LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Dwight Eisenhower: West Point
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January 5, 1957 - In response to the increasingly tense situation in the Middle East, President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers a proposal to Congress that calls for a new and more proactive U.S. policy in the region. The "Eisenhower Doctrine," as the proposal soon came to be known, established the Middle East as a Cold War battlefield; Egypt leader Gamal Nasser - anti-western nationalism, increasingly close relations with the Soviet Union; July 1956 - Nasser seized control of the Suez Canal, prompted coordinated attack by French, British, and Israeli military on Egypt; Eisenhower did not ask for a specific appropriation of funds at the time; ... he indicated that he would seek $200 million for economic and military aid in each of the years 1958 and 1959; [S]ummer 1958 - civil strife in Lebanon led that nation's president to request U.S. assistance; nearly 15,000 U.S. troops were sent to help quell the disturbances (first action taken in name of Eisenhower Doctrine).
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In 1911, Eisenhower passed the entrance exams for West Point, the premier military academy in America. At this particular moment in his life, he had no wish to be a soldier – but he did wish to be educated at college level. Unable to afford to go to a normal college, West Point offered free higher education – hence his application to join. Eisenhower gave no indication of the leader he was to become. At West Point, he was an average student who nearly gave up his course due to a sports injury. He graduated from the college in 1915, ranked 61st out of 164 men.
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Six months after he became president, Eisenhower secured an agreement that ended three years of fighting in Korea. On only one other occasion, in Lebanon in 1958, did Eisenhower send combat troops into action. However, defense spending remained high as Eisenhower vigorously waged the Cold War, the acute ideological, political, military and economic contest between Communist countries and the West, just short of hot war. He placed new emphasis on nuclear strength — popularly known as "massive retaliation" — to prevent the outbreak of world war.
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In the end, Eisenhower proved to be correct on all of these issues, and his determination to prevail in the debates reinforced his authority as Supreme Commander. Achieving a consensus was more important to him than merely winning an argument... because success depended upon enthusiastic execution of the plans SHAEF approved. Eisenhower consistently won over men with different ideas by assuring that their points of view had a full airing and fair consideration. He was rarely abrupt and never arbitrary and applied the particular genius of his own personality to persuade other men to accept a common strategy. Eisenhower's reputation for honesty and openness had much to do with his success in developing and implementing a truly Allied plan of campaign, rather than parallel national plans.
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In his farewell speech to the American people in January 1961, Eisenhower used the term "the military-industrial complex." In use, the term came to represent something evil_far different than Eisenhower's original intent. Dougherty, publisher of Air Force Magazine, points this out and reprints the complete farewell speech to correct the misinterpretation. The farewell is as timely in 1990 as when it was given nearly thirty years ago.
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Although Dwight attracted little attention in the classroom, he stood out in athletic competition through grade school and high school. After graduating from Abilene High School in 1909, Dwight went to work in the creamery, partly to support an older brother in college. He took a competitive examination for an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, both because a free education was too good to pass up and because of the opportunity to play football. He passed the examination, then found that he was too old to go to Annapolis and instead in 1911 went to the Military Academy at West Point.
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