Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was a five-star general in the United States Army and the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. During the Second World War, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, with responsibility for planning and supervising the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45. In 1951, he became the first supreme commander of NATO.[1] As President, he oversaw the cease-fire of the Korean War, maintained pressure on the Soviet Union during the Cold War, made nuclear weapons a higher defense priority, launched the Space Race, enlarged the Social Security program, and began the Interstate Highway System. He was the last World War I veteran to serve as U.S. president, and the last president born in the 19th century. Eisenhower ranks highly among former U.S. presidents in terms of approval rating. He was also the first term-limited president in accordance with the 22nd amendment. Eisenhower was born David Dwight Eisenhower on October 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas,[2] the first president born in that state. He was the third of seven sons[3] born to David Jacob Eisenhower and Ida Elizabeth Stover, of German, English and Swiss ancestry. The house in which he was born has been preserved as Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site and is operated by the Texas Historical Commission. He was named David Dwight and was called Dwight; he reversed the order of his given names when he entered West Point,[4] which is also where he received his nickname, "Ike".[5] Eisenhower's paternal ancestors can be traced back to Hans Nicolas Eisenhauer, whose surname is German for "iron worker";[6] in his autobiographic book, At Ease Stories I Tell to Friends, Dwight thought the name to mean "iron craftsman". Hans Eisenhauer and his family emigrated from Karlsbrunn (Saarland), Germany, to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1741. Descendants made their way west. Eisenhower's family settled in Abilene, Kansas, in 1892. His father, David Eisenhower, was a college-educated engineer.[7] Dwight graduated from Abilene High School in 1909.[8] Eisenhower married Mamie Geneva Doud (1896–1979) of Boone, Iowa, on July 1, 1916. The couple had two sons. Doud Dwight Eisenhower was born September 24, 1917, and died of scarlet fever on January 2, 1921, at the age of three.[9] Their second son, John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower, was born the following year on August 3, 1922; John served in the United States Army (retiring as a brigadier general from the Army reserve), became an author, and served as U.S. Ambassador to Belgium from 1969 to 1971. John, coincidentally, graduated from West Point on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and was married to Barbara Jean Thompson in a June wedding in 1947. John and Barbara had four children: Dwight David II "David", Barbara Ann, Susan Elaine and Mary Jean. David, after whom Camp David is named, married Richard Nixon's daughter Julie in 1968. Eisenhower's paternal ancestor, Hans Nicholas Eisenhauer, was probably of Lutheran or Reformed Protestant practice. Eisenhower's mother, Ida E. Stover Eisenhower, previously a member of the River Brethren sect of the Mennonites, joined the Bible Students which would evolve into what is now known as Jehovah's Witnesses between 1895 and 1900, when Eisenhower was a child.[10] The Eisenhower home served as the local meeting hall from 1896 to 1915. When Eisenhower joined the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1911, his ties to Jehovah’s Witnesses were weakened because of the group's anti-militarist stance.[11][12] By 1915, his parents' home no longer served as the meeting hall. All the men in the household abandoned the Witnesses as adults. Some hid their previous affiliation.[13][14] Eisenhower was baptized, confirmed, and became a communicant in the Presbyterian Church in a single ceremony on February 1, 1953, just 12 days after his first inauguration.[15] He is the only president known to have undertaken these rites while in office. Eisenhower was instrumental in the addition of the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954, and the 1956 adoption of "In God We Trust" as the motto of the US, and its 1957 introduction on paper currency. In his retirement years, he was a member of the Gettysburg Presbyterian Church.[16] The chapel at his presidential library is intentionally inter-denominational. He questioned Billy Graham about how people can be certain they are going to Heaven after death.[17] Eisenhower was sworn into office with his personal West Point Bible, open to Psalm 33:12, at both his 1953 and 1957 inaugural ceremonies. Additionally for 1953, he included the Bible that George Washington had used in 1789 (belonging to St. John's Masonic Lodge No. 1), opened to II Chronicles 7:14.[18][19] Dwight D. Eisenhower attended Abilene High School in Abilene, Kansas and graduated with the class of 1909.[8] He then took a job as a night foreman at the Belle Springs Creamery.[20] After Dwight worked for two years to support his brother Edgar's college education, a friend urged him to apply to the Naval Academy. Though Eisenhower passed the entrance exam, he was beyond the age of eligibility for admission to the Naval Academy.[21] Kansas Senator Joseph L. Bristow recommended Dwight for an appointment to the Military Academy in 1911, which he received.[21] Eisenhower graduated in the upper half of the class of 1915.[22] The 1915 class was known as "the class the stars fell on", because 59 members eventually became general officers. Eisenhower long had aspirations of playing professional baseball: At West Point, Eisenhower tried out for the baseball team but did not make it. He would later say that "not making the baseball team at West Point was one of the greatest disappointments of my life, maybe my greatest."[23] But Eisenhower did make the football team. He started as a varsity running back and linebacker in 1912. One spectacular Eisenhower touchdown won praise from the sports reporter of the New York Herald. In a bit of a fabled match-up, he even tackled the legendary Jim Thorpe in a 1912 game.[24] The next week however, Eisenhower hurt his knee after being tackled around the ankles. His knee worsened and became permanently damaged on horseback and in the boxing ring.[25] He would later serve as junior varsity football coach and yell leader. Controversy persists over whether Eisenhower played minor league (semi-professional) baseball for Junction City in the Central Kansas League the year before he attended West Point and played amateur football there. In 1916, while stationed at Fort Sam Houston, Eisenhower was football coach for St. Louis College, now St. Mary's University.[26][27] Eisenhower took up golf very enthusiastically later in life, and joined the Augusta National Golf Club in 1948, upon the club's invitation, during his first visit there.[28] He played golf frequently during his two terms as president, and after his retirement as well, never shying away from the media interest about his passion for golf. He had a small, basic golf facility installed at Camp David, and became close friends with Augusta National Chairman Clifford Roberts, inviting Roberts to stay at the White House on several occasions; Roberts, an investment broker, also handled the Eisenhower family's investments. Roberts also advised Eisenhower on tax aspects of publishing his memoirs, which proved to be financially lucrative. Roberts gave a series of interviews to Columbia University in the late 1960s, covering his relationship with Eisenhower; author David Owen had access to this previously-classified material for his book on the Augusta National Golf Club.[28] Eisenhower enrolled at the United States Military Academy at West Point in June 1911. His parents were against militarism, but did not object to his entering West Point because they supported his education. Eisenhower was a strong athlete and enjoyed notable successes in his competitive endeavors. Eisenhower graduated in 1915. He served with the infantry until 1918 at various camps in Texas and Georgia. During World War I, Eisenhower became the #3 leader of the new tank corps and rose to temporary (Bvt.) Lieutenant Colonel in the National Army. He spent the war training tank crews in Pennsylvania and never saw combat. After the war, Eisenhower reverted to his regular rank of captain (and was promoted to major a few days later) before assuming duties at Camp Meade, Maryland, where he remained until 1922. His interest in tank warfare was strengthened by many conversations with George S. Patton and other senior tank leaders; however their ideas on tank warfare were strongly discouraged by superiors.[29] Eisenhower became executive officer to General Fox Conner in the Panama Canal Zone, where he served until 1924. Under Conner's tutelage, he studied military history and theory (including Karl von Clausewitz's On War), and later cited Conner's enormous influence on his military thinking. In 1925–26, he attended the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas,[30] and then served as a battalion commander at Fort Benning, Georgia until 1927. During the late 1920s and early 1930s Eisenhower's career in the peacetime Army stagnated; many of his friends resigned for high-paying business jobs. He was assigned to the American Battle Monuments Commission, directed by General John J. Pershing, then to the Army War College, and then served as executive officer to General George V. Mosely, Assistant Secretary of War, from 1929 to 1933. He then served as chief military aide to General Douglas MacArthur, Army Chief of Staff, until 1935, when he accompanied MacArthur to the Philippines, where he served as assistant military adviser to the Philippine government. It is sometimes said that this assignment provided valuable preparation for handling the challenging personalities of Winston Churchill, George S. Patton and Bernard Law Montgomery during World War II. Eisenhower was promoted to lieutenant colonel (in a non-brevet status) in 1936 after sixteen years as a major. He also learned to fly, although he was never rated as a military pilot. He made a solo flight over the Philippines in 1937.