Eisenhower, Dwight D.,
in full DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER (b. Oct. 14, 1890, Denison, Texas, U.S.--d. March 28, 1969, Washington, D.C.), supreme commander of Allied forces in western Europe (1943-45) and 34th president of the United States (1953-61).

The following is a brief summary of Dwight Eisenhower's life. For more detailed treatment of his military career, see the extract from the Britannica article EISENHOWER, by Thomas C. Reeves.
Eisenhower entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1911, graduated in 1915, and during World War I commanded a tank training centre. In 1926 he finished first in a class of 275 at the Army's Command and General Staff School, and in 1928 he graduated from the Army War College. Stationed in Washington, D.C., he was in the office of the chief of staff, General Douglas MacArthur, from 1933 until 1935, when he accompanied MacArthur to the Philippines.

At the start of World War II, Eisenhower returned to the United States, and after the attack on Pearl Harbor he became chief of staff of the war plans division of the Army General Staff. In June 1942 he was named commanding general of the European Theatre, and the following November he assumed command of the Allied Forces in North Africa. In December 1943 he was made supreme commander of Allied Expeditionary Forces for the invasion of western Europe and on June 6, 1944, directed the landings on the Normandy beaches of France. In December of that year Eisenhower was promoted to the five-star rank of general of the army. In May 1945 he received Germany's unconditional surrender, and in November he returned to Washington as army chief of staff. He resigned from active duty on February 7, 1948, to become president of Columbia University.

In December 1950 Eisenhower was appointed commander of the supreme headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), but in mid-1952 he resigned from the army to accept the Republican nomination for the U.S. presidency. He defeated the Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson in the November election and was inaugurated on January 20, 1953. Although his first term was marked by a severe heart attack and a major operation, Eisenhower was reelected for a second term, again defeating Stevenson. During his terms Eisenhower was concerned with ending the war in Korea (accomplished in July 1953) and with keeping peace throughout the world. His proposals for the latter resulted in the creation of the International Atomic Energy Agency to deal with peaceful uses of the atom and in the formation of alliances such as the South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).

After leaving the White House, Eisenhower retired to his farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and returned to his writing, having already published his war memoirs, Crusade in Europe, in 1948. His further works included Mandate for Change (1962), Waging Peace (1965), and The White House Years and At Ease: Stories I Tell My Friends (1967).