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.
Fun Leap Year Fact: What was Dwight D. Eisenhower doing on Leap Day 1956? He announced his reelection campaign. Yes, we still like Ike.
-from the Eisenhower Library
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.
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
July 1, 1955 - Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower posed for this portrait on their 39th wedding anniversary at their farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
“In Case of Failure” Message
This note was drafted by General Dwight Eisenhower on June 5, 1944, in case the D-Day invasion failed.
Learn more about this message on a NARAtions blog post.
I respectfully remind you sir, that we have been the most patient of all people.
