The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower: The Presidency : The Middle Way

The newest volumes in this distinguished series cover Eisenhower's first term as President of the United States, from January 1953 to January 1956. Meticulously edited and carefully annotated, these memorandums, diary entries, and personal and official letters shed new light on some of the most important topics in recent American history.

Eisenhower won the presidency decisively after offering the American people an alternative to the New Deal and Fair Deal policies that had dominated public life for twenty years. He ended the unpopular Korean War and dealt effectively with crises in Guatemala and Iran. Problems in Egypt, Southeast Asia, and the Formosa Straits, however, proved intractable.

Meanwhile, Eisenhower wrestled with the demands of GOP leadership. His political coalition, built at the center, felt constant pressure from the Republican right, particularly from Ohio senator John Bricker, who opposed international commitments that might circumscribe U.S. sovereignty, and Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy, who claimed to find Communist conspiracies in the highest reaches of government

In 1955, despite his having suffered a heart attack, the president reluctantly decided to seek another term, hoping thereby to secure his domestic successes and carry forward his work toward a stable, peaceful world order. Although diplomatic troubles in the Middle East and an anti-communist outbreak in Hungary kept him from much personal campaigning in the summer and fall of 1956, he won an impressive mandate in November and began preparing for a second term.

The Presidency: The Middle Way makes a new contribution to our understanding of the Eisenhower administration and Ike's role in creating the modern presidency. Taken together, the documents portray Eisenhower as a forceful leader who faced truly vexing domestic and cold war problems and handled them with great skill and a fundamental sense of decency.

Louis Galambos is professor of history at the Johns Hopkins University. His many books include The New American State: Bureaucracies and Policies since World War II and The Public Image of Big Business in America. He is co-editor (with Alfred D. Chandler Jr.) of volume VI of the Eisenhower Papers, and editor of volumes VII-XIII. All are available from Johns Hopkins. Daun van Ee, co-editor of the Eisenhower Papers, is a lecturer in the Department of History at the Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of David Dudley Field and the Reconstruction of the Law.