The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s

by William I. Hitchcock

The subsequent cascade of studies on Eisenhower’s cold war policies shattered forever the myth that Ike was disengaged from the running of government. And it became increasingly difficult to sustain the idea that he “hid” his power and authority.11 The Eisenhower era suddenly looked, well, interesting. The new research revealed a complex president who at times showed exceptional restraint in the use of America’s power but who also had a taste for daring and even recklessness, especially when ordering the use of covert operations against left-wing governments. The documents portrayed a deeply engaged leader struggling to forge policies in a vast array of fields, from civil rights to economic policy, infrastructure, science and education, religion, communist “subversion” on the home front, and national security policy abroad. Eisenhower now appeared principled but adaptive, ideological at times but usually pragmatic, a problem-solver who dominated his cabinet, the military, and the bureaucracy and put his imprimatur on the age.12