Eisenhower / Vietnam Voting

[brandondrury]

I just finished "Eisenhower" by Stephen Ambrose four days ago. I was in high spirits while reading the entire book. I felt a little bit happier about life. Since the book is over, I've just been down for abour four days now. I guess it's a sign of a great book when you feel miserable because you finished it!

When I come to a page that has an incredible concept on it, I fold the corner of the page. This book had so many incredible pages that I can barely close the damn book!

I love reading Stephen Ambrose's work. There is a reason that he is so popular in the genre. After reading it, I thought Ambrose did a tremendous job of illustrating Eisenhower's strengths and weaknesses both on the battlefiled and at the oval office. I loved being placed in the middle of decisions as they weighed this pro and this con. Very interesting!

The one thing that Ambrose didn't put much emphasis on were the elections in Vietnam. It was well known in exec branch (according to "Why Nations Go To War") that Ho Chi Minh would receive approx 80% of the popular vote if elections were to be conducted in both North and South Vietnam. In typical foreign policy, the US has given the impression that it didn't want tyrants running loose. However, if the democratic process is used and people vote in socialist / communist ideas I can't see how this is any different than what we've done here in the US.

Brandon

[izzme]

i think eisenhowerwill be renowned by history as one of our greatest presidents,simular to washington.a very sound mind as a the leader of the west during ww two.his interstate hwy. program was what led to the greatest period of prosperity maybe in the history of the world.brandon i'm sure is way more knowledgeable about this than i am.i hope he gives us more and more insight as to his greatness.in a scary world of nuclear consequences,we could not have had a steadier hand on the wheel!!!!!!!!!

[brandondrury]

a scary world of nuclear consequences,we could not have had a steadier hand on the wheel!!!!!!!!!

Extremely well said!!!!

Ambrose made the point that after Eisenhower left office, he was by popular opinion considered to be one of the worst presidents of all time. 20 years later, he was up to 9th. Of course, Lincoln is like #2. My brief readings on him suggest he was a tryant madman. I've got a book that'll have to wait. Anyway, depending on how the world spins, I expect Eisenhower to go up much higher as my generation continues to pay for this damn cold war.

I think that Ambrose summed it best. He said that Eisenhower was great for keeping the Cold War from getting out of control, for keeping spending from getting out of control, etc. However, Ambrose also suggests that possible Eisenhower's greatest failure was that he didn't realize that he was the ONLY person that could have ended the Cold War. No one else could have stood up and said "Fearing the Russians is bullshit". Instead Eisenhower laid low.

As a dude in my late 20s trying to make a buck, money is tight. I think most of this has to do with the fact that Cold War style thinking has led to incredible inflation and has made getting by much more difficult for my generation. (I need to study economics a little better so I can really hit this issue).

However, I want to know why Eisenhower decided that the election of Ho Chi Minh was a bad thing. He even said in his memoirs that he figured Ho Chi Minh would receive 80% of the vote. Why not let Vietnam have an election?

Brandon

[izzme]

lighten up on ike he was deftly handling a pile of political shit without becoming full of it himself. he could not do what you ask of him unless he became a dick tater, and like washington he was a lover of liberty!!!!!!!

[brandondrury]

Don't get me wrong, I LOVED the book and I think Ike was a genius. I think he was the best president in the modern era BY FAR! (I'm still learning though. I may find I like someone else better.)

Ike took the middle of the road quite often. He was slow to jump to hasty conclusions. This is respectable. However, somewhere in there he decided that the Russians were evil and that it was a good thing to pay for half of France's war in Vietnam. I personally think that the Ike was the only guy President in that era to have any sense. JFK was a complete jackass. So was Lyndon Johnson. In retrospect, Ike probably could have dropped this whole Cold War thing then and there. It would have been tough. It may have ended his career, but he was the ONLY person to hold office that the American people had any real trust in. I don't think he would have to be a dictator to pull this off, but he would have to convince the American people that there were no communist boogiemen coming to rape and pillage American in the middle of the night. That would have been tough.

However, in taking the opposite approach, Ike kept us out of war, had a budget with a SURPLUS, kept the nation from starting a civil war because of the end of segregation. In the end, he really did everything right. Me wanting him to end the Cold War is really me wishing that Ike could make up the for the shortcomings of JFK, Johnson, and Nixon. That's just fantasy.

Brandno