Dwight D. Eisenhower: the Only Five-Star General Being U.S. President

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Feifei Zhang Professor Collier Writing 39C April 18 2012 Dwight D. Eisenhower: the Only Five-Star General Being U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “Humility must always be the portion of any man who received acclaim earned in the blood of his followers and the sacrifices of his friends,” in his speech delivered at Guildhall in London on June 12, 1945. The address at Guildhall manifested many of the themes and attitudes that would come to characterize Eisenhower’s postwar speaking: unity, cooperation, sacrifice, duty, and humility (Medhurst 3). Eisenhower was a man who lived his life in the public eye. The news, featured articles, books, interviews, and speeches all shaped the public image of Eisenhower. Through his public ethos, the five-star general demonstrated “good sense, good will, and perceived moral character” as Aristotle suggested, and therefore the public judged him a success. Eisenhower’s story has elements of a conventional rags-to-riches success story. Rising from a relatively poor family, he became Supreme Allied Commander in Europe in WWII, U.S. Army Chief of Staff, Columbia University President, Supreme Commander of NATO, and President of the United States. Born in October 1890, he died of congestive heart failure at the age of 78. His two-term presidency marked him a great politician as he balanced the budget, ended the Korean War, and signed the Civil Rights Bill of 1957, and the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956. To achieve such success, he transformed from a martial national hero to a politician in the twentieth century. Through nearly thirty years as a prominent national figure, Eisenhower demonstrated himself a success by “good sense, good will, and perceived moral character.” This is his story. Rising from relatively ordinary origins, Dwight D. Eisenhower, the third child of the family, encouraged his business thinking in his

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