Eisenhower's White House years. Sailing into History.
Eisenhower's White House years
When Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected to office in 1952, he was convinced that among the obligations he assumed was that of calming the nation, according to veteran Times journalist Jim Newton.
In his new book, “Eisenhower: The White House Years,” (Doubleday) Newton takes a critical look at the eight years that the thirty-fourth president spent in office. Eisenhower’s predecessors, FDR and Harry Truman, had governed the nation through many crises – World War II, the Berlin Crisis, the Soviet atomic bomb, the Korean War and the 1952 steel strike. Therefore, Eisenhower assumed a calm leadership style and consistently sought to find the middle way between anti-communist Republicans and New Deal Democrats.
There are many lessons we can take from Eisenhower’s style of leadership, but most of “those lessons have been lost on the heirs to his political legacy,” says Newton. One such example is the recent, near aversion of a government shutdown prompted by the question of whether to raise the debt ceiling or not. Newton says that American politicians courted crisis at a time when sound and sober leadership was needed.
But Newton doesn’t spare the reader from an insight into Eisenhower’s faults. Eisenhower, like many presidents increased the use of covert operations in foreign countries. He was also greatly opposed to the Supreme Court’s decision that ‘separate but equal’ was unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education. Eisenhower left office with a chilling message for the American public that seems to ring true today – a warning of a rise of the United States as a military-industrial complex.
WEIGH IN:
What lessons can politicians and the public take from Eisenhower’s era? How do this book and its insights judge the politics of these days?
Guest:
Jim Newton, author of "Eisenhower: The White House Years" (Doubleday); Editor-at-large, L.A.Times, former Los Angeles Times reporter and bureau chief.
Sailing Into History
We all know the story of Christopher Columbus’ first voyage to the New World; we sang about it as schoolchildren and celebrate it with a bank holiday each October. But that wasn’t the end of his seafaring adventures.
After landing on the shores of San Salvador, tracing the northern coasts of Cuba and Hispaniola and returning in triumph to Spain as the “Admiral of the Ocean Sea,” Columbus led three more voyages across the Atlantic.
In his sweeping new biography “Columbus: The Four Voyages,” author Laurence Bergreen paints a more complete portrait of this oft-mischaracterized historical figure than we’ve yet seen. Visionary explorer, Christianizing messiah, masterly navigator, pitiless slave master – these and other incarnations are explored and expanded on in Bergreen’s book.
He takes us from Columbus’ birthplace in Genoa through his various voyages to the New World, where he experienced mutiny, shipwreck and encounters with cannibalistic tribes in his quest for gold and Christian souls.
His volatile dealings with the natives he was trying to convert led to his arrest and brought back to Spain in chains. In 1504, following his fourth and final voyage, Columbus returned to Spain, moody and resentful, haggling with the crown over wealth and titles he felt he deserved. His health declined quickly and he died only two years later.
WEIGH IN:
How did Columbus’ epic personality – audacious, volatile, narcissistic and ruthless – color his dealings with the King and Queen of Spain, with his crew, with those he encountered on his travels? What was the outcome of his zealous attempts to convert indigenous cultures to Christianity? Hero, plunderer, visionary or delusional megalomaniac - who is the man behind the historical figure who “sailed the dark blue sea, to find this land for you and me?”
Guest:
Laurence Bergreen, author of “Columbus: The Four Voyages” (Viking). Bergreen is the author of numerous biographies, including “As Thousands Cheer: The Life of Irving Berlin,” “Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life” and “Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu.”