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

by William I. Hitchcock

To JFK the Age of Eisenhower had been bland, unimaginative, and sclerotic. Privately Kennedy jeered at Eisenhower, calling him “the old asshole” to members of his entourage. Kennedy told Arthur Schlesinger Jr. that Eisenhower was “a terribly cold man. In fact, he is a shit.”2 Kennedy may in fact have believed some of the caricature he drew of the president. But if, as he arrived at the White House on December 6, he expected to find Eisenhower dim-witted and distant, out of touch with the realities of governing, he was deeply mistaken. Eisenhower brought the president-elect into the Oval Office and over two hours treated him to an astonishing tutorial that ranged across domestic policy, economics, the governing structure of the National Security Council and cabinet, military security, and world affairs. In a far-reaching briefing, Eisenhower pulled back the curtain on the powers, and preoccupations, of the presidency.