I Liked Ike

Dwight D. Eisenhower, a heroic general in World War Two Elected thirty-fourth President of the USA in 1952 Fondly remembered as an American Golden Age His era had its fair share of turbulence and rage on both the domestic and international stage In Ike's first term Senator Joe McCarthy ruled the roost witch-hunting alleged Commie sympathizers accusing them of giving the USSR a boost Then after Ike's landslide re-election racial politics veered in an ugly direction Ike sent Federal troops to an Arkansas high school in September of 1957 to enforce desegregation, the law of the land--by judicial fiat was he driven With the Soviet Union Ike opted for containment, not confrontation choosing to condemn, but not to stop, the USSR's Hungarian invasion When Russia's first satellite launch, Sputnik drove the American new media ballistic Ike calmly launched NASA and stayed optimistic A man of deeds over words, Ike was a classic conservative Limited spending plus tax cuts, his prinicipled preservatives Before leaving office, Ike warned us about massive military spending -- in tandem with rising budget deficits our fiscal freedom would soon be ending In hindsight, we can see that Ike clearly was right to stress the perils of unbridled military might By the time prescient Ike passed away in 1969 Americans were protesting Vietnam* ~ or in its jungles dying *the War in Vietnam