Ike qualifies as a GREAT president for his foreign policy achievements alone.
Do you realize how dangerous the world was at the time?
We were in a shooting war with China (Korea) that looked to have no end when he took office. He ended it quickly.
Russia was at the height of it’s aggressiveness and expansionist attitude when Ike took office.
Ike established the idea of the Cold War. That we could contain Russia and China without getting into a shooting military conflict. And he made it work to our advantage.
We remember the 50’s as a peaceful, happy time. We have Ike to thank for that. He ended the Korean war and set the policies that prevented us from going into another war (until Kennedy’s “wiz kids” decided to ignore Ike’s recommendation to NOT send troops into Vietnam, because according to Ike “our experience in Vietnam would be no different than that of the French”; Ike was right).
To be blunt, if any other person had been president the Korean war would have drug on for years and we likely would have ended up in a shooting war with the Soviet Union. In other words, WW III would have happened in the 1950’s.
Yea, Ike was a GREAT president.
The Cold War and containment predated Ike by a good bit. I suppose it could be said that things didn’t get any worse on his watch, at least regarding foreign policy. I’ll allow he was the best of the mediocre ex-general presidents.
Agreed! Ike’s main flaw was a lack flamboyance. He just did his job..