Dwight D. Eisenhower
No. 34
Eisenhower National Historical Site, Gettysburg, PA
March 14, 2020
 |
| Official Presidential Portrait painted by James Anthony Wills, 1967 |
But we visited the Eisenhower National Historical Site using another of his major legacies, one that everyone uses but forget about or didn’t even know about — the interstate highway system.
Eisenhower pushed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, which funded the first 41,000 miles of highway that made up the system. America had tried creating a highway system before, but it was never funded. Eisenhower, however, was motivated to build a highway network. According to the U.S. Army (Dwight D. Eisenhower and the birth of the Interstate Highway System), three events pushed him toward building the network: His assignment as a military observer to the First Transcontinental Motor Convoy, his admiration of Germany’s efficient road network during World War II, and his fears of a nuclear bomb — he wanted Americans to be able to escape a nuclear disaster, and he was worried that the road network at the time couldn’t handle it. As legendary broadcaster Walter Cronkite said, the highway system “changed the entire face of America.”
Living in the Washington area, we’ve always appreciated being able to zip around on the nearby Capital Beltway and the region’s extensive highway network — when traffic isn’t backed up.
So at the beginning of March, we headed onto Interstate 270, north to Interstate 15 in Frederick County, across the Maryland line into Pennsylvania, and into Gettysburg.
Yes, Gettysburg. Eisenhower’s farm, the only home he ever owned, is right next to the Gettysburg Civil War battlefield. In fact, to visit the farm, you must park at the Gettysburg National Military Park visitor center to buy tickets, and then a shuttle bus whisks you to the Eisenhower Historic Site.
We visited March 14, during the first real weekend of the coronavirus pandemic, deciding it was better to go now while things were still open. That was a good call, since the park was closed by the following weekend. The park rangers and volunteers were practicing “social distancing,” at the time a new concept.
Our visit was apropos since Eisenhower also went through a severe flu outbreak in 1957. In fact, he didn’t want to have a vaccine because it was in short supply and he didn’t want to cut to the front of the line. However, he was pressured to take the vaccine because that the Public Health Service recommended vaccinations for older people with preexisting conditions and Ike had had a heart attack. So, he finally received a vaccine in August 1957.
 |
| The Ike section of the gift shop. |
* * *
Eisenhower , one of six boys, was born in Denison, Texas, but raised in Abilene, Kansas. Young “Ike” loved to read, especially military biographies. His favorites were Hannibal and George Washington (Moore, 2007). Since his family didn’t have much money, West Point was a good option for him. As a cadet, he was an average student—he graduated 61st out of a class of 164—who performed better as an athlete. And he was often in trouble amassing hundreds of demerits. It was at West Point that his childhood nickname of Ike stuck.
Early in his military career, Eisenhower was assigned to command Camp Colt, Pennsylvania, the U.S. Army’s new tank training school, on the grounds of the Gettysburg battlefield. He had served with the 301st Tank Battalion, the first heavy tank battalion in the Army, at Camp Meade in Maryland, which is why he was picked for the new command. Gettysburg had long been used as a military training ground. In fact, Eisenhower had his tank teams put guns on top of Little Round Top to lob shells at targets below. Obviously, he loved the Gettysburg area, since he decided to retire there.
Eisenhower met Mamie on an assignment at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. They hit it off right away and were engaged in four months. When he married Mamie on July 1, 1916, he warned her, “My country comes first and always will. You come second.” Their first child, Icky, was born in 1917 but died in 1921 from scarlet fever. Eisenhower said, his son’s death was “the greatest disappointment and disaster of my life…” (Moore, 2007). Each year he sent flowers to Mamie on Icky’s birthday (Eisenhower, 2015).
Eisenhower was upset that he never had an opportunity to serve in Europe during World War I. The problem was that he was so good at preparing troops for battle that the Army didn’t want to send him overseas. When he was finally sent to Europe, the war was over.
Skip ahead to World War II. Ike’s leadership talents and his ability to build consensus were quickly recognized. By 1943 he was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces. In 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt put Eisenhower in charge of D-Day because he was a “natural leader who can convince other men to follow him…” Before the troops landed on the shores of France in June 1944, Eisenhower wrote a note that he kept in his pocket: “In the event of failure, the responsibility for this is mine and mine alone.” Stress like this caused him to smoke “packs of Camels” and drink “fifteen cups of coffee” per day (Moore, 2007). But by the war’s end he was a five-star general.
After Victory in Europe day, President Harry S. Truman — who was unsure if he himself would run for a full term—offered to help Eisenhower win the presidency in 1948. Instead, Eisenhower became president of Columbia University, a position he ended up disliking.
The Eisenhowers moved about 40 times during their marriage, never owning their own home until they finally bought the Gettysburg house.
* * *
We boarded the bus in front of the visitor center. The bus driver wore an “I Like Ike” campaign pin. The drive takes about 10 minutes and winds through the rolling battlefield before the bus turns down a long, narrow, gravel road, lined with spruce trees, which were a gift to the Eisenhowers.
The first structure we saw as we pulled in was the green-gray farmhouse, a color Eisenhower mixed himself, our guide tells us — breaking away from the traditional white.
The farm, which the Eisenhowers bought in 1950, was advertised for $20,000, and included 500 chickens and 36 cows. But the owners doubled the asking price when they learned the Eisenhowers were interested.
 |
| Eisenhower's house |
After buying the house, the Eisenhowers headed almost immediately to Europe where in 1950 Eisenhower became supreme commander of the NATO forces.
As the election of 1952 approached, Eisenhower was pursued by both parties to be their candidate. Since his family had always been Republican, he chose that party. He selected a conservative congressman from California, Richard M. Nixon, as his running mate and they ran on a platform of low taxes, a balanced budget and opposition to communism. The campaign slogan, “I Like Ike” came from a 1950 Irving Berlin musical, “Call Me Madam.” The play, which opened in 1950, references Eisenhower running against Truman in 1952. When Eisenhower finally did run in 1952, Berlin rewrote the lyrics. Ike beat Democratic candidate, Adlai Stevenson, by an overwhelming electoral margin, 442-8.
Eisenhower put the Gettysburg house to good use during his presidency. He used it as a temporary White House for almost two months as he recuperated from a 1955 heart attack. He also used it for personal diplomacy, since it is near Camp David, which Eisenhower renamed from Shangri-La for grandson David. It is a nine-minute helicopter trip — Eisenhower was the first president to ride in a helicopter — to the presidential retreat in the Catoctin Mountains in nearby Maryland. He would bring world leaders who were visiting Camp David to the house, where they would meet and mingle with his family, including his grandchildren.
This strategy paid off in 1959 when Russian President Nikita Kruschev visited. Talks at Camp David weren’t going particularly well, so Eisenhower invited him to the farm, and told his grown up kids to get their families there. Eisenhower’s four grandkids squirmed all over Kruschev, who melted with affection; he presented them each a Communist red star. The visit went so well that Kruschev invited Eisenhower to visit him in Moscow. But “the spirit of Camp David” was destroyed when pilot Gary Powers was shot down while flying a CIA U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union on a reconnaissance mission. (The United States didn’t believe the Russian missiles could touch a plane at 70,000 feet. Powers was supposed to take a suicide pill if shot down but did not.) Kruschev canceled the invitation and the Cold War was back on, full throttle.
Eisenhower was hugely popular: His average approval rating over his eight years in office was 65 percent. Historian Paul Johnson wrote that Eisenhower “was the most successful of American’s 20th century presidents, and the decade when he ruled (1953-61) the most prosperous in American, and indeed world, history” (Johnson, 1991) — at least to that point.
However, it was Eisenhower who began U.S. involvement in Vietnam in 1954. Johnson (1991) wrote that ”it can be argued that he (Eisenhower) was more responsible for the eventual mess in Vietnam than any other American.” Eisenhower decided against authorizing an air strike to rescue French troops from defeat at Dien Bien Phu because he wanted to avoid a land war in Asia. After the French defeat, Eisenhower refused to back the Geneva Accords, which set a temporary demarcation of north and south at the 17th parallel and allowed an election to establish the future of Vietnam. Instead, Eisenhower established the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), which backed a despot named Ngo Dinh Diem as the leader of the south. Diem held his own election in 1955, a likely rigged election in which he won 98 percent of the vote. After the vote, Diem unleashed “waves of terror” under his regime (Cuddy, 1997). Eisenhower had good intentions — he did not want Vietnam to be another Communist “falling domino.” (The United States eventually turned against Diem, and the CIA supported a coup in the early 1960s that led to his assassination.) According to Johnson (1991), “The loss of South Vietnam would set in motion a crumbling process…”
Eisenhower also stumbled in his response to the Hungarian Revolution. In late October 1956, the Hungarian population rose up against the Soviet-backed government. For 12 days, Hungarians had a taste of freedom. The Soviets removed their tanks from Budapest and the Hungarian government announced its withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact. The CIA-backed Radio Free Europe encouraged the revolt, but Eisenhower had no plans to become militarily involved. For one thing the Suez Crisis was happening almost simultaneously. And for another, the 1956 presidential election was imminent. On Nov. 4, a column of Soviet tanks rumbled into Hungary and slaughtered thousands of Hungarians. The revolution was over.
 |
| The Hungarian Revolution -- the early days. |
* * *
Visitors to the Eisenhower house see it almost exactly was it was in 1967, when Eisenhower gave it to the National Park Service with the stipulation that he could stay there until he died. Unfortunately, he died before Mamie did, and she wanted to stay in the house. So Congress had to rush through special legislation to allow her to remain. Our guide tells us the reason he says that the house is “almost exactly” as it was in 1967 is because Eisenhower’s grandchildren were allowed to take only three items each from the house. Everything else stayed.
On the tour, visitors enter the main level of the house and walk into the formal living room, which our guide says reflects Eisenhower’s public stature. He talked to us there and then let us explore on our own. Our one quibble is that there wasn’t enough time to explore—less than 90 minutes between the time the bus starts its drive to the farm to the time it picks you up.
 |
| Living room with the poof. |
The dining room has a long formal table with room for eight people, with rich red cushions and red carpet, and formal silver service. The Eisenhowers used it only on holidays and for guests.
 |
| The sunroom. |
Eisenhower also played cards in the sunroom and Mamie loved watching the soap opera “As the World Turns.” If she knew she was going to miss an episode, she would assign a Secret Service agent to watch and take notes. The Eisenhowers also liked meeting dignitaries in the sunroom.
 |
| The Eisenhowers' television. |
Also of note:
• The wallpaper in the stairway leading to the second floor from the entrance was specially made for the house, ordered by Mamie. It is black and white and features the seals of the 48 states at the time as well as the territories.
• The Eisenhower farm is the first place we have seen where family photos — not paintings — are displayed around the house. They’re all over — on top of the piano, bookcases, dressers — a sign of the times and changing technology. Fans of painted portraits, don’t fret — the house features several of them, including two of Mamie, one of her mother and one of Ike.
 |
| One of Ike's paintings. |
• Lastly, a side building houses some exhibits and a quick film narrated by Walter Cronkite. He notes some of Eisenhower’s successes: He balanced the budget, didn’t raise taxes or increase military spending, had a steady hand on the economy, created the interstate highway network, and created NASA and named the first astronauts. And he was pro-civil rights: He sent troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce the Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education decision that desegregated the schools. However, he was weak against Sen. Joseph McCarthy and his anti-communist crusade.
• An evergreen is planted on the Gettysburg battlefield where Camp Colt once stood. Veterans of the Tank Corps who trained there returned in 1954 to plant the tree and build a bronze tablet to commemorate the birth of the Tank Corps and honor Eisenhower.
• In his 1961 Farewell Address, Eisenhower pointed out that after WWII, the private sector had developed a huge weapons industry that continued to grow. He warned that this “military-industrial complex” could threaten our freedom.
Directions
Catch the shuttle to the Eisenhower National Historic Site at the Gettysburg National Military Park Visitor Center and Museum located at 1195 Baltimore Pike (State Route 97), just outside of Gettysburg, PA.
References
Brookhiser, Richard. 2015. How Ike Began Our Mess in the Middle East. American History. Vol. 50, No. 3. August 2015, pp. 20-21.
Byrne, Malcolm (editor), 2002. A National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book. November 4, 2002. (https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB76/)
Carlon, Peter. 2015. Eisenhower Defrosts Khrushchev. American History. Vol. 50, No. 3. August 2015, pp. 18-19.
Carter, Graydon. 2010. Vanity Fair’s Presidential Profiles. Abrams, New York, NY.
Denes, Marianne. 2000. Reflections: 1931 to 1957. Unpublished memoir. Kalamazoo, MI.
Denes, Robert. 2005. It Wasn’t Easy: A Journey from Budapest to Oshkosh. Unpublished memoir. Kalamazoo. MI.
D’Este, Carlo. 2015. ‘I Really Hit a New World.” American History. Vol. 50, No. 3. August 2015, pp. 32-35.
Eisenhower, Mary Jean. 2015. ‘I Never Cease to be Grateful.’ American History. Vol. 50, No. 3. August 2015, pp. 65-67.
Johnson, Paul. 1991. Modern Times: The World from the Twenties to the Nineties. Revised Edition. Harper Perennial. New York, NY.
Kelly, John. 2020. As New Flu Hit in 1957, World Watched and Waited for it to Spread. Washington Post. March 18, 2020.
Moore, Katheryn. 2007. The American President. Fall River Press. New York, New York.
Morelock, Jerry. 2015. ‘I’m Going to Command the Whole Shebang.’ American History. Vol. 50, No. 3. August 2015, pp. 38-43.
Nichols, David A. 2015. ‘Unless We Progress, We Regress.’ American History. Vol. 50, No. 3. August 2015, pp. 56-61.
Pach, Jr., Chester J. date unknown. Dwight D. Eisenhower: Foreign Affairs.
EisenhowerLibrary.gov
Thomas, Evan. 2015. ‘The Only Way to Win World War III is to Prevent It.’ American History. Vol. 50, No. 3. August 2015, pp. 47-53.
Websites
History.com
Videos
History Channel. 2005. The Presidents: The Lives and Legacies of the 43 Leaders of the United States.
