OPINION — Most lists of America’s greatest leaders include Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, the Roosevelts and King. Dwight Eisenhower should be added, and though historians have elevated his ranking (he has held at fifth in recent C-Span polls), he deserves to be framed in an iconic manner, similar to Father of the Country or the Great Emancipator. That framing should be as the most important person in combating America’s two archenemies — Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
Ike’s role in WWII is well known, but most forget that General Marshall placed him in charge of the War Plans Division after Pearl Harbor. There he wrote memo after memo arguing that invading France through the English Channel was the only way to defeat Hitler’s army. Those memos convinced the American chiefs and then FDR, who set it as the central Allied strategy. Ike was appointed its Supreme Commander (after the North African and Mediterranean campaigns) and led the Allies to victory. The unprecedented nature of his coalition leadership and cross-channel strategy deserves recognition.
As President, Ike ended the Korean War and replaced Truman’s approach to containment, which involved a permanent return to WWII levels of defense spending, with the nuclear deterrent, which was cheaper and threatened massive retaliation against communist aggression. Every year his administration faced a foreign policy crisis, including in Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan (twice), the Suez Canal, Hungary, and Berlin, and each time Ike’s advisors unanimously advocated for using nuclear weapons, and each time he refused while bluffing that he would and resolving them peacefully. Keeping the peace set a global precedent against using nuclear weapons, and this nuclear deterrent/taboo hybrid contained the Soviet Union until it collapsed and has helped prevent a third world war.
