Good overview of 50s / Eisenhower. Filled me in on Eisenhower's iffy relationship to the Brown decision and hesitation about integration. (dragged kicking and screaming). Still, a nice antidote to current knee jerk / non thought out policy prescriptions and sudden changes. Also learned about multiple instances of being ready to use tactical nuclear arms in murky situations (Quemoy, laos/1959) .. really? Author steers a usually good course about reporting and not frequently jumping in with the after the fact moral absolute judgements. ( )

Very good, well written, easy to read, though a bit lacking.
Cover Ike's presidency very well. Quite interesting and I learned a lot. Unfortunately it barely covers pre- and post-presidency. I really would have liked more on his early years as these form the basis for decisions made later in life.
Would make a great companion read to a more complete bio of Eisenhower. ( )

Excellent Look at Ikes presidency, Some interesting aspects such as his threat to expand war into China with nukes.. ( )

Strange book. He spends 95% of it showing how Eisenhower screwed things up and then sweeps it all away with a few paragraphs at the end. ( )

“Those who cannot remember the past are commended to read about it.” (Don Scaggs, 2018)
In a 2017 survey, presidential historians ranked Dwight D. Eisenhower fifth on the list of great presidents. After reading this book, I understand why.
He ended the Korean war.
Avoided involvement in Viet Nam. (France wanted military help at the time).
Stood up to China as it attacked some of the islands off Taiwan. (Military leaders wanted to use atom bombs on China)
Established NASA in order to move the space program from the military.
Called in experts in science and technology on improving military arsenal and space program.
Try to pass a civil rights bill, but was essentially defanged by none other than Lyndon Johnson.
Had an Attorney General that was active in civil rights
Earl Warren added to Supreme Court, which led to Brown v. Board of Education decision
Stability in economics where he avoided government debt. Low unemployment, increase in wages.
Also a few missteps such as the U2 plane being shot down. (He was strongly against such flights, but his CIA director hounded him for one more fly over of Russia.)
Also CIA was involved in overthrow of some government leaders, unfortunately the CIA back the wrong horse, who was usually worse than the originally leader. A lot of complicated events going on in the world at this time. Anticommunism was high on everyone’s list in foreign affairs.
One can’t say anticommunist without mentioning the McCarthy. Ike ignored McCarthy as much as possible, who eventually fell on his own sword and was censured by the Senate.
Many more things going on behind the scenes, which the public and his political rivals could not see.
I highly recommend this book. ( )