Report by: Chris
Bennion Elementary
5th Grade
Taylorsville, Utah

Mrs. Hansen


Chris

Introduction
During morning recess in the spring of 1898, many of the boys from Lincoln elementary school suddenly ran from the schoolyard. One of the children was seven-year-old Dwight Eisenhower, already called "little Ike" by his schoolmates, and neighbors. (His older brother, Edgar was known as "Big Ike".) The boys from Lincoln school had decided to play hooky because an alarming rumor had spread through their classroom.
A few of the boys said, and now every one of them believed, that a Spanish "airship" had been spotted over downtown Abilene, Kansas, their hometown. All the boys decided that it was carrying soldiers and bombs ready to attack from the air. When the boys got downtown they were disappointed to find it was just a box kite.
Although the town was a quiet place, during the years Ike attended school, it had not always been that way. Just a few decades earlier, the Kansas town was one of the wildest places in the American West. Then, Abilene marked the western end of the Kansas-Pacific Railroad. Cowboys driving huge herds of cattle traveled over the Chisholm Trail through Texas, Oklahoma and southern Kansas to the Abilene railroad. By 1870, Abilene was known as one of the most lawless cities in America.
During his earliest years, Ike and his brothers lived in a tiny house on Second Street in Abilene. Even though open land stretched out for hundreds of miles in every direction, many of the homes in Abilene were built on tiny lots. Dwight Eisenhower described the lot of his boyhood home with these words,"Our Second Street home was tiny. The front yard was a patch. The back yard, with wooden fences on each side and a coal and wood shed not far from the back of the house was large enough to swing a cat in, if it were a small one."
Dwight, David Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States. He was also a General in the United States Army. Eisenhower was the main person who decided how the US Army would invade Europe. This brought about the fall of Nazi Germany and ended World War II. As president, Eisenhower ended the Korean War, but his two terms (1953-1961) did not produce many big new laws. His presidency is remembered as a period of relative calm in the United States.

Early Life/Birth
Dwight David Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas on October14,1890. He was nicknamed "Ike" by his 5 brothers, who, raised him in Abilene, Kansas. On some days he would ride horseback to Topeka, Kansas so he could see his aunt. Whenever he,entered his aunt's backyard a male goose or gander would attack him. Finally he mustered up his courage and hit the gander on the tail. That goose never attacked or even chased him again.
Young Dwight was six when he entered first grade. He was a straight A student but he would prefer playing sports.
When Dwight was eight he moved into a house with a large enough backyard he and his brothers could plant vegetables. By planting and selling vegetables each brother could earn pocket money for baseball and football equipment.

Teenager / Young Adult
Eisenhower went to Garfield Junior High and then he went to Abilene High School when he was just 14. Ike was very good at geometry the teachers asked him to study it without a textbook and he did it successfully. Ike loved to read about Greek and Roman battles, but his,mom who hated any form of war locked them in a closet. Ike graduated from high school at the age of 18 in 1909 only another 30 also made it to that point just as quickly as Ike did.
When Ike was 20 he arrived at the U.S. Military Academy to train to be in the army. From his first day things would be tough because he wasn't use to people yelling orders all the time. Ike graduated from training at the age of 25 in 191 5.

Political Background
Being trained for wars is political background, but it has already been mentioned that. Eisenhower was general of an attack in a war. June 1944 was when Ike attacked the heart of Germany. In the month of June alone l,900,000 tons of supplies were brought for the attack. As,the day approached about 5,000 ships and 1,200 planes were readied for the attack. The attack went underway and was so successful the troops were done in just a year.
In 1947 the 57-year-old general thought about retiring from the military. Most people wanted him to run for President, but instead he became president of a university in New York.

Presidency/What he did for the U. S.
Ike ended up campaigning for President and "I like lke" was the slogan of nearly thirty four million people who voted for Ike on November 4, 1952. Ike was the first Republican to be elected in 2 decades. Dwight chose eight millionaires and a Plummer for his cabinet members. His cabinet did many great things for the U.S.
When Dwight took the office a problem was stirring in North and South Korea. North Korean troops crossed the border to South Korea and attacked while Ike still wasn't President and he was left to deal with it when he became President. So the United Nations [mostly the United States] entered Korea and attempted to stop the invasion from the north. But by 1951, more than half a million Chinese communist soldiers entered to defend the North Koreans. By the middle of 1951 it seemed that neither side could win a clear victory and that is what Ike was left with and had to deal with. The soldiers remembered how many lives were lost in World War II and didn't want to go to another long war. On November 29,1952 Ike kept a promise which was to go to Korea to watch the war and see if he could improve the chances of winning. Ike also kept his promise to make peace. After about 3 months Joseph Stalin, the premier of Russia, died. A few Weeks later, the communist leaders of North Korea expressed an interest in ending the war. A truce was signed in July. The war was over, but the new President and millions of Americans thought the communist governments still posed a threat to the peace of the world.
The fear of communism rose to a fanatic height when a senator named Joseph McCarthy had been making a name for himself by exposing people he suspected of being communist sympathizers. Before long, he had developed lengthy files on writers, actors, politicians, government workers, and many others who seemed to have even a remote tie to a communist, or Socialist cause. As a result, many people couldn't find jobs because McCarthy had branded them Communists or Communist Sympathizers. One day McCarthy searched the army to find Communists or Communist Sympathizers. He found an ex-army dentist who didn't sign a loyalty oath and felt the dentist posed such a threat he called a general to testify. When the general refused to answer questions McCarthy attacked by saying he was ignorant, a disgrace, he was protecting Communists and wasn't fit to be an officer. Ike had seen and heard enough, so he and the senate condemned McCarthy.
Another important thing happened in 1954. A case called Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka went to the, Supreme Court. The court ordered immediate desegregation of public schools. This meant that black students could now go to the same schools as white students.