General Eisenhower informs me that the forces of Germany have surrendered to the United Nations. The flags of freedom fly over all Europe.
President Harry S. Truman, radio address. May 8, 1945
On President Truman’s 61st birthday he announced the surrender of Germany and Victory in Europe, V-E Day.
(via ourpresidents)
(via ourpresidents)
The unconditional surrender of the German Third Reich was signed in the early morning hours of Monday, May 7, 1945 at Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s headquarters in Reims by Gen. Alfred Jodl, Chief of Staff of the German Army. At the same time, he signed three other surrender documents, one each for Great Britain, Russia, and France.
(Top) - German officers sign unconditional surrender in Reims, France. (Bottom) - Allied force leaders at the signing., 05/07/1945
The U-2 Mission and the Cold War
The U-2 spy plane was designed as a high altitude, single-pilot, single-engine aircraft. It was lightweight, but able to carry a variety of equipment such as multi-sensor cameras, and electro-optic, infrared and radar imagery machines.
Although the plane’s design broke ground in many ways, its main drawback was sluggish flight control due to its landing gear requirements. In case of an emergency ejection, the pilot seat was equipped with a hunting knife, a .22 caliber pistol, a parachute, and a survival pack. An explosive mechanism was installed that would blow up the plane after the pilot ejected.
On May 1, 1960, Captain Francis Gary Powers’ CIA mission was to perform secret aerial reconnaissance by flying over the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact territory. While in flight, a missile hit his plane and Powers was unable to follow the self-destruct protocols. The Soviet Union quickly recovered the wreckage and captured the pilot.
President Eisenhower learned of the missing U-2 plane on May 2. Believing that there was no possibility that Powers could survive a high-altitude missile strike, President Eisenhower gave the order to proceed with releasing a cover story.
More - Letters to the President about the U-2 Incident
-from the Eisenhower Library
Imagine a Democrat-Republican Presidential Ticket
Did you know that during his first-term in the White House, Harry S Truman asked General Dwight Eisenhower to run for President?
On July 25, 1947, Truman’s proposal was direct: rather than run for a second term, Truman would run for Vice President on an Eisenhower ticket. Truman would relinquish his role as Commander in Chief, and as Vice President “would be happy outside the great white jail, known as the White House.”
Eisenhower and Truman both described the meeting in their respective diaries. Ike’s entry on the right-hand page begins, “Astounding talk at the White House today.”
Could this happen today? A Democratic President inviting a future Republican candidate to create a very unusual campaign for the Presidency? Well, in a way it is happening. Follow a bit of presidential history on Twitter at @IkeandHarry2012.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander, at his headquarters in the European theater of operations. He wears the five-star cluster of the newly-created rank of General of the Army., 02/01/1945
Eisenhower had been promoted to the new rank on December 20, 1944.
Yup. That’s Ike being lassoed by a cowboy at his Inaugural Parade. January 20, 1953.
First Lady Mamie, and Vice President Richard Nixon are in the photo too, just to the right of President Eisenhower.
Military-Industrial Complex - the phrase is familiar, do you know the voice? Listen to President Eisenhower deliver his Farewell Address from January 17, 1961 here.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Farewell Address, famed for its reference to the “military-industrial complex,” is one of the most famous speeches in American history. President Eisenhower delivered the speech 51 years ago today, on January 17, 1961.
Dr. Malcolm “Mac” Moos was one of Ike’s speech writers. This letter to Moos from Special Assistant to the President Frederic Fox, provides a glimpse of the brainstorming process that went into the remarks months in advance. In it, Fox recommends George Washington’s Farewell Address as a relevant speech for Moos and the President to read for possible inspiration. Among the ideas, he cites Washington’s warning against “overgrown military establishments.”
Eisenhower’s Farewell Address has been analyzed and debated by historians ever since and the speech drafts, memos, and letters about it are among the most requested records at the Eisenhower Library. You can view many of the Farewell Address documents here.
-from the Eisenhower Library
On January 17, 1961, in this farewell address, President Dwight Eisenhower warned against the establishment of a “military-industrial complex.”
President Dwight D. Eisenhower at a ribbon cutting ceremony to open a new extension of the George Washington Memorial Parkway on November 3, 1959. Exactly 40 years earlier he reported on the conditions of the nation’s roads (or lack thereof) in his Report on the Transcontinental Motor Convoy.
On the Move
November 3, 1919 - this is Lt. Col. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s report on the Transcontinental Motor Convoy. Setting out from Washington, DC, on July 7, 1919, the Convoy was a test by the U.S. War Department to see if the country’s roads could handle long-distance movements of mechanized army units. Eisenhower’s experience during the expedition would later play a role in his support of the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956 while President.
I Like Ike’s Birthday
Dwight D. Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas on October 14, 1890. Ike, as the Eisenhower boys were called, was the third of seven sons. Ike’s family moved to Abilene, Kansas, and the years he spent in the town were among the most important of his life.
Ike relished the history of the Wild West and of ancient times. He named Hannibal, Caesar, Pericles, and Socrates as among his boyhood heroes, competing with cowboys and lawmen for his admiration. Ike’s devotion to the study of the past sometimes came at the expense of other homework and chores and once led his mother to lock up his history books as punishment for neglecting his childhood duties.
Eisenhower excelled at sports - baseball and football in particular, but he also boxed, fished, trapped, hunted, camped, and played poker - the latter learned at the hand of an eccentric outdoorsman and adventurer who taught him how to compute percentages and figure odds, invaluable skills for the future military and political leader.
Ike’s poker skills were enhanced by his powers of observation, some of which were recorded in the margins of his school books, where he rated his teachers as “good” or “cross.” Eisenhower continued his habit of writing character assessments throughout his military and political careers. Historians rate his personnel decisions in the Army and politics as among his greatest skills.
Other important character traits emerged in the Abilene years. Ike attended integrated schools, but when some of his football teammates refused to line up opposite a visiting African American player, Eisenhower volunteered for the position, and shook the player’s hand after the game.
To help bring money into the household, Ike baked and sold tamales; grew and sold sweet corn and cucumbers; harvested wheat, picked apples, and hammered out steel grain bins. He joined the Belle Springs Creamery after graduating high school in 1909, toiling as a fireman from 6:00 p.m. to 6 a.m. seven days a week. With his creamery proceeds he supported his brother Edgar through two years of college at the University of Michigan. The plan was for Edgar to work the next two years for Ike’s schooling. Instead Ike won an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, and left the creamery and Abilene in 1911.
Dwight David Eisenhower was born the year the US census pronounced the frontier closed and died the year man walked on the moon. In between those milestones he planned and led the greatest amphibious military assault in history and served two terms as President. Yet on reflection of this eventful life declared: “The proudest thing I can claim is that I am from Abilene.”
Happy birthday Ike!
-from the Eisenhower Library
Executive Order 10730, September 24, 1957
President Dwight Eisenhower issued this executive order to enforce his Presidential Proclamation 3204, from the previous day. Intended to restore peace and order during the integration of Little Rock’s Central High School, Eisenhower’s order placed the Arkansas National Guard under Federal control and sent 1,000 U.S. Army paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division to assist them.
Presidential Proclamation 3204, Obstruction of Justice in the State of Arkansas.
President Eisenhower issued this Proclamation on September 23, 1957 in the face of riots and demonstrations during the Little Rock School Integration Crisis. He would enforce it the following day with Executive Order 10730, which dispatched Federal troops to restore order.
