Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, child death, racism, mental illness, physical abuse, antigay bias, and addiction.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was one of seven brothers all called “Ike.” He was born in Denison, Texas, but his father, a mechanic, moved the family to Abilene, Kansas. He played football both in high school and at West Point. When a knee injury forced him to stop playing, Eisenhower thought about dropping out. After graduating, he enlisted in the army and was stationed in San Antonio, Texas, where he met his wife, Mamie Doud.

As a military officer, Eisenhower “ha[d] a flair for organization and [wa]s a quick judge of character” (286). After serving as supreme commander of the Allied forces in World War II, Eisenhower was extremely popular with the American public. Feeling that the Truman administration had not done enough to stop the spread of communism around the world, Eisenhower ran for president as a Republican in 1952.

Truman was disappointed when Eisenhower did not defend another general, George Marshall, from Senator Joseph McCarthy’s baseless accusations that Marshall was a communist sympathizer. As McCarthy continued his demagogic purge of supposed communists in government and civil service, Eisenhower let McCarthy campaign with him in Wisconsin, only “later stating that he agree[d] with the senator’s ambitions but disapprove[d] of his methods” (288).