Review: ‘Bush,’ a Biography as Scathing Indictment

[Craig234]

12. About Ike

Ike is head and shoulders above any Republican president who followed.

But, I think praise for him is misguided for the most part.

It was he who gave use the national positioning of Richard Nixon for president, it was he who gave us the cold war reign of the Duller brothers' horrors around the world, it was he who gave us the replace of democracy with the Shah in Iran and the current disaster.

Eisenhower, to cut the military budget, put the world on a hair-trigger for nuclear war, lacking any other response to any conflict in Europe between the west and east. That huge threat was President Kennedy's top priority to fix, as I understand.

He gave a great speech at the beginning and end of his presidency, the Cross of Iron and the Military-Industrial(-Congressional) complex. But policy-wise, he was nothing to brag about in my opinion - supporting tyranny, colonialism, the road to Vietnam.

His presidency was the presidency of the McCarthy era and blacklisting and the John Birch Society.

Yes, Ike was not their friend - but he wasn't exactly effective at preventing those forces, either. He can get credit for reluctantly enforcing the Supreme Court's civil rights decision - but was hardly a leader on the issue, and called Earl Warren his biggest mistake.