Essays on the Presidents: Principles and Politics

Chapter 8. Professional Soldiers in the White House

I n 1952, when dwight d. Eisenhower, one of our leading generals during World War ii, ran for president as a republican against adlai stevenson, the democratic nominee, there was some discussion about whether a professional soldier could be a satisfactory president of a democratic country. years before, when the candidates were professionals —Zachary taylor (1848) and ulysses Grant (1868)—much was made of the military issue, though it didn’t prevent them from winning the elections and serving as presidents well aware of the superiority of civilian power over the military in the american system. in my essay on military professionals who became presidents, i took a look at General Eisenhower’s views on civil-military relations and was convinced that his respect for civil supremacy was as deep-seated as that of taylor and Grant. he believed deeply in what he called “the necessary and wise subordination of the military to the civil power” in the american system. some of my adlai stevenson friends were disappointed that i came to friendly conclusions about ike. But i hoped that he would make a good president, even though i voted for stevenson in 1952. ike’s eight years as president showed that he was far from being hawkish. “We should be keeping our boys at home,” he declared, “and not be preparing them to serve in uniform across the seas.” he also insisted that “we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.” ike was convinced that people “who know war, those who have experienced it,” were “the most earnest advocates of peace in the world.” ike may well have been directing his remarks to the heads of the cenProfessional Soldiers in the White House CHAPTER 8 74 Professional Soldiers in the White House 75 tral intelligence agency (cia) and the strategic air command (sac), who had arranged to overthrow the democratically elected heads of iran (1953) and Guatemala (1954) and replaced them with dictatorial rulers friendly to america’s economic interests. While Eisenhower was president, the size of the armed service declined by nearly half. in other respects, though, the military power increased steadily during his presidency. With John Foster dulles as secretary of state (“a grim cold Warrior,” historian Eric Foner called him), “Massive retaliation” became the heart of american foreign policy, and the number of america’s nuclear warheads increased from one thousand in 1953 to eighteen thousand in 1961. no doubt Eisenhower regretted the steady militarization of the united states while he was chief executive. no one knew as well as he did the threat to american civilization it posed. “Every gun that is made,” he said, “every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.” and: “the cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. . . . We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.” he avoided sending american troops to Vietnam, where a civil war broke out between communists and non-communists after the French left their former colony, and he was proud of his abstention, upon the advice of General ridgway. H H H no sooner had General of the army dwight d. Eisenhower indicated his willingness to accept the republican nomination in the 1952 “presidentiad ” than an old question, analyzed, discussed, and debated in a series of presidential campaigns during the nineteenth century, was raised once again: is it expedient for a democratic republic, with traditions of civilian supremacy over the military, to entrust its highest civilian office to a professional military man? the reaction to Eisenhower’s announcement was almost immediate . President truman made cryptic references at a press conference to the campaign of 1852 in which professional soldier Winfield scott was ingloriously defeated in his bid for the presidency. New York Post columnist Max lerner, while not seeing any intrinsic danger in having a general in the White house, was nevertheless eager that Eisenhower at once assume civilian garb: We live surrounded by a landscape dotted with soldiers enough. if ike really means to be something other than a gen- 76 Professional Soldiers in the White House eral, it is...