Eisenhower, Dwight David (Ike; orig. David Dwight Eisenhower)

US general, war hero, and Republican politician

1943-1945 - Led Allies in World War II.

1945-1948 - Army chief of staff.

1948-1952 - President of Columbia University (on leave 1951-1952)

1950-1952 - 1st Supreme Allied Commander in Europe (SACEUR).

1953-1961 - 34th president of US.

With John Foster Dulles, formulated aggressively anti-Communist foreign policy, centered on Cold War between US and Soviet Union.

Promoted nuclear arms buildup and policy of massive retaliation as deterrents to open warfare, while providing aid and security assurances to non-Communist nations, especially in Asia, in attempt to halt spread of Communism in light of domino theory.

1955 - Summit with Nikita Khrushchev, made Open Skies proposal, calling for US and Soviet Union to permit mutual aerial surveillance of nuclear and military sites.

Signed bill 1956 authorizing construction of interstate highway system.

1957 - Dispatched federal troops to Little Rock 1957 to protect black students enrolling at Central High School.

1961 - Severed diplomatic ties with Cuba, following expropriation of US property by Fidel Castro's regime, and initiated planning of Bay of Pigs invasion (executed under John F. Kennedy).

• "There's no tragedy in life like the death of a child. Things never get back to the way they were."
• "The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office."
• "Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion."
• "What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight-it's the size of the fight in the dog."
• "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."