On This Days In History - President, a five-star General in the Army:
On This Days In History - President, a five-star General in the Army:
and Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe during WWII, Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower was born on this day in 1890.
and Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe during WWII, Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower was born on this day in 1890.
He received an appointment to West Point and graduated in 1915, and was then stationed in Texas as a second lieutenant.
When the US entered World War I, he immediately requested an overseas assignment but was denied.
He instead commanded a unit that trained tank crews at Camp Colt – his first command.
In his early Army career, he excelled in staff assignments, serving under Generals John J. Pershing, Douglas MacArthur, and Walter Krueger.
After Pearl Harbor, General George C. Marshall called him to Washington for a war plans assignment.
He commanded the Allied Forces landing in North Africa in November 1942; on D-Day, 1944, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces.
"War is a grim, cruel business, a business justified only as a means of sustaining the forces of good against those of evil." -GEN Eisenhower
After the war, he became President of Columbia University, then took leave to assume supreme command over the new NATO forces being assembled in 1951.
Republican emissaries to his headquarters near Paris persuaded him to run for President in 1952.
Eisenhower was the last president born in the 19th century, and he was the oldest president-elect at age 62 since James Buchanan in 1856.
He was the third commanding general of the Army to serve as president, after George Washington and Ulysses S. Grant. He served as president until 1961.
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