John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower was a United States Army general and military historian
who served as the United States Ambassador to Belgium from 1969 to 1971. He was the brother
of Doud Eisenhower and younger son of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and First Lady Mamie
Eisenhower.
Early life and education John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower was born on August
3, 1922 in Denver, Colorado to future U.S. President and United States Army General of
the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower and his wife, Mamie. John Eisenhower was the second child
of Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower. Their elder son, Doud, known affectionately as "Icky",
died in 1921, at age 3, after contracting scarlet fever. John Eisenhower, like his father,
attended the United States Military Academy, graduating on June 6, 1944, the day of the
Normandy landings, which his father was commanding. Career
Eisenhower served in the U.S. Army during World War II and the Korean War, remaining
on active duty until 1963; then serving in the U.S. Army Reserve until retirement in
1975 – attaining the rank of brigadier general. A decorated soldier, Eisenhower found
his World War II military career thwarted by fears for his safety and concern from the
top brass that his death or capture would be a distraction to his father, the Supreme
Allied Commander. This issue arose again in 1952 when Major Eisenhower was assigned to
fight in a combat unit in Korea while his father ran for President. After a short stint
in combat with an infantry battalion, he was reassigned to the safety of division headquarters.
In 2008, he wrote about this experience in an opinion piece in The New York Times entitled
"Presidential Children Don't Belong in Battle". During his father's presidency, John Eisenhower
served as Assistant Staff Secretary in the White House, on the Army's General Staff,
and in the White House as assistant to General Andrew Goodpaster.
In the administration of President Richard Nixon, who had been his father's Vice President,
he served as U.S. Ambassador to Belgium. In 1972, President Nixon appointed Eisenhower
Chairman of the Interagency Classification Review Committee. In 1975, he served President
Gerald Ford as chairman of the President's Advisory Committee on Refugees.
Marriage and children Eisenhower married Barbara Jean Thompson on
June 10, 1947. They divorced in 1986. The Eisenhowers had four children: Dwight David
Eisenhower II, who married Julie Nixon, herself a presidential daughter; Barbara Anne Eisenhower,
Susan Eisenhower, and Mary Jean Eisenhower. In 1988, Eisenhower married Joanne Thompson.
He lived in Trappe, Maryland, after moving there from Kimberton, Pennsylvania.
Later life and death A lifelong Republican, Eisenhower voted for
Democrat John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential election, citing dissatisfaction with Republican
incumbent George W. Bush's management of U.S. foreign policy. In later years, he had been
an opponent of Frank Gehry's proposed design for the National Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial,
which he said was "too extravagant" and "attempts to do too much."
He died at Trappe, Maryland on December 21, 2013. From the death of John Coolidge in 2000
until his own death, Eisenhower was the oldest living presidential child.
Writing As a military historian, Eisenhower wrote
several books, including The Bitter Woods, a study of the Battle of the Bulge, and So
Far from God, a history of the U.S.-Mexican War. In a New York Times review of the latter,
historian Stephen W. Sears remarked that Eisenhower "writes briskly and authoritatively, and his
judgments are worth reading." John Eisenhower also wrote the forewords to Borrowed Soldiers,
by Mitchell Yockelson of the U.S. National Archives, and to Kenneth W. Rendell's Politics,
War and Personality: 50 Iconic Documents of World War II.
Bibliography The Bitter Woods. Battery Classics. 1969.
ISBN 9780898391060. ; Da Capo Press, 1995, ISBN 9780306806520
Strictly Personal Doubleday, 1974, ISBN 9780385070713 Allies, Pearl Harbor
to D–Day. Doubleday. 1982. ISBN 9780385114790. ; Da Capo Press, 2000, ISBN 9780306809415
So Far from God: The U.S. War with Mexico, 1846–1848. Random House. 1989. ISBN 9780394560519. ;
University of Oklahoma Press, 2000, ISBN 9780806132792 Intervention!: The United States Involvement
in the Mexican Revolution, 1913–1917. W. W. Norton & Company. 1993. ISBN 9780393313185.
Agent of Destiny: The Life and Times of General Winfield Scott. Free Press. 1997. ISBN 9780684844510.
Yanks: The Epic Story of the American Army in World War
I. Simon and Schuster. 2001. ISBN 9780743216371. General Ike: A Personal Reminiscence. Simon
and Schuster. 2003. ISBN 9780743255721. Zachary Taylor. Macmillan. 2008. ISBN 9780805082371.
A Morning in June: Defending Outpost Harry. University of Alabama Press. 2010. ISBN 9780817316693.
Soldiers and Statesmen: Reflections on Leadership. University of Missouri Press. 2012. ISBN 9780826219701.
Awards and decorations Other honors
The city of Marshfield, Missouri chose Eisenhower as a 2008 honoree of the Edwin P. Hubble Medal
of Initiative. His grandson, Merrill Eisenhower Atwater spoke on his behalf at Marshfield's
annual Cherry Blossom Festival. The medal recognizes individuals who demonstrate great
initiative in their chosen field. Family tree
See also
Notes
References
External links John Eisenhower at the Internet Movie Database
John Eisenhower – Internet Accuracy Project Booknotes interview with Eisenhower on Agent
of Destiny: The Life and Times of General Winfield Scott, April 19, 1998.