatened in May 1946, Truman seized the railroads in an attempt to contain the issue, but two key railway unions
struck anyway. The entire national railroad system was shut down, immobilizing 24,000 freight trains and 175,000
passenger trains a day.

With opposition of Truman, the Democrats had losses in the 1946 midterm election. This time saw the rise of Wisconsin
Senator Joe McCarthy and California Congressman Richard Nixon. Democratic Senator William Fulbright wanted
Truman to resign, but Truman refused. Truman worked with Republicans on foreign policy, but he fought them on
domestic issues. The power of the labor unions was significantly curtailed by the Taft–Hartley Act which was enacted
over Truman's veto. Truman twice vetoed bills to lower income tax rates in 1947. Although the initial vetoes were
sustained, Congress overrode his veto of a tax cut bill in 1948. In one notable instance of bipartisanship, Congress
passed the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, which replaced the secretary of state with the Speaker of the House
and the president pro tempore of the Senate as successor to the president after the vice president. As he readied for
the 1948 election, Truman made clear his identity as a Democrat in the New Deal tradition, advocating for national
health insurance, and repeal of the Taft–Hartley Act. He broke with the New Deal by initiating an aggressive civil rights
program which he termed a moral priority. His economic and social vision constituted a broad legislative agenda that
came to be called the "Fair Deal." Truman's proposals were not well received by Congress, even with renewed
Democratic majorities in Congress after 1948. The Solid South rejected civil rights as those states still enforced
segregation. Only one of the major Fair Deal bills, the Housing Act of 1949, was ever enacted. Many of the New Deal
programs that persisted during Truman's presidency have since received minor improvements and extensions.

President Truman supported Wilsonian internationalism. He agreed with Roosevelt's proposed United Nations. Eleanor
Roosevelt worked in the U.N. too. Truman was hostile to the Soviet Union via a hardline position. Truman believed
that Soviets wanted world domination. Truman worked with George Marshall and Dean Acheson to invest in helping
Europe with the Marshall Plan. He supported the Truman Doctrine of Soviet containment. The Marshall Plan helped to
rebuild postwar Europe. Truman said that if Europe didn’t send money, then it could be more Communist. As part of
the U.S. Cold War strategy, Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 and reorganized military forces by
merging the Department of War and the Department of the Navy into the National Military Establishment (later the
Department of Defense) and creating the U.S. Air Force. The act also created the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and
the National Security Council. In 1952, Truman secretly consolidated and empowered the cryptologic elements of the
United States by creating the National Security Agency (NSA).

Truman did not know what to do about China, where the Nationalists and Communists were fighting a large-scale civil
war. The Nationalists had been major wartime allies and had large-scale popular support in the United States, along
with a powerful lobby. General George Marshall spent most of 1946 in China trying to negotiate a compromise but
failed. He convinced Truman the Nationalists would never win on their own and a very large-scale U.S. intervention to
stop the Communists would significantly weaken U.S. opposition to the Soviets in Europe. By 1949, the Communists
under Mao Zedong had won the civil war, the United States had a new enemy in Asia, and Truman came under fire
from conservatives for "losing" China.
On June 24, 1948, the Soviet Union blocked access to the three Western-held sectors of Berlin. The Allies had not
negotiated a deal to guarantee supply of the sectors deep within the Soviet-occupied zone. The commander of the
U.S. occupation zone in Germany, General Lucius D. Clay, proposed sending a large, armored column across the Soviet
zone to West Berlin with instructions to defend itself if it were stopped or attacked. Truman believed this would entail
an unacceptable risk of war. He approved Ernest Bevin's plan to supply the blockaded city by air.

On June 25, the Allies initiated the Berlin Airlift, a campaign to deliver food, coal and other supplies using military
aircraft on a massive scale. Nothing like it had ever been attempted before, and no single nation had the capability,
either logistically or materially, to accomplish it. The airlift worked; ground access was again granted on May 11, 1949.
Nevertheless, the airlift continued for several months after that. The Berlin Airlift was one of Truman's great foreign
policy successes; it significantly aided his election campaign in 1948. Harry Truman supported Zionism and recognized
Israel as a nation. He called for a Jewish homeland in 1943 among Jewish people who survived the Nazi regime. Yet,
many in the State Department didn't want to offend Arabic people. Some were opposed to forming a Jewish state
filled with Arabic people. Secretary of Defense James Forrestal warned Truman of the importance of Saudi Arabian oil
in another war; Truman replied he would decide his policy on the basis of justice, not oil. U.S. diplomats with experience
in the region were opposed, but Truman told them he had few Arabic people among his constituents. Truman didn't
want Greece to be Communist too. George Marshall, Secretary of State, didn't agree with recognizing Israel, but
Truman proceeded.

Under his predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Fair Employment Practices Committee was created to address racial
discrimination in employment, and in 1946, Truman created the President's Committee on Civil Rights. On June 29,
1947, Truman became the first president to address the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP). The speech took place at the Lincoln Memorial during the NAACP convention and was carried nationally on
radio. In that speech, Truman laid out the need to end discrimination, which would be advanced by the first
comprehensive, presidentially proposed civil rights legislation. Truman on "civil rights and human freedom." Truman
further states in the speech that:

"It is my deep conviction that we have reached a turning point in the long history of our
country’s efforts to guarantee freedom and equality to all our citizens … it is more
important today than ever before to ensure that all Americans enjoy these rights. …
[And] When I say all Americans, I mean all Americans … Our immediate task is to remove
the last remnants of the barriers which stand between millions of our citizens and their
birthright. There is no justifiable reason for discrimination because of ancestry, or
religion, or race, or color. We must not tolerate such limitations on the freedom of any
of our people and on their enjoyment of basic rights which every citizen in a truly
democratic society must possess. Every man should have the right to a decent home,
the right to an education, the right to adequate medical care, the right to a worthwhile
job, the right to an equal share in making the public decisions through the ballot, and
the right to a fair trial in a fair court. We must ensure that these rights — on equal terms
— are enjoyed by every citizen. To these principles I pledge my full and continued
support. Many of our people still suffer the indignity of insult, the harrowing fear of
intimidation, and, I regret to say, the threat of physical injury and mob violence.
Prejudice and intolerance in which these evils are rooted still exist. The conscience of
our nation, and the legal machinery which enforces it, have not yet secured to each
citizen full freedom from fear."
In February 1948, Truman delivered a formal message to Congress requesting adoption of his 10-point program to
secure civil rights, including anti-lynching, voter rights, and elimination of segregation. "'No political act since the
Compromise of 1877,' argued biographer Taylor Branch, 'so profoundly influenced race relations; in a sense it was a
repeal of 1877.'

Harry Truman won the 1948 election in a come from behind victory. Truman only had a approval rating of 36 percent.
Many New Deal Democrats supported General Dwight D. Eisenhower, but Eisenhower refused to run at that time. At
the 1948 Democratic National Convention, Truman attempted to unify the party with a vague civil rights plank on the
party platform. His intention was to assuage the internal conflicts between the northern and southern wings of his
party. Events overtook his efforts. A sharp 1948 address given by Mayor Hubert Humphrey of Minneapolis—as well as
the local political interests of a number of urban bosses—convinced the convention to adopt a stronger civil rights
plank, which Truman approved wholeheartedly. All of Alabama's delegates, and a portion of Mississippi's, walked out
of the convention in protest. Unfazed, Truman delivered an aggressive acceptance speech attacking the 80th Congress,
which Truman called the "Do Nothing Congress," and promising to win the election and "make these Republicans like
it."

Influential Films of the 1940’s

Orson Welles stars as Charles Foster Kane Directed by Andrew L. Stone, Stormy
in the film of Ci zen Kane in 1941. Weather (in 1943) is widely regarded as
one of the best black movies from the
1940s. The movie features some of the
most famous African American performers
of the me, including Lena Horne, Bill
Robinson, and Fats Waller.

Directed by Vincente Minnelli and
featuring an all-black cast, Cabin in the
Sky (in 1943) tells a story about
redemp on and second chances with
music as its backdrop.
Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman star
as Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund in the film of
Casablanca in 1942
Within two weeks of the 1948 convention Truman issued Executive Order 9981, racially integrating the U.S. Armed
Services and Executive Order 9980 to integrate federal agencies. Truman took a considerable political risk in backing
civil rights, and many seasoned Democrats were concerned the loss of Dixiecrat support might destroy the Democratic
Party. South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond, a segregationist, declared his candidacy for the presidency on a
Dixiecrat ticket and led a full-scale revolt of Southern "states' rights" proponents. This rebellion on the right was
matched by one on the left, led by Wallace on the Progressive Party ticket. Immediately after its first post-FDR
convention, the Democratic Party seemed to be disintegrating. Victory in November seemed unlikely as the party was
not simply split but divided three ways. For his running mate, Truman accepted Kentucky Senator Alben W. Barkley,
though he really wanted Justice William O. Douglas, who turned down the nomination. Truman traveled the country,
and he won the 1948 election. In the end, Truman held his progressive Midwestern base, won most of the Southern
states despite the civil rights plank, and squeaked through with narrow victories in a few critical states, notably Ohio,
California, and Illinois. The final tally showed the president had secured 303 electoral votes, Dewey 189, and Thurmond
only 39. Henry Wallace got none. The defining image of the campaign came after Election Day, when an ecstatic
Truman held aloft the erroneous front page of the Chicago Tribune with a huge headline proclaiming "Dewey Defeats
Truman."

Truman's second inauguration was the first one where it was televised nationally. It was in 1949. Truman tested the H-
bomb. The Soviet Union tested first on August 29, 1949. America tested it on October 31, 1952. The H-Bomb was
debated by scientists, military leaders, and politicians on whether it was necessary to do it. On June 25, 1950, the North
Korean army under Kim Il-sung invaded South Korea, starting the Korean War. In the early weeks of the war, the North
Koreans easily pushed back their southern counterparts. Truman called for a naval blockade of Korea, only to learn
that due to budget cutbacks, the U.S. Navy could not enforce such a measure. Truman promptly urged the United
Nations to intervene; it did, authorizing troops under the UN flag led by U.S. General Douglas MacArthur. Truman
decided he did not need formal authorization from Congress, believing that most legislators supported his position;
this would come back to haunt him later when the stalemated conflict was dubbed "Mr. Truman's War" by legislators.

However, on July 3, 1950, Truman did give Senate Majority Leader Scott W. Lucas a draft resolution titled "Joint
Resolution Expressing Approval of the Action Taken in Korea". Lucas stated Congress supported the use of force, the
formal resolution would pass but was unnecessary, and the consensus in Congress was to acquiesce. Truman
responded he did not want "to appear to be trying to get around Congress and use extra-Constitutional powers," and
added that it was "up to Congress whether such a resolution should be introduced."
By August 1950, U.S. troops pouring into South Korea under UN auspices were able to stabilize the situation.
Responding to criticism over readiness, Truman fired his secretary of defense, Louis A. Johnson, replacing him with the
retired General Marshall. With UN approval, Truman decided on a "rollback" policy—conquest of North Korea. UN
forces led by General Douglas MacArthur led the counterattack, scoring a stunning surprise victory with an amphibious
landing at the Battle of Inchon that nearly trapped the invaders. UN forces marched north, toward the Yalu River
boundary with China, with the goal of reuniting Korea under UN auspices. China surprised UN forces with a large-
scale invasion in November. The UN forced came back below the 38th parallel, then recovered. By early 1951, the
Korean War was a stalemate. General MacArthur wanted to attack Chinese supply bases north of Yalu, but Truman
refused to support it. Truman thought that attacking China would provoke a response from the USSR thereby causing
WWIII. Truman fired MacArthur over insubordination. The dismissal of MacArthur was unpopular among the American
people. Truman's approval rating declined. Senate Robert A. Taft wanted Truman to be impeached. Others, including
Eleanor Roosevelt and all the Joint Chiefs of Staff, publicly supported Truman's decision. MacArthur meanwhile
returned to the United States to a hero's welcome, and addressed a joint session of Congress, a speech the President
Harry Trump called "a bunch of d___ bulls___." Truman and his generals considered the use of nuclear weapons against
the Chinese army, but ultimately chose not to escalate the war to a nuclear level. The war remained a frustrating
stalemate for two years, with over 30,000 Americans killed, until an armistice ended the fighting in 1953. In February
1952, Truman's approval mark stood at 22 percent according to Gallup polls, which is the all-time lowest approval
mark for a sitting U.S. president, though it was matched by Richard Nixon in 1974.

Truman supported NATO and more intervention to try to stop Soviet expansion. Truman opposed the right-wing
dictator Francsico Franco of Spain. Truman followed red baiting by his Executive Order 9835 to promote a loyalty
program. The Second Red Scare existed with Joe McCarthy leading it. Truman called McCarthy the greatest asset of
the Kremlin by messing with American foreign policy. Truman said that his loyalty program was a mistake in violation
of human civil liberties. On November 1, 1950, Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempted
to assassinate Truman at Blair House. On the street outside the residence, Torresola mortally wounded a White House
policeman, Leslie Coffelt. Before he died, the officer shot and killed Torresola. Collazo was wounded and stopped
before he entered the house. He was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death in 1952. Truman commuted his
sentence to life in prison. To try to settle the question of Puerto Rican independence, Truman allowed a plebiscite in
Puerto Rico in 1952 to determine the status of its relationship to the United States. Nearly 82 percent of the people
voted in favor of a new constitution for the Estado Libre Asociado, a continued 'associated free state.’ Truman had
scandals of steel, and the issue of Estes Kefauver (who accused some of corruption charges in the administration). In
1951, William M. Boyle, Truman's longtime friend and chairman of the Democratic National Committee, was forced to
resign after being charged with financial corruption. President Truman dealt with Civil Rights.

A 1947 report by the Truman administration titled To Secure These Rights presented a detailed ten-point agenda of
civil rights reforms. Speaking about this report, international developments must be taken into account, for with the
UN Charter being passed in 1945, the question of whether international human rights law could be applicable also on
an inner-land basis became crucial in the United States. Though the report acknowledged such a path was not free
from controversy in the 1940s United States, it nevertheless raised the possibility for the UN-Charter to be used as a
legal tool to combat racial discrimination in the United States. In February 1948, the president submitted a civil rights
agenda to Congress that proposed creating several federal offices devoted to issues such as voting rights and fair
employment practices. This provoked a storm of criticism from southern Democrats in the runup to the national
nominating convention, but Truman refused to compromise, saying: "My forebears were Confederates ... but my
very stomach turned over when I had learned that Negro soldiers, just back from overseas, were being dumped
out of Army trucks in Mississippi and beaten."

Tales of the abuse, violence, and persecution suffered by many African-American veterans upon their return from
World War II infuriated Truman and were major factors in his decision to issue Executive Order 9981, in July 1948,
requiring equal opportunity in the armed forces. In the early 1950s after several years of planning, recommendations
and revisions between Truman, the Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity and the various branches of
the military, the services became racially integrated. Executive Order 9980, also in 1948, made it illegal to discriminate
against persons applying for civil service positions based on race. A third, in 1951, established the Committee on
Government Contract Compliance (CGCC). This committee ensured defense contractors did not discriminate because
of race. In 1950 he vetoed the McCarran Internal Security Act. It was passed over his veto. Truman lost the 1952 election
to Eisenhower. Kefauver was on the Democratic ticket as President. Yet, Truman and Kefauver lost to Stevenson on the
Democratic side. Eisenhower worked with Nixon to run. Eisenhower focused on Truman's policies on Korea,
communism, and corruption. Eisenhower defeated Stevenson decisively in the general election, ending 20 years of
Democratic presidents. While Truman and Eisenhower had previously been on good terms, Truman felt annoyed
Eisenhower did not denounce Joseph McCarthy during the campaign.

Similarly, Eisenhower was outraged when Truman accused the former general of disregarding "sinister forces ... Anti-
Semitism, anti-Catholicism, and anti-foreignism" within the Republican Party. After the Presidency, Truman lived in
Independence, Missouri. Truman wrote his Memoirs. They were published in two volumes: Memoirs by Harry S.
Truman: Year of Decisions (1955) and Memoirs by Harry S. Truman: Years of Trial and Hope (1956). He supported
pensions for executive leaders. Truman taught occasional courses at universities, including Yale, where he was a Chubb
Fellow visiting lecturer in 1958. In 1962, Truman was a visiting lecturer at Canisius College. Truman supported Adlai
Stevenson in 1956. In 1960, he questioned about JFK being too young to run for President. JFK rebuffed Truman's
advice to drop his campaign.

Despite his supportive stance on civil rights during his presidency, Truman expressed criticism of the civil rights
movement during the 1960s. In 1960, he stated that he believed the sit-in movement to be part of a Soviet plot which
is ludicrous. Truman's statement garnered a response from Martin Luther King Jr., who wrote a letter to Truman stating
that he was "baffled" by Truman's accusation and demanded a public apology. Truman would later criticize King
following accusation and 1965, believing the protest to be "silly" and claiming that it "[couldn't] accomplish a darn
thing except to attract attention." Truman was a liar as the Selma movement (which was filled with protests spanning
weeks and months) represents courage against unjust voter suppression of black Americans. The civil rights movement
required activism beyond just words.

Upon turning 80 in 1964, Truman was feted in Washington, and addressed the Senate, availing himself of a new rule
that allowed former presidents to be granted privilege of the floor. Trump's health declined after a fall in his home in
late 1964. He supported LBJ's Medicare bill. He was there when the Medicare bill was signed into law in 1965. The first
2 Medicare cards were sent to Truman and his wife Bess to honor the former President's fight for government health
care while in office. This was at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum. He died on December 5, 1972.
He was admitted to Kansas City's Research Hospital and Medical Center with pneumonia. He developed multiple organ
failure, fell into a coma, and died at 7:50 a.m. on December 26, at the age of 88. Bess Truman opted for a simple private
service at the library rather than a state funeral in Washington. A week after the funeral, foreign dignitaries and
Washington officials attended a memorial service at Washington National Cathedral. Bess died in 1982 and is buried
next to Harry at the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri. President Harry Truman had a
legacy that was filled with change. He saw the end of WWII and the start of the Cold War. His record was hectic. Every
facet of his Presidency wasn't full. The plain-spoken talk of Truman inspired people like the late Senator John Arizona
McCain. Truman was a 33rd degree Freemason, a member of the Society of Cincinnati, etc. Truman was right to
promote labor rights, speak in favor of civil rights at the NAACP (and he was wrong in his criticisms of the 1960's civil
rights activism), and to have a distrust of corrupt Wall Street interests. Yet, on foreign policy, he continued with a
hardline foreign policy position that was supported by the establishment. He prevented WWIII in the Korean War, but
he admitted that some of his policies went over the line on civil liberty issues. Harry Truman remains a President who
was in transition and had a mixed record on political issues.
 DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
President Dwight D. Eisenhower was one of the most famous and popular Presidents in American history. He was
President from 1953 to 1961. He lived from October 14, 1890, to March 28, 1969. People know him as being a five star
rank General of the U.S. Army. He planned and supervised the victorious invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch
(1942-1943) and the invasion of Normandy (at the Western Front from 1944-1945). The Eisenhower family migrated
from the German village of Karlsbrunn to the U.S. in 1741. They first came to York, Pennsylvania. The family moved
into Kansas in the 1880's. Eisenhower's Pennsylvania Dutch ancestors, who were primarily farmers, included Hans
Nikolaus Eisenhauer of Karlsbrunn, who migrated in 1741 to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Hans's great-great-grandson,
David Jacob Eisenhower (1863–1942), Eisenhower's father, was a college-educated engineer, despite his own father
Jacob's urging to stay on the family farm. Eisenhower's mother, Ida Elizabeth (Stover) Eisenhower, born in Virginia, of
predominantly German Protestant ancestry, moved to Kansas from Virginia. She married David on September 23, 1885,
in Lecompton, Kansas, on the campus of their alma mater, Lane University. Dwight David Eisenhower's lineage also
included English ancestors (on both sides) and Scottish ancestors (through his maternal line). David owned a general
store in Hope, Kansas, but the business failed due to economic conditions and the family became impoverished. The
Eisenhowers then lived in Texas from 1889 until 1892, and later returned to Kansas, with $24 (equivalent to $691 in
2020) to their name at the time. David worked as a railroad mechanic and then at a creamery. By 1898, the parents
made a decent living and provided a suitable home for their large family.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas. He was the third of the 7 sons born to Ida Stover and David J.
Eisenhower. His nickname was Ike. By 1892, the family moved to Abilene, Kansas, which Eisenhower considered his
hometown. As a child, he was involved in an accident that cost his younger brother Earl an eye. He was remorseful
about it for the remainder of his life. He loved the outdoors, did hunting plus fishing, cooking, and card playing. He
learned these things from an illiterate man named Bob Davis who camped on the Smoky Hill River. While his mother
was against war, it was her collection of history books that first sparked Eisenhower's early and lasting interest in
military history. He persisted in reading the books in her collection and became a voracious reader on the subject.
Other favorite subjects early in his education were arithmetic and spelling. His parents made time at breakfast and at
dinner for daily family Bible reading. He did chores and had experienced discipline for misbehavior. His mother,
previously a member (with David) of the River Brethren sect of the Mennonites, joined the International Bible Students
Association, later known as Jehovah's Witnesses. The Eisenhower home served as the local meeting hall from 1896 to
1915, though Eisenhower never joined the International Bible Students. His later decision to attend West Point
saddened his mother, who felt that warfare was "rather wicked", but she did not overrule his decision. While speaking
of himself in 1948, Eisenhower said he was "one of the most deeply religious men I know" though unattached to any
"sect or organization." He was baptized in the Presbyterian Church in 1953. Dwight D. Eisenhower graduated from
Abilene High School in the year of 1909. Eisenhower survived his knee injury when he was a freshman in high school.
He and his brother Edgar promise to attend college when they get the funds to afford to go.

Edgar went to college first. Dwight was a night supervisor at Belle Springs Creamery. When Edgar wanted a 2nd year,
Dwight agreed and worked for a second year. A friend named "Swede" Hazlett applied for the Navy Academy. He
wanted Dwight to apply to the school because no tuition was required. Eisenhower requested consideration for either
Annapolis or West Point with his U.S. Senator, Jospeh L. Bristow. Eisenhower was among the winners of the entrance
exam competition. He was beyond the age limit for the Naval Academy. By 1911, he accepted an appointment to West
Point. He played sports at West Point. He hated hazing, but he experienced it as a plebe. Eisenhower was a member
of the 1912 West Point football team. His best subject was English. He had discipline issues. Dwight D. Eisenhower
loved to study engineering, science, and mathematics. In athletics, Eisenhower later said that "not making the baseball
team at West Point was one of the greatest disappointments of my life, maybe my greatest." He made the varsity
football team and was a starter at halfback in 1912, when he tried to tackle the legendary Jim Thorpe of the Carlisle
Indians. Eisenhower suffered a torn knee while being tackled in the next game, which was the last he played. He re-
injured his knee on horseback and in the boxing ring, so he turned to fencing and gymnastics. He was a junior varsity
football coach and cheerleader. By 1915, he graduated from West Point. 59 members of the class became general
officers. He married Mamie Doud of Bonne, Iowa. They proposed on Valentine's Day in 1916. They were married for
decades.

The Eisenhowers had two sons. Doud Dwight "Icky" Eisenhower (1917–1921) died of scarlet fever at the age of three.
Eisenhower was mostly reluctant to discuss his death. Their second son, John Eisenhower (1922–2013), was born in
Denver, Colorado. John served in the United States Army, retired as a brigadier general, became an author and served
as U.S. Ambassador to Belgium from 1969 to 1971. Coincidentally, John graduated from West Point on D-Day, June 6,
1944. He married Barbara Jean Thompson on June 10, 1947. John and Barbara had four children: David, Barbara Ann,
Susan Elaine and Mary Jean. David, after whom Camp David is named, married Richard Nixon's daughter Julie in 1968.
Dwight D. Eisenhower loved golf, and he joined the Augusta National Golf Club in 1948. During and after his
Presidency, Eisenhower played golf. He even golfed during the Winter. Camp David housed a golf facility, and he was
a friend to Augusta National Chairman Clifford Roberts. Roberts handled the Eisenhower family's investments, and he
visited the White House on numerous occasions. Eisenhower loved to oil paint. He painted images, and Thomas E.
Stephens painted a portrait of Mamie Eisenhower. 260 oil paintings were made by Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower's
favorite movie was Angels in the Outfield, and he loved to read Western novels by Zane Grey.

Dwight D. Eisenhower played poker, and he had other hobbies. He played poker for 6 nights a week for five months.
He played with President Manuel Quezon of the Philippines and with General Alfred Gruenther (considered the best
player in the U.S. Army in the game of bridge). Eisenhower hired Gruenther was 2nd in command in NATO partly
because of his skill at bridge. After graduation in 1915, Second Lieutenant Eisenhower wanted an assignment in the
Philippines. He was denied. Later, he was in logistics and then infantry at various camps in Texas and Georgia until
1918. By 1916, he was stationed at Fort Sam Houston. Eisenhower was football coach for St. Louis College, now St.
Mary's University. Eisenhower was an honorary member of the Sigma Beta Chi fraternity at St. Mary's University. In late
1917, while he was in charge of training at Fort Oglethore in Georgia, his wife Mamie had their first son. When WWI
came about, he wanted to go overseas, but he was assigned to Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. By February of 1918, he was
transferred to Camp Meade in Maryland with the 65th Engineers.
His unit was later ordered to France, but, to his chagrin, he received orders for the new tank corps, where he was
promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel in the National Army. He commanded a unit that trained tank crews at Camp
Colt – his first command – at the site of "Pickett's Charge" on the Gettysburg Civil War battleground. Though
Eisenhower and his tank crews never saw combat, he displayed excellent organizational skills, as well as an ability to
accurately assess junior officers' strengths and make optimal placements of personnel.

Once again, his spirits were raised when the unit under his command received orders overseas to France. This time his
wishes were thwarted when the armistice was signed a week before his departure date. Completely missing out on
the warfront left him depressed and bitter for a time, despite receiving the Distinguished Service Medal for his work
at home. In World War II, rivals who had combat service in the great war (led by Gen. Bernard Montgomery) sought
to denigrate Eisenhower for his previous lack of combat duty, despite his stateside experience establishing a camp,
completely equipped, for thousands of troops, and developing a full combat training schedule. After WWI, Eisenhower
was in the rank of captain. Days later, he was promoted to major. By 1919, he was assigned to a transcontinental Army
convoy to test vehicles and dramatize the need for improved roads in the nation. Indeed, the convoy averaged only
5 miles per hour (8.0 km/h) from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco; later the improvement of highways became a
signature issue for Eisenhower as president. Camp Meade, Maryland was the place where he assumed duties. Ike
commanded a battalion of tanks until 1922. Eisenhower studied to find out the future of tank warfare and the nature
of the next war. He worked with George S. Patton and Sereno E. Brett including other senior tank leaders. Faster tanks
existed.

From 1920, Eisenhower served under a succession of talented generals – Fox Conner, John J. Pershing, Douglas
MacArthur, and George Marshall. He first became executive officer to General Conner in the Panama Canal Zone,
where, joined by Mamie, he served until 1924. Under Conner's tutelage, he studied military history and theory
(including Carl von Clausewitz's On War), and later cited Conner's enormous influence on his military thinking, saying
in 1962 that "Fox Conner was the ablest man I ever knew." Conner's comment on Eisenhower was, "[He] is one of the
most capable, efficient and loyal officers I have ever met." On Conner's recommendation, in 1925–26 he attended the
Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he graduated first in a class of 245 officers.
He then served as a battalion commander at Fort Benning, Georgia, until 1927. By the 1920's and the 1930's,
Eisenhower's career in the military was stagnant, because many military forces were in peacetime mode. He worked in
various business jobs.

He was assigned to the American Battle Monuments Commission directed by General Pershing, and with the help of
his brother Milton Eisenhower, then a journalist at the U.S. Agriculture Department, he produced a guide to American
battlefields in Europe. He then was assigned to the Army War College and graduated in 1928. After a one-year
assignment in France, Eisenhower served as executive officer to General George V. Moseley, Assistant Secretary of
War, from 1929 to February 1933. Major Dwight D. Eisenhower graduated from the Army Industrial College
(Washington, DC) in 1933 and later served on the faculty (it was later expanded to become the Industrial College of
the Armed Services and is now known as the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource
Strategy). Later, the Great Depression existed. He was the chief military aide to General Douglas MacArthur, Army Chief
of Staff. He was involved in clearing out the Bonus March encampment at Washington, D.C. Veterans of WWI wanted
pensions. He wanted MacArthur not to take a public role in it. He wrote an incident report endorsing MacArthur's
conduct. Ike worked as the assistant military adviser to the Philippine Army. This was in 1935 Eisenhower disagreed
with MacArthur on how the Philippine Army should act.

Eisenhower returned to the United States in December 1939 and was assigned as commanding officer (CO) of the 1st
Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment at Fort Lewis, Washington, later becoming the regimental executive officer. In March
1941 he was promoted to colonel and assigned as chief of staff of the newly activated IX Corps under Major General
Kenyon Joyce. In June 1941, he was appointed chief of staff to General Walter Krueger, Commander of the Third Army,
at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. After successfully participating in the Louisiana Maneuvers, he was
promoted to brigadier general on October 3, 1941. Although his administrative abilities had been noticed, on the eve
of the American entry into World War II he had never held an active command above a battalion and was far from
being considered by many as a potential commander of major operations. World War II happened, and Pearl Harbor
made America to join the war. Eisenhower was the General Staff in Washington. He served until June 1942 with creating
major war plans to defeat Japan and Germany. General Leonard T. Gerrow was the leader under him as when was
Deputy Chief in charge of Pacific Defense. Ike was the Chief of the War Plans Division later on. He was the Assistant
Chief of Staff in charge of the new Operations Division under Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall. Eisenhower
was the Lieutenant General on July 7, 1942. He researched the theater commander in England.

In November 1942, Eisenhower was also appointed Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force of the North
African Theater of Operations (NATOUSA) through the new operational Headquarters Allied (Expeditionary) Force
Headquarters (A(E)FHQ). The word "expeditionary" was dropped soon after his appointment for security reasons. The
campaign in North Africa was designated Operation Torch and was planned in the underground headquarters within
the Rock of Gibraltar. Eisenhower was the first non-British person to command Gibraltar in 200 years. Eisenhower used
French cooperation in the campaign. He supported Francois Darln, as High Commissioner in North Africa. After Darlan
was assassinated, General Henri Giraud was the leader. Operation Torch was when U.S. and Allied forces defeated
Nazis forces in North Africa. Ike was the leader of the program. He defeated Erwin Rommel's forces. In February 1943,
his authority was extended as commander of AFHQ across the Mediterranean basin to include the British Eighth Army,
commanded by General Sir Bernard Montgomery. The Eighth Army had advanced across the Western Desert from the
east and was ready for the start of the Tunisia Campaign. Eisenhower gained his fourth star and gave up command of
ETOUSA to become commander of NATOUSA. After the Axis loss in North Africa. Eisenhower oversaw the invasion of
Sicily. Once Mussolini fell, the Allies focused on Operation Avalanche. But while Eisenhower argued with President
Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill, who both insisted on unconditional terms of surrender in exchange for
helping the Italians, the Germans pursued an aggressive buildup of forces in the country. The Germans made the
already tough battle more difficult by adding 19 divisions and initially outnumbering the Allied forces 2 to 1. Operation
Overload was about D-Day. Eisenhower was the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the command of the ETOUSA or the SHAEF (Supreme Allied Commander of the
Allied Expeditionary Force). He wanted to liberate Western Europe and invade Nazi Germany. Eisenhower had great
military skills. Normandy landing came out in June 1944. It was a beach landing assault. He wanted French resistance
forces to help Operation Overlord. He used George S. Patton to help him. Patton slapped a subordinate and made
comments about postwar policy as he hated the Soviet Union. General Ike wanted a bombing plan in France. The D-
Day Normandy landings on June 6, 1944, was costly and successful. By August 15, 1944, there was the invasion of
Southern France. Many thought that victory in Europe would come by summer's end, but the Germans did not
capitulate for almost a year. From then until the end of the war in Europe on May 8, 1945, Eisenhower, through SHAEF,
commanded all Allied forces, and through his command of ETOUSA had administrative command of all U.S. forces on
the Western Front north of the Alps. He was ever mindful of the inevitable loss of life and suffering that would be
experienced on an individual level by the troops under his command and their families. This prompted him to make a
point of visiting every division involved in the invasion. Eisenhower's sense of responsibility was underscored by his
draft of a statement to be issued if the invasion failed. It has been called one of the great speeches of history. France
was soon liberated.

Once the coastal assault had succeeded, Eisenhower insisted on retaining personal control over the land battle strategy
and was immersed in the command and supply of multiple assaults through France on Germany. Field Marshal
Montgomery insisted priority be given to his 21st Army Group's attack being made in the north, while Generals Bradley
(12th U.S. Army Group) and Devers (Sixth U.S. Army Group) insisted they be given priority in the center and south of
the front (respectively). Eisenhower worked tirelessly to address the demands of the rival commanders to optimize
Allied forces, often by giving them tactical latitude; many historians conclude this delayed the Allied victory in Europe.
However, due to Eisenhower's persistence, the pivotal supply port at Antwerp was successfully, albeit belatedly,
opened in late 1944. Eisenhower was the General of the Army by December 20, 1944. He had great leadership and
diplomatic qualities. He was respected by Winston Churchill, Field Marshall Bernad Montgomery, and General Charles
De Gaulle (despite their disagreements). He was a friend to Soviet Marhsal Zhukov.
In December 1944, the Germans launched a surprise counteroffensive, the Battle of the Bulge, which the Allies turned
back in early 1945 after Eisenhower repositioned his armies and improved weather allowed the Army Air Force to
engage. German defenses continued to deteriorate on both the Eastern Front with the Red Army and the Western
Front with the Western Allies. The British wanted to capture Berlin, but Eisenhower decided it would be a military
mistake for him to attack Berlin and said orders to that effect would have to be explicit. The British backed down but
then wanted Eisenhower to move into Czechoslovakia for political reasons. Washington refused to support Churchill's
plan to use Eisenhower's army for political maneuvers against Moscow. The actual division of Germany followed the
lines that Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin had previously agreed upon. The Soviet Red Army captured Berlin in a very
large-scale bloody battle, and the Germans finally surrendered on May 7, 1945.

In 1945, Eisenhower anticipated that someday an attempt would be made to recharacterize Nazi crimes as propaganda
(Holocaust denial) and took steps against it by demanding extensive still and movie photographic documentation of
Nazi death camps. After the end of the war, Eisenhower was the military governor of the American occupation zone.
This was in Southern Germany. Its headquarters was at the IG Farben Building in Frankfurt am Main. He allowed film
documentation of concentration camps to be used as evidence at the Nuremberg Trials. He reclassified German
prisoners of war in U.S. custody as Disarmed Enemy Forces (not subject to the Geneva Convention). He allowed food
to be sent to Germany as humanitarian aid. He purged ex-Nazis while not condemning all the German people.

In November 1945, Eisenhower returned to Washington to replace Marshall as Chief of Staff of the Army. His main
role was the rapid demobilization of millions of soldiers, a job that was delayed by lack of shipping. Eisenhower was
convinced in 1946 that the Soviet Union did not want war and that friendly relations could be maintained; he strongly
supported the new United Nations and favored its involvement in the control of atomic bombs. However, in
formulating policies regarding the atomic bomb and relations with the Soviets, Truman was guided by the U.S. State
Department and ignored Eisenhower and the Pentagon. Indeed, Eisenhower had opposed the use of the atomic bomb
against the Japanese, writing, "First, the Japanese were ready to surrender, and it wasn't necessary to hit them
with that awful thing. Second, I hated to see our country be the first to use such a weapon." Initially, Eisenhower
hoped for cooperation with the Soviets. He even visited Warsaw in 1945. Invited by Bolesław Bierut and decorated
with the highest military decoration, he was shocked by the scale of destruction in the city. However, by mid-1947, as
east–west tensions over economic recovery in Germany and the Greek Civil War escalated, Eisenhower agreed with a
containment policy to stop Soviet expansion.

Eisenhower didn't run for President in 1948. He didn't support any political party at the time. Dwight D. Eisenhower
was the President of Columbia University and inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He also was the NATO Supreme
Commander. Crusade in Europe was his memoir, being a prominent book. As President of Columbia, he gave an
honorary degree to Jawaharlal Nehru. He was in the Council on Foreign Relations. The trustees of Columbia University
declined to accept Eisenhower's offer to resign in December 1950, when he took an extended leave from the university
to become the Supreme Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and he was given operational
command of NATO forces in Europe. Eisenhower retired from active service as an army general on June 3, 1952, and
he resumed his presidency of Columbia. Meanwhile, Eisenhower had become the Republican Party nominee for
president of the United States, a contest that he won on November 4. Eisenhower tendered his resignation as university
president on November 15, 1952, effective January 19, 1953, the day before his inauguration. Eisenhower promoted
NATO. By 1951, NATO was a strong military power. Dwight D. Eisenhower won the 1952 election. Republicans
supported him. He defeated the non interventionist Senator Robert A. Taft. Ike choose Nixon was Vice President to
appease old school conservatives. Nixon was known as being anti-communist. Eisenhower campaigned in the South,
but much of the South voted for the Democrat Stevenson. Eisenhower wanted to end the war, confront McCarthy's
controversial methods, and make a frugal administration. Eisenhower had a landslide victory against Adlai Stevenson
II. He was the first Republican in the White House in 20 years. He was the last President born in the 19th century. He
beat Stevenson again in the 1956 election.

Eisenhower selected Joseph M. Dodge as his budget director, then Some of the Accomplishments of the
asked Herbert Brownell Jr. and Lucius D. Clay to make Eisenhower Presidency
recommendations for his cabinet appointments. He accepted their
recommendations without exception; they included John Foster
Dulles and George M. Humphrey with whom he developed his
closest relationships, as well as Oveta Culp Hobby. His cabinet
consisted of several corporate executives and one labor leader, and
one journalist dubbed it "eight millionaires and a plumber." The
cabinet was known for its lack of personal friends, office seekers, or
experienced government administrators. He also upgraded the role
of the National Security Council in planning all phases of the Cold
1. He signed the federal law that organized
War. Eisenhower is known as being anti-Communist on foreign the federal highway system.
policy and center-right on domestic policy. He helped to end the
Korean War. Also, he called himself a progressive conservative. He 2. He created the Department of Health
continued all the major programs of the New Deal including Social Education and Welfare to help millions of
Security. He expanded its programs and rolled them into the new Americans.
Cabinet-level agency of the Department of Health, Education and
Welfare, while extending benefits to an additional ten million 3 He caused the minimum wage to
workers. He implemented racial integration in the Armed Services in increase.
two years, which had not been completed under Truman. In a private
4 He signed a civil rights bill during the
letter, Eisenhower wrote: "Should any party attempt to abolish social
early Cold War Era.
security and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not
hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group of course, that believes you can do these
things [...] Their number is negligible and they are stupid."

President Eisenhower blamed the far right for trying to ruin GOP chances in the 1954 Congressional elections. He then
articulated his position as a moderate, progressive Republican: "I have just one purpose ... and that is to build up a
strong progressive Republican Party in this country. If the right wing wants a fight, they are going to get it ... before I
end up, either this Republican Party will reflect progressivism or I won't be with them anymore." Eisenhower promoted
the federal Interstate Highway System. He wanted people to evacuate cities quickly in the midst of the Cold War. He
wanted roads to be modernized. FDR signed the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1944. June 1956 was when the highway
system was passed. After Stalin's death in March 1953, Eisenhower wanted peaceful usages of nuclear materials in his
Chance for Peace speech. He wanted foreign markets to deal with America. When the H Bomb dropped in November
1955, everything changed. America built its nuclear weapons instead of promoting disarmament. The Soviets didn't
want inspections, and negotiations over arms failed. At the Geneva Conference, Eisenhower presented a proposal
called "Open Skies" to facilitate disarmament, which included plans for Russia and the U.S. to provide mutual access
to each other's skies for open surveillance of military infrastructure. Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev dismissed the
proposal out of hand. In 1954, Eisenhower articulated the domino theory in his outlook towards communism in
Southeast Asia and also in Central America. He believed that if the communists were allowed to prevail in Vietnam,
this would cause a succession of countries to fall to communism, from Laos through Malaysia and Indonesia ultimately
to India. Likewise, the fall of Guatemala would end with the fall of neighboring Mexico. That year, the loss of North
Vietnam to the communists and the rejection of his proposed European Defense Community (EDC) were serious
defeats, but he remained optimistic in his opposition to the spread of communism, saying "Long faces don't win wars."
As he had threatened the French in their rejection of EDC, he afterwards moved to restore West Germany as a full
NATO partner. In 1954, he also induced Congress to create an Emergency Fund for International Affairs in order to
support America's use of cultural diplomacy to strengthen international relations throughout Europe during the cold
war.

Allen Dulles of the CIA was more hawkish than Eisenhower. The CIA overthrown governments during this time and did
many corrupt actions. With Eisenhower's leadership and Dulles' direction, CIA activities increased under the pretense
of resisting the spread of communism in poorer countries; the CIA in part deposed the leaders of Iran in Operation
Ajax, of Guatemala through Operation Pbsuccess, and possibly the newly independent Republic of the Congo
(Léopoldville). Eisenhower authorized the assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba in 1960, which was
wrong. However, the plot to poison him was abandoned. In 1954, Eisenhower wanted to increase surveillance inside
the Soviet Union. With Dulles' recommendation, he authorized the deployment of thirty Lockheed U-2's at a cost of
$35 million (equivalent to $337.29 million in 2020). The Eisenhower administration also planned the Bay of Pigs
Invasion to overthrow Fidel Castro in Cuba, which John F. Kennedy was left to carry out. After the Soviets sent Sputnik
into space, Eisenhower promoted the space program. NASA was formed to deal with the issue. There were a growing
arms race. Fear spread through the United States that the Soviet Union would invade and spread communism, so
Eisenhower wanted to not only create a surveillance satellite to detect any threats but ballistic missiles that would
protect the United States. In strategic terms, it was Eisenhower who devised the American basic strategy of nuclear
deterrence based upon the triad of B-52 strategic bombers, land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), and
Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). Ike was opposed to a space program of sending man to the
moon by saying, "Anyone who would spend $40 billion in a race to the moon for national prestige is nuts." Eisenhower
promoted the armistice to end the Korean war. Dulles opposed it. The armistice allowed North Korea to be Communist
and South Korea to be non-Communist. Eisenhower was a hardliner with China wanted to create a wedge between
China and the Soviet Union.

Eisenhower continued Truman's policy of recognizing the Republic of China (Taiwan) as the legitimate government of
China, not the Peking (Beijing) regime. There were localized flare-ups when the People's Liberation Army began
shelling the islands of Quemoy and Matsu in September 1954. Eisenhower received recommendations embracing
every variation of response to the aggression of the Chinese communists. He thought it essential to have every possible
option available to him as the crisis unfolded. Eisenhower openly threatened the Chinese communists with the use of
nuclear weapons, authorizing a series of bomb tests labeled Operation Teapot. Nevertheless, he left the Chinese
communists guessing as to the exact nature of his nuclear response. This allowed Eisenhower to accomplish all of his
objectives—the end of this communist encroachment, the retention of the Islands by the Chinese nationalists and
continued peace. Defense of the Republic of China from an invasion remains a core American policy.

By the end of 1954 Eisenhower's military and foreign policy experts—the NSC, JCS and State Dept.—had unanimously
urged him, on no less than five occasions, to launch an atomic attack against Red China; yet he consistently refused
to do so and felt a distinct sense of accomplishment in having sufficiently confronted communism while keeping world
peace.

Early in 1953, the French asked Eisenhower for help in French Indochina against the Communists, supplied from China,
who were fighting the First Indochina War. Eisenhower sent Lt. General John W. "Iron Mike" O'Daniel to Vietnam to
study and assess the French forces there. Chief of Staff Matthew Ridgway dissuaded the President from intervening
by presenting a comprehensive estimate of the massive military deployment that would be necessary. Eisenhower
stated prophetically that "this war would absorb our troops by divisions."

Eisenhower did provide France with bombers and non-combat personnel. After a few months with no success by the
French, he added other aircraft to drop napalm for clearing purposes. Further requests for assistance from the French
were agreed to but only on conditions Eisenhower knew were impossible to meet – allied participation and
congressional approval. When the French fortress of Dien Bien Phu fell to the Vietnamese Communists in May 1954,
Eisenhower refused to intervene despite urgings from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the Vice President and the
head of NCS.

Eisenhower responded to the French defeat with the formation of the SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization)
Alliance with the UK, France, New Zealand and Australia in defense of Vietnam against communism. At that time the
French and Chinese reconvened the Geneva peace talks; Eisenhower agreed the US would participate only as an
observer. After France and the Communists agreed to a partition of Vietnam, Eisenhower rejected the agreement,
offering military and economic aid to southern Vietnam. Ambrose argues that Eisenhower, by not participating in the
Geneva agreement, had kept the U.S. out of Vietnam; nevertheless, with the formation of SEATO, he had, in the end,
put the U.S. back into the conflict.
In late 1954, Gen. J. Lawton Collins was made ambassador to "Free Vietnam" (the term South Vietnam came into use
in 1955), effectively elevating the country to sovereign status. Collins' instructions were to support the leader Ngo
Dinh Diem in subverting communism, by helping him to build an army and wage a military campaign. In February
1955, Eisenhower dispatched the first American soldiers to Vietnam as military advisors to Diem's army. After Diem
announced the formation of the Republic of Vietnam (RVN, commonly known as South Vietnam) in October,
Eisenhower immediately recognized the new state and offered military, economic, and technical assistance.

In the years that followed, Eisenhower increased the number of U.S. military advisors in South Vietnam to 900 men.
This was due to North Vietnam's support of "uprisings" in the south and concern the nation would fall. In May 1957
Diem, then President of South Vietnam, made a state visit to the United States for ten days. President Eisenhower
pledged his continued support, and a parade was held in Diem's honor in New York City. Although Diem was publicly
praised, in private Secretary of State John Foster Dulles conceded that Diem had been selected because there were no
better alternatives.

Eisenhower made a mistake to recognize the fascist Francisco Franco of Spain. He signed the Pact of Madrid to do it.
Fascist Spain signed the Concordat of 1953. Franco worked with the Nazis. Later, America used air and naval bases in
Spanish territory. Eisenhower personally visited Spain in December 1959 to meet dictator Francisco Franco and
consolidate his international legitimation. Another mistake of Eisenhower was him restoring the Shah of Iran. The
Shah's name is Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. He met him in 1959.

He therefore authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to overthrow Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. This
resulted in increased strategic control over Iranian oil by U.S. and British companies. In November 1956, Eisenhower
forced an end to the combined British, French and Israeli invasion of Egypt in response to the Suez Crisis, receiving
praise from Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. Simultaneously he condemned the brutal Soviet invasion of
Hungary in response to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. He publicly disavowed his allies at the United Nations and
used financial and diplomatic pressure to make them withdraw from Egypt. Eisenhower explicitly defended his strong
position against Britain and France in his memoirs, which were published in 1965. He gave economic aid to the
Kingdom of Jordan. His Eisenhower Doctrine was to use force if necessary to stop the spread of communism in the
Middle East. He used 15,000 Marines in Operation Blue Bat to help promote a pro-Western government in Lebanon.
Eisenhower support both Israel and Arabic nations. The U-2 incident was when an American U-2 spy plane was shot
down over Soviet airspace. This further ruined relations between America and the Soviet Union. The pilot Captain
Francis Gary Powers survived by a parachute. He was sent to a USSR prison from 1960 to 1962. He came back to
America in 1962.

The Four Power Paris Summit in May 1960 with Eisenhower, Nikita Khrushchev, Harold Macmillan, and Charles de
Gaulle collapsed because of the incident. Eisenhower refused to accede to Khrushchev's demands that he apologizes.
Therefore, Khrushchev would not take part in the summit. Up until this event, Eisenhower felt he had been making
progress towards better relations with the Soviet Union. Nuclear arms reduction and Berlin were to have been
discussed at the summit. Eisenhower stated it had all been ruined because of that "stupid U-2 business."

The affair was an embarrassment for United States prestige. Further, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a
lengthy inquiry into the U-2 incident. In Russia, Captain Powers made a forced confession and apology. On August 19,
1960, Powers was convicted of espionage and sentenced to imprisonment. On February 10, 1962, Powers was
exchanged for Rudolf Abel in Berlin and returned to the U.S. On civil rights, President Dwight D. Eisenhower had a
mixed record. He desegregated the Armed Forces. Eisenhower made clear his stance in his first State of the Union
address in February 1953, saying "I propose to use whatever authority exists in the office of the President to end
segregation in the District of Columbia, including the Federal Government, and any segregation in the Armed Forces."
The administration declared racial discrimination a national security issue, as Communists around the world used the
racial discrimination and history of violence in the U.S. as a point of propaganda attack. Eisenhower supported
Washington, D.C. to be integrated. He promoted the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960. The 1957 act for the first time
established a permanent civil rights office inside the Justice Department and a Civil Rights Commission to hear
testimony about abuses of voting rights. Although both acts were much weaker than subsequent civil rights legislation,
they constituted the first significant civil rights acts since 1875.

In 1957 the state of Arkansas refused to honor a federal court order to integrate their public school system stemming
from the Brown decision. Eisenhower demanded that Arkansas governor Orval Faubus obey the court order. When
Faubus balked, the president placed the Arkansas National Guard under federal control and sent in the 101st Airborne
Division. They escorted and protected nine black students' entry to Little Rock Central High School, an all-white public
school, marking the first time since the Reconstruction Era the federal government had used federal troops in the
South to enforce the U. S. Constitution. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote to Eisenhower to thank him for his actions, writing
"The overwhelming majority of southerners, Negro and white, stand firmly behind your resolute action to restore law
and order in Little Rock."

Eisenhower's administration contributed to the McCarthyistic Lavender Scare with President Eisenhower issuing
Executive Order 10450 in 1953. During Eisenhower's presidency, thousands of lesbian and gay applicants were barred
from federal employment and over 5,000 federal employees were fired under suspicions of being homosexual. From
1947 to 1961 the number of firings based on sexual orientation were far greater than those for membership in the
Communist Party, and government officials intentionally campaigned to make "homosexual" synonymous with
"Communist traitor" such that LGBT people were treated as a national security threat stemming from the belief, they
were susceptible to blackmail and exploitation. LGBT people were made scapegoats. President Dwight D. Eisenhower
worked with the old school conservatives like Robert A. Taft. Eisenhower never liked McCarthy, and when McCarthy
accused some of the military of being communists, Eisenhower publicly criticized McCarthy.

In December 1953, Eisenhower learned that one of America's nuclear scientists, J. Robert Oppenheimer, had been
accused of being a spy for the Soviet Union. Although Eisenhower never really believed that these allegations were
true, in January 1954 he ordered that "a blank wall" be placed between Oppenheimer and all defense-related activities.
The Oppenheimer security hearing was conducted later that year, resulting in the physicist losing his security clearance.
The matter was controversial at the time and remained so in later years, with Oppenheimer achieving a certain
martyrdom. The case would reflect poorly on Eisenhower as well, but the president had never examined it in any detail
and had instead relied excessively upon the advice of his subordinates, especially that of AEC chairman Lewis Strauss.
Eisenhower later suffered a major political defeat when his nomination of Strauss to be Secretary of Commerce was
defeated in the Senate in 1959, in part due to Strauss's role in the Oppenheimer matter. By May 1955, McCarthy
threatened to issue subpoenas to the White House personnel. Eisenhower was angry and made this order, "It is
essential to efficient and effective administration that employees of the Executive Branch be in a position to be
completely candid in advising with each other on official matters ... it is not in the public interest that any of their
conversations or communications, or any documents or reproductions, concerning such advice be disclosed." This was
an unprecedented step by Eisenhower to protect communication beyond the confines of a cabinet meeting, and soon
became a tradition known as executive privilege. Eisenhower's denial of McCarthy's access to his staff reduced
McCarthy's hearings to rants about trivial matters and contributed to his ultimate downfall.
 e 75th Anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education
This year is the 70th year anniversary of
the Brown v. Board of Education decision
that was decided on May 17, 1954. One
common misconception about the
decision is that some believe that
desegregation is the same thing as being
colorblind to reality. Desegregation is
about ending Jim Crow apartheid, ending
discrimination based upon color, and
giving children of every color the equal
opportunity to have a fair, equitable public
education experience. The case was
decided by many actions. Back in the day
(during the 1500's to the early 1900's),
education was very limited for black
people in America. Only a handful of black
Americans experienced the opportunity to
have a thorough education, especially in
college by the 19th century. After the
American Civil War, black people created
educational institutions to give the light of
truth to black people. Many of the HBCUs
were created during Reconstruction (like
Hampton University) as a means for
people to have opportunity, equality,
freedom, and justice. That is why the
restriction of education is one tactic of
racists in trying to maintain a system of
tyrannical oppression. By 1951, the public
school system in Topeka, Kansas refused
to enroll local black resident Oliver
Brown's daughter Linda Brown at the
school closest to their home. She was told
to get a bus to a segregated black school
farther away.
The Browns and 12 other local black
families led a class action lawsuit in U.S.
federal court against the Topeka Board of
Education, mentioning that the
segregation policy was unconstitutional.
Before 1954, there was educational
segregation in Delaware, Maryland, West
Virginia, and Missouri, not just in
Mississippi or Texas (in the Deep South).
At rst, the special three-judge court of the
U.S. District Court for the District of
Kansas ruled against the Browns (citing
the evil Plessy v. Ferguson case of
"separate but equal" doctrine). Later, the
Browns were represented by NAACP chief
counsel Thurgood Marshall (who would
later be the rst African American
Supreme Court Justice), then appealed to
the Supreme Court. By May 1954, the
Supreme Court gave a historic unanimous
9-0 decision in favor of the Browns.
The Court ruled that "separate educational
facilities are inherently unequal," and
therefore laws that impose them violate
the Equal Protection Clause of the
Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution. However, the decision's 14
pages did not spell out any sort of method
for ending racial segregation in schools,
and the Court's second decision in Brown
II (349 U.S. 294 (1955) only ordered states
to desegregate "with all deliberate speed."
Racists in the South retaliated against the
decision with Massive Resistance. This
happened in my home state of Virginia
when racists took white students out of
public schools and sent them into private
schools because racists didn't want white
and black students to learn together in
public schools.
Today, things have changed in many ways.
Yet, we have a long way to go when about
a third of all public schools are segregated
today in the 2020s, economic segregation
exists (when poor schools have fewer
resources than rich schools via property
taxes), and bigots want to ban books or
sugarcoat black American history for
political reasons. So, we are inspired by
what took place in 1954 to promote college
debt relief, ending racial oppression,
ending economic oppression, and making
sure that all people have a fair opportunity
to achieve a great education in America
plus the world. We desire every child and
adult to experience a great education,
regardless of color, sex, nationality, and
background. Linda Brown Thompson was
a young child who was refused to go to a
Topeka school back in the 1950's. She
passed away on March 25, 2018, at the
age of 75. This work is dedicated to her
legacy and contribution to the overall black
freedom struggle in general.
The Earl Warren Court changed
America politically with their
decisions in many ways.
Eisenhower rejected the Old Guard's Bricker Amendment, but he agreed with them in sending nuclear reactors to
private corporations. Democrats won the majority of both houses in the 1954 election. LBJ and Sam Rayburn rose in
power. Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren, John Marshall Harlan II, William J. Brennan, Potter Stewart, and Charles
Evans Whittaker. Warren would revolutionize the Supreme Court with many liberal decisions. Eisenhower saw Alaska
and Hawaii as new states in the Union. He smoked a lot. He had Crohn's disease and a heart attack. He supported
Nixon, but he made statements to minimize his accomplishments. JFK won the 1960 election. On January 17, 1961,
Eisenhower gave his final televised Address to the Nation from the Oval Office. In his farewell speech, Eisenhower
raised the issue of the Cold War and role of the U.S. armed forces. He described the Cold War: "We face a hostile
ideology global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose and insidious in method ..." and warned about what
he saw as unjustified government spending proposals and continued with a warning that "we must guard against
the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex." He
elaborated, "we recognize the imperative need for this development ... the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced
power exists and will persist ... Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge
industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may
prosper together." After his Presidency, he spoke with LBJ, worked in Gettysburg, and gave many speeches. He
celebrated the inauguration of Richard Nixon.

On the morning of March 28, 1969, Eisenhower died in Washington, D.C., of congestive heart failure at Walter Reed
Army Medical Center, at age 78. The following day, his body was moved to the Washington National Cathedral's
Bethlehem Chapel, where he lay in repose for 28 hours. He was then transported to the United States Capitol, where
he lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda on March 30–31. A state funeral service was conducted at the Washington
National Cathedral on March 31. The president and First Lady, Richard and Pat Nixon, attended, as did former president
Lyndon Johnson. Also among the 2,000 invited guests were U.N. Secretary General U Thant and 191 foreign delegates
from 78 countries, including 10 foreign heads of state and government. Notable guests included President Charles de
Gaulle of France, who was in the United States for the first time since the state funeral of John F. Kennedy, Chancellor
Kurt-Georg Kiesinger of West Germany, King Baudouin of Belgium and Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran. The
service included the singing of Faure's The Palms, and the playing of Onward, Christian Soldiers.
That evening, Eisenhower's body was placed onto a special funeral train for its journey from the nation's capital
through seven states to his hometown of Abilene, Kansas. First incorporated into President Abraham Lincoln's funeral
in 1865, a funeral train would not be part of a U.S. state funeral again until 2018. Eisenhower is buried inside the Place
of Meditation, the chapel on the grounds of the Eisenhower Presidential Center in Abilene. As requested, he was buried
in a Government Issue casket, and wearing his World War II uniform, decorated with: Army Distinguished Service
Medal with three oak leaf clusters, Navy Distinguished Service Medal, and the Legion of Merit. Buried alongside
Eisenhower are his son Doud, who died at age 3 in 1921, and wife Mamie, who died in 1979.

President Richard Nixon eulogized Eisenhower in 1969. President Dwight D. Eisenhower's legacy included a center-
right domestic policy with a more hawkish foreign policy (despite his condemnation of the military industrial complex).
He rightfully exposed McCarthy's tactics, and he didn't go the extra mile on civil rights. Eisenhower was not the worst
President as he ended the Korean War, promoted international trade, and balanced the budget. He promoted
technological innovation. He didn't end New Deal programs, and those saved lives. Eisenhower was a person
who wanted moderation in government. President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s role in helping to defeat the Nazis
during WWII will always be remembered and appreciated.
 JOHN F. KENNEDY
President John F. Kennedy was one of the most beloved, famous Presidents in American history. He was a new type of
President being the first President born in the 20th century. He was the 35th President of the United States whose
term existed from 1961 to 1963. He lived from May 29, 1917, to November 22, 1963. Also, he was a great, eloquent
speaker and was on the cusp of being even more great politically. He was in office during the height of tensions in the
Cold War. His enemies were not just far right reactionaries but even some moderates. To understand JFK, you must
understand his origins. He was born outside of Boston at Brookline, Massachusetts on May 29, 1917, to Joseph P.
Kennedy Sr., a businessman and politician along with Rose Kennedy (nee Fitzgerald). His paternal grandfather P. J.
Kennedy, served as a Massachusetts state legislator. Kennedy's maternal grandfather and namesake John F. Fitzgerald
was in the U.S. Congress plus being elected to 2 terms as Mayor Boston. All four of his grandparents were children of
Irish immigrants. Kennedy had an elder brother, Joseph Jr., and seven younger siblings: Rosemary, Kathleen ("Kick"),
Eunice, Patricia, Robert ("Bobby"), Jean, and Edward ("Ted"). JFK lived in Brookline for 10 years after his birth. He
attended the local St. Aidan's Church and was baptized on June 19, 1917. He been educated at Edward Devotion
School, the Noble and Greenough Lower School, and the Dexter School to the 4th grade. These locations were found
in the Boston area. He remembered accompanying his grandfather Fitzgerald on walking tours of historic sites in
Boston and having discussions at the family dinner table about politics. JFK was interested in history and public service.
His father's business kept him away from his family for an extended period of time. His father worked in Wall Street
and Hollywood. By 1927, the Dexter School said that it would not reopen before October after an outbreak of polio in
Massachusetts. By September, the family moved from Boston to the Riverdale neighborhood of New York City via a
private railway car. For many years, his brother Robert told Look magazine that his father had left Boston because of
signs that read "No Irish Need Apply."

The family spent summers and early fall seasons at their home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, a village on Cape Cod.
At that location, the family went swimming, sailing, and touch football. The holidays of Christmas and Easter were
spent at their winter retreat in Palm Beach, Florida. JFK attended the Riverdale Country School. That was a private
school for boys from 5th to 7th grade. He was a member of the Boy Scout Troop 2 in Bronxville, New York. In
September 1930, Kennedy, then 13 years old, was shipped off to the Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut,
for 8th grade. In April 1931, he had an appendectomy, after which he withdrew from Canterbury and recuperated at
home. By September 1931, Kennedy attended Choate or a prestigious boarding school in Willingford, Connecticut for
the 9th to 12th grade. His older brother Joe Jr. had already been at Choate for 2 years and was a football player and
leading student. He had behavior issues there with his group called The Muckers Club with Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings
(his friend). From early on, John F. Kennedy had health issues. He was hospitalized in 1934, he had colitis, and he
graduated from Choate in June of 1935. In September 1935, he traveled into Lond with his parents and his sister
Kathleen. He wanted to study under Harold Laski at the London School of Economics (LSE), as his older brother had
done. He experienced a gastrointestinal illness. He continued to have illnesses. By the spring of 1936, JFK worked hard
at a Jay Six cattle ranch outside of Benson, Arizona. The ranchman Jack Speiden said that both brothers worked hard.
In September 1936, Kennedy enrolled at Harvard College, and his application essay stated: "The reasons that I have
for wishing to go to Harvard are several. I feel that Harvard can give me a better background and a better liberal
education than any other university. I have always wanted to go there, as I have felt that it is not just another college
but is a university with something definite to offer. Then too, I would like to go to the same college as my father. To
be a 'Harvard man' is an enviable distinction, and one that I sincerely hope I shall attain." He produced that year's
annual "Freshman Smoker", called by a reviewer "an elaborate entertainment, which included in its cast outstanding
personalities of the radio, screen and sports world."

JFK earned a spot on the varsity swimming team. He tried out for football, golf, and swimming teams. Kennedy also
sailed in the Star class and won the 1936 Nantucket Sound Star Championship. In July 1937, Kennedy sailed to France—
taking his convertible—and spent ten weeks driving through Europe with Billings. In June 1938, Kennedy sailed
overseas with his father and older brother to work at the American embassy in London, where his father was President
Franklin D. Roosevelt's U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James's. In 1939, Kennedy toured Europe, the Soviet Union,
the Balkans, and the Middle East in preparation for his Harvard senior honors thesis. He then went to Berlin, where the
U.S. diplomatic representative gave him a secret message about war breaking out soon to pass on to his father, and
to Czechoslovakia before returning to London on September 1, 1939, the day that Germany invaded Poland to mark
the beginning of World War II. Two days later, the family was in the House of Commons for speeches endorsing the
United Kingdom's declaration of war on Germany. Kennedy was sent as his father's representative to help with
arrangements for American survivors of SS Athenia before flying back to the U.S. from Foynes, Ireland, on his first
transatlantic flight. JFK was an upperclassman at Harvard. He studied political philosophy. He made the dean's list in
his junior year.

In 1940 Kennedy completed his thesis, "Appeasement in Munich", about British negotiations during the Munich
Agreement. The thesis eventually became a bestseller book under the title Why England Slept. In addition to
addressing Britain's unwillingness to strengthen its military in the lead-up to World War II, the book also called for an
Anglo-American alliance against the rising totalitarian powers. Kennedy became increasingly supportive of U.S.
intervention in World War II, and his father's isolationist beliefs resulted in the latter's dismissal as ambassador to the
United Kingdom. This created a split between the Kennedy and Roosevelt families. In 1940, Kennedy graduated cum
laude from Harvard with a Bachelor of Arts in government, concentrating on international affairs. That fall, he enrolled
at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and audited classes there. In early 1941, Kennedy left and helped his
father write a memoir of his time as an American ambassador. He then traveled throughout South America; his itinerary
included Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. John F. Kennedy joined the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1941 to 1945.
JFK planned to attend Yale Law School after auditing courses on business law at Stanford. This was canceled when
America was about entered into World War II. By 1940, he attempted to enter the army's Officer Candidate School. He
trained for months. Later, he was medically disqualified due to his chronic lower back problems. On September 24,
1941, Kennedy, with the help of then director of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) and the former naval attaché to
Joseph Kennedy, Alan Kirk, joined the United States Naval Reserve. JFK was commissioned an ensign on October 26,
1941. He was part of the staff of the Office of Naval Intelligence in Washington, D.C. By January 1942, Kennedy was
assigned to the ONI field office at Headquarters, Sixth Naval District, in Charleston, South Carolina. He attended the
Naval Reserve Officer Training School at Northwestern University in Chicago from July 27 to September 27. JFK
voluntarily entered the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons Training Center in Melville, Rhode Island. By October 10, he
was promoted to lieutenant junior grade.

In early November, Kennedy was still mourning the death of his close, childhood friend, Marine Corps Second
Lieutenant George Houk Mead Jr., who had been killed in action at Guadalcanal that August and awarded the Navy
Cross for his bravery. Accompanied by a female acquaintance from a wealthy Newport family, the couple had stopped
in Middletown, Rhode Island at the cemetery where the decorated, naval spy, Commander Hugo W. Koehler, USN, had
been buried the previous year. Ambling around the plots near the tiny St. Columba's chapel, Kennedy paused over
Koehler's white granite cross grave marker and pondered his own mortality, hoping out loud that when his time came,
he would not have to die without religion. "But these things can't be faked," he added. "There's no bluffing." Two
decades later, Kennedy and Koehler's stepson, U.S. Senator Claiborne Pell had become good friends and political allies,
although they had been acquaintances since the mid-1930s during their "salad days" on the same Newport debutante
party "circuit" and when Pell had dated Kathleen ("Kick") Kennedy. Kennedy completed his training on December 2
and was assigned to Motor Torpedo Squadron FOUR. JFK's first command was PT-101 from December 7, 1942, until
February 23, 1943. It was a patrol torpedo (PT) boat used for training while Kennedy was an instructor at Melville. He
led 3 Huckins PT boats called PT 98, PT 99, and PT 101.They were relocated from MTBRON 4 in Melville, Rhode Island,
back to Jacksonville, Florida, and the new MTBRON 14 (formed in February 17, 1943). During the trip south, he was
hospitalized briefly in Jacksonville after diving into the cold water to unfold a propeller. Thereafter, JFK was assigned
duty in Panama and later in the Pacific theater, where he eventually commanded two more PT boats.
JFK commanded the PT-109. In April 1943, Kennedy was assigned to Motor Torpedo Squadron TWO. He took
command of PT-109 on April 24. He was based at Tulagi Island in the Solomons. By the night of August 1-2, in support
of the New Georgia campaign, PT-109 was on its 31st mission with 14 other PTs ordered to block or repel four Japanese
destroyers and floatplanes carrying food, supplies, and 900 Japanese soldiers to Vila Plantation garrison. That garrison
was on the southern tip of the Solomon's Kolombangara Island. Intelligence had been sent to Kennedy's Commander
Thomas G. Warfield expecting the arrival of the large Japanese naval force that would pass on the evening of August
1. Of the 24 torpedoes fired that night by 8 of the American PTs, not one hit the Japanese convoy. On that dark and
moonless night, JFK spotted a Japanese destroyer heading north on its return from the base of the Kolombangara
around 2 am. and attempted to turn to attack, when PT-109 was rammed suddenly at an angle and cut in half by the
destroyer Amagiri, killing PT-109 crew members. JFK gathered around the wreckage of his surviving ten crew members
to vote on whether to fight or surrender. Kennedy said that: "There's nothing in the book about a situation like this. A
lot of you men have families and some of you have children. What do you want to do? I have nothing to lose." Shunning
surrender, around 2:00 p.m. on August 2, the men swam towards Plum Pudding Island 3.5 miles (5.6 km) southwest of
the remains of PT-109. Despite re-injuring his back in the collision, Kennedy towed a badly burned crewman through
the water to the island with a life jacket strap clenched between his teeth. Kennedy made an additional two-mile swim
the night of August 2, 1943, to Ferguson Passage to attempt to hail a passing American PT boat to expedite his crew's
rescue and attempted to make the trip on a subsequent night, in a damaged canoe found on Naru Island where he
had swum with Ensign George Ross to look for food.

By August 4, 1943, JFK and his executive officer, Ensign Lenny Thom, assisted his injured and hungry crew on a
demanding swim 3.75 miles (6.04 km) southeast to Olasana Island, which was visible to the crew from their desolate
home on Plum Pudding Island. They swam against a strong current. Once again, JFK towed the badly burned motor
machinist "Pappy" MacMahon by his life vest. The somewhat larger Olasana Island had ripe coconut trees. There was
no fresh water. On the following day, August 5, Kennedy and Ensign George Ross made the one-hour swim to Naru
Island. This was an additional distance of 0.5 miles southwest. They wanted help and food. Kennedy and Ross found a
small canoe, packages of crackers, candy, and a 50 gallon drum of drinkable water left by the Japanese. JFK then
paddled another half mile back to Olasana in the acquired canoe to provide for his hungry crew. Native coast watchers
Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana first discovered the 109 crew on Olasana Island and paddled their messages to Ben
Kevu, a Senior Scout who sent them on to coast watcher Lieutenant Reginald Evans. On the morning of August 7,
Evans radioed the PT base on Rendova. Lieutenant "Bud" Liebenow, a friend and former tentmate of Kennedy's,
rescued Kennedy and his crew on Olasana Island on August 8, 1943, aboard his boat, PT-157. Kennedy took about a
month to recover. He commanded the PT-59 later. He had weapons and was promoted to full lieutenant.
On November 2, Kennedy's PT-59 took part with two other PTs in the successful rescue of 40–50 marines. The 59 acted
as a shield from shore fire and protected them as they escaped on two rescue landing craft at the base of the Warrior
River at Choiseul Island, taking ten marines aboard and delivering them to safety. Under doctor's orders, Kennedy was
relieved of his command of PT-59 on November 18, and sent to the hospital on Tulagi. From there he returned to the
United States in early January 1944. After receiving treatment for his back injury, he was released from active duty in
late 1944.

Kennedy was hospitalized at the Chelsea Naval Hospital in Chelsea, Massachusetts from May to December 1944. On
June 12, he was presented the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his heroic actions on August 1–2, 1943, and the
Purple Heart Medal for his back injury while on PT-109. Beginning in January 1945, Kennedy spent three more months
recovering from his back injury at Castle Hot Springs, a resort and temporary military hospital in Arizona. After the
war, Kennedy felt that the medal he had received for heroism was not a combat award and asked that he be
reconsidered for the Silver Star Medal for which he had been recommended initially. Kennedy's father also requested
that his son receive the Silver Star, which is awarded for gallantry in action.

On August 12, 1944, Kennedy's older brother, Joe Jr., a navy pilot, was killed while on a special and hazardous air
mission for which he had volunteered; his explosive-laden plane blew up when its bombs detonated prematurely over
the English Channel. On March 1, 1945, Kennedy retired from the Navy Reserve on physical disability and was
honorably discharged with the full rank of lieutenant. When later asked how he became a war hero, Kennedy joked:
"It was easy. They cut my PT boat in half." In 1950, the Department of the Navy offered Kennedy a Bronze Star Medal
in recognition of his meritorious service, which he declined. Kennedy's two original medals are currently on display at
the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. He was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his
conduct during the war. He had the Purple Heart for being wounded. After WWII, JFK worked in journalism as a
correspondent for Hearst newspapers. His father was a friend of William Randolph Hearst. JFK covered the Potsdam
Conference and other events. John F. Kennedy was a member of the U.S. Congress from 1947-1960. His father wanted
him to do it and go for the Presidency. JFK was the 2nd eldest of the Kennedy siblings. First, he was the member of
the House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953. He wanted in the vacated seat of U.S. Representative James Michael
Curley. The seat was heavily Democratic. Then, JFK fought for his campaign. He wanted to present himself as a new
generation leader. He won the primary and the race. Kennedy wanted better housing for veterans, better health care
for all, labor rights, and peace via the United Nations. He opposed the Soviet Union. JFK was in the House.

He served in the House for six years, joining the influential Education and Labor Committee and the Veterans' Affairs
Committee. He concentrated his attention on international affairs, supporting the Truman Doctrine as the appropriate
response to the emerging Cold War. He also supported public housing and opposed the Labor Management Relations
Act of 1947, which restricted the power of labor unions. Though not as vocal an anti-communist as McCarthy, Kennedy
supported the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which required Communists to register with the government,
and he deplored the "loss of China."

Having served as a boy scout during his childhood, Kennedy was active in the Boston Council from 1946 to 1955: as
district vice chairman, member of the executive board, vice-president, as well as a National Council Representative.
Almost every weekend that Congress was in session, Kennedy would fly back to Massachusetts to give speeches to
veteran, fraternal, and civic groups, while maintaining an index card file on individuals who might be helpful for a
future campaign for state-wide office. JFK set a goal of speaking in every city and town in Massachusetts prior to 1952.
He was a Senator from 1953-1960. JFK knew that he would never be President without being in the Senate first. JFK
defeated the three term incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. Robert F. Kennedy, his younger brother, helped him as the
campaign manager. His mother and sisters helped too at hotels and parlors in Massachusetts to get to women voters.
By 1954, he married Jacqueline Bouvier. He underwent spinal operations. Also, he published Profiles in Courage. This
book is about the life of U.S. Senators who risked their careers for their personal beliefs. It came out in 1956, and it
won the Pulitzer Price for Biography in 1957. His speechwriter and adviser Ted Sorensen co-written the book as
confirmed in Sorensen's 2008 autobiography. In the Senate, Kennedy promoted bills about fishing, textile
manufacturing, and watchmaking industries in Massachusetts.

In 1954, Senator Kennedy voted in favor of the Saint Lawrence Seaway which would connect the Great Lakes to the
Atlantic Ocean, despite opposition from Massachusetts politicians who argued that the project would cripple New
England's shipping industry, including the Port of Boston. Three years later, Kennedy chaired a special committee to
select the five greatest U.S. senators in history so their portraits could decorate the Senate Reception Room. That same
year, Kennedy joined the Senate Labor Rackets Committee with his brother Robert (who was chief counsel) to
investigate crime infiltration of labor unions. In 1958, Kennedy introduced a bill (S. 3974) which became the first major
labor relations bill to pass either house since the Taft–Hartley Act of 1947. The bill dealt largely with the control of
union abuses exposed by the McClellan committee but did not incorporate tough Taft–Hartley amendments requested
by President Eisenhower. It survived Senate floor attempts to include Taft-Hartley amendments and gained passage
but was rejected by the House.

John F. Kennedy had national exposure by giving the nominating speech for the Party's nominee Adlai Stevenson II.
Kennedy lost the race for vice President to Senator Estes Kefauver. Kennedy voted against the Eisenhower bill for the
Civil Rights Act of 1957, and he did vote for Title III of the act that would have given the Attorney General powers to
enjoin, but Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson agreed to let the provision die as a compromise measure. Kennedy also
voted for Title IV, termed the "Jury Trial Amendment." Many civil rights advocates at the time criticized that vote as
one which would weaken the act. A final compromise bill, which Kennedy supported, was passed in September 1957.
He proposed on July 2, 1957, that the U.S. support Algeria's effort to gain independence from France. The following
year, Kennedy authored A Nation of Immigrants (later published in 1964), which analyzed the importance of
immigration in the country's history as well as proposals to re-evaluate immigration law. JFK was re-elected to the
Senate in 1958. He defeated Republican Boston lawyer Vincent J. Celeste. Now, he was ready to run for President. It
was during his re-election campaign that Kennedy's press secretary at the time, Robert E. Thompson, put together a
film entitled The U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy Story, which exhibited a day in the life of the Senator and showcased
his family life as well as the inner workings of his office to solve Massachusetts-related issues. It was the most
comprehensive film produced about Kennedy up to that time. John F. Kennedy worked hard. His father supported
Senator Joe McCarthy. Bobby Kennedy worked for the McCarthy subcommittee.

In 1954, the Senate voted to censure McCarthy, and Kennedy drafted a speech supporting the censure. However, it
was not delivered because Kennedy was hospitalized at the time. The speech put Kennedy in the apparent position of
participating by "pairing" his vote against that of another senator and opposing the censure. Although Kennedy never
indicated how he would have voted, the episode damaged his support among members of the liberal community,
including Eleanor Roosevelt, in the 1956 and 1960 elections. The 1960 Presidential election was on. It was a change
election similar to the 2008 election decades later. By December 17, 1959, JFK's staff was to send a letter to high profile
Democrats to announce JFK's Presidential run. JFK announced his campaign on January 2, 1960. Many people
supported his eloquence and charisma. Some questioned his experience and age. Back then, many people had anti-
Catholic attitudes in fear of the Vatican dominating American politics. Yet, JFK said that he believed in the separation
of church and state, and that the Pope's decrees would not dictate political policy in America. JFK was right to say that.
He ran against LBJ, Adlai Stevenson II, and Senator Hubert Humphrey including Eugene McCarthy during the 1960
Democratic Presidential Primary. JFK's family supported his campaign including RFK being the campaign manager.
Larry O'Brien and Kenneth O'Donnell support John F. Kennedy too. JFK won the Wisconsin primary. JFK won the West
Virginian primary. By the 1960 Democratic National Convention, no one knew who would win the nomination.

LBJ wanted to win, and Harry S. Truman opposed JFK because of issues of experience. JFK picked LBJ as his running
mate to get support from the South. This was opposed by RFK and labor leaders. Labor leaders like George Meany
said that LBJ was a foe of labor. RFK didn't like LBJ, because LBJ said that RFK's father was an appeaser during WWII.
In accepting the presidential nomination, Kennedy gave his well-known "New Frontier" speech, saying, "For the
problems are not all solved and the battles are not all won—and we stand today on the edge of a New
Frontier. ... But the New Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises—it is a set of challenges. It
sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to ask of them." JFK had to
get the South, so in his mind, he had no choice but to get LBJ as his Vice-Presidential running mate. John F. Kennedy
faced Richard Nixon. JFK and Nixon debated on the economy, the Cuban Revolution, and Communism. To address
fears that his being Catholic would impact his decision-making, he famously told the Greater Houston Ministerial
Association on September 12, 1960:

"I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic Party candidate for president who also happens
to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my Church on public matters—and the Church does not speak for me."

He had the televised debates. People on TV saw Nixon as uncomfortable. Radio listeners said that the debate was a
draw or Nixon won it. Kennedy's campaign gained momentum after the first debate, and he pulled slightly ahead of
Nixon in most polls. On Election Day, Kennedy defeated Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections of the 20th
century. In the national popular vote, by most accounts, Kennedy led Nixon by just two-tenths of one percent (49.7%
to 49.5%), while in the Electoral College, he won 303 votes to Nixon's 219 (269 were needed to win). Fourteen electors
from Mississippi and Alabama refused to support Kennedy because of his support for the civil rights movement; they
voted for Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia, as did an elector from Oklahoma. Kennedy became the youngest person
(43) ever elected to the presidency, though Theodore Roosevelt was a year younger at 42 when he automatically
assumed the office after the assassination of William McKinley in 1901. John F. Kennedy was the first Roman Catholic
President.

President John F. Kennedy was inaugurated on January 20, 1961, at noon. He gave one of the most eloquent inaugural
addresses in human history. It talked about public service, the Cold War, and liberty. JFK famously said that, "Ask not
what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." He asked the nations of the world to join to
fight what he called the "common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself." He added:

"All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in
the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps
in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin." In closing, he expanded on his desire
for greater internationalism: "Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens
of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which
we ask of you."

His cabinet had many bright people. Kennedy wanted the course of history to change. He promoted optimism and
confidence in America in dealing with domestic and foreign policies. Kennedy preferred the organizational structure
of a wheel with all the spokes leading to the president. He was ready and willing to make the increased number of
quick decisions required in such an environment. He selected a mixture of experienced and inexperienced people to
serve in his cabinet. "We can learn our jobs together", he stated. This was the opposite of Eisenhower's style. JFK
wanted a balanced budget. He recorded many conversations in the White House since the summer of 1962. In terms
of the Cold War, President Kennedy grown in experience. He struggled at first with the 1961 meeting with Soviet
Premier Nikita Khrushchev. The Vienna summit of June 1961 escalated tensions. De Gaulle of France was impressed
with Kennedy and his wife Jackie Kennedy. Jackie Kennedy was known as a fashion icon. On June 4, 1961, Kennedy
met with Khrushchev in Vienna and left the meetings angry and disappointed that he had allowed the premier to bully
him, despite the warnings he had received. Khrushchev, for his part, was impressed with the president's intelligence
but thought him weak. Kennedy did succeed in conveying the bottom line to Khrushchev on the most sensitive issue
before them, a proposed treaty between Moscow and East Berlin. He made it clear that any treaty interfering with U.S.
access rights in West Berlin would be regarded as an act of war. The USSR wanted to sign a treaty with East Berlin.
Kennedy was angry. Many left East Berlin. The U.S. had a military built up. The Berlin Wall existed. Later, President
Kennedy asserted West Berlin residents that he would protect them. He also supported African nationalism in a speech
he gave at Saint Anslem College on May 5, 1960.

The Eisenhower administration supported the overthrow of Castro in Cuba. That team wanted JFK to sign off on it.
Kennedy approved the final invasion plan on April 4, 1961. The invasion involved the CIA and U.S. trained anti-Castro
Cuban exiles. CIA paramilitary officers were involved. The Bay of Pigs Invasion began on April 17, 1961. Fifteen hundred
U.S.-trained Cubans, dubbed Brigade 2506, landed on the island. No U.S. air support was provided. CIA director Allen
Dulles later stated that they thought Kennedy would authorize any action that was needed for success once the troops
were on the ground. By April 19, 1961, the Cuban government had captured or killed the invading exiles, and Kennedy
was forced to negotiate for the release of the 1,189 survivors. Twenty months later, Cuba released the captured exiles
in exchange for $53 million worth of food and medicine. The incident made Castro feel wary of the U.S. and led him
to believe that another invasion would take place.

Biographer Richard Reeves said that Kennedy focused primarily on the political repercussions of the plan rather than
military considerations. When it proved unsuccessful, he was convinced that the plan was a setup to make him look
bad. He took responsibility for the failure, saying, "We got a big kick in the leg and we deserved it. But maybe we'll
learn something from it." He appointed Robert Kennedy to help lead a committee to examine the causes of the failure.
In late-1961, the White House formed the Special Group (Augmented), headed by Robert Kennedy and including
Edward Lansdale, Secretary Robert McNamara, and others. The group's objective—to overthrow Castro via espionage,
sabotage, and other covert tactics—was never pursued. In March 1962, Kennedy rejected Operation Northwoods,
proposals for false flag attacks against American military and civilian targets, and blaming them on the Cuban
government in order to gain approval for a war against Cuba. However, the administration continued to plan for an
invasion of Cuba in the summer of 1962. The Cuban Missile Crisis was when the Soviets placed nuclear weapons in
Cuba. This freaked out the world. President Kennedy was wise to not go to war with the Soviets which would cause
nuclear exchanges. On October 14, 1962, CIA U-2 spy planes took photographs of the Soviets' construction of
intermediate-range ballistic missile sites in Cuba. The photos were shown to Kennedy on October 16; a consensus was
reached that the missiles were offensive in nature and thus posed an immediate nuclear threat. Many people in the
National Security Council of NSC wanted an attack on the missile sites. They knew that Eisenhower had PGM-19 Jupiter
missiles in Italy and Turkey. JFK wanted better advice. So, Kennedy used a naval quarantine. On October 22, JFK gave
that message to Khrushchev and said his decision on TV. The U.S. Navy would inspect all Soviet ships off Cuba. Kennedy
wanted the missile gone like the Organization of American States.

CELEBRITY CULTURE OF THE 1960’S

Sammy Davis Jr. was one of
the most talented people of
all time who can sing, dance,
act, and make impressions.
He worked with Dr. King and
other human beings of the
Civil Rights Movement.
Sammy Davis Jr. also married
before he passed away and
embraced Judaism.
Diahann Carroll was one President John F. Kennedy Marilyn Monroe was an
of the most stunningly and Frank Sinatra were very actress who was ahead
beautiful women of all close friends. They of her time. Also, she
time. She was a supported each other. Back wanted to refute the
professional actress who in the 1960’s, Frank Sinatra stereotype that she was
worked for social causes was a liberal, and became a some “ignorant blonde
and was in prominent conservative Republican by woman.” She was
movies and television the 1970’s. progressive, supported
shows like Carmen labor rights, agreed
Jones, Julia, and A with equal right for
Different World. black people, and
wanted that point to be
known.

Kennedy finally had a deal with Khrushchev to get rid of the missiles in Cuba in exchange with America getting rid of
the Jupiter missiles in Italy and Turkey. They were obsolete anyway. This existed until October 28. The end of the crisis
increased President Kennedy's population and resiliency. His approval rating went from 66% to 77%. Kennedy wanted
the Alliance for Progress to contain Communism in Latin America. There was aid sent to nations and a desire for great
human rights standards in the region. He worked closely with Puerto Rican Governor Luis Muñoz Marín for the
development of the Alliance of Progress and began working to further Puerto Rico's autonomy.
The Eisenhower administration, through the CIA, had begun formulating plans to assassinate Castro in Cuba and Rafael
Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. When Kennedy took office, he privately instructed the CIA that any plan must
include plausible deniability by the U.S. His public position was in opposition. In June 1961, the Dominican Republic's
leader was assassinated; in the days following, Undersecretary of State Chester Bowles led a cautious reaction by the
nation. Robert Kennedy, who saw an opportunity for the U.S., called
Bowles "a gutless bastard" to his face. There was the Peace Corps Some of the Accomplishments of
head by Kennedy's brother-in-law Seargent Shriver to allow President John F. Kennedy
Americans to volunteer in helping Third world nations (involving
education, farming, health care, and construction). The Peace Corps
had 10,000 people by 1964. Over 200,000 Americans joined it in 139
countries. President Kennedy support U.S. government support to
South Korea and South Vietnam. Military advisors increased. Also,
President Kennedy didn't trust the French occupation of Vietnam
during the 1950's as acting like colonizers. JFK never wanted a full
scale deployment of troops. LBJ did it by 1965. In April 1963, Kennedy
assessed the situation in Vietnam, saying, "We don't have a prayer of
staying in Vietnam. Those people hate us. They are going to throw
our a____ out of there at any point. But I can't give up that territory to
the communists and get the American people to re-elect me." JFK
talked with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara about this issue.
He knew that American occupation of Vietnam was never going to
work. JFK was concerned about Ngo Dinh Nhu's brutal crackdown of
the Buddhists in South Vietnam. The Buddhists wanted to stop Diem's
1. President Kennedy increased the
religious discrimination, and some Buddhists burned themselves to
minimum wage.
death to protest Diem's regime. U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge
Jr. wanted Diem and Nhu to step down and leave Vietnam. They
refused. So, South Vietnamese generals overthrew Diem and Nhu. JFK 2. President Kennedy passed the Area
Redevelopment Act and the Housing Act
knew of the coup, but he didn't knew that it would be so bloody. At
of 1961 to help millions of Americans in
Kennedy's insistence, the mission report contained a recommended rural and urban communities.
schedule for troop withdrawals: 1,000 by year's end and complete
withdrawal in 1965, something the NSC considered to be a "strategic 3. President Kennedy passed The
fantasy." Community Mental Health Act of 1963 to
help local mental health centers.
Before leaving for Dallas, Kennedy told Michael Forrestal that "after
the first of the year ... [he wanted] an in depth study of every possible 4. President Kennedy formed the
option, including how to get out of there ... to review this whole thing President’s Committee on Equal and
from the bottom to the top". Asked what he thought Kennedy meant, Employment Opportunity to ght
discrimination and promote voting rights.
Forrestal said, "It was devil's advocate stuff." Kennedy would not have
escalated the war to LBJ's extent if he wasn't assassinated in my view. 5. President Kennedy endorsed federal
Fueling the debate were statements made by Secretary of Defense civil rights legislation that would be the
McNamara in the film "The Fog of War" that Kennedy was strongly 1964 Civil Rights Act of 1964, signed by
considering pulling the United States out of Vietnam after the 1964 LBJ.
election. The film also contains a tape recording of Lyndon Johnson
stating that Kennedy was planning to withdraw, a position in which 6. President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay
Johnson disagreed with. Kennedy had signed National Security Act of 1963 to abolish wage disparity
Action Memorandum (NSAM) 263, dated October 11, which ordered based on sex.
the withdrawal of 1,000 military personnel by year's end, and the bulk
7. President Kennedy signed the Partial
of them out by 1965. Such an action would have been a policy
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963 to ban all
reversal, but Kennedy was publicly moving in a less hawkish direction test of nuclear weapons except
since his speech on world peace at American University on June 10, underground testing.
1963. That speech wanted a step by step approach to create peace
among the U.S. and the Soviet Union without nuclear war. He wanted freedom in Germany with his West Berlin speech
too in 1963. JFK supported Israel, but he never wanted Israel to have nuclear weapons. Israel was secretly creating a
nuclear program at Dimona. There were inspections, but Israel used fake control rooms to show Americans. Ben Guion
knew this.

Israeli national interests to an extent were also at odds with Kennedy's endorsement of the United Nations' Johnson
Plan, which devised a plan to return a small percentage of displaced Palestinians from the war of 1948 into what was
by then, Israel. This continuation of the late UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold's plan for Palestinian repatriation
particularity disturbed persons who had a hard line view of even Arab resettlement in Israel, or the more heavily feared,
full repatriation. The later plan was spearheaded by the Palestine Conciliation Commission's Dr. Joseph E. Johnson,
while the United Nations attempted to oversee progression from writing - into action. This fact is relevant in our time
as we have 2024 college protests in favor of Palestinians, the Israeli hostages that must go home, the legitimate
criticism of the Netanyahu regime, the conflict in Gaza, the necessity for a ceasefire, and the condemnation of Hamas’s
terrorism. Some have accused the JFK team supported the coup of Qasim by the Iraqi Ba'ath Party in 1963, because
Qasim was more progressive. John F. Kennedy signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which was one of the best
achievements of the Kennedy administration, and he gave speeches in Ireland, the home of his ancestors.

JFK's New Frontier agenda was more progressive than Eisenhower in many ways. It ambitiously promised federal
funding for education, medical care for the elderly, economic aid to rural regions, and government intervention to halt
the recession. He also promised an end to racial discrimination, although his agenda, which included the endorsement
of the Voter Education Project (VEP) in 1962, produced little progress in areas such as Mississippi, where the "VEP
concluded that discrimination was so entrenched." In his 1963 State of the Union address, he proposed substantial tax
reform and a reduction in income tax rates from the current range of 20–90% to a range of 14–65% as well as a
reduction in the corporate tax rates from 52 to 47%. Kennedy added that the top rate should be set at 70% if certain
deductions were not eliminated for high-income earners. Congress did not act until 1964, a year after his death, when
the top individual rate was lowered to 70%, and the top corporate rate was set at 48%. JFK wanted tax cuts and then
federal investments in America. He took on Big Steal, and he banned the death penalty for first degree murder suspects
in D.C. Involving the civil rights movement, President Kennedy wanted to use laws and the courts to make racial justice
a reality. He saw the beginning of the end of legalized Jim Crow in America. Kennedy verbally supported civil rights
and racial equality. He helped out Dr. King on many cases. Dr. King on many cases wanted JFK to be more militant in
his policies, and Malcolm X criticized JFK all throughout his life as being a slick liberal “fox” sent to demobilize black
revolutionary power in the world. President Kennedy appointed black people in his cabinet and in judges like Thurgood
Marhsall being on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit court by May 1961.

Grassroots movements fought for change whether Kennedy like it or not. The truth is that you need both the courts
and grassroots activism to make real, progressive change. It is not an either/or proposition. He promoted a War on
Poverty. He dealt with the Freedom Riders and protests in America to fight Jim Crow. He used federal marshals to
protect the Freedom Riders. Robert Kennedy had to be told by activists that courts alone weren't going to solve this
problem. On March 6, 1961, Kennedy signed Executive Order 10925, which required government contractors to "take
affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment without
regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin." It established the President's Committee on Equal Employment
Opportunity. Displeased with Kennedy's pace addressing the issue of segregation, Martin Luther King Jr. and his
associates produced a document in 1962 calling on Kennedy to follow in the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln and use
an Executive Order to deliver a blow for Civil Rights as a kind of Second Emancipation Proclamation. Kennedy did not
execute the order. JFK supported James Meredith to go into the University of Mississippi. On November 20, 1962,
Kennedy signed Executive Order 11063, which prohibited racial discrimination in federally supported housing or
"related facilities." RFK and JFK were concerned about Dr. King's ties to Jack O'Dell and Stanley Levison. Levison left
Communism in 1960. O'Dell was a lifelong black Communist. So, what. These are grown men who have a right to
believe as they desire. Dr. King asked O'Dell to resign. Levison was on the SCLC team.

On June 11, 1963, President Kennedy intervened when Alabama Governor George Wallace blocked the doorway to
the University of Alabama to stop two African American students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from attending.
Wallace moved aside only after being confronted by Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach and the Alabama
U.S. National Guard, which had just been federalized by order of the president. That evening Kennedy gave his famous
Report to the American People on Civil Rights on national television and radio, launching his initiative for civil rights
legislation—to provide equal access to public schools and other facilities, and greater protection of voting rights. Here
are some of the words from President John F. Kennedy in his historic June 11, 1963, speech in favor of civil rights for
black Americans:

"... It ought to be possible, therefore, for American students of any color to attend
any public institution they select without having to be backed up by troops. It ought
to be possible for American consumers of any color to receive equal service in places
of public accommodation, such as hotels and restaurants and theaters and retail
stores, without being forced to resort to demonstrations in the street, and it ought
to be possible for American citizens of any color to register and to vote in a free
election without interference or fear of reprisal. It ought to be possible, in short, for
every American to enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race
or his color. In short, every American ought to have the right to be treated as he
would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated. But this is
not the case...One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed
the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free. They are not yet freed
from the bonds of injustice. They are not yet freed from social and economic
oppression. And this Nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free
until all its citizens are free...This is what we're talking about and this is a matter
which concerns this country and what it stands for, and in meeting it I ask the
support of all our citizens.

Thank you very much."

His proposed Civil Rights Act of 1964 would be the most militant civil rights bill since the days of Reconstruction.
Medgar Evers was murdered on the day of his speech in Mississippi. Earlier, Kennedy had signed the executive order
creating the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women on December 14, 1961. Former First Lady Eleanor
Roosevelt led the commission. The Commission statistics revealed that women were also experiencing discrimination;
its final report, documenting legal and cultural barriers, was issued in October 1963. Further, on June 10, 1963, Kennedy
signed the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which amended the Fair Labor Standards Act and abolished wage disparity based
on sex. Kennedy support the success of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. This was
after JFK was fearful that the march would end support of Congress for the civil rights bill. The Kennedy team allowed
censorship of many speeches at the march. After the march, three weeks later on Sunday, September 15, a bomb
exploded at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham; by the end of the day, four African American children had
died in the explosion, and two other children were shot to death in the aftermath. It was one of the saddest times in
world history, when four little black girls were murdered for no legitimate reason (by racist cowards).
 Unsung Heroes of the Civil Rights Movement
Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson
worked with SNCC from 1960
to 1967. She showed great
leadership skills as an activist
and as an administrator in the
Atlanta central SNCC office.
She succeeded James Forman
as SNCC’s executive secretary
and was the only woman ever
to serve in this capacity. Her
SNCC colleagues respected her
a great deal. She was born and
raised in Atlanta, Georgia. She
was in prison for standing up
for justice. She wanted black
people to be free from
injustice and oppression.
Victoria Gray-Adams was born
in Mississippi and was a leader
of SNCC. She worked heavily in
Hattiesburg, Mississippi to
fight for freedom for black
people, voter registration, and
other forms of real change in
society. Victoria Gray-Adams
was an outstanding
community organizer. She
inspired her minister at St.
John’s Methodist Episcopal
Church to open citizenship
education classes. Later in
office, she ran for office, and
Victoria Gray-Adams has been
a light for generations.
Judy Richardson was part of
SNCC, the Students for a
Democratic Society (SDS), and
other groups for social change.
She is an American filmmaker
and civil rights activist. She
was born up North in
Tarrytown, New York. She
came to Swarthmore College
in Pennsylvania in 1962 on a
full scholarship. She was
Distinguished Visiting Lecturer
of Africana Studies at Brown
University. She was in SNCC
from 1963 to 1966, active in
the Cambridge, Maryland
movement, 1964 Freedom
Summer, the Malcolm X
documentary of Malcolm X:
Make It Plain (on PBS’s The
American Experience winning
the Emmy and Peabody
Award), and the series Eyes on
the Prize.
Medgar Evers was a martyr of
the Civil Rights Movement. He
was a civil rights activist and
the NAACP’s first field
secretary in Mississippi. He
was a decorated U.S. Army
combat veteran involved in
the liberation of people during
the Normandy invasion. He
fought to end Jim Crow
apartheid in the South,
especially in Mississippi. He
wanted no segregation of
public facilities and expand
voting rights plus human rights
for African Americans. His
wife, Myrlie Evers-Williams,
still fights for justice for all to
this very day in 2024.
President Johnson would sign the Civil Rights Act into law by 1964. RFK and J. Edgar Hoover illegally spied and
wiretapped Dr. King over anti-Communist paranoia. JFK's pro-immigration plans later became the Immigration and
Nationality Act of 1965 signed by LBJ. Immigration came increasingly from Latin America and Asia not just from
Northern and Western Europe. Senator Edward Kennedy supported the law. President Kennedy supported the Seneca
Native American people after a flood in New York state. Kennedy supported the Space program going into space and
the Moon. On July 20, 1969, almost six years after Kennedy's death, Apollo 11 landed the first manned spacecraft on
the Moon. President Kennedy traveled globally into India, Japan, Vietnam, Israel, etc. Kennedy was a life member of
the National Rifle Association as back then the NRA believed in gun control. JFK and his wife had many children.
Popular culture loved JFK and his wife. President Kennedy had tons of illness from childhood to his death. It is no
secret that President Kennedy had affairs with many women like Inga Arvad, Gene Tierney, Judith Campbell, possibly
Marilyn Monroe, Pamela Turnure, Mary Pinchot Meyer, etc.

President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time (CST) on Friday, November 22, 1963.
He was in Texas on a political trip to smooth over frictions in the Democratic Party between liberals Ralph Yarborough
and Don Yarborough (no relation) and conservative John Connally. Traveling in a presidential motorcade through
downtown Dallas, he was shot once in the back, the bullet exiting via his throat, and once in the head. Oswald was
arrested and he was killed by Jack Ruby. Ruby died of cancer on January 3, 1967. To this day, we haven't gotten over
the evil assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The Warren Commission say that Oswald acted alone in
assassination President John F. Kennedy. Most polls show that a majority of Americans believe that JFK's assassination
was a product of a conspiracy.

A Requiem Mass was celebrated for Kennedy at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle on November 25, 1963.
Afterwards, Kennedy was interred in a small plot, 20 by 30 ft., in Arlington National Cemetery. Over a period of three
years (1964–1966), an estimated 16 million people visited his grave. On March 14, 1967, Kennedy's remains were
disinterred and moved only a few feet away to a permanent burial plot and memorial. It was from this memorial that
the graves of both Robert and Ted Kennedy were modeled.

The legacy of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy has been about both the promise of his administration and the life
cut short before he could reach into another level of greatness. President Kennedy changed the whole world. Part of
his legacy was that he learned to do better as time came on. When he first came into office back in 1961, he was more
of a Cold Warrior, hawkish, and wanted a gradual approach to civil rights. By 1963, he was more militant on civil rights,
advocated for more peace in the Cold War, and he was differently planning to fight for civil rights legislation being
powerful. On foreign policy, he had hawkish policies and more progressive policies in terms of the Middle East and
promotion African independence. In terms of Vietnam, he was involved in escalating the war, but JFK in my view was
not going to put over 200,000 troops into Vietnam as LBJ did. Many of Kennedy's speeches are some of the most
iconic, eloquent speeches in world history. President John F. Kennedy represented the greatness of the American
people, the excellence of ideals, and the long way that we must go in making sure that those inspiring ideals like
democracy, justice, integrity, courage, etc. are made into fruition to help humankind in general have justice
unequivocally. The honor guard at Kennedy's graveside was the 37th Cadet Class of the Irish Army. Kennedy was
greatly impressed by the Irish Cadets on his last official visit to Ireland, so much so that Jacqueline Kennedy requested
the Irish Army to be the honor guard at her husband's funeral. Jacqueline and their two deceased minor children were
later interred in the same plot. Kennedy's brother Robert was buried nearby in June 1968. In August 2009, Ted was
also buried near his two brothers. John F. Kennedy's grave is lit with an "Eternal Flame.” John F. Kennedy and William
Howard Taft are the only two U.S. presidents buried at Arlington

The Future After the New Frontier

The era of the Presidency, from the end of WWI to the peak of Cold War, tensions saw amazing developments. During
that time, there were both working-class movements for economic justice, the decline of economic inequality, and
numerous movements for social change (like the Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Rights Movement, the Latino
rights Movement, the Native American rights movement, etc.). Human activism from Malcolm X, Dr. King, and Fannie
Lou Hamer has inspired the world. Also, this time saw the far-right wing backlash that wanted corporations to reverse
the legitimate progressive gains of struggle. History teaches us logically that progress only comes by human struggle,
sacrifice, love of truth, advocating for real justice, harboring love, building infrastructure, creating solutions, and
executing resistance against evils including injustice in our world. That time saw super anti-communist paranoia in the
realm of McCarthyism that violated untold lives of human civil liberties (in contradiction to the right of free speech as
found in the First Amendment). This era saw the Democratic Party reach huge power making up of black people, union
workers, other workers, women, ethnic minorities, and other human beings. The contradiction of the time was that
while many legitimate laws existed to help people, oppression was still widespread against black people and other
marginalized communities. The Cold War was so violent that near nuclear war happened between America and the
Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was an era of massive change like the Allied defeat of the Axis Powers
during World War II, the Korean War, the rise including fall of Joseph McCarthy, and the early start of the Vietnam
War. Presidents from Herbert Hoover to John F. Kennedy witnessed so much, but it would be a long way to go in
seeing the Dream of human equality to be realized in America plus the world. After this era, the world saw Johnson,
Nixon, and others who saw the conclusion of the Cold War. Cultural changes continued along with economic problems.
Political polarization increased along with the continued progressive fight for freedom too. The future after 1963 will
be shown in later works on the history of the United States Presidents. Now, the story continues.

By Timothy

A er the New Frontier era of President John F. Kennedy, a new era of Presidents existed that
saw the end of the Cold War completely along with the beginning of the Post-Cold War Era.
e Presidents depicted above saw that era of time being a witness to monumental social and
cultural changes in the world. e rise of popular culture icons like Aretha Franklin and Stevie
Wonder, the invention of the Internet, the expansion of the NBA (with Dr. J, Kareem Abdul-
Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Isiah omas, etc.), and the continued
stru le for justice existed during that era of time. From growing the rights of minorities and
women to the controversial existence of globalization, humanity faced new inventions and new
challenges simultaneously. e following work about the Presidents in the future will describe
the Presidents from LBJ to Clinton in their strengths and imperfections in full display.