Dwight D. EisenHower

I recently watched a documentary on Dwight D. EisenHower.  As a Millennial I found myself fairly uninformed about the man and so thought it would be appropriate to spend some time trying to get a grasp for him.  
I do not believe that everything he did was good.  I believe that he had chosen to let those who ran the CIA be his marionettists.  I believe this single choice brought an evil into America unsurpassed by anything done previous to his administration since the establishment of the Federal Reserve.

I believe his choice to allow the CIA to engage in subversive wars was terribly wrong for American Foreign policy and has created much of the foreign policy issues that America has had to deal with ever since.  

I believe that he empowered some of the most wicked men to ever have governing influence over American politics.  This includes but is not limited to Richard Nixon and the Bush Family.

He turned his back on his good friend and mentor in order to score some political points.

Although at times useful, I believe that his subversive style of governing -through his hidden hand policies- was a wicked thing.

I think his executive orders were often inappropriate -as they usually are whenever they are employed.
I do not know, but fear that he might have played the part of an adulterer while leading the allied forces in Europe.  I believe that Providence was extremely kind to him.  

Yet in spite of all that, I am quite amazed at the good that he strove to cling to in his life.  

He was adept at down playing his own ego in order to soothe the ego's of both Patton and Montgomery.  

He seemed to desperately want to avoid war and sued for peace whenever possible.  His administration was marked by prosperity and his refusal to send American Soldiers to war.  Sensing no business in our being there- upon assuming the office of President, he immediately took action to put an end to the Korean War and get American Soldiers home.  

When faced with the option of throwing some subordinates under the bus (a la Reagan style with the Iran-Contra affair) he instead chose to take responsibility for the spying of Gary Powers over the USSR.  This choice ended his administration on a low note; but he knew that would be the case and chose to do it anyway, despite having the option -given to him by Nikita Khrushchev- to cast the blame elsewhere.  To him his personal integrity was worth more than the name given to him by historians.

He chose to stand up for what were the then hallmark American Principles of charity and pacifism.  Even though having been a soldier and earned his living in that profession he instead spoke up about the absurdity in costs incurred to build a single Destroyer when the same amount of money could build 5 hospitals, schools or shelters!  

He stood up against the war-mongering democrats (funny how things flip-flop back and forth isn't it) who cried for a build up in armaments -largely in their effort to pacify the Military Industrial Complex.  

Despite being members of the same party he chose to stand up against the absurd communist-witch hunts led by Senator Joseph McCarthy.

All in all, in comparison to many of the politicians that I have seen in my life, I have to say: I like Ike.

Here are a few quotes from him that I found worthy of some thought. 

-A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.

-I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.

-Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.

-In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

-Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the corn field.

-May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.

-We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.

-History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.

-If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom.

-Don't join the book burners. Do not think you are going to conceal thoughts by concealing evidence that they ever existed.