(October 14, 1890–March 25, 1969), the 34th President of the United States, 1953–61; Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe, 1950–52; president of Columbia University, 1948–52; U.S. Army Chief of Staff, 1945–48; Supreme Commander of Allied Expeditionary Force, 1944, directing the D-Day invasion of Normandy; Commanding General of Allied Powers in European Theater, 1943, directing invasion of Sicily and Italy; Lieutenant General, Allied Commander in Chief of North Africa, 1942, directing invasion of North Africa; Assistant Chief of Staff to General Marshall, 1942; Brigadier General, 1941; Chief of Staff of Third Division, 1940; assigned to Philippines, 1935–39; attached to staff of General Douglas MacArthur, 1932; worked in office of Assistant Secretary of War, 1929; wrote guide to French battlefields, 1928; attended Command and General Staff School, 1925; assigned to Panama, 1922; commanded tank-training center, 1918; married Mamie Geneva Doud, 1916; commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, 1915; and graduated from West Point, 1915.
Dwight D. Eisenhower was a descendent of the Eisenhower family which fled seventeenth century religious persecution in Germany and Switzerland. They belonged to the Brethren in Christ, similar to the Quaker faith, and briefly stayed in Holland, before eventually settling in Pennsylvania in 1735. His grandfather, Reverend Jacob E. Eisenhower, moved the family to Virginia, before his father moved to Denison, Texas, and then finally to Abilene, Kansas.
As a child, Eisenhower recalled how every evening, after their chores, he, along with his six brothers and father, would gather and sing hymns, accompanied by their mother Ida Eisenhower on the piano. They would then read the Bible as a part of their daily routine.3426
Open about his faith, fellow soldiers were impressed with his knowledge of Holy Land history when they visited Jerusalem, to which Eisenhower replied:
I practically had to memorize the Bible when I was a kid.3427
Dwight D. Eisenhower, who graduated from West Point in 1915, rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in World War I. In 1935, he was named senior assistant to General Douglas MacArthur in the Philippines, In June of 1942 he was selected to lead the Allied invasion on North Africa and command all the United States troops in Europe. Famous for the D-Day invasion of Normandy, Ike was named chief of staff in 1945.
As recorded by Senator Frank Carlson of Kansas, Dwight D. Eisenhower commented at the dedication of a chapel at Kansas State College while he was still in the Army:
I don’t believe our country will ever be the country that our forefathers had planned, and God has intended for us, unless we get back to fundamental spiritual principles.3428
On the night of July 10, 1943, General Eisenhower observed the armada of 3000 naval ships that he had ordered to battle, sailing from Malta to the shores of Sicily. He saluted his men, then bowed his head in prayer. To the officer next to him he commented:
There comes a time when you’ve used your brains, your training, your technical skill, and the die is cast and the events are in the hands of God, and there you have to leave them.3429
On June 6, 1944, in launching the greatest invasion in history, General Eisenhower issued his “D-day Orders of the Day”:
Supreme Headquarters
Allied Expeditionary Force
Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!
You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.
In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.
Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.
But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940–41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground.
Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!
I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!
Good luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.3430
On December 22, 1944, during the historic “Battle of the Bulge,” General Eisenhower declared in his “Orders of the Day”:
By rushing out from his fixed defenses the enemy may give us the chance to turn his great gamble into his worst defeat. So I call upon every man, of all the Allies, to rise now to new heights of courage, of resolution and of effort.
Let everyone hold before him a single thought—to destroy the enemy on the ground, in the air, everywhere—destroy him! United in this determination and with unshakable faith in the cause for which we fight, we will, with God’s help, go forward to our greatest victory.3431
Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected President receiving over 33,000,000 votes, more than any previous Presidential candidate in United States history. On January 20, 1953, after having attended a pre-Inaugural worship service at Washington’s National Presbyterian Church, President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his First Inaugural Address, the first ever such address to be televised:
My friends, before I begin the expression of those thoughts that I deem appropriate to this moment, would you permit me the privilege of uttering a little private prayer of my own. And I ask that you bow your heads.
Almighty God, as we stand here at this moment my future associates in the Executive Branch of government join me in beseeching that Thou will make full and complete our dedication to the service of the people in this throng, and their fellow citizens everywhere. Give us, we pray, the power to discern clearly right from wrong, and allow all our words and actions to be governed thereby, and by the laws of this land. Especially we pray that our concern shall be for all the people regardless of station, race, or calling. May cooperation be permitted and be the mutual aim of those who, under the concepts of our Constitution, hold to differing political faiths; so that all may work for the good of our beloved country and Thy glory. Amen.
My fellow citizens. … We are summoned by this honored and historic ceremony to witness more than the act of one citizen swearing his oath of service, in the presence of God. We are called as a people to give testimony in the sight of the world our faith that the future shall belong to the free. …
In the swift rush of great events, we find ourselves groping to know the full sense and meaning of these times in which we live. In our quest of understanding, we beseech God’s guidance. …
At such a time in history, we who are free must proclaim anew our faith. This faith in America is the abiding creed of our fathers. It is our faith in the deathless dignity of man, governed by eternal moral and natural laws. This faith defines our full view of life. It establishes beyond debate, those gifts of the Creator that are man’s inalienable rights, and that makes all men equal in His sight. …
This faith rules our whole way of life. It decrees that we, the people, elect leaders not to rule but to serve. … It is because we, all of us, hold to these principles that the political changes accomplished this day do not imply turbulence, upheaval or disorder. Rather this change expresses a purpose of strengthening our dedication and devotion to the precepts of our founding documents, a conscious renewal of faith in our country and in the watchfulness of a Divine Providence.
The enemies of this faith know no god but force, no devotion but it use. They tutor men in treason. They feed upon the hunger of others. Whatever defies them, they torture, especially the truth. Here, then, is joined no argument between slightly differing philosophies. This conflict strikes directly at the faith of our fathers and the lives of our sons. No principle or treasure that we hold, from the spiritual knowledge of our free schools and churches to the creative magic of free labor and capital, nothing lies safely beyond the reach of this struggle. Freedom is pitted against slavery; lightness against the dark. …
We feel this moral strength because we know that we are not helpless prisoners of history. We are free men. We shall remain free, never to be proven guilty of the one capital offense against freedom, a lack of staunch faith. …
These basic precepts are not lofty abstractions, far removed from matters of daily living. They are laws of spiritual strength that generate and define our material strength. Patriotism means equipped forces and a prepared citizenry. Moral stamina means more energy and more productivity. Love of liberty means the guarding of every resource that makes freedom possible—from the sanctity of our families and the wealth of our soil to the genius our scientists. …
This is the hope that beckons us onward in this century of trial. This is the work that awaits us all, to be done with bravery, with charity, and with prayer to Almighty God.3432
On July 9, 1953, in a message to the National Co-Chairmen of the Commission on Religious Organizations, National Conference of Christians and Jews, President Dwight D. Eisenhower stated:
The churches of America are citadels of our faith in individual freedom and human dignity. This faith is the living source of our spiritual strength. And this strength is our matchless armor in our world-wide struggle against the forces of Godless tyranny and oppression.3433
President Eisenhower was notably faithful in his church attendance. He became a communicant member of The National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., only twelve days after assuming office. On July 12, 1953, an editorial in the Jacksonville, Florida, 2 attested
There is something soul-stirring about Ike’s church going, something that makes a person feel as if the President enters a sanctuary to gain strength, wisdom, and guidance from an All-seeing Power that resides above. …
From the same source that Eisenhower finds divine guidance to steer a straight course over the unchartered waters that lie ahead, there is a new way of life for others who would follow the example of the White House and seek where it can be found, and ask where it can be given.3434
On Saturday, October 31, 1953, President Eisenhower recorded a program for the Committee on Religion in American Life. In the message, which was broadcast nationally over radio and television, President Eisenhower commended:
Each Year the Committee on Religion in American Life reminds us of the importance of faithful church attendance. It urges full support of religious institutions to the end that we may add strength and meaning to the religious virtues—charity, mercy, brother love, and faith in Almighty God.
These spiritual concepts are the inspiration of the American way. It was once said, “America is great because America is good—and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."
By strengthening religious institutions, the Committee on Religion in American Life is helping to keep America good, thus it helps each of us to keep America great.
I earnestly hope that during November, and throughout this and every year, each American citizen will actively support the religious institution of his own choice.3435
In his State of the Union Message, January 7, 1954, President Eisenhower stated:
I am flatly opposed to the socialization of medicine. The great need for hospital and medical services can best be met by the initiative of private plans.3436
On March 25, 1954, in his message at the annual convention of the National Catholic Family Life Conference, New Orleans, President Eisenhower stated:
The destiny of the nation is as great in promise as its young people are great in character. In that light, we need constant and profound appreciation of the mother as a builder of a brighter and better future.3437
On June 14, 1954, President Eisenhower supported and signed into law the Congressional Act, Joint Resolution 243, which added the phrase “one Nation under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. He stated:
From this day forward, the millions of our school children will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural school house, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty.3438
In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America’s heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource in peace and war.3439
President Eisenhower then stood on the steps of the Capitol Building and recited the Pledge of Allegiance for the first time with the phrase, “one Nation under God”:3440
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.3441
(The Pledge of Allegiance was first written in 1892 by a Baptist minister from Boston named Francis Bellamy, who was ordained in the Baptist Church of Little Falls, New York. He was a member of the staff of The Youth’s Companion, which first published the Pledge on September 8, 1892. Public-school children first recited it during the National School Celebration on the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ discovery of America, October 12, 1892, at the dedication of the 1892 Chicago World’s Fair. The words “under God” were taken from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, " … that this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth … ")3442
On November 6, 1954, in a remark to newsmen during the football season, President Eisenhower stated:
An atheist is a guy who watches a Notre Dame-SMU football game and doesn’t care who wins.3443
On Tuesday, November 9, 1954, President Eisenhower remarked to the first National Conference on the Spiritual Foundation of American Democracy in a luncheon meeting at the Sheraton-Carlton Hotel in Washington, DC:
We are talking about the spiritual foundations of our form of government, and I meet with the spiritual leaders of the Nation. …
Now Dr. Lowry said something about my having certain convictions as to a God in Heaven and an Almighty power. Well, I don’t think anyone needs a great deal of credit for believing in what seems to me to be obvious. …
Now it seems to me that this relationship between a spiritual faith, a religious faith, and our form of government is so closely defined and so obvious that we should really not need to identify a man as unusual because he recognizes it. …
Milton asserted that all men are born equal, because each is born in the image of his God. Our whole theory of government finally expressed in our Declaration, you will recall, said—and remember the first part of the Preamble of the Declaration was to give the reasons to mankind why we had established such a government: “Man is endowed by his Creator.” It did not assert that [only] Americans had certain rights, “Man” is endowed by his Creator—or “All Men” I believe was the expression used. So this connection is very, very clear.
And no matter what Democracy tries to do in terms of maximum individual liberty for an individual, in the economic and in the intellectual and every other field, no matter what it tries to do in providing a system of justice, and a system of responsibility—of public servants to all the people—and identifying the people as the source of political power in that government, when you come back to it, there is just one thing: it is a concept, it is a subjective sort of thing, that a man is worthwhile because he was born in the image of his God. …
So we are under tremendous attacks. But it is not that we have just to establish the fact. We have to establish the fervor, the strength of our convictions, because fundamentally, Democracy is nothing in the world but a spiritual conviction, a conviction that each of us is enormously valuable, because of a certain standing before our own God.
Now, any group that binds itself together to awaken all of us to these simple things, and to discover new ways and means by which they are brought home to us through our surroundings, through our relationships with other nations, our relationships with one another, and through our peering into the future, any organizations such as that is, in my mind, a dedicated, patriotic group that can well take the Bible in one hand and the a flag in the other, and march ahead.3444
Upon lighting the National Christmas Tree at the White House, 1954, President Eisenhower stated:
This year, even as two thousand years ago when the Prince of Peace was born into the world, the drums of war are still. … Mankind’s unquenchable hope for peace burns brighter than for many years.3445
In 1954, President Dwight David Eisenhower, said:
The purpose of a devout and united people was set forth in the pages of The Bible … (1) to live in freedom, (2) to work in a prosperous land … and (3) to obey the commandments of God. … This Biblical story of the Promised land inspired the founders of America. It continues to inspire us.3446
In 1955, President Dwight David Eisenhower stated:
Without God there could be no American form of government, nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first—the most basic—expression of Americanism. Thus the founding fathers of America saw it, and thus with God’s help, it will continue to be.3447
On January 6, 1955, in his State of the Union Message to Congress, President Eisenhower stated:
A decade ago, in the death and desolation of European battlefields, I saw the courage and resolution, I felt the inspiration of American youth. In these young men, I felt America’s buoyant confidence and irresistible will-to-do. In them I saw, too, a devout America, humble before God. And so I know in my heart, and I believe all Americans know, that despite the anxieties of this divided world, our faith and the cause in which we all believe will surely prevail.3448
On January 24, 1955, in a message to Congress asking their support, which they granted, in protecting Formosa from Communist China, President Eisenhower stated:
A suitable Congressional Resolution. … would make clear the unified and serious intentions of our government, our Congress and our people. Thus it will reduce the possibility that the Chinese Communists, misjudging our firm purpose and national unity, might be disposed to challenge the position of the United States, and precipitate a major crisis which even they would neither anticipate nor desire.3449
On February 8, 1955, in a message to Congress on the state of American education, President Eisenhower stated:
Unless education continues to be free—free in its response to local community needs, from any suggestion of political domination … it will cease to serve the purposes of free men.3450
The finest buildings, of themselves, are no assurance that the pupils who use them each day are better fitted to shoulder the responsibilities, to meet the opportunities, to enjoy the rewards that one day will be their lot as American citizens.
Good teaching and good teachers made even the one-room crossroads school of the nineteenth century a rich source of the knowledge and the enthusiasm and patriotism, joined with spiritual wisdom, that mark a vigorously dynamic people.3451
On March 2, 1955, in a tribute to Pope Pius XII, President Eisenhower stated at a new conference:
As to His Holiness, the Pope, [on] his seventy-ninth birthday, a man that I have had the honor of visiting personally, admiring him greatly, and particularly because of his unbroken record of opposition to all forms of fascism and communism, I am quite certain that America, all America, would wish this great spiritual leader a very happy day today, and many more of them.3452
On May 10, 1955, in an address to the Republican Women’s National Conference, President Eisenhower stated:
I believe that women are better apostles than men. Men are engrossed in many kinds of activities. They earn the living. They are engaged in business all day, and they are very apt, at times, to lose that great rounded concept of that women almost always have before them: that he is a spiritual and intellectual and a physical being. He is not merely someone trying to get a higher wage. He wants a higher wage for a purpose, to give greater opportunity in all three of these fields to his family.
Because women think of these things in their process of homemaking, think of them in terms of children and the family, I believe that their influence in spreading the basic doctrines of this kind is more profound than that of men.3453
On May 17, 1955, the Prime Minister of Australia, Robert Menzies, commented during a visit to Washington, D.C.:
The time will come when senators and representatives will be picked for their beauty, and God help the country then.3454
On June 7, 1955, in giving the commencement address at West Point, President Eisenhower stated:
All of us gratefully acknowledge, as our fathers did before us, our dependence on the guidance of a Divine Providence. But this dependence must not tempt us to evade our personal responsibility to use every one of our individual and collective talents for the better discharge of our lifetime missions.
Working and living in this spirit, you as soldiers will make yourselves and the Army a professional counterpart of the American way—jealously conserving principle; forceful in practice; courageous and calm in present crises; steadfast and patient in the long campaign for a secure and peaceful world; stout of faith in yourselves, your Alma Mater, your country and your God.3455
On June 11, 1955, in delivering the commencement address at Pennsylvania State University, President Eisenhower stated:
While we design bombs that can obliterate great military objectives—because we must—we are also designing generators, channels, and reservoirs of atomic energy so that man may profit from this gift which the Creator of all things has put into his hands. And build them we shall.3456
On June 21, 1955, in speaking at the Vermont Dairy Festival, Rutland, Vermont, President Eisenhower stated:
I know that Americans everywhere are the same, in their longing for peace, a peace that is characterized by justice, by consideration for others, by decency, above all by its insistence on respect for the individual human being as a child of his God.3457
On July 15, 1955, in a national address given just prior to his departure for the Big Four Conference in Geneva, President Eisenhower stated:
It is natural for a people steeped in a religious civilization when they come to moments of great importance—maybe even crises, such as now we face—to turn to the Divine Power. …
I have not doubt that tonight throughout this country, and indeed throughout the free world, such prayers are ascending. This is a mighty force. And this brings to me the thought that through prayer we could also achieve a very definite and practical result at this very moment.3458
On July 25, 1955, in a broadcast given upon his return from the Geneva Conference, President Eisenhower stated:
We must never be deluded into believing that one week of friendly fruitful negotiations can wholly eliminate a problem arising out of the wide gulf that separates so far East and West. A gulf as wide and deep as the difference between individual liberty and regimentation, as wide and deep as the gulf that lies between the concept of man made in the image of his God and the concept of man as a mere instrument of the state.3459
On August 17, 1955, President Eisenhower ordered the text of the code of conduct for war prisoners to be put into effect in the armed services:
1. I am an American fighting man. I serve in the forces which guard my country and our way of life. I am prepared to give my life in their defense.
2. I will never surrender of my own free will. If in command I will never surrender my men while they still have means to resist.
3. If I am captured I will continue to resist by all means available. I will make every effort to escape and aid others to escape. I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy.
4. If I become a prisoner of war, I will keep faith with my fellow prisoners. I will give no information or take part in any action which might be harmful to my comrades. If I am senior, I will take command. If not I will obey the lawful orders of those appointed over me and will back them up in every way.
5. When questioned, should I become a prisoner of war, I am bound to give only name, rank, service number, and date of birth. I will evade answering further questions to the utmost of my ability. I will make no oral or written statements disloyal to my country and its allies or harmful to their cause.
6. I will never forget that I am an American fighting man, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free. I will trust in my God and in the United States of America.3460
On December 5, 1955, in a telephone address to the unification meeting of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, New York, President Eisenhower stated:
Man is created in the Divine Image and has spiritual aspirations that transcend the material.3461
On February 1, 1956, in a joint statement with British Prime Minister Anthony Eden at the end of a three-day conference in Washington, D.C., President Eisenhower stated:
While resolutely pursuing these aims, which are the products of our faith in God and in the peoples of the earth, we shall eagerly grasp any genuine opportunity to free mankind of the pall of fear and insecurity which now obscures what can and should be a glorious future.3462
On March 21, 1956, in a news conference, President Eisenhower stated:
Now, this is what I see in Billy Graham: A man who clearly understands that any advance in the world has got to be accompanied by a clear realization that man is, after all, a spiritual being. He teaches, he carries his religion to the far corners of the earth, trying to promote peace, trying to promote mediation instead of conflict, tolerance instead of prejudice. Now, he does that in this country, he does it abroad. Therefore, because of the very great crowds that he attracts to listen to him, I am very much interested in Billy Graham’s activities, but for that reason only. I have never discussed with him any plan for mobilizing nations.3463
On May 25, 1956, in delivering the commencement address at Baylor University, Waco, Texas, President Eisenhower stated:
Communism is, in deepest sense, a gigantic failure. Even in the countries it dominates, hundreds of millions who dwell there still cling to their religious faith; still are moved by aspirations for justice and freedom that cannot be answered merely by more steel or by bigger bombers; still seek a reward that is beyond money or place or power; still dream of the day that they may walk fearlessly in the fullness of human freedom.
The destiny of man is freedom and justice under his Creator. Any ideology that denies this universal faith will ultimately perish or be recast. This is the first great truth that must underlie all our thinking, all our striving in this struggling world.3464
On July 22, 1956, in an address to the presidents of the American Republics, Panama City, Panama, President Eisenhower stated:
We here pay tribute to the faith of our fathers, which was translated into new institutions and new works. But we cannot go on forever merely on the momentum of their faith. We, too, must have our faith and see that it is translated into works.3465
On November 8, 1956, at the Election Night celebrations in Washington, D.C., President Eisenhower stated:
With whatever talents the good God has given me, with whatever strength there is within me, I will continue—and so will my associates—to do just one thing; to work for 168 million Americans here at home—and for peace in the world.3466
On Monday, January 21, 1957, in his Second Inaugural Address, President Dwight D. Eisenhower stated:
Before all else, we seek upon our common labor as a nation, the blessings of Almighty God. And the hopes in our hearts fashion the deepest prayers of our whole people. …
We look upon this shaken earth, and we declare our firm and fixed purpose—the building of a peace with justice in a world where moral law prevails. … And so the prayer of our people carries far beyond our own frontiers, to the wide world of our duty and our destiny.3467
The magazine, Episcopal Churchnews asked President Dwight D. Eisenhower to write a summery of his ideas on religion. He responded with a lesson in America’s founding principles and with comments on his reaction to the invasion of Normandy in June of 1944:
It was part of the privilege into which I was born that my home was a religious home. My father and mother believed that “the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.” … The history of our country is inseparable from the history of such God-fearing families.
In this fact we accept the explanation of the miracle of America. … The founding fathers had to refer to the Creator in order to make their revolutionary experiment make sense; it was because “all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights” that men could dare to be free.
They wrote their religious faith into our founding documents, stamped their trust in God on the face of our coins and currency, put it boldly at the base of our institutions, and when they drew up their bold Bill of Rights, where did they put freedom to worship? First, in the cornerstone position! That was no accident.
Our forefathers proved that only a people strong in Godliness is a people strong enough to overcome tyranny and make themselves and others free. … What is our battle against communism if it is not a fight between anti-God and a belief in the Almighty?
If there was nothing else in my life to prove the existence of an Almighty and Merciful God, the events of the next twenty-four hours did it. This is what I found out about religion: It gives you courage to make the decisions you must make in a crisis, and then the confidence to leave the results to a higher power. Only by trust in oneself and trust in God can a man carrying responsibility find repose.
If each of us in his own mind would dwell upon the simple virtues—integrity, courage, self-confidence, and unshakable belief in his Bible—would not some of our problems tend to simplify themselves?3468
Dwight D. Eisenhower stated:
The spirit of man is more important than mere physical strength, and the spiritual fiber of a nation than its wealth.3469
The Bible is endorsed by the ages. Our civilization is built upon its words. In no other book is there such a collection of inspired wisdom, reality, and hope.3470
America is the greatest force that God ever allowed to exist on His footstool.3471
People who value their privileges above their principles soon lose both.3472
I should like to feel that, in every American family, some place is made for an expression of our gratitude to Almighty God, and for a frank acknowledgement of our faith that He can supply that additional strength which, for these trying times, is so sorely needed.3473
On January 17, 1961, in his Farewell Address, President Eisenhower stated:
Three days from now, after half a century in the service of our country, I shall lay down the responsibilities of office as, in traditional and solemn ceremony, the authority of the presidency is vested in my successor. This evening I come to you with a message of leavetaking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my country.
Like every other citizen, I wish the new President and all who will labor with him Godspeed. I pray that the coming years will be blessed with peace and prosperity for all. …
Throughout America’s adventure in free government our basic purposes have been to keep the peace, to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity, and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. …
We face a hostile ideology—global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily, the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration. …
A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction. …
Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society’s future, we—you and I, and our government—must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow. …
You and I, my fellow citizens, need to be strong in our faith that all nations, under God, will reach the goal of peace with justice. May we be ever unswerving in devotion to principle, confident but humble with power, diligent in pursuit of the nation’s great goals. To all the peoples of the world, I once more give expression to America’s prayerful and continuing aspiration:
We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings.3474
President Eisenhower’s wife, Mamie Geneva Doud Eisenhower, later confided:
I have gone to the neighborhood Presbyterian church here in Denver all my life, and Ike always goes with me when he is here. Our two sons were christened in this church. … Ike is a man who lives his religion every day of his life.3475
In commenting on their son John, who was serving in the Korean War at the time, Mrs. Eisenhower explained:
I have built a philosophy to sustain me during these trying times, knowing that John has a mission to fulfill and that God will see to it that nothing will happen to him until he fulfills this mission.3476
On November 23, 1963, the day after President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower drove from Gettysburg to Washington D.C., to meet with President Lyndon B. Johnson and deliver a confidential memorandum:
Confidential Notes for the President. …
I am bold enough to suggest that you call a Joint Session of the Congress to make a speech of not over ten or twelve minutes. I think it might cover the following points:
A. Point out first that you have come to this office unexpectedly and you accept the decision of the Almighty, who in His inscrutable wisdom has now place you in the position of highest responsibility of this nation.3477