DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER : 1953-1961 (The American Presidents Series)
review by Pete Hammond
Tom Wicker
Time Books, 2002
Hard Cover 176 pages

Wicker has done a compact profile of the president of the American 1950s. Eisenhower had become a WW II hero in leading the Allies to victory over the Nazi regime. He was a reluctant president who often avoided hard decisions, but remained popular during the post-war surge in the American economy as the industrial power developed during the war was converted into producing products (Cars, televisions, toys, home appliances, etc.). “Ike” avoided some problems that would dominate the Sixties like the American overthrow of the government in Guatemala, a clumsy American military entry into Viet Nam, the anti-Communist crusade of Senator McCarthy from WI, tensions with Russia, and the overthrow of the government in Iran. Each of these issues would rise to the status of major problems after “Ike” retired to private life and his love of golf. Wicker notes Eisenhower’s Protestant faith, but does not engage it significantly, reflecting both the reporter’s limitations to grasp it and Eisenhower’s tendency to privatize his beliefs.

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