USA Trivia Answer #78
Who said:
“For every obstacle there is a solution. Persistence is the key. The greatest mistake is giving up!”
Answer:
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Tag: The Year of Eisenhower
Ike’s Bluff
Many people believed that despite his time serving as Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Troops in Europe and later as the 1st to NATO, that President Eisenhower wasn’t actually fit to serve the highest office in the land. That he was something of a bumbling fool that was going to foolishly land us in the hands of Khrushchev. But Evan Thomas uses Ike’s Bluff to prove that this was precisely what Eisenhower wanted us to believe.
The great commander knew exactly what he was doing. After all, he was very experienced in the art of war. He knew war like no one else; he’d been there, he’d directed it, he’d sent 100’s of thousands of men to their deaths. So, if Eisenhower knew how to plan war, it’s safe to assume he also knew how to avoid war. And if that meant playing the bumbling the fool, then so be it.
Eisenhower was a superb poker player, and it was these very skills that got him out of a lot of tight situations: with Korea, the Soviet Union, China, just to name a few. But he was also a master at handing out jobs, letting those around him do the hard work and get the credit for it. After all, that’s how a good Commander-in-Chief should roll, right?
Throughout 8 years in office, Eisenhower managed to delicately straddle the fine line between defense build up and peaceful overtones. This would assure that should the Soviet Union threaten war, we were prepared, yet assured that we were not the threat itself.
Ike’s Bluff shows us that while serving as Supreme Allied Commander, Ike may have been the loneliest man on earth, but that now as he served as Commander-in-Chief of the greatest country in the world, he really was. It shows his greatest victories while in office and his darkest moments. And it reminds us that the Presidency is just maybe the hardest job on the planet; it is not a job for the faint of heart. But Dwight D. Eisenhower was as prepared as they come.
Genre: History
Era: 1950’s
Goodreads: Ike’s Bluff’s President Eisenhower’s Secret Battle to Save the World
The Year of Eisenhower
USA-eVote would like to declare that this year, 2019, be the Year of Eisenhower – much like last year was the (albeit, undeclared) Year of the Kennedys, in which we marked the 55th & 50th Anniversary of their assassinations.
Why the year of Eisenhower?
Well, this year marks the 75h anniversary of D-Day, the greatest invasion in all of history. D-Day was the day that the war turned to the Allies’s favor. And it was a day that may not have been possible without the great work of General and Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower and his great team. More on that in posts throughout the year.
Also, as we are already hearing a great deal about trying to rid this country of all Judaeo-Christian beliefs. As certain presidential candidates try running on platforms that will wipe Christianity and Judaism out of this country, let us remember Eisenhower’s “Back to God” campaign. Let us remember the bills that he signed into existence, and the efforts he made to rededicate this country back to God in the 1950s.
And, lastly, this year, now, marks the 50th anniversary of the death of President and General Dwight D. Eisenhower. We lost a great president, a great general, and a great man. To this very day, many Americans still vote Eisenhower as one of the greatest men who ever lived. I’d like to suggest that, maybe, his success was due to where he placed his faith, and who he gave credit to.
So this year, expect USA-eVote Reads passages, articles, trivia questions and more about Eisenhower.
And, yes, there will still be USA-eVote Reads passages and trivia questions and articles about other men and other events. So don’t guess Eisenhower too fast in trivia questions!
Let us, together, learn why this man was so successful. And how he made this country great despite, like all human beings, many flaws.