101 Facts About Dwight Eisenhower

1. Dwight Eisenhower was already well versed in Philippine problems from his service under MacArthur in Washington.

2. Dwight Eisenhower was by equal measures awed and repelled by MacArthur.

3. In 1952 Dwight Eisenhower campaigned for the presidency of the United States and won.

4. Dwight Eisenhower believed in the Domino Theory and sent military advisors to Vietnam to halt the advance of communism.

5. Dwight Eisenhower believed in halting the advance of communism and took steps to this effect.

6. Dwight Eisenhower campaigned on bringing the Korean Conflict to an end.

7. Dwight Eisenhower became commander of all US forces in Europe in June 1942.

8. Dwight Eisenhower graduated from West Point as a Second Lieutenant and then continued his education at the Army War College.

9. Dwight Eisenhower was born on October 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas.

10. In 1954, Dwight Eisenhower decided against authorizing an air strike to rescue French troops from defeat at Dien Bien Phu, avoiding a war in Indochina, though his support for the anti-communist government in South Vietnam would sow the seeds of future US participation in the Vietnam War.

11. In 1956, Dwight Eisenhower created the Interstate Highway System, the single largest public works program in US history, which would construct 41,000 miles of roads across the country.

12. In that position, Dwight Eisenhower worked to create a unified military organization that would combat potential communist aggression around the globe.

13. World War I ended just before Dwight Eisenhower was scheduled to go to Europe, frustrating the young officer, but he soon managed to gain an appointment to the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

14. Dwight Eisenhower developed a knee injury that ended his playing days.

15. Dwight Eisenhower was mostly focused on football at West Point until he literally ran into the legendary Jim Thorpe in a contest against Carlisle in 1912.

16. Dwight Eisenhower was a rarity in American politics when he won the presidency in 1952 in his first campaign as a politician.

17. In 1953, Dwight Eisenhower renamed it Camp David, honoring both his father, David Jacob, and his 5-year-old grandson, Dwight David.

18. Dwight Eisenhower was the only one still using the nickname by WWII.

19. Dwight Eisenhower served as president from 1953 to 1961, during which time he significantly expanded the highway system, created NASA, and put five justices on the Supreme Court.

20. Dwight Eisenhower was additionally responsible for signing the bill to form the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

21. Dwight Eisenhower supported the creation of the Interstate Highway System during his time in office.

22. In 1955, Dwight Eisenhower met with Russian, British and French leaders at Geneva to further quell the threat of atomic war.

23. Dwight Eisenhower was promoted to brigadier general for his leadership of the Louisiana Maneuvers.

24. Dwight Eisenhower was promoted to first lieutenant on his wedding day.

25. In 1911, Dwight Eisenhower landed an appointment at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, where attendance was free of charge.

26. On July 12, 1957, Dwight Eisenhower became the first president to employ the new aviation technology when he rode in a two-passenger Bell H-13J helicopter to Camp David as part of a test of White House evacuation procedures.

27. Dwight Eisenhower was honored on a US one dollar coin, minted from 1971 to 1978.

28. Dwight Eisenhower graduated from this school when it was previously known as the Army Industrial College.

29. Dwight Eisenhower founded People to People International in 1956, based on his belief that citizen interaction would promote cultural interaction and world peace.

30. Dwight Eisenhower looked to moderation and cooperation as a means of governance.

31. Dwight Eisenhower strengthened European alliances while withdrawing support from European colonialism.

32. Dwight Eisenhower is buried alongside his son Doud, who died at age 3 in 1921.

33. On January 17, 1961, Dwight Eisenhower gave his final televised Address to the Nation from the Oval Office.

34. Dwight Eisenhower told friends, "I will do almost anything to avoid turning my chair and country over to Kennedy.

35. Under the act, Dwight Eisenhower was entitled to receive a lifetime pension, state-provided staff and a Secret Service detail.

36. Dwight Eisenhower became the first US president constitutionally prevented from running for re-election to a third term.

37. Dwight Eisenhower was treated by Dr Paul Dudley White, a cardiologist with a national reputation, who regularly informed the press of the President's progress.

38. Dwight Eisenhower joked that he "gave [himself] an order" to stop cold turkey in 1949.

39. Dwight Eisenhower began chain smoking cigarettes at West Point, often three or four packs a day.

40. Dwight Eisenhower has a national name for integrity, uprightness, and courage that, again, I believe we need on the Court".

41. Dwight Eisenhower removed him from the agency and revoked his security clearance, though he knew this would create fertile ground for McCarthy.

42. Dwight Eisenhower had a Republican Congress for only his first two years in office; in the Senate, the Republican majority was by a one-vote margin.

43. Dwight Eisenhower demanded that Arkansas governor Orval Faubus obey the court order.

44. Dwight Eisenhower proposed to Congress the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and of 1960 and signed those acts into law.

45. Dwight Eisenhower told District of Columbia officials to make Washington a model for the rest of the country in integrating black and white public school children.

46. Dwight Eisenhower made clear his stance in his first State of the Union address in February 1953, saying "I propose to use whatever authority exists in the office of the President to end segregation in the District of Columbia, including the Federal Government, and any segregation in the Armed Forces".

47. Dwight Eisenhower stated it had all been ruined because of that "stupid U-2 business".

48. Dwight Eisenhower refused to accede to Khrushchev's demands that he apologize.

49. Dwight Eisenhower told Kennedy he considered Laos "the cork in the bottle" with regard to the regional threat.

50. In February 1955, Dwight Eisenhower dispatched the first American soldiers to Vietnam as military advisors to Diem's army.

51. Dwight Eisenhower stated prophetically that "this war would absorb our troops by divisions.

52. Dwight Eisenhower publicly disavowed his allies at the United Nations, and used financial and diplomatic pressure to make them withdraw from Egypt.

53. Dwight Eisenhower openly threatened the Chinese communists with use of nuclear weapons, authorizing a series of bomb tests labeled Operation Teapot.

54. Dwight Eisenhower requested and secured from Congress their "Free China Resolution" in January 1955, which gave Eisenhower unprecedented power in advance to use military force at any level of his choosing in defense of Free China and the Pescadores.

55. Dwight Eisenhower continued Truman's policy of recognizing the Republic of China as the legitimate government of China, not the Beijing regime.

56. In late 1952 Dwight Eisenhower went to Korea and discovered a military and political stalemate.

57. Dwight Eisenhower believed that if the communists were allowed to prevail in Vietnam, this would cause a succession of countries to fall to communism, from Laos through Malaysia and Indonesia ultimately to India.

58. In 1954, Dwight Eisenhower articulated the domino theory in his outlook towards communism in Southeast Asia and in Central America.

59. At the Geneva Conference Dwight Eisenhower presented a proposal called "Open Skies" to facilitate disarmament, which included plans for Russia and the US to provide mutual access to each other's skies for open surveillance of military infrastructure.

60. Dwight Eisenhower was assigned as an observer for the mission, which involved sending a convoy of US Army vehicles coast to coast.

61. Dwight Eisenhower justified the project through the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 as essential to American security during the Cold War.

62. Dwight Eisenhower was assured of an enduring achievement when he championed and signed the bill that authorized the Interstate Highway System in 1956.

63. Dwight Eisenhower was publicly noncommittal about Nixon's repeating as the Vice President on his ticket; the question was an especially important one in light of his heart condition.

64. Dwight Eisenhower was among those who blamed the Old Guard for the losses, and he took up the charge to stop suspected efforts by the right wing to take control of the GOP.

65. Dwight Eisenhower implemented integration in the Armed Services in two years, which had not been completed under Truman.

66. Dwight Eisenhower conducted the first pre-inaugural cabinet meeting in history in late 1952; he used this meeting to articulate his anti-communist Russia policy.

67. Dwight Eisenhower upgraded the role of the National Security Council in planning all phases of the Cold War.

68. Dwight Eisenhower accepted their recommendations without exception; they included John Foster Dulles and George M Humphrey with whom he developed his closest relationships, and one woman, Oveta Culp Hobby.

69. Dwight Eisenhower was the last president born in the 19th century, and at age 62, was the oldest man elected President since James Buchanan in 1856.

70. Dwight Eisenhower advised the participating European nations that it would be incumbent upon them to demonstrate their own commitment of troops and equipment to the NATO force before such would come from the war-weary United States.

71. Dwight Eisenhower held this position until January 20, 1953, when he became the President of the United States.

72. Dwight Eisenhower was unknowingly building resentment and a reputation among the Columbia University faculty and staff as an absentee president who was using the university for his own interests.

73. Dwight Eisenhower was clear on this point to the trustees involved in the search committee.

74. Dwight Eisenhower accepted the presidency of the university to expand his ability to promote "the American form of democracy" through education.

75. Dwight Eisenhower had serious disagreements with Churchill and Montgomery over questions of strategy, but these rarely upset his relationships with them.

76. Dwight Eisenhower worked tirelessly to address the demands of the rival commanders to optimize Allied forces, often by giving them tactical latitude; many historians conclude this delayed the Allied victory in Europe.

77. Dwight Eisenhower had to skillfully manage to retain the services of the often unruly George S Patton, by severely reprimanding him when Patton earlier had slapped a subordinate, and then when Patton gave a speech in which he made improper comments about postwar policy.

78. Dwight Eisenhower insisted that the British give him exclusive command over all strategic air forces to facilitate Overlord, to the point of threatening to resign unless Churchill relented, as he did.

79. Dwight Eisenhower was charged in these positions with planning and carrying out the Allied assault on the coast of Normandy in June 1944 under the code name Operation Overlord, the liberation of Western Europe and the invasion of Germany.

80. Dwight Eisenhower was the first non-British person to command Gibraltar in 200 years.

81. Dwight Eisenhower learned to fly, making a solo flight over the Philippines in 1937, and obtained his private pilot's license in 1939 at Fort Lewis.

82. Dwight Eisenhower was promoted to the rank of permanent lieutenant colonel in 1936.

83. Dwight Eisenhower had strong philosophical disagreements with MacArthur regarding the role of the Philippine Army and the leadership qualities that an American army officer should exhibit and develop in his subordinates.

84. Dwight Eisenhower was assigned to the American Battle Monuments Commission directed by General Pershing, and with the help of his brother Milton Eisenhower, then a journalist at the Agriculture Department, he produced a guide to American battlefields in Europe.

85. Dwight Eisenhower was an honorary member of the Sigma Beta Chi fraternity at St Mary's University.

86. Dwight Eisenhower served initially in logistics and then the infantry at various camps in Texas and Georgia until 1918.

87. Dwight Eisenhower is a calm and collected player and never whines at his losses.

88. Dwight Eisenhower was a strong player, though not an expert by modern standards.

89. Dwight Eisenhower learned poker, which he called his "favorite indoor sport", in Abilene.

90. Dwight Eisenhower began painting while at Columbia University, after watching Thomas E Stephens paint Mamie's portrait.

91. Dwight Eisenhower proposed to her on Valentine's Day in 1916.

92. Dwight Eisenhower made the varsity football team and was a starter as running back and linebacker in 1912, when he tackled the legendary Jim Thorpe of the Carlisle Indians.

93. Dwight Eisenhower attended Abilene High School and graduated with the class of 1909.

94. Dwight Eisenhower was baptized in the Presbyterian Church in 1953.

95. Dwight Eisenhower was voted Gallup's most admired man twelve times and achieved widespread popular esteem both in and out of office.

96. Dwight Eisenhower promoted the establishment of strong science education via the National Defense Education Act.

97. Dwight Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and sent Army troops to enforce federal court orders that integrated schools in Little Rock, Arkansas.

98. Dwight Eisenhower approved the Bay of Pigs invasion, which was left to his successor, John F Kennedy, to carry out.

99. Dwight Eisenhower condemned the Soviet invasion during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 but took no action.

100. Dwight Eisenhower supported local military coups against democratically-elected governments in Iran and Guatemala.

101. Dwight Eisenhower cited constant relocation during his military career as one reason.