Hello Otterites!
Have to forgive the brevity and possible fuzziness of this week’s Martin Monday. We’ve welcomed a new puppy here to Studio M and nobody is getting any sleep. Wilson the Wonder Doodle will surely be the topic of some on air banter and perhaps a post or 2 down the road. In the meantime I need to put some processor cycles on a Martin Monday if I can.
Today I wanted to put a true American hero on your radar, one that is fairly forgotten these days I think. Dwight Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States, guided the US through a post war world different from the challenges any other president had faced. He’s really the first president to contend with the reality that a major misstep could unleash atomic weapons across the globe. Yes, Truman had to make decisions regarding the nuclear genie, and restraining and relieving MacArthur was a benchmark in navigating the post Hiroshima world. But Ike was the first to really deal with the possibility that the weapons could be used on us.
Oh, and besides that, he had to lead the Western powers in age when they were realizing they had to forego dreams of empire and allow people in colonies their independence and freedom to seek their own destinies. He’s leading his own country through the realization that the dreams of equality here are unfulfilled as well, and to counter the Communist enemy, our nation must grant the promise of our founding documents. No longer would separate schools and public services be permitted. The work continued beyond his presidency to be sure, and perhaps isn’t complete even today, but he moved the needle.
And did I mention he’s riding a technological revolution and making sure the American economy is growing so the dreams put on hold by World War II can be restarted? He implemented a vision for a road network across the nation, something that stitched our country together like nothing else before it. Hop on the interstate highway system and there didn’t have to be north and south, east or west. There could be one nation, bound together by miles of blacktop.
Space exploration? Yep, Ike authorized it and created NASA. He advocated science education. He warned against deficit spending, asking Americans to be concerned about a military industrial complex dominating the government.
There were many talented leaders who emerged from the war, men like George Marshall and Douglas MacArthur. But Eisenhower, even though not as senior as those men, managed to eclipse them all. He was a commander and a diplomat.
Here’s where I would usually link to an episode but guess what, we haven’t done it yet! Keep listening, the Ike episode will be coming soon. I’m excited for it.
