Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower was born on October 14, 1890. He grew up in Kansas and had a good childhood. As 1 of 6 sons, he had a lot of competitive attitude and that gave him a lot of success. He had a lot of accomplishments throughout his life from college age all the way into his older ages.
After graduating from high school, Eisenhower worked for 2 years so his brother could afford college, and then was accepted into West Point Academy. He graduated in the middle of his class, 59 of which became generals in the army. After West Point Dwight married Mamie Geneva Doud who was from Boone, Iowa. They had two kids although the first one died at age 3 from scarlet fever. During World War 1, Eisenhower didn't get any battlefield experience. Instead he was on the homefront commanding a battalion of tanks where he learned many skills. He served with many famous generals and ended up graduating from Command and General Staff College first in his class. In 1935 he joined MacArthur in the Philippines where he taught the Philippine army how to fight.
During the start of WWII Eisenhower was not even in Europe or Africa, he was in D.C. with some officers thinking of ways to defeat Germany and Japan. In November of 1942 he was named the supreme Allied Commander of the Allied forces. He headed Operation Torch in Africa and won there. He then led the forces against Sicily, and had a successful invasion. He was also head of the D-Day invasion of France, which was a huge success. In his last battles in WWII, Eisenhower successfully led an attack on the Battle of the Bulge and forced the Germans back. He also said that it would be a huge military mistake to attack Berlin.
After WWII, Eisenhower went back to America and became the president of Columbia University. He also published a book titled Crusade in Europe, which was a big hit and made a lot of money. In 1950 he became the Supreme Commander of the NATO forces. He was the first person to ever do so. He became the 34th president of the United States in 1953 and did many things as president. He continued all of the major New Deal programs because they helped the economy. One of his biggest accomplishments is developing the Interstate System in the United States. This not only helped the military, but also the people. Eisenhower also created NASA, a space program that helped get us to the moon. He planned the Bay of Pigs invasion, but left it for Kennedy to carry out. He helped the US get out of the Korean War by threatening China with nuclear weapons so they would sign an armistice. Overall, Eisenhower is considered to be one of the best U.S. presidents of all time.
I think he was a great president and it was bad he only got to serve two terms. He was a great leader and a superb commander. I think he was one of the greatest leaders too.
Sources:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/dwightdeisenhower
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower
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Comments
Well done Weston!