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Dwight D. Eisenhower: 34th President (1953 – 1961)
• Born: October 14, 1890
• Birthplace: Denison, Texas
• Died: March 28, 1969.
• Best Known As: 34th President of the
United States; “Ike”
Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower was born October 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas. After graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1915. In his early Army career, he excelled in staff assignments, serving under Generals John J. Pershing, Douglas MacArthur, and Walter Krueger. After Pearl Harbor, General George C. Marshall called him to Washington for a war plans assignment., He was a five-star General in the United States Army and served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forced in Europe during World War II. and served as the first supreme commander of North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces. After retiring from active military service, he ran for President and was elected for two terms.
For a brief period after the war, he became President of Columbia University, then took leave to assume supreme command over the new NATO forces being assembled in 1951. Republican emissaries to his headquarters near Paris persuaded him to run for President in 1952. He won an impressive victory and took the oath of office on January 20, 1953. The next day he wrote: “My first day at the President's Desk. Plenty of worries and difficult problems. But such has been my portion for a long time – the result is that this just seems (today) like a continuation of all I’ve been doing since July ’41 – even before that!”
Bringing to the Presidency his prestige as commanding general of the victorious forces in Europe during World War II, Dwight D. Eisenhower obtained a truce in Korea and worked incessantly during his two terms to ease the tensions of the Cold War. He pursued the moderate policies of “Modern Republicanism,” pointing out as he left office, “America is today the strongest, most influential, and most productive nation in the world.”
Before he left office in January 1961, for his farm in Gettysburg, he urged the necessity of maintaining an adequate military strength, but cautioned that vast, long-continued military expenditures could breed potential dangers to our way of life. He concluded with a prayer for peace “in the goodness of time.” Both themes remained timely and urgent when he died, after a long illness, on March 28, 1969.
Eisenhower went on to serve two terms in office. Highlights of his presidency include:
• Negotiating an armistice in the Korean
War.
• Participating in the Geneva Conference
on Indochina, which resulted in the
portioning of Vietnam.
• Launching the first atomic submarine, the
U.S.S. Nautilus.
• Establishing the President's Council on
Youth Fitness, the precursor of the
President's Council on Physical Fitness
and Sports.
• Establishing the Department of Health,
Education and Welfare.
• Signing legislation creating the Interstate
Highway program.
• Sending federal troops to enforce the
court-ordered integration of Little Rock
Central High School.
• Signing the 1957 Civil Rights Act, the first
civil rights legislation since
Reconstruction.
• Signing legislation in 1958 creating the
National Aeronautics and Space
Administration.
• Signing legislation admitting Alaska and
Hawaii into the Union as the 49th and
50th states, respectively.
Secretary of the Treasury appointed by
President Eisenhower:
• George M. Humphrey (Cleveland,
Ohio) – January 21, 1953 – July 29,
1957
• Robert B. Anderson (Greenwich,
Connecticut) – July 29, 1957 –
January 20, 1961
United States Mint Directors appointed by President Eisenhower:
• William H. Brett (Cleveland, Ohio) –
July 1954 – January 1961
Coinage legislation enacted under President Eisenhower:
• Treasury Order 179 dated November 19,
1953 – Transferred coin distribution from
the Treasurer of the United States to the
Bureau of the Mint. The Mint would now
transfer current and uncurrent coins
among the Mints, the Federal Reserve
Banks and branches, and the Treasurer
of the United States.
• Act of June 30, 1954 – Amended Section
3528 of the Revised Statutes, relating to
the metal fund for the purchase of metal
for minor coins, and doubles the amount
that can be spent by the Bureau of the
Mint from $1,000,000 to $2,000,000.
• Act of July 11, 1955 – Provided that all
United States currency shall bear the
inscription “In God We Trust.”
• Joint Resolution of July 30, 1956 –
Declared “In God We Trust” the national
motto of the United States.
• Act of July 9, 1956 – Increased the
amount for the purchase of metal for
minor coinage to $3,000,000 and
amended Section 3526 of the Revised
Statutes to authorize use of the bullion
fund for silver coinage to also cover the
cost of the alloy metal.
• December 20, 1958 - approves and
announces design change for cent from
Wheat Heads to Lincoln Memorial
Number minted: 15,000 Number sold: 14,823