Talk:Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Dwight D. Eisenhower was nominated as a good article, but it did not meet the good article criteria at the time (July 5, 2006). There are suggestions below for improving the article. If you can improve it, please do; it may then be renominated.

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Origin of Family

So one person invented the origins of his family in the Saarland, the other person dreamed up the origins in the Odenwald, only one paragraph apart from each other. How in the world is anyone ever going to believe anything of the hyperreality that Wikipedia creates with nonsense like this? Perhaps after all he was from Munich.... What a load of crap again. 69.205.58.226 14:56, 11 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ike's dates of Rank as a Soldier

Can someone construct a table of date of rank, like the one in the Douglas MacArthur article. I love that stuff!Joe Blaznalis, The Fashion Plate of Professional Thumb-Wrestling 05:32, 12 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The Eisenhower presidential museum notes that he has a less than stellar military career until he was "discovered" and fast tracked to general from Lt. Colonel. This should be added. How should we word it?

Health and impact

The article presently doesn't mention his health barring the cause of his death. Lord Owen notes that his heart attack in 1955 led to a new level of openness about the health of presidents. He was one of the first to receive warfarin as a medical treatment - nowadays it would be unthinkable to use a more-or-less experimental compound on a head of state, see Link 1959. JFW | T@lk 10:08, 23 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Declining Reputation?

Maybe, but Gallup states he was the "most admired man" for 1967 and 1968.[1] One of only a few times the sitting President didn't win the honor. (Granted this might in part be because of LBJ's unpopularity)--T. Anthony (talk) 11:29, 26 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I have removed the line, "Eisenhower has been consistently ranked by scholars as one of the greatest U.S. Presidents." from second para because it violates aspects of wiki policy. Its unsupported opinion (probably 'original research'), and the focal point is "greatest", making it a very subjective POV.

Ike has fallen and risen in surveys of historians, and does not generally appear in presidential "top 5" and "top ten" lists I've seen. Jvol (talk) 19:52, 7 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Huh? What policy does it violate? When speaking in its own voice WP has a neutral POV, but when quoting others it gives their POV. DDE has never been in the top 5, but is often in the top 10, and generally in the top 15, as shown in detail in the article you just linked to. I'm restoring the line. -- Zsero (talk) 23:13, 8 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Military-industrial complex

This has become seen as a prescient warning for many historians around the globe. Should it not have a mention in the BLP? Or have I missed it? Mr.grantevans2 (talk) 23:59, 13 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

There are already referrals to this in the "Post-presidency" and "See also" sections. —Adavidb 00:22, 17 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Gary Powers U-2 spyplane

Powers getting shot down over Sverdlosk on a CIA/USAF mission on May Day, 1960, upset Eisenhower's 1958-1960 plans for a Nuclear Test Ban treaty. Upcoming Big Four summit talks in Paris were cancelled. This should be in the article. Binksternet (talk) 20:15, 21 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Education of his brothers

The statement that "Dwight D. Eisenhower (and his six brothers) attended Abilene High School" is incorrect, since one of the brothers -- Paul -- died in infancy. (See page 69 of Michael Korda's 2007 biography "Ike".) Thus, only five of his brothers also attended Abilene High School. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Latinsq (talk • contribs) 01:22, 27 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Birth Name?

The entry says "Dwight David Eisenhower, born David Dwight Eisenhower", but the Early Life section says "born Daniel Dwight Eisenhower". The Eisenhower Presidential Center website doesn't mention his birth name [2] Does anyone know more about this? Not only is it in poor form for an article to be contradicting itself, there are no sources for either name. Joliefille (talk) 03:40, 30 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You apparently encountered a vandalized version of the article, since corrected and temporarily protected. —Adavidb 04:23, 1 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Dynamic Conservatism

Exactly what is 'Dynamic Conservatism'? What follows looks to me like a description of big government liberalism -- nothing conservative in the whole section. 14:15, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

For the citation needed in this section a decent link is http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,900543-1,00.html Though not a first hand reference it is from Friday, Jan. 24, 1969. Time I imagine is a valid enough source. WillisAdair (talk) 02:00, 29 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

"Dynamic Conservatism" is simply what he called it. You don't have to agree with him.

R K Hudson (talk) 21:24, 20 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Eddie Slovik

Mention should probably be made somewhere about Eddie Slovik, the 24-year-old WWII private executed for desertion. His article says that Eisenhower signed the death orders in order to discourage desertion. Interesting, and important for this article.--Gloriamarie (talk) 03:34, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Iran Overthrow

I cannot help but realize that Eisenhower's decision to overthrow the Democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran Mohammed Mossadegh, in favour of a military regime lead by the Shah, has been ignored from his entry on middle east policy. A great deal of "blow back" has occurred due to his decision to create a military regime in order to stop a Arab leader from controling oil reserves from British corporations. This was also part of Eisenhower's military strategy around the world. And one of the first occurrences of militaristic American foreign policy in the modern world. Persianlor (talk) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.228.43.46 (talk) 16:05, 16 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I agree, this should definitely be covered.--Gloriamarie (talk) 01:11, 29 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Reliable sources are needed to support this coverage. —Adavidb 04:38, 29 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Eisenhower and Civil Rights

The section on civil rights seems to take a far too sanguine view of Eisenhower. Indeed, his support for the Brown decision didn't go as far as a single word spoken in defense of it. His role in Little Rock should never be ignored, but neither should it be exaggerated; Eisenhower was compelled by duty to act in 1957, not by conscience. Eisenhower's role in desegregating the District of Columbia does nothing to mitigate against his general States' Rights leanings on civil rights. I'm not looking for Eisenhower to be excoriated here, I just think the section should be balanced by providing a bit of context.209.244.31.37 (talk) 20:38, 8 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

We just need available and reliable sources. —ADavidB 00:45, 9 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia is no place for analysis, even when it's "balanced". Analysis, people offering their insights, is the bane of WIkipedia.. This includes "balance" consisting of "some believe...others believe," which are weasel words. One might offer that there is a debate and cite different sides in the debate, but again, this is no place for opinionating. J M Rice (talk) 08:17, 17 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

First of all, the bane of Wikipedia is the pervading sense of self-righteousness of Wikipedia's self-appointed guardians, not analysis. In any event, the issue I had with the article concerning Eisenhower and Civil Rights is that someone who knows little about Eisenhower in the first place (which would be most people) would take away from this article an overly positive and largely false view of Eisenhower's role in the Civil Rights movement and of his own personal views on segregation. I understand the desire for objectivity, that is precisely why I had a problem with the article in the first place. Any objective view of the Eisenhower administration gives a very mixed and conflicted record on Civil Rights. The article as it is reads like a brochure from the Eisenhower Presidential Library.

Chief of Staff Portrait

The image was previously tagged for deletion because "This file is an exact duplicate of another file from the Wikimedia Commons. Unless it is currently protected from editing, this media file may qualify for speedy deletion..." Also, the portrait was a commission, signed by the artist, the artist was not an employee of the government, therefore he retains copyright. That the image comes from a US Army Website does not mean it is public domain, especially since apparently it comes from a book. If the person posting can provide better source info to establish public domain, then he can repost, and I'll find another spot for the one I replaced it with. J M Rice (talk) 08:03, 17 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

President or General? or Vice Versa?

This may just be a minor point and may have nothing to do with making this a better article, but I noticed that in the first section Eisenhower's role as a Genearl comes before his role as a President. Isn't he better known as a President? Should it say "President of the United States aand Allied Commander"? or something like it, or should it stay "Allied Commander and President...."? Any ideas? --Jojhutton (talk) 19:12, 23 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm going to change the order of that. General custom is to list offices in order of prominence, and President of the United States supersedes any other office Eisenhower held. This is particularly clear-cut in so much as the military chain of command puts President right at the top. Huadpe (talk) 10:03, 7 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Different Titles

The article mentions he went to Camp Meade in Maryland but every other source says Fort Meade. Not sure if it's a big deal but I'm just mentioning it. Also, the article says that Dwight was executive officer to Gen. Fox Conner but every other source says he was chief of staff. Again, I was just observing and wasn't sure if these were incorrect or what. --ShutUpSarahSmith (talk) 21:06, 30 October 2008 (UTC)Sarah Smith[reply]

I don't have a reference, though Fort Meade was named Camp Meade when Eisenhower was there. Also, a Chief of Staff position is an executive officer. —ADavidB 02:15, 31 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

"Expeditionary"

"The word "expeditionary" was dropped soon after his appointment for security reasons." Why? What "security reasons" were there for this name change? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.230.177.44 (talk) 17:13, 13 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Temporary rank not a "brevet"

The statement that Eisenhower "rose to temporary (Bvt.) Lieutenant Colonel in the National Army" is erroneous. This was not a "brevet" rank; brevet ranks had been abolished many years before. The term "temporary rank" is appropriate. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.232.28.15 (talk) 04:19, 7 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

K1C2

Hi. The 'Korea, Communism and Corruption' mentioned in the 'Entry into Politics' section seems to be referred to in several books etc. as 'K1C2', and someone else has created an article about the K1c2 formula, referring to this theme. I was going to redirect the article to this section, then realised that the abbreviation wasn't actually mentioned, so the redirect may be confusing. Does anyone know if this abbreviation is suitable for inclusion in the article ? Since this is a major article about a well-known figure, I thought I'd better check before I made any edits :-) CultureDrone (talk) 15:36, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Arms race

The article contains a link to Arms race, in reference to that to which the article refers as theArms Race. However, the page "Arms race" does not apply to any single arms race. Perhaps the link ought to be redirected to Nuclear arms race, which specifically refers to the USA-USSR conflict. Does anyone oppose such a change? Penthamontar (talk) 01:34, 12 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]