Generals As Presidents... A History Lesson: [View All]

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There have been three presidents who went from a military career into the White House without having held any other elected office. They were Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant, and Dwight Eisenhower -- a mixed bag. But each man had some good qualities that we could use now.

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Grant was unusual for a white man of his day in that news of atrocities commited against former slaves actually bothered him. And, he thought he ought to do something to protect citizens from terrorists. He came down especially hard on the Ku Klux Klan, and whites north and south thought that Grant was going way too far to prevent those poor, oppressed, sheet-wearing white boys from exercising their traditional right to slaughter black people for fun.

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Eisenhower appears to have been less concerned than his predecessor Grant with civil rights for African Americans. But when it was necessary to act, Eisenhower, like Grant, sent troops to the South to protect African Americans from white mobs at Little Rock High School.

Also like Grant, Eisenhower was determined to maintain peace. In those days the right wing of the Republican Party was itching to start World War III; Ike kept them contained.

I realize some people on "the left" are wary of having a "military man" as President, but, believe me, we've done worse. Better a man who's seen broken bodies on the battlefield than a "chickenhawk."

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