At the end of his first term, Ike was 66,, and one of our oldest Presidents to that time.

The Life of Duty, Honor, Country…

Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969), one of six strapping corn-fed farm boys, was accustomed to hard work and doing what was expected of him practically from birth.

Once he graduated West Point (1915), he had hoped to be sent to fight The War to End All Wars, but was disappointed by his stateside assignments. Nevertheless, he did his duty, and became one of the foremost military experts in the newest technology: tank warfare.

His superiors, keeping their eyes open for up-and-coming candidates for high level leadership, cast a benevolent eye on young Ike Eisenhower. He excelled (through hard work and good attitude) in every assignment or class – whether he liked it or not. He did not disappoint. It was his duty.

By the time WWII was declared, Ike, a fifty-year-old colonel, was elevated over literally dozens of superior officers for ultimate command. His leadership, decisions and actions are well known throughout the world. He did not disappoint.

Middle-Aged Ike…And Health

After the War, General Ike still did his duty. Writing Crusade in Europe, a best-selling memoir of the War gave him the financial security that a soldier’s life never did. He had plenty of choices, but always followed the path of “duty.”

Ike suffered the aches and pains of a long-standing chronically troublesome tummy, and a few other ailments common to middle age. Ike lived hard and worked hard. He was a 3-pack a day smoker, although he quit in the late ’40s. Medical practice had improved with the great discoveries of the 1930s and 40s, but a political candidate’s health was not considered that important. Then.

Despite his reluctance and downright disinclination, politicians on both sides of the aisle came a-courtin’ for Ike to run for President. He had never been a political creature. Soldiers are trained to obey their Commander-in-Chief – no matter who.

When the point was made that “it was his duty” to run, 62-year-old Ike finally conceded and admitted he was a Republican. He won in a walk. Few Presidents were better known, more popular, or beloved. Or trusted. He also expected (because of his age), that he would serve only one term.  

So It Was A Surprise…

… two years into his Presidency, Ike woke in the middle of the night with chest pains and cold sweats. The doctor was summoned immediately – and quietly. It was a serious heart attack.

Things were different in the 1950s. Millions of people remembered the “crisis” of Woodrow Wilson’s stroke following WWI, and the iron wall of silence about his condition. Even more millions remembered the myriad of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s health issues, and the unspoken conspiracy to keep them secret from the public. Half the country did not know he was crippled and couldn’t walk.

Keeping Ike’s heart attack “news” to a minimum was not as hard as one might think in the ’50s. Aided and abetted by the President himself, his heart attack was reported honestly, but downplayed. He recovered.

I Do Not Wish To Be A Candidate for Reelection

The General was no fool. He also enjoyed his responsibilities and was an antsy patient. His heart attack mandated a fairly long convalescence, and Ike was bored. It is said that he paced up and down at his Gettysburg farm “like a caged tiger.” He needed to be back at work. Doing his duty.

But 66 is a pretty big number, and Ike made up his mind that he would not seek reelection in ’56.  He told VP Richard Nixon that he did not see how “he could run…with that sword of Damocles hanging over his head.”

He wrote to his brother Milton, if I should show any signs of yielding to persuasion,“please call in the psychiatrist – or even better the sheriff.” He told House Speaker Joseph Martin, “I don’t want a second term. Four years in the White House is enough for one man.”

He believed he had truly fulfilled his “duty” to the country, advising the Republican National Chairman, “I’ve given my adult life to my country. I’ve done enough.”

Of course the politicians wanted Ike for another term. He was wildly popular – and trusted – at home and abroad. No one else in the political docket even came close. That part hit a vulnerable chord in Ike’s psyche. He confided to an old friend that he felt guilty, because he had not developed a suitable candidate to succeed him as President.

A Change of Mind

Finally, Eisenhower had a meeting with several of his closest political aides and confidants. They all urged him to run again – because he was the only Republican who could win in 1956. It was another call to duty, and Ike believed it was “a challenge I could not ignore.”

In June, 1956, only weeks before the nominating convention, Ike’s chronic intestinal woes suddenly flared up to a point that surgery was necessary. This time medical technology was up to better snuff. They finally determined the cause: ileitis, a serious bowel inflammation. A good sized section of his bowel needed to be bypassed, which it was.

Again, the severity was downplayed and Ike recovered, albeit very slowly. The doctors publicly insisted that the surgery was in no way life threatening, was not malignant and they were hopeful for a complete recovery. And, perhaps most importantly, his heart was unaffected.

But perhaps one key to Ike’s decision to run again, centered on “duty.” He was fearful about the constitutional ambiguities on presidential disability, and how to deal with it. Now, more than ever, he was determined to remedy that gap, preferably by constitutional amendment, a lengthy process. It wasn’t political. He needed the second term to accomplish this.

It was his duty.  

An amendment was finally passed in 1967 – and Ike lived to see it.

Sources:

Gilbert, Robert E. – The Mortal Presidency: Illness and Anguish In the White House – Basic Books, 1992

Nixon, Richard M. – Six Crises – Doubleday, 1962

https://millercenter.org/president/eisenhower/impact-and-legacy

https://www.jstor.org/stable/23359809

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19213302/

https://bulletin.facs.org/2017/11/president-eisenhower-and-his-bowel-obstruction/