Forum; Stephen E. Ambrose: Eisenhower and Character

from the longhorn radio network the university of texas at austin this is for him so why isn't it those things steven lee andrews author of eisenhower soldier and president lectures on the character of president dwight d eisenhower never that dwight eisenhower's america are now bright in nineteen forty abel party were to nominate you said no the lifelong sorcha pollak republicans convinced him in nineteen fifty two that he had around they convinced them on the basis of the word that he could never is due to they said look you know if you dont run it's going to cap versus private so bill robinson and tom dewey and the other leaders of the republican

party call eisenhower and brought a man and said they will ignore our economy tapper to truman on staff that were growing isolation truly honestly and we're going to solve it but that when i was a new collection in the character of a lawsuit he's convinced announces public diffuse at the university of texas at austin the series consists attend lectures exploring the relationship between character leadership and the american presidency from franklin roosevelt through george bush historian stephen v ambrose is a professor of history and director of

the eisenhower center at the university of new orleans he has written extensively on american presidential and military history but only excerpts of his lecture indicate how he brought to light president eisenhower's domestic and international political dilemmas from desegregation to the possibility of nuclear war some republicans wondered about how republican he was after twenty years or until they weren't the return on the other is lower taxes and social security and the regulatory commission where their battle cries but you are here to get a mortgage he thought fdr isn't balanced budgets would eventually destroy freedom in america so he told republicans he would not agree to lowering taxes until the federal budget was balanced expanded rather than eliminated social security in

fact it's a greater strides in the nineteen fifties covering more people in the other decade and of course he kept a regulatory commission to the dismay of many republicans he got rather than expanded defense spending drivers presidency he was under great pressure from many republicans and most democrats to spend more on defense the actual review explain to his childhood friend sweeney is let's let us not forget that the armed services and they're going to find a way of life not merely land property or line so i need to make a drawing he's realizes that their milosevic inspector training and intelligence to think and there's balance the balance between minimum requirements and the costly improvements of war and the health of our economy on the domestic side of mccarthy continue to plague of the server was making

wildcard has the us army had been infiltrated by communist is the hardest version was trying to cover up for the goal in nineteen thirty two mccarthy had wondered about twenty years of treason and the democrats by the end of nineteen fifty three he was talking about twenty one years many allies nars advisors urged him to denounce mccarthy the most important of these was his younger brother moe president of penn state it and closer to his brother than any other person david you're the last one to speak our reporters made it into a test of my large character in political part of it was that he failed miserably you never spoke out against mccarthy his opinion however character and political courage at nothing to do with this case a one on one mentoring a president a senator can only enhance the influence of the sun but i don't know i'm not going to get

into a pissing contest he was i like it would destroy himself in a way a given up broke any intended to give him the role by ignoring the president did nothing when the senator entered and rape accusations holding hearings and economist infiltration of the army with it allows the old war horses mccarthy's attempt to use a subpoena power as chairman of the senate subcommittee to force eisenhower's white house assistant and other members of the administration to testify right now or this was a question of executive privilege and thus a matter of principle the fact these blowouts are working harder as you say there's absolutely no right they asked my age to testify in any way shape or four about the advice that they were giving to me at anytime on any subject as he sought the modern presidency was at stake previous presidents it helps that their conversations and cabinet

meetings were probably and confidential but nobody ever dared extend that privilege to everybody in the executive branch are large it is his predecessors have an exceedingly reluctant to withhold information and the justice department was never able to find any convincing precedent for a doctrine of executive privilege but still eisenhower act vigorously he told a farmer defensive employees have to be completely candid advice and unofficial matters therefore it is not in the public interest that any of their conversations or communications or any documents or any repercussions concern cited by hit ever bigger school this was the most desolate assertion of a presidential right to withhold information from congress ever uttered that day in american history and it are the

government was necessary and if you're a result of anxiety are felony added he'd secretly was willing to vastly expand the powers of the presidency to do it he goes by sectarian narrative that one or maybe just as principal i'll quite into the nail and up and down this country it's a matter of principle with me and i will never permit mccarthyism was one of the great political issues of the day the great moral issue was segregation on racial matters as our mccarthyism eisenhower appear to come up short he was a segregated and he spent his career united states army that was strictly segregated at southern army bases are in panama or the philippines or washington dc he lived and benefited from a system of apartheid commander sergey that army in northwest

europe that meant giving eleven percent of the army's enlisted personnel on combat when the germans launch their counteroffensive in the yard and into december nineteen forty four among other problems i florida deal with was a clash of his valor you believe in syria they want when the war and quickly and cheaply as possible characteristically one for the greater goal the other black soldiers working in waters and truck drivers an opportunity to join a combat infantry an integrated basis they would be put in a line as individuals less guaranteeing black volunteers they would become part of an established a unit of veterans with good leaders and the best of what the few black combat units that had been formed during the war were notoriously poorly officer and that we are eisenhower's chief of staff water be

some of the emily protested integrating the army it all eyes now you wanted are starting a social revolution and our dinner anyway and lorelei just say everything is expendable for victory even general law even though that chris christie's korea's president segregation was a vastly greater problem and test of character for him than it had been during the war a blender or not opposed to achieve justice and that he later regretted that his attorney general mr brown no and the justice department made a case for immigration or nineteen fifty four brown be debatable for the warren court sunday night i regretted that he did not remember now doing it the car or the integration of public schools with all

deliberate speed something eisenhower thought was in trouble because the schools were the most sensitive place to proceed the jeweler made in america by far there was of course by the summer of nineteen thirty seven eisenhower was writing this week i think that no other single event is so disturbed the domestic seen in many years or that the supreme court's decision in the school certificates parts of the white south returning to violent mood for segregation eyes darkened understand their point who was a really effective unless they represent the will of the majority he wrote further when emotions are deeply spurred progress must be gradual and take into account you manipulate the lawyer turned out to be doing what otherwise i try not we will have a disaster and

he pointed out that the south had lived for sixty years and or plessy is a law abiding area it was therefore quote impossible to expect complete an instant reversal of conduct by merit a certain of the supreme court well one thought a brown year old swede quote i hold the basic purpose there must be respect for the constitution which means the supreme court's interpretation of the constitution or we shall have chaos we cannot possibly imagine a successful form of government in which each individual citizen would have the right to interpret the constitution according to his own convictions police and prejudices chaos without this i believe all my heart and help always act in court on the other hand he important reform using force the senate passed out in the summer of nineteen fifty seven it could imagine no circumstances that would lead him to you as the us are

in to enforce integration so you want to double the court would not use force to do so meanwhile is a mystery who was sponsoring a civil rights bill the first century the major aim was to grant a black southerners the right to vote in texas senator lyndon johnson led the effort to emasculate the bill by requiring jury trials for all registrars of borders accused of discriminating against blacks just the very poor came from the royal roles obviously all that goes with the white and senator richard russell the face of this majority has said that without a sacred right to trial by during the eisenhower administration sole rights bill was quote a cutting device here's the power the justice department the armed forces if necessary to force are commingling of whitening the roadkill bottles pulled

the options asked to comment or news conference eyes are said the purpose of the bill is to protect and extend the write about what you describe as the most import of all rights there was a lottery really set the one on that and tons of highly respected men making statements to the effect that this is a very extreme law meaning to disorder the president's eighty thousand your reaction rather incomprehensible i'm always write us in anyone's presentation many of his views on such a fine that willingness to listen to the white house has no sympathy with the white sox his failure to ever known republican darth vader brown the topeka and his general lack of leadership on the question of the day game one southern governor the notion that he can roll the president on this one orval faubus of arkansas divided court ordered

integrate central high laura you got the arkansas national guard and placed around the high school borders to prevent the entry into the school of sound doesn't want to all but forgotten today this was the most curious about your prizes it was states' rights versus the federal government a governor versus the supreme court the governor directly challenging the president this was the great moral imperative test of the eisenhower administration he never had on despite his own feelings about mistakes being made and implementing brown and as for the thought of using american frozen american cities he did his duty it got out a hundred first airborne were sent to iraq and brownell suggested he ordered the arkansas national guard and the federal service there by stealing promises army out from under it and putting it on duty helping hundred first ensure

an orderly and peaceful and every few years ago i was a brilliant stroke and the actions of a man of principle it settled forever the question of whether the federal government then the question of whether a state governor could use force to prevent the survey i mean i was almost blind the status of women as he was to the status of blacks he had no woman friend who's dizzy had no black friends when asked to comment on a proposed constitutional amendment to guarantee equal rights to women he asked him all innocent what rights don't know is your the role of women in american society was wanted for the generational mother sector picture there is what

is our guide said we cannot subscribe to one law for the week and a lot of the strong one law for those opposing us another for those who are allies there can be only one wall where there shall be no peace they're playing for a single standard for all when his vice president richard nixon return from algeria nineteen fifty seven reported on jerry was not ready for independence support for a war going on or eisenhower slapped the united states cannot possibly maintain freedom independence and liberty are necessary out but not others another calling

his patients make no mistakes in a hurry was a favorite action movies and advisers urged him to destroy the soviet union while you can still get away we told them to be pink but in the end the soviets just one employee because you're right of course but this will take a long time maybe as long as fifty years but they would have to educate their own people an artist that with modern technology and when they did they would sow the seeds of their own and doing he was a good steward as for aloud as he pointed out we you and i are government must avoid plundering far only is inconvenienced the precious resources of tomorrow we cannot morning the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also their political and spiritual her and

any other and what all his life he said we want democracy has survived all ages because that's taken the mark udall even after five years of the environment in nineteen fifty seven he told sweeney congressman price of themselves intensely patriarch but it does not take the average member longer than clovis first duty to his country again self re elected this leads to a capacity for it was a scene that is beyond belief it was characteristic of embassy compromise explains to the right into the left of any political dispute are always wrong you liked to say the democrats control congress are six of his eight years in office he got on with them smoothly

a brief assessment of his accomplishments as president reveals something more of a man's character first and foremost he presided over years of prosperity martin only by july or injured by labor standards it was a period mary ford employed the average unemployment rate of foreclosure and no inflation average inflation rate in nineteen fifty one actually a bot which he wearing off there was a rivalry away during the year indeed by almost every standard the nba personal income and savings home by auto purchases capital investment highway construction and so forth that was the best decade is surely eisenhower's fiscal policy in reviews or cut taxes or increase defense spending his insistence on a balanced

budget played some role in creating this happy situation and right in our nation enjoyed eight years of domestic peace and tranquility when i start to make your goals a nineteen thirty three had been the lower the excesses of political rhetoric and partisanship he managed to achieve that goal by not dismantling the new deal as the more conservative republicans want to do under eisenhower as i have noted the number of people covered by social security double as benefits were not he kept the new deal's regulatory commission's and plays expenditures for public works were greater on horizon are than they had been under fdr truman interstate highway system and the st lawrence seaway were bigger in scope than anything the newer fair deal on average out i started that republican stamp of approval on twenty years of democratic legislation myself a major step toward bringing the two parties closer together

this battle triumphs came in the field of foreign affairs in order record directly related to his character by making peace in korea five months after taking office of avoiding war thereafter and by holding down the cost of the arms race the directors no one knows how much money say the united states no one knows how many lives he saved by ending the war in korea and refusing there any others despite a half dozen more are virtually unanimous recommendations lose all the end and vocal more that so many others that he may easily get these whether any other man could have led the country through that decade without going to war cannot be known for we do know is that i started it again are selling most of the debt on this one united states never was disorder or a form of ground in my administration he said we kept the peace

people ascot happen by god it didn't just happen i'll tell you that illinois of those militias that come about effortless result of his sunny disposition that he worded his apparent are questions that they granted bouncy step often ask depression or you are wearing he believed it was a critical duty of a leader who always exude optimism he made a habit to say all of his dogs were his bill will go for years he chain smokes cigarettes or bad today at age fifty eight he quit cold turkey and i never again todd tobacco clearly was american and we'll talk although at the paris summit

or paris on the day of it at an excuse me in may nineteen sixty one sharp was going on and on about francis gary powers new to and demanding an apology in pounding the table and so on it are scribbled on the back that no that got damaged here's adrian his willpower conquers all of negative characteristics awful one way control his anger was to do his best to follow his own rule never question another man's war that is within us he also tried always assumed the battered about others don't kill otherwise he could do so consistently even in a world full of high powered men whose bodies were often self serving our base because of this most outstanding personal characteristic of his his love life and for people know whatever crop is better than richard

nixon those around the day eisenhower died in nineteen sixty nine that everybody love i like love everyone makes you wanna confess city could scarcely believe such a thing was possible because he sat in my experience most politicians are men with very strong hatred or doesn't answer was a man philosophy and a man who always lived in the other guy's mortars but as rising are the only mayor really it was he was innovative war related the nazis more he was the president made these in fact the pisa not provided the conditions that made for the best decade of the century if you were white and middle class and

they'll he was all black a victorian in the parliament twenty years of his workers were laws of the nineties and honesty integrity there were some of my knowledge never live in not want as a public responsibility he lied twice once in nineteen forty four december about where it was going to invade and once again on mayday nineteen sixty degree talk about what francis gary powers is doing in their usual over the soviet union in my own life when faced with a moral question or a dilemma or a personal problem of boys

i'm in the habit of asking myself what i do sad relate i often even usually perhaps always come up short of the standards well a consolation is so in most of the national socialist president eisenhower as part of the character above all series the lbj school of public affairs the views expressed on this program do not necessarily reflect the views of the university of texas at austin or this station technical producer for foreign given over his production assistant chris paul

sonne i'm your producer and host olive green cassette copies of this guy writing for in a sense it's long run radio network communication to the ut austin austin texas seventy seven and won two thirds quorum cassettes longhorn radio network communication during the ut austin austin texas seventy seven one stephanie telecommunication services university of texas at austin this is the longhorn radio network historian stephen ambrose

it's been a very durable series this week on it