Dwight Eisenhower - Artist
Among Other Things

You will know (if you're old enough) that Dwight "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th president of the United States and the 33rd man to take the oath of office (the solution to this conundrum is, as the mathematics textbooks say, left to the reader). But during World War II he had served as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, a job that - given the fact we won - helped launch him to the presidency.

Ike's time as president has seemed to many students as a time when not much was happening. World War II had been over for eight years, the Korean War conflict had been concluded in Ike's first six months, and Vietnam and the other - ah - "police actions" - were yet to come.

Instead, we learn Ike spent a lot of time on the golf course where he averaged 100 rounds a year for his two terms with an average handicap of 16. Perhaps it's no surprise that one of his best and most expertly rendered paintings - yes, Ike took up painting - was of Bobby Jones, the great golf amateur (and once more, yes, Bobby Jones, one of the best golfers of all time, never turned pro).

But it is certainly not true that nothing happened during Ike's term. A lot of things happened. And not only that, but Ike has one distinction above other presidents elected after the mid-twentieth century. And that is ...

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