DAUN VAN EE

On first inspection the inauguration of Dwight David Eisenhower on 20 January
1953 must have been seen by the United States Army as an indication that better
times would come. Ike was the first professional soldier to have captured the
presidency in almost a century. Army men could find additional comfort in
recalling the nature of Eisenhower's forty-year career. Neither rebel nor critic,
Eisenhower had epitomized the solidly professional staff officer. He had been
thoroughly grounded in army doctrine at West Point, the Command and General
Staff School, the Army War College, and the Army Industrial College. He was
known as a skillful harmonizer of conflicting interests, and his great popularity
within the army was due in large part to his congenial personality and sincere
concern for the welfare, of the troops. He had conferred great distinction upon
both the army and himself by virtue of his splendid record as a theater commander
in World War II. Most of the army's leaders--men like Omar N. Bradley, J.
Lawton Collins, Matthew Ridgway, Maxwell D. Taylor, Mark W. Clark, James
Gavin, Alfred M. Gruenther, and James A. Van Fleet--had served under Ei-
senhower in Europe, and many were his close personal friends. After the war
he had fought skillfully for the army as its chief of staff. Of special interest to
an army frustrated by the stalemated and limited war in Korea was Eisenhower's
promise to take decisive action to end the struggle in one fashion or another.
Surely he would be a president who would understand the army's problems and
do much for his old service.

If the army had these high hopes, they were to be disappointed. Relations
between Eisenhower and his wartime associates soon became strained as army
leaders began to condemn what they believed were ill-advised presidential pol-
icies and inept Defense Department leadership exercised by Eisenhower's ap-
pointees. Army morale and effectiveness were thought to be at a low ebb as a
result. Midway through Eisenhower's presidency, according to one official ac-count,
the army "had reached a post-World War II nadir . . . in terms of prestige
and future outlook." ¹ It was supposed that the other services--air force, navy,
and Marine Corps--had captured the imagination of the public and would hence-

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