
Our 1956-1660 Rogers years fell across the last term of Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidency. He was the first president to be "constitutionally forced from office," meaning, he finished the amended constitution's two-term limit in early 1961. I recall hearing people say that he was a "do-nothing" president - that he played golf at Gettysburg too often.
As I grew up I decided that the late fifties worked so well, that anybody trying to fix something would break it. Ike's well-known WW II accomplishments as Supreme Commander contributed greatly to my living the good free life as a US citizen. I gave him a pass as President. However, according to Wikipedia, Eisenhower, the president, actually contributed a great deal to fifties history. Ike ...
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pushed for and signed the 1956 bill that established the US Interstate Highway System;
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proclaimed the 1957 "Eisenhower Doctrine" where the US would be prepared to use armed force in the Middle East against aggression from any country controlled by Communism;
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signed the first civil rights acts into law, since the 1870s;
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made five Supreme Court appointments, including Chief Justice Earl Warren;
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presided over the admission of Alaska and Hawaii to the union.
I saw Ike in 1962, after he left office, at Michigan State University. I was on a cross-aisle in the Fox Theater-sized Fairchild Auditorium, about halfway back. The tension built as I waited in the audience of about 1200.
Suddenly Ike and John Hannah, the MSU President, materialized stage-right. Ike held his arms aloft in his classic "V" sign. The audience was instantly on its feet cheering and applauding. He grinned and loved it. Benign pandemonium seemed to reign for ten minutes, although it was probably only two or three minutes. I was gratified to see my 18-to-26-year-old peers so involved in something civics-related. It was truly "a happening," but this term wouldn't enter the vocabulary for a few more 60's years (I was further amazed at actually seeing John Hannah, because he was normally even more invisible than Roger's Principal Jess Purdy had been for me).
Afterward, Ike's legacy ebbed and then surged with the times. Currently, some literature ranks him in the top 10 US Presidents.





