RateItAll: The Opinion Network

Historians are steadily rating Ike up to great. He got us out of the bone-headed Korean War, and he would have us out of Iraq by the end of the year, if he were President. With the exception of the stupid landing in Lebanon, he was able to keep us out of most of the larger foreign conflicts.

President Eisenhower benefited from not really having any significant crises during his administration. He seemed to be holding his breath throughout most of his Presidency, just basically waiting to see what happened. His first semi-crisis was the situation in Korea. During the 1952 campaign, Ike had campaigned against the conflict and promised to end the war in Korea. He made good on that promise somewhat, helping to negotiate a cease-fire between the North and the South. However, the war was never officially halted, and since then, the island has been on a rocky peace. And, we are now beginning to feel the effects of this rocky peace as we face a potential crisis over North Korea's weapons program. Eisenhower putting an end to the conflict was merely a popularity ploy, as was his reponse to another major issue of the day- the Red Scare. Eisenhower failed to take a stand for or against McCarthy, thus allowing the Red Scare to worsen and lead to suspiscion among the American people of Communist subversion. However, both of these issues were mild when compared to the even bigger issue- relations with the Soviet Union. Relations with the Soviets experienced good and bad points during Eisenhower's term, but for the most part, relations worsened from 1953 to 1960. Eisenhower's authorization of the U-2 spyflight over Russa in 1958, which led to its being shot down by the Soviets, did not help improve relations. To make matters worse, Eisenhower initially denied that any such spyflight was authorized or even existed. As a result of this, the peace summit between Kruszchev and Eisenhower failed that year. The U-2 incident arguably resulted in the tense relations that plagued the Kennedy Administration just a few years later. Eisenhower's greatest success with regards to crisis management came in 1957. Three years prior, in 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in schools was unconstitutional, but set no date for integration. Under pressure, Eisenhower, who had feared that forced integration would lead to deep divisions, finally made the call that segregation was illegal and that the law had to be enforced. Despite his reservations, Eisenhower authorized the deployment of federal troops to Little Rock to enforce the new integration laws. Ironically enough, what was arguably one of Eisenhower's greatest acts as President, is one of his least-remembered acts. Rarely is Eisenhower thought of as a President who furthered the Civil Rights agenda, but truth-be-told, he signed two Civil Rights laws (even though they were ineffective in practice) and sent troops to enforce the law. So, in the final analysis, Eisenhower's success in Korea was not, as we now know, really a success at all. His failure to intervene in the Red Scare only furthered America's fears of Communist subversion. And relations with the Soviet Union were damanged severely when Eisenhower left office. Indeed, the peace that Eisenhower sought to achieve and claimed to achieve was at the very least, a temporary peace, and at the most, a fake peace.