Rate the Presidents, Installment #34: Dwight D. Eisenhower

[JonathanSwift]

Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953-1961

Previous Results
Abraham Lincoln: 4.45 Stars
George Washington: 4.42 Stars
Chester A. Arthur: 3.8 Stars
Franklin Delano Roosevelt: 3.67 Stars
Thomas Jefferson: 3.65 Stars
Theodore Roosevelt: 3.59 Stars
James Monroe: 3.57 Stars
John Quincy Adams: 3.5 Stars
Grover Cleveland: 3.46 Stars
Grover Cleveland: 3.46 Stars
Harry S. Truman: 3.38 Stars
James Madison: 3.23 Stars
William Howard Taft: 3.15 Stars
Zachary Taylor: 3.15 Stars
James A. Garfield: 3.14 Stars
Calvin Coolidge: 3.12 Stars
Ulysses S. Grant: 3.06 Stars
Martin Van Buren: 3.04 Stars
James K. Polk: 2.85 Stars
John Adams: 2.58 Stars
Warren Harding: 2.48 Stars
William McKinley: 2.47 Stars
Andrew Jackson: 2.43 Stars
William Henry Harrison: 2.38 Stars
Woodrow Wilson: 2.36 Stars
Millard Fillmore: 2.33 Stars
Benjamin Harrison: 2.33 Stars
Rutherford B. Hayes: 2.15 Stars
Herbert Hoover: 2.11 Stars
John Tyler: 2.11 Stars
Andrew Johnson: 1.72 Stars
Franklin Pierce: 1.6 Stars
James Buchanan: 1.41 Stars

[MadmanMotley]

One of my favorites, 5 stars.

[ScottieF]

Four stars. He's certainly a top ten president and I can think of few if any others who possessed such a remarkable understanding of the relationship between foreign and domestic policy. There is a link there in virtually everything he did. That being said he wasn't particularly "transformative" - more the best caretaker president we ever had - and some of his espionage shenanigans with the vile Dulles brothers detract him from the heights of greatness.

[SWE]

One star (likes democracy)

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Doddery old man. Pentagon, demagogues and spooks ran rings round him.

[Antonio the Sixth]

3 stars.

[TDAS04]

3 stars.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Four stars. Quietly effective, good at standing up to the extremists on his side. Probably the best Cold War President overall.

[VPH]

5 stars. Not only a brilliant mind, a voice of common sense, a great general, but also a darn good president and a Kansan to boot.

[Blair]

4 stars, but looking back at my rating probably 3. He was a good President, probably the best example of an elder statesmen President who took a more loffy view. His domestic policies like the Highway Building, and sending troops to little rock has to be praised. His foreign policy showed a willingness to be tough, and fair in foreign policy-stopping the Chinese invading Taiwan should be praised.

However, people shouldn't be throwing out 5 stars-he was relatively limited in civil rights, and didn't show the fight the LBJ and JFK showed. He let cold war hawks like Dulles run the state and CIA-leading to awful decisions like Bay of Pigs and Operation Ajax. Make no mistake his action in Iran pretty much set in stone the 1979 coup

[Clark Kent]

Five stars. Economy was great, passed the first civil rights act since Reconstruction, helped continue to rebuild Europe, and started NASA and boosted R&D. Easily one of my favorites.

[Rockefeller GOP]

One of my favorites, 5 stars.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

4 stars. Certainly one of our better Presidents, but just doesn't have anywhere the legacy that Lincoln, FDR, or LBJ have.

[Mr. Smith]

4 stars. Certainly one of our better Presidents, but just doesn't have anywhere the legacy that Lincoln, FDR, or LBJ have.

This, also the big screw-ups such as Iran or getting Bay of Pigs started [all Kennedy did was approve it] or choosing Richard Nixon as the ticket balancer...kinda takes away a lot.

[Blair]

Eisenhower should be praised not for bringing up the infamous Military industrial complex, but using the speech to cover up the fact he played a major role in empowering it

[Antonio the Sixth]

...and he's going to beat FDR and Truman too. Joke forum.

[Blair]

...and he's going to beat FDR and Truman too. Joke forum.

It's a combination of him being 'non partisan' and the granddad of 1950's America. No doubt JFK will get dismissed as a warmongering do nothing President whilst Ike is a saint I like Ike, but heck he's no FDR

[Anti-Bothsidesism]

Slowly began the growth of the new right, and is the reason we police the world. HP

[PJ]

Three stars. Enforcing Brown v. BoE and improving infrastructure were good, but not really outstanding. Foreign policy is also a mix, since he supported an expansion of the military industrial complex only to (accurately) call it out at the end of his presidency.

[The Last Northerner]

...and he's going to beat FDR and Truman too. Joke forum.

"Other people disagree with my opinion so they are jokes".

4 stars for being better than Truman and the best post-WW2 president. He -

-Accurately warned the US about the military-industrial complex.
-Withdrew safely from Korea
-Took a very brave and principled stand on the Anglo-French-Israeli War of Aggression Suez Crisis. This was probably one of the last times the United States stood up in defense of the third world against blatant imperialism.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

-Withdrew safely from Korea

The groundwork for peace was laid during the last years of the Truman Administration. Eisenhower's role in ending the war was minimal.

As for the OP, three stars. He took some admirable positions as president and was obviously good at the job, while also managing to beat the second term blues. That said, he was hesitant to take action on Civil Rights, and his failure to call out Joe McCarthy (despite being the only man who could have stopped him) was shameful.

[NeverAgain]

3.5 rounded to 4.

[ScottieF]

I figured Eisenhower would do very well. He tends to be the rare president (maybe the only modern president?) where almost no one on the ideological spectrum is going to give him one star by isolating one issue and taking a contrarian opinion. These polls tend to reward effective but mostly inconsequential presidents (e.g. Arthur, Monroe) but punishes consequential and therefore controversial presidents (e.g. Jackson, Wilson).

[SATW]

3 stars out of respect, but his foreign policy in the Middle East was horrible and damaging in the long term.

[Zioneer]

4 Stars. His foreign policy had some serious issues like his overthrow of Mossadegh (no Ike, overthrowing a popularly elected prime minister and reinstating a brutal dictator will not work out in the long run),  but overall an extremely solid caretaker president.