Why is Eisenhower so praised?

[RINO Tom]

I notice many liberals today praise this man as some sort of peace president. And that he wasn't as crazed as todays republicans.


His foreign policy stuff:

-supported overthrow of iran leader in 1953
-did the same thing in guatamela in 1954
-supplied arms to france when france was in vietnam
-made decisions in vietnam in the 50s that lead the to vietnam war in the 60s
-huge buildup of nuclear stockpile during his reign
-threatened china and russia with nuclear war (if you did this today, you be considered a far right gop crazy.)
-military intervention in Lebanon in 58
-planned and approved the ay of pigs invasion (kennedy executed it as this was at the end of eisnehowers presidency.)

Despite his military industrial complex speech the man had a big hand in creating it. and from the start of his presidency (iran 1953) to the end (planning and approving the bay of pigs invasion) he was complicit in it.

I just dont understand why the anti-war left praise this guy, at all.


And let's even look at some of his domestic stuff:

-was the first republian to try and court the segregation racist vote
-was against brown court ruling, did nothing to support in until the little rock nine incidient in 1957. Even shorty after that you had the lost year which all the public schools closed for a year in little rock. did nothing to stop this.
-operation ******* (even reagan gave amnestry to 3 million illegals)
-signed in legislation that put "in god we trust" on money and "under god" in the pledge of allegiance. called the communist godless (some on the left blame reagan for starting this int he GOP, but eisenhower started it)
-passed crappy civil rights legislation in 57 and 60 that just delt with voting rights, crappily enforced
-stated that he as a president didnt really want to deal with civil rights issues

So why do many liberals sing this guy praises? I just don't get it.

The bolded parts are noticeably ridiculous, especially since I'm guessing you'll praise people like FDR, Truman, JFK and LBJ as sorts of civil rights pioneers.

[RINO Tom]

I have to say, after reading several chapters of the book Republicans and Race (an absolute must-read if you want an understanding of the politics of the civil rights movement that extends beyond the storybook version you get in your high school AP Gov class or ... this forum), I find it rather amusing that anyone would try to characterize Dwight Eisenhower as a liberal.  Let's not confuse being a pragmatist with not being conservative.  Eisenhower believed any achievements had to come from the political center, but don't think he didn't harbor strong distaste for what he saw as FDR's and Truman's overreaching expansion of the federal government and unnecessary intervention in business affairs.

I know a few know-it-alls who prefer a simpler version of history (and perhaps more importantly have a vested interest in distancing past Republicans, especially those remembered fondly by historians, from the modern Republican party) might call me out on this, so I'll post some direct quotes tomorrow when I have time.