Dwight Eisenhower on Principles & Values

1950: Recruited for President while head of Columbia Univ.

At the end of 1950, Eisenhower, at President Truman's request, took a leave of absence from Columbia to return to active duty, becoming the first Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). Like background noise, the chatter about Eisenhower as a president got louder

Born Mennonite; raised Jehovah's Witness

1960: Give me a week to think of one Nixon idea

Q: We understand that the power of decision is entirely yours, Mr. President. I just wondered if you could give us an example of a major idea of his that you had adopted in that role, as the decider and final--

A: If you give me a week, I might think of one. I don't remember.

If a single Eisenhower comment is remembered from the 1960 presidential campaign, it's that: "If you give me a week, I might think of one. I don't remember." That remark at the end of a desultory press conference and accompanied by laughter from reporters was a particularly unfortunate moment for Nixon.

1964: Did not endorse GOP nominee Barry Goldwater

1955: Preferred to dump Nixon as V.P.

In March, the people of NH presented the vice president with a write- in vote in the state's Republican primary. Eisenhower still refused to commit to a 2nd Nixon term. "The only thing I have asked him to do is to chart his own course and tell me what he would like to do," he told the press. Privately he turned the screws tighter, deputizing Republican chairman Leonard Hall to ask Nixon if he would step aside for Frank Lausche," "I'd love to run with a Catholic," he confided to friends, "if only to test it out." Nixon's liberalism on civil rights was another factor.

Suffered heart attack prior to 1956 re-election campaign

Stevenson moved to exploit the anxiety about the nation's #2 slot: he went before the convention to say that he would not pick a running mate. Rather, he wanted the convention to do it. "The nation's attention has become focused as never before on the vice presidency," he explained, making pointed reference to Eisenhower's medical crisis of the year before, [hoping to] shift the focus of the fall campaign itself to the vice presidency, from "Ike" to "Dick".

The Republican convention opened in San Francisco the following week with the vice-presidential nomination still in doubt. Ike was allowing his veep to sweat. "I can't understand how a man can come so far in his profession," Ike wondered aloud about his loner vice president, "and not have any friends."

Principal political disappointment was Nixon's 1960 loss

But Senator Kennedy won by a paper-thin margin, and one of the questions that still haunts me is what more I personally might have done to achieve the right verdict. As of that time, I did what I thought best, and even more than the Vice President planned for. But I participated, on an intensively partisan basis, only in the final week of the campaign. I shall never cease to wonder whether a more extensive program of political speaking on my part might have had a favorable effect on the outcome.

US became great by principles in our religious philosophy

• adherence to principles and methods consonant with our religious philosophy
• a satisfaction in hard work
• the readiness to sacrifice for worthwhile causes
• the courage to meet every challenge to her progress
• the intellectual honesty and capacity to recognize the true path of her own best interests.

America is best described by one word: freedom

Because we are human we err. But as free men we are also responsible for correcting the errors and imperfections of our ways.

To grow and flourish people must be free

1. To maintain justice and freedom among ourselves and to champion them for others so that we may work effectively for enduring peace;
2. To help keep our economy vigorous and expanding, thus sustaining our international strength and assuring better jobs, better living, better opportunities for every citizen;
3. And to concern ourselves with the human problems of our people so that every American may have the opportunity to lead a healthy, productive and rewarding life.