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

by William I. Hitchcock

In a 1982 book titled The Hidden-Hand Presidency, political scientist Fred Greenstein added depth and detail to the sketch offered by Kempton and Wills. Drawing on new evidence, Greenstein argued that Eisenhower’s apparent aloofness and absenteeism had been part of a deliberate governing strategy. Greenstein believed that Ike hid his abilities and his own engagement with the issues in order to exercise power more effectively. He used intermediaries to do his political dirty work, baffled reporters with garbled syntax, refused to publicly acknowledge political rivals by name, delegated responsibility to cabinet secretaries, and fed the public reasoned, calm, simple bromides about the American way of life. “Eisenhower went to great lengths,” Greenstein concluded, “to conceal the political side of his leadership.”10