"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both."
34th President, 1953-1961, From his first Inaugural Address, January 20, 1953. Eisenhower, a Republican, was elected to the Presidency after the administrations of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry S Truman. His rise paralleled that of the United States, itself, gaining prominence during World War I and becoming a world leader during and after the victory of World War II. He oversaw a period of peace and prosperity in the 1950's, oftentimes portrayed in television shows such as "Happy Days", contrasted with bomb shelters being built by some American families. There were also tough and controversial issues concerning the advancement of increased civil rights in education and economic opportunity. Under Eisenhower's leadership, the interstate freeway system was begun and NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, was initiated. On the world stage, Eisenhower helped negotiate the end of the Korean War and saw the escalation of "The Cold War" with the Soviet Union. The United States and its citizens had won great freedoms and with those freedoms, held great responsibility. He starts his address with a prayer: "...Give us, we pray, the power to discern clearly right from wrong, and allow all our words and actions to be governed thereby, and by the laws of this land. Especially we pray that our concern shall be for all the people regardless of station, race, or calling...". My fellow citizens: The world and we have passed the midway point of a century of continuing challenge. We sense with all our faculties that forces of good and evil are massed and armed and opposed as rarely before in history.
This fact defines the meaning of this day. We are summoned by this honored and historic ceremony to witness more than the act of one citizen swearing his oath of service, in the presence of God. We are called as a people to give testimony in the sight of the world to our faith that the future shall belong to the free...faith defines our full view of life. It establishes, beyond debate, those gifts of the Creator that are man's inalienable rights, and that make all men equal in His sight...The men who mine coal and fire furnaces and balance ledgers and turn lathes and pick cotton and heal the sick and plant corn—all serve as proudly, and as profitably, for America as the statesmen who draft treaties and the legislators who enact laws. This faith rules our whole way of life. It decrees that we, the people, elect leaders not to rule but to serve...Great as are the preoccupations absorbing us at home, concerned as we are with matters that deeply affect our livelihood today and our vision of the future, each of these domestic problems is dwarfed by, and often even created by, this question that involves all humankind. This trial comes at a moment when man's power to achieve good or to inflict evil surpasses the brightest hopes and the sharpest fears of all ages... Science seems ready to confer upon us, as its final gift, the power to erase human life from this planet...Realizing that common sense and common decency alike dictate the futility of appeasement, we shall never try to placate an aggressor by the false and wicked bargain of trading honor for security. Americans, indeed all free men, remember that in the final choice a soldier's pack is not so heavy a burden as a prisoner's chains...We must be ready to dare all for our country. For history does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. We must acquire proficiency in defense and display stamina in purpose. We must be willing, individually and as a Nation, to accept whatever sacrifices may be required of us. A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both..."
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