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The 34th PresidentIn 1952 Eisenhower retired from active service and returned to Abilene to announce his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination. On November 4, 1952, after winning the election by a landslide, Eisenhower was elected the United States’ 34th president. His domestic policy picked up where Roosevelt’s New Deal and Fair Deal programs left off. In foreign policy, Eisenhower made reducing Cold War tensions through military negotiation a main focus of his administration. In 1953 he orchestrated an armistice that brought peace to South Korea’s border. Also that year, Eisenhower made his famous “Atoms for Peace” speech at the United Nations General Assembly. The United States and Russia had both recently developed atomic bombs, and the speech promoted applying atomic energy to peaceful uses, rather than using it for weaponry and warfare. In 1955, Eisenhower met with Russian, British and French leaders at Geneva to further quell the threat of atomic war.In 1956 Eisenhower was a reelected to a second term, winning by an even wider margin than in his first election, despite the fact that he had just recently recovered from a heart attack. Over the course of his second term, Eisenhower continued to promote his Atoms for Peace program. In his second term, he also grappled with crises in Lebanon and the Suez.
Accomplishments during his administration include creating the U.S. Information Agency,and establishing Alaska and Hawaii as states. Eisenhower also supported the creation of the Interstate Highway System during his time in office. His other distinctions include signing the 1957 Civil Rights Act and setting up a permanent Civil Rights Commission. Eisenhower was additionally responsible for signing the bill to form the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Poised to depart office in January of 1961, Eisenhower gave a televised farewell address in which he warned the nation against the dangers of the Cold War "military-industrial complex." |