US or U.S. usually refers to the United States, a country in North America.

US, U.S. or us may also refer to:

Language

we, us is the objective case of we in English

Geography

Us, Val-d'Oise, France

Education

University of Salford, a university in the UK

University of Salzburg, a university in Austria

University of Seville, a university in Spain

Université de Sherbrooke, a university in Canada

University School, a private all-boys day school in Hunting Valley, Ohio, United States

University of Sussex, a university in the UK

Music

''Us'' (Peter Gabriel album)

''Us'' (Mull Historical Society album)

''Us'' (Brother Ali album)

"Us" (Regina Spektor song)

''Us'', a 1974 album by Maceo Parker

"Us", a song by Ice Cube from ''Death Certificate''

"Us", a song by Céline Dion from ''Let's Talk About Love''

"US", a song by Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks from ''Pig Lib''

Urban Symphony, an Estonian music group

Other uses

U.S., used in legal citations to refer to the United States Reports

Union of Russia and Belarus

US Airways' IATA designator

''Us Weekly'', an American celebrity magazine

''Us'' (TV movie)

.us, Internet TLD of the United States of America

''US'', Ultrasonic, Ultrasound

See also

µs, microsecond

United Services Club or ''US Club'', a golf club in Mumbai

United States (disambiguation)

Uz (disambiguation)

ca:Us de:US es:Us (desambiguación) eo:Us fr:US ko:US id:US it:US lv:US lt:US nl:US ja:US pl:Us pt:US ro:US ru:US (значения) fi:Us sv:US zh-yue:Us zh:US (消歧義)

Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
Country	The United States
Name	United States Armed Forces
Current form
Branches
Headquarters
Commander-in-chief	President Barack Obama
Commander-in-chief title	Commander-in-Chief
Minister	Leon Panetta
Minister title	Secretary of Defense
Commander	Admiral Michael Mullen
Commander title	Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Age	17–62 years old
Manpower data	2010 est.
Manpower age	18–49
Available	73,270,043
Available f	71,941,969
Fit	60,620,143
Fit f	59,401,941
Reaching	2,161,727
Reaching f	2,055,685
Active	1,477,896
Ranked	3rd
Reserve	1,458,500
Deployed
Amount	$692 billion (FY10)(1st by total expenditure, 11th as percent of GDP)
Percent gdp	4.7% (2010 est.)
Exports
History	American Revolutionary WarEarly national period Continental expansionAmerican Civil War Post-Civil War eraWorld War I (1917–1918)World War II (1941–1945)Cold War (1945–1991)Korean War (1950–1953)Vietnam War (1959–1975)Gulf War (1991)Kosovo War (1999)War on Terrorism (2001–present)War in Afghanistan (2001-present)Iraq War (2003–2010)Other
Ranks	}}

The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.

The United States has a strong tradition of civilian control of the military. The President is the overall head of the military, and helps form military policy but the United States Department of Defense (DoD), a federal executive department, is the principal organ by which military policy is carried out. The DoD is headed by the Secretary of Defense, who is a civilian and a member of the Cabinet, who also serves as the President's second-in-command of the military. To coordinate military action with diplomacy, the President has an advisory National Security Council headed by a National Security Advisor. Both the President and Secretary of Defense are advised by a six-member Joint Chiefs of Staff, which includes the head of each of Department of Defense service branches, led by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Commandant of the Coast Guard is not a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

All of the branches work together during operations and joint missions, under the Unified Combatant Commands, under the authority of the Secretary of Defense with the exception of the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard falls under the administration of the Department of Homeland Security and receives its operational orders from the Secretary of Homeland Security. The Coast Guard may be transferred to the Department of the Navy by the President or Congress during a time of war. All five armed services are among the seven uniformed services of the United States; the others are the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Corps.

From the time of its inception, the military played a decisive role in the history of the United States. A sense of national unity and identity was forged out of the victorious Barbary Wars, as well as the War of 1812. Even so, the Founders were suspicious of a permanent military force and not until the outbreak of World War II did a large standing army become officially established.

The National Security Act of 1947, adopted following World War II and during the onset of the Cold War, created the modern U.S. military framework; the Act merged previously Cabinet-level Department of War and the Department of the Navy into the National Military Establishment (renamed the Department of Defense in 1949), headed by the Secretary of Defense; and created the Department of the Air Force and National Security Council.

The U.S. military is one of the largest militaries in terms of number of personnel. It draws its manpower from a large pool of volunteers; although conscription has been used in the past in various times of both war and peace, it has not been used since 1972. As of 2010, the United States spends about $692 billion annually to fund its military forces, constituting approximately 43 percent of world military expenditures. The U.S. armed forces as a whole possess large quantities of advanced and powerful equipment, along with widespread placement of forces around the world, giving them significant capabilities in both defense and power projection.

History

The history of the United States Armed Forces dates to 1775, even before the Declaration of Independence marked the establishment of the United States. The Continental Army, Continental Navy, and Continental Marines were created in close succession by the Second Continental Congress in order to defend the new nation against the British Empire in the American Revolutionary War.

These forces demobilized in 1784 after the Treaty of Paris ended the War of Independence. The Congress of the Confederation created the United States Army on 3 June 1784, although the founding of the Army is celebrated as occurring on 14 June 1775. The 1787 adoption of the Constitution gave the Congress the power to "raise and support armies," "provide and maintain a navy," and to "make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces," as well as the power to declare war and gave the President of the United States the responsibility of being the military's commander-in-chief.

Rising tensions at various times with Britain and France the ensuing Quasi-War and War of 1812 quickened the development of the United States Navy (established 13 October 1775) and the United States Marine Corps (established 10 November 1775). The United States Coast Guard dates its origin to the founding of the Revenue Cutter Service on 4 August 1790; that service merged with the United States Life-Saving Service in 1915 to establish the Coast Guard. The United States Air Force was established as an independent service on 18 September 1947; it traces its origin to the formation of the Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps in 1907 and was part of the U.S. Army before becoming an independent service.

Budget

thumb|300px|US defense spending by GDP percentage 1910 to 2007. The United States has the largest defense budget in the world. In fiscal year 2010, the Department of Defense has a base budget of $533.8 billion. An additional $130.0 billion was requested for "Overseas Contingency Operations" in the War on Terrorism, and over the course of the year, an additional $33 billion in supplemental spending was added to Overseas Contingency Operations funding. Outside of direct Department of Defense spending, the United States spends another $218–262 billion each year on other defense-related programs, such as Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, nuclear weapons maintenance, and the State Department.

By service, $225.2 billion was allocated for the Army, $171.7 billion for the Navy and Marine Corps, $160.5 billion for the Air Force and $106.4 billion for defense-wide spending. By function, $154.2 billion was requested for personnel, $283.3 billion for operations and maintenance, $140.1 billion for procurement, $79.1 billion for research and development, $23.9 billion for military construction, and $3.1 billion for family housing.

In fiscal year 2009, major defense programs also saw continued funding. $4.1 billion was requested for the next generation fighter, F-22 Raptor, which will roll out an additional twenty planes for FY 2009. $6.7 billion was requested for the F-35 Lightning II, which is still in development. Sixteen planes will be built as part of the funding. The Future Combat System program is expected to see $3.6 billion for its development. A total of $12.3 billion was requested for missile defense, which includes Patriot CAP, PAC-3 and SBIRS-High systems. $720 million was also included for a third missile defense site in Europe. $4.2 billion was also requested to continue the aircraft carrier replacement program. With the addition of AFRICOM, $389 million was requested to develop and maintain the new command.

Historically, defense-related spending in the United States is at its highest inflation-adjusted level since World War II. Per-capita spending is at approximately the same inflation-adjusted level as the peak of the late-1980s Cold War military build-up and the 1968 peak of the Vietnam War. In his Fiscal Year 2011 budget, President Obama has proposed a 4% increase in Department of Defense spending, followed by a 9% decrease in FY 2012, with funding remaining level in subsequent years.

Critical parts of the Obama future years plan are the cost containment measures provided by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Energy policy of the Obama administration as health care and fuel costs are the two fastest growing parts of the defense budget.

Personnel

As of 30 September 2010, 1,430,895 people were on active duty in the military, with an additional 848,000 people in the seven reserve components. It is an all-volunteer military, but conscription through the Selective Service System can be enacted by the request of the President and the approval of Congress. All males aged 18 through 25 who are living in the U.S. are required to register with the Selective Service for a potential future draft.

The United States military is the second largest in the world, after the People's Liberation Army of China, and has troops deployed around the globe.

In early 2007, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates proposed to the President to increase the overall size of the Army and Marine Corps to meet the needs of the War on Terrorism. Current plans are to increase the Army to 547,400 and the Marine Corps to 202,000 by 2012. The expansion will cost a total of $90.7 billion between 2009 and 2013 as the Navy and Air Force undergo a limited force reduction. In addition, in 2009, Gates proposed increasing the size of the Army by 22,000 troops in order to reduce fatigue from multiple trips overseas, and to compensate for troops who are in recovery away from their units. The Fiscal Year 2011 Department of Defense budget request plan calls for an active military end strength of 1,406,000, an increase of 77,500 from the 2007 baseline as a result of increments in the Army (65,000 more troops) and Marine Corps (27,100 more troops) strength and decrements in the Navy (13,300 less troops) and Air Force (1,300 less troops) strength.

As in most militaries, members of the U.S. Armed Forces hold a rank, either that of officer, warrant, or enlisted, and can be promoted. Those who have served are known as veterans.

Personnel in each service

''As of May 2009 Female numbers as of 30 September 2009'' Military 548,000 203,095 332,000 323,000 41,0001,445,000 403,616 205,000 40,000 67,000 107,000 67,000 11,000833,616

Component	|	Enlisted	Officer	Female	Civilian
File:United States Department of the Army Seal.svg‎	25x25px Army	|	456,651	88,093	74,411	243,172
File:USMC logo.svg‎‎	25x25px Marine Corps	|	182,147	20,639	12,290
File:US-DeptOfNavy-Seal.svg‎ ‎	25x25px Navy	|	276,276	51,093	51,029	182,845
File:Seal of the US Air Force.svg‎	25x25px Air Force	|	261,193	64,370	64,137	154,032
File:USCG S W.svg‎‎	25x25px Coast Guard	|	32,647	8,051	4,965	7,396
Total Active	|	1,174,563	224,144	203,375	580,049
File:National Guard.gif‎‎	25x25px Army National Guard	|
File:United States AR seal.svg‎	25x25px Army Reserve	|
File:MarforresLogo.jpg	25x25px Marine Corps Forces Reserve	|
File:United States NR Seal.svg‎‎	25x25px Navy Reserve	|
File:Air national guard shield.svg‎	25x25px Air National Guard	|
File:Air Force Reserve Command.png‎	25x25px Air Force Reserve	|
File:United States Coast Guard Reserve emblem.png‎‎	25x25px Coast Guard Reserve	|
Total Reserve components of the United States armed forces	Reserve Components	|
Other DOD Personnel	|				97,976

Personnel stationing

Overseas

As of 31 December 2010, U.S. Armed Forces were stationed at more than 820 installations in at least 135 countries. Some of the largest contingents are the 85,600 military personnel deployed in Iraq, the 103,700 in Afghanistan, the 52,440 in Germany ''(see list''), the 35,688 in Japan (USFJ), the 28,500 in Republic of Korea (USFK), the 9,660 in Italy, and the 9,015 in the United Kingdom respectively. These numbers change frequently due to the regular recall and deployment of units.

Altogether, 77,917 military personnel are located in Europe, 141 in the former Soviet Union, 47,236 in East Asia and the Pacific, 3,362 in North Africa, the Near East, and South Asia, 1,355 in sub-Saharan Africa and 1,941 in the Western Hemisphere excepting the United States itself.

Within the United States

''Including U.S. territories and ships afloat within territorial waters''

As of 31 December 2009, a total of 1,137,568 personnel were on active duty within the United States and its territories (including 84,461 afloat). The vast majority, 941,629 of them, were stationed at various bases within the Contiguous United States. There were an additional 37,245 in Hawaii and 20,450 in Alaska. 84,461 were at sea, 2,972 in Guam, and 179 in Puerto Rico.

Types of Personnel

Enlisted

Prospective service members are often recruited from high school and college, the target age being those ages 18 to 28. With the permission of a parent or guardian, applicants can enlist at the age of 17 and participate in the Delayed Entry Program (DEP). In this program, the applicant is given the opportunity to participate in locally sponsored military-related activities, which can range from sports to competitions (each recruiting station DEP program will vary), led by recruiters or other military liaisons.

After enlistment, new recruits undergo Basic Training (also known as boot camp in the Navy, Coast Guard and Marines), followed by schooling in their primary Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) or rating at any of the numerous training facilities around the world. Each branch conducts basic training differently. For example, Marines send all non-infantry MOS’s to an infantry skills course known as Marine Combat Training prior to their technical schools, while Air Force Basic Military Training graduates attend Technical Training and are awarded an Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC) at the apprentice (3) skill level. The terms for this vary greatly, all non-infantry Army recruits undergo Basic Combat Training (BCT), followed by Advanced Individual Training (AIT), while all combat arms recruits go to OSUT, one station unit training which combines basic and AIT, while the Navy send its recruits to Recruit Training and then to "A" schools to earn a rating. The Coast Guard's recruits attend basic training and follow with an "A" school to earn a rating.

Initially, recruits without higher education or college degrees will hold the pay grade of E-1, and will be elevated to E-2 usually soon after the completion of Basic Training. Different services have different incentive programs for enlistees, such as higher initial ranks for college credit and referring friends who go on to enlist as well. Participation in DEP is one way recruits can achieve rank before their departure to Basic Training.

There are several different authorized pay grade advancement requirements in each junior enlisted rank category (E-1 to E-3), which differ by service. Enlistees in the Army can attain the initial pay grade of E-4 (Specialist) with a full four-year degree, but the highest initial entry pay grade is usually E-3 (Members of the Army Band program can expect to enter service at the grade of E-4). Promotion through the junior enlisted ranks occurs upon attaining a specified number of years of service (which can be waived by the Soldiers chain of command), a specified level of technical proficiency, and/or maintenance of good conduct. Promotion can be denied with reason.

Non-commissioned officers

With very few exceptions, becoming a non-commissioned officer (NCO) in the United States military is accomplished by progression through the lower enlisted ranks. However, unlike promotion through the lower enlisted tier, promotion to NCO is generally competitive. NCO ranks begin at E-4 or E-5, depending upon service, and are generally attained between three and six years of service. Junior NCOs function as first-line supervisors and squad leaders, training the junior enlisted in their duties and guiding their career advancement.

While considered part of the non-commissioned officer corps by law, senior non-commissioned officers (SNCOs) referred to as Chief Petty Officers in the Navy and Coast Guard, or staff non-commissioned officers in the Marine Corps, perform duties more focused on leadership rather than technical expertise. Promotion to the SNCO ranks, E-7 through E-9 (E-6 through E-9 in the Marine Corps) is highly competitive. Personnel totals at the pay grades of E-8 and E-9 are limited by federal law to 2.5 percent and 1 percent of a service's enlisted force, respectively. SNCOs act as leaders of small units and as staff. Some SNCOs manage programs at headquarters level and a select few wield responsibility at the highest levels of the military structure. Most unit commanders have a SNCO as an enlisted advisor. All SNCOs are expected to mentor junior commissioned officers as well as the enlisted in their duty sections. The typical enlistee can expect to attain SNCO rank after 10 to 16 years of service.

Each of the five services employs a single Senior Enlisted Advisor at departmental level. This individual is the highest ranking enlisted member within his/her respective service and functions as the chief advisor to the service secretary, service chief of staff, and Congress on matters concerning the enlisted force. These individuals carry responsibilities and protocol requirements equivalent to three-star general and flag officers. They are as follows:

Sergeant Major of the Army

Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps

Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy

Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force

Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard

Warrant Officers

Additionally, all services except for the Air Force have an active Warrant Officer corps. Above the rank of Warrant Officer One, these officers may also be commissioned, but usually serve in a more technical and specialized role within units. More recently though they can also serve in more traditional leadership roles associated with the more recognizable officer corps. With one notable exception (helicopter and fixed wing pilots in the U.S. Army), these officers ordinarily have already been in the military often serving in senior NCO positions in the field in which they later serve as a Warrant Officer as a technical expert. Most Army pilots have served some enlisted time. It is also possible to enlist, complete basic training, go directly to the Warrant Officer Candidate school at Fort Rucker, Alabama, and then on to flight school.

Warrant officers in the U.S. military garner the same customs and courtesies as commissioned officers. They may attend the Officer's club, receive a command and are saluted by junior warrant officers and all enlisted service members.

The Air Force ceased to grant warrants in 1959 when the grades of E-8 and E-9 were created. Most non-flying duties performed by warrant officers in other services are instead performed by senior NCOs in the Air Force.

Commissioned officers

There are five common ways to receive a commission as an officer in one of the branches of the U.S. military (although other routes are possible).

Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC)

Officer Candidate School (OCS): This can be through active-duty OCS academies, or, in the case of the National Guard, through state-run academies.

Service academies (United States Military Academy at West Point, New York; United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland; United States Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, Colorado; the United States Coast Guard Academy at New London, Connecticut; and the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York.)

Direct commission: civilians who have special skills that are critical to sustaining military operations and supporting troops may receive direct commissions. These officers occupy leadership positions in the following areas: law, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, nurse corps, intelligence, supply-logistics-transportation, engineering, public affairs, chaplain corps, oceanography, and others.

Battlefield commission: Under certain conditions, enlisted personnel who have skills that separate them from their peers can become officers by direct commissioning of a commander so authorized to grant them. This type of commission is rarely granted and is reserved only for the most exceptional enlisted personnel; it is done on an ''ad hoc'' basis, typically only in wartime. No direct battlefield commissions have been awarded since the Vietnam War. The Air Force and Navy do not employ this commissioning path.

Limited Duty Officer: Due to the highly technical nature of some officer billets, the Navy employs a system of promoting proven senior enlisted members to the ranks of commissioned officers. They fill a need that is similar to, but distinct from that filled by Warrant Officers (to the point where their accession is through the same school). While Warrant Officers remain technical experts, LDOs take on the role of a generalist, like that of officers commissioned through more traditional sources. LDOs are limited, not by their authority, but by the types of billets they are allowed to fill. However, in recent times, they have come to be used more and more like their more-traditional counterparts.

Officers receive a commission assigning them to the officer corps from the President (with the consent of the Senate). To accept this commission, all officers must take an oath of office.

Through their careers, officers usually will receive further training at one or a number of the many staff colleges.

Company-grade officers in pay grades O-1 through O-3 (known as "junior" officers in the Navy and Coast Guard in pay grades O-1 through O-4) function as leaders of smaller units or sections of a unit, typically with an experienced SNCO assistant and mentor.

Field-grade officers in pay grades O-4 through O-6 (known as "senior" officers in the Navy and Coast Guard in pay grades O-5 and O-6) lead significantly larger and more complex operations, with gradually more competitive promotion requirements.

General officers, or flag officers in the Navy and Coast Guard, serve at the highest levels and oversee major portions of the military mission.

Five-Star Ranking

These are ranks of the highest honor and responsibility in the armed forces, but they are almost never given during peacetime service and have only been held by a very few officers during wartime:

General of the Army

Fleet Admiral

General of the Air Force

No corresponding rank exists for the Marine Corps or the Coast Guard. As with three- and four-star ranks, Congress is the approving authority for a five-star rank confirmation.

The rank of General of the Armies is considered senior to General of the Army, but was never held by active duty officers at the same time as persons who held the rank of General of the Army. It has been held by two people: John J. Pershing who received the rank in 1919 after World War I, and George Washington who received it posthumously in 1976 as part of the American Bicentennial celebrations. Pershing, appointed to General of the Armies in active duty status for life, was still alive at the time of the first five-star appointments during World War II, and was thereby acknowledged as superior in grade by seniority to any World War II era Generals of the Army. George Washington's appointment by Public Law 94-479 to General of the Armies of the United States was established by law as having "rank and precedence over all other grades of the Army, past or present," making him not only superior to Pershing, but superior to any grade in the United States Army in perpetuity.

In the Navy, the theoretically corresponding rank to General of the Armies is Admiral of the Navy. It was never held by active duty officers at the same time as persons who held the rank of Fleet Admiral. George Dewey is the only person to have ever held this rank. After the establishment of the rank of Fleet Admiral in 1944, the Department of the Navy specified that the rank of Fleet Admiral was to be junior to the rank of Admiral of the Navy. However, since Dewey died in 1917 before the establishment of the rank of Fleet Admiral, the six star rank status has not been totally confirmed.

Demographic controversies

Black troops served in the American Revolution, American Civil War (see U.S. Colored Troops) and in the Indian Wars (see Buffalo Soldiers), rendering important service, but typically in segregated units commanded by white officers. During World War II, most black troops served only as truck drivers and as stevedores. In the midst of the Battle of the Bulge, General Eisenhower was severely short of replacement troops for existing military units—all of which were totally white in composition. Consequently, he made the decision to allow African American soldiers to pick up a gun and join the white military units to fight in combat for the first time. More than 2000 black soldiers had volunteered to go to the front. This was the first step toward a desegregated United States military.

On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman issued Executive Order 9981, which established equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin and it prohibited segregation of military units for those reasons. It was preceded by efforts and pressure from the civil rights movement led by Asa Philip Randolph. The Korean War was the first conflict in American history in which black soldiers were integrated into white military units.

Though women may serve as military police, combat pilots, on combat ships, and, as of 2010, submarines, female service members are prohibited by policy from intentional assignment to certain ground combat forces. (See History of women in the military#United States.)

The "don't ask, don't tell" policy (Defense Directive 1304.26) was implemented in 1993 by President Bill Clinton. Federal law () continues to mandate the discharge of homosexual service members, and "don't ask, don't tell" was intended to minimize the number of such discharges by reducing the frequency and scope of investigations into a service member's sexual orientation. Previously, official and detailed investigations into a service member's sexual orientation or conduct could be (and often were) initiated on the basis of very limited evidence, service members could be directly asked if they were homosexual and criminally prosecuted if they lied. "Don't ask, don't tell" allows homosexuals to serve in the military as long as they do not disclose their sexual orientation; the Government is also not allowed to ask service members or prospective recruits about their sexual orientation, and the policy stipulates the minimum threshold for the military to open an investigation (similar to the legal concept of "probable cause"). Even under "don't ask, don't tell", thousands of service members continued to be discharged when their orientation came to the attention of the military, such as members openly claiming to be homosexual or entering a same-sex marriage.

Both policies have been the subject of high-profile public controversy in the 1990s and 2000s, with advocates citing military necessity and the special requirements of combat conditions, and opponents denying military necessity and characterizing the policies as unjustified discrimination. On 18 December 2010, the 111th United States Congress passed legislation to repeal "don't ask, don't tell" when the U.S. Senate approved a bill previously passed by the House of Representatives. Per this legislation, gay, lesbian, and bisexual servicemembers will be allowed to serve openly in the U.S. military, pending certification by the President and military chiefs.

Non-citizens are allowed to join the U.S. military (but not to serve as officers) if they possess a green card. Green card holders are required to register for Selective Service. Those serving are given an expedited citizenship process. Currently, 40,000 non-citizens are enlisted with 8,000 enlistments a year. Federal law allows application for citizenship after one year of active service and President Bush signed an executive order allowing non-citizens to apply for citizenship after only one day of active-duty military service. A program to recruit a limited number of specially skilled immigrants with only temporary immigration status drew some controversy. Illegal immigrants are not allowed to enlist although some have completed JROTC.

African-American representation in high quality Army recruits has declined by 7.1 percent between 2000 and 2007. The primary factor driving this decrease appears to be the American involvement in the Iraq War.

Representation of numerous religious affiliations is present throughout the branches of the military.

Suicide rates

As of 2010, the suicide rates in the U.S. armed forces are at record high levels. In some theaters of operations, such as Afghanistan, losses due to suicide exceed deaths due to enemy actions. Rates among the Army and Marines run at about 20 per 100,000 people per year.

Order of precedence

Under current Department of Defense regulation, the various components of the Armed Forces have a set order of seniority. Examples of the use of this system include the display of service flags, placement of Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, and Airmen in formation, etc. When the United States Coast Guard shall operate as part of the Navy, the cadets, United States Coast Guard Academy, the United States Coast Guard, and the Coast Guard Reserve shall take precedence, respectively, after the midshipmen, United States Naval Academy; the United States Navy; and Naval Reserve.

Cadets, US Military Academy

Midshipmen, US Naval Academy

Cadets, United States Coast Guard Academy (''when the Coast Guard shall operate as part of the Navy'')

Cadets, US Air Force Academy

Cadets, United States Coast Guard Academy (''when the Coast Guard shall operate as part of the Department of Homeland Security'')

Midshipmen, US Merchant Marine Academy

United States Army

United States Marine Corps

United States Navy

United States Coast Guard (''when the Coast Guard shall operate as part of the Navy'')

United States Air Force

United States Coast Guard (''when the Coast Guard shall operate as part of the Department of Homeland Security'')

Army National Guard of the United States

United States Army Reserve

United States Marine Corps Reserve

United States Naval Reserve

United States Coast Guard Reserve (''when the Coast Guard shall operate as part of the Navy'')

Air National Guard of the United States

United States Air Force Reserve

United States Coast Guard Reserve (''when the Coast Guard shall operate as part of the Department of Homeland Security'')

Other training and auxiliary organizations of the Army, Marine Corps, United States Merchant Marine, Civil Air Patrol, and United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, as in the preceding order.

Note: While the United States Navy is actually older than the United States Marine Corps, the Marine Corps takes precedence over the Navy due to previous inconsistencies in the Navy's birth date. The Marine Corps has recognized its observed birth date on a more consistent basis. The Second Continental Congress established the Navy on 13 October 1775 and the Marine Corps on 10 November 1775. The Navy did not officially recognize 13 October 1775 as its birth date until 1972 when, then-Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt authorized it to be observed as such.

Military Dependents

Military dependents are the spouses and children of active duty service members. The US military provides housing , medical care, schools and other social services to military dependents, including the largest elementary and high school system (under one single department) called the DODEA in the world and includes overseas schools on military bases around the world.

See also

Awards and decorations of the United States military

Full-spectrum dominance

List of active United States military aircraft

List of currently active United States military land vehicles

List of currently active United States military watercraft

Military expression

Military justice

Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance

State Defense Forces

TRICARE - Health care plan for the U.S. uniformed services

United States military casualties of war Relative costs of American wars

United States Service academies

References

External links

Official U.S. Department of Defense website

Global Security on U.S. Military Operations

Department of Defense regulation detailing Order of precedence: DoD Directive 1005.8, 31 October 1977 and also in law at Title 10, United States Code, Section 133.

Army regulation detailing Order of Precedence: AR 840-10, 1 November 1998

Marine Corps regulation on Order of Precedence: NAVMC 2691, Marine Corps Drill and Ceremonies Manual, Part II, Ceremonies, Chapter 12-1.

Navy regulation detailing Order of Precedence: U.S. Navy Regulations, Chapter 12, Flags, Pennants, Honors, Ceremonies and Customs.

Air Force regulation detailing Order of Precedence: AFMAN 36-2203, Drill and Ceremonies, 3 June 1996, Chapter 7, Section A.

*

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Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
Name	Dwight D. Eisenhower
Office	34th President of the United States
Vicepresident	Richard Nixon
Term start	January 20, 1953
Term end	January 20, 1961
Predecessor	Harry Truman
Successor	John Kennedy
Office2	1st Supreme Allied Commander Europe
President2	Harry Truman
Term start2	April 2, 1951
Term end2	May 30, 1952
Predecessor2	Position established
Successor2	Matthew Ridgway
Office3	1st Governor of the American Zone of Occupied Germany
Term start3	May 8, 1945
Term end3	November 10, 1945
Predecessor3	Position established
Successor3	George Patton (Acting)
Office4	13th President of Columbia University
Term start4	1948
Term end4	1953
Predecessor4	Frank Fackenthal (Acting)
Successor4	Grayson Kirk
Birth date	October 14, 1890
Birth place	Denison, Texas, U.S.
Death date	March 28, 1969
Death place	Washington, D.C., U.S.
Party	Republican Party
Spouse	Mamie
Children	DoudJohn
Alma mater	United States Military AcademyUnited States Army Command and General Staff CollegeUnited States Army War College
Profession	Officer
Religion	Presbyterianism
Signature	Dwight Eisenhower Signature.svg
Signature alt	Cursive signature in ink
Rank
Branch	United States Army
Serviceyears	1915–19531961–1969
Battles	World War II
Awards	Army Distinguished Service Medal (4 oak leaf clusters)Legion of MeritOrder of the Southern CrossOrder of the BathOrder of MeritLegion of Honor''See more'' }}

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (pronounced , ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army. During World War II, 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, from the Western Front. In 1951, he became the first supreme commander of NATO.

A Republican, Eisenhower entered the 1952 presidential race to counter the non-interventionism of Sen. Robert A. Taft, and to crusade against "Communism, Korea and corruption." He won by a landslide, defeating Democrat Adlai Stevenson and ending two decades of the New Deal Coalition holding the White House. As President, Eisenhower concluded negotiations with China to end the Korean War. His New Look, a policy of nuclear deterrence, gave priority to inexpensive nuclear weapons while reducing the funding for the other military forces to keep pressure on the Soviet Union and reduce federal deficits at the same time. He began NASA to compete against the Soviet Union in the space race. Near the end of his term, the Eisenhower Administration was embarrassed by the U-2 incident and was planning the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

On the domestic front, he covertly helped remove Joseph McCarthy from power but otherwise left most political actions to his Vice President, Richard Nixon. He was a moderate conservative who continued the New Deal policies, and in fact enlarged the scope of Social Security, and signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. Though passive on civil rights at first, he sent federal troops to enforce the Supreme Court's ruling to desegregate schools. He was the first term-limited president in accordance with the 22nd Amendment.

Eisenhower's two terms were mainly peaceful, and generally prosperous except for a sharp economic recession in 1958–59. Although public approval for his administration was comparatively low by the end of his term, his reputation improved over time and in recent surveys of historians, Eisenhower is often ranked as one of the top ten U.S. Presidents.

Family, early life and education

The Eisenhauer (German for "iron striker") family migrated from Germany to Switzerland in the 17th century due to religious persecution, and a century later came to the United States. A misspelling in official documents changed their name, and the Eisenhower family lived in York, Pennsylvania from 1730 to the 1880s, when they moved to Kansas. Eisenhower's father, David Jacob Eisenhower (1863–1942) was a college-educated engineer but had trouble making a living and the family was poor. Eisenhower's mother, Ida Elizabeth Stover, born in Virginia of German Lutheran ancestry, moved to Kansas from Virginia. She married David Jacob on September 23, 1885 in Lecompton, Kansas on the campus of their alma mater, Lane University. The family lived in Texas from 1889 until 1892, then returned to Kansas. Eisenhower was born on October 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas, the third of seven boys. All of the boys were called "Ike", "Big Ike", "Little Ike", or (in Dwight's case) "Ugly Ike" during their lives, but the nickname's origin is a mystery; by World War II only Dwight was still called "Ike". In 1892 the family moved to Abilene, Kansas, which Eisenhower considered as his home town. He graduated from Abilene High School in 1909. Though born ''David'', he was called ''Dwight'', so he reversed the order of his given names when he enrolled at the United States Military Academy in 1911, and received his commission as a second lieutenant in 1915. Eisenhower met Mamie Geneva Doud of Boone, Iowa while he was stationed in Texas. They married on July 1, 1916, in Denver, and 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. Their second son, John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower, was born on August 3, 1922; John served in the United States Army, retiring as a brigadier general, 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. He married Barbara Jean Thompson on June 10, 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.

When Eisenhower was a child, his mother Ida Elizabeth Stover Eisenhower, previously a member of the River Brethren sect of the Mennonites, joined the ''International Bible Students Assocation'', which would evolve into what is now known as Jehovah's Witnesses. The Eisenhower home served as the local meeting hall from 1896 to 1915 but Eisenhower never joined the International Bible Students. His decision to attend West Point saddened his mother, who felt that warfare was "rather wicked," but she did not overrule him. Eisenhower was baptized in the Presbyterian Church in 1953. In 1948, he had called himself "one of the most deeply religious men I know" though unattached to any "sect or organization".

Eisenhower attended Abilene High School in Abilene, Kansas and graduated with the class of 1909. He was then employed as a night foreman at the Belle Springs Creamery. After Eisenhower 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. Kansas Senator Joseph L. Bristow recommended Eisenhower for an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1911, which he received. Eisenhower graduated in the upper half of the class of 1915, which became known as "the class the stars fell on", because 59 members eventually became general officers.

Athletic career

Eisenhower later said that "not making the baseball team at West Point was one of the greatest disappointments of my life, maybe my greatest." However he did make the football team, and was a varsity starter as running back and linebacker in 1912, tackling the legendary Jim Thorpe of the Carlisle Indians that year. Eisenhower broke his leg that game, however, and it became permanently damaged on horseback and in the boxing ring, so he turned to fencing and gymnastics. Eisenhower would later serve as junior varsity football coach and yell leader. In 1916, while stationed at Fort Sam Houston, Eisenhower was football coach for St. Louis College, now St. Mary's University.

Eisenhower played golf very enthusiastically later in life, and joined the Augusta National Golf Club in 1948. 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.

Early military career

Eisenhower enrolled at the United States Military Academy at West Point in June 1911. His parents, who were against militarism, 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. During the war he trained tank crews at "Camp Colt"—his first command—on the grounds of "Pickett's Charge" on the Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Civil War battle site. Ike and his tank crews 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.

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 Carl 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. There he graduated first in a class of 245 officers. He 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. Eisenhower had strong philosophical disagreements with his patron regarding the role of the Philippine army and the leadership qualities that an American army officer should exhibit and develop in his subordinates. The dispute and resulting antipathy lasted the rest of their lives. 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 the rank of permanent lieutenant colonel in 1936 after 16 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.

Eisenhower returned to the U.S. in 1939 and held a series of staff positions in Washington, D.C., California and Texas. In June 1941, he was appointed Chief of Staff to General Walter Krueger, Commander of the 3rd Army, at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. He was promoted to brigadier general on October 3, 1941. Although his administrative abilities had been noticed, on the eve of the U.S. entry into World War II he had never held an active command above a battalion and was far from being considered as a potential commander of major operations.

World War II

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Eisenhower was assigned to the General Staff in Washington, where he served until June 1942 with responsibility for creating the major war plans to defeat Japan and Germany. He was appointed Deputy Chief in charge of Pacific Defenses under the Chief of War Plans Division (WPD), General Leonard T. Gerow, and then succeeded Gerow as Chief of the War Plans Division. Then he was appointed Assistant Chief of Staff in charge of the new Operations Division (which replaced WPD) under Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall, who spotted talent and promoted accordingly.

At the end of May 1942, Eisenhower accompanied Lt. Gen. Henry H. Arnold, commanding general of the Army Air Forces, to London to assess the effectiveness of the then-theater commander in England, Maj. Gen. James E. Chaney. He returned to Washington on June 3 with a pessimistic assessment, stating he had an "uneasy feeling" about Chaney and his staff. On June 23, 1942, he returned to London as Commanding General, European Theater of Operations (ETOUSA), based in London, and replaced Chaney.

In November, he was also appointed Supreme Commander Allied (Expeditionary) Force of the North African Theater of Operations (NATOUSA) through the new operational Headquarters A(E)FHQ. The word "expeditionary" was dropped soon after his appointment for security reasons. In February 1943, his authority was extended as commander of AFHQ across the Mediterranean basin to include the British 8th Army, commanded by General Bernard Law Montgomery. The 8th Army had advanced across the Western Desert from the east and was ready for the start of the Tunisia Campaign. Eisenhower gained his fourth star and gave up command of ETOUSA to be commander of NATOUSA. After the capitulation of Axis forces in North Africa, Eisenhower oversaw the invasion of Sicily and the invasion of the Italian mainland.

In December 1943, Roosevelt decided that Eisenhower—not Marshall—would be Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. In January 1944, he resumed command of ETOUSA and the following month was officially designated as the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), serving in a dual role until the end of hostilities in Europe in May 1945. In these positions he was charged with planning and carrying out the Allied assault on the coast of Normandy in June 1944 under the code name Operation Overlord, the liberation of western Europe and the invasion of Germany. A month after the Normandy D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, the invasion of southern France took place, and control of the forces which took part in the southern invasion passed from the AFHQ to the SHAEF. From then until the end of the War in Europe on May 8, 1945, Eisenhower through SHAEF had supreme command of all operational Allied forces², and through his command of ETOUSA, administrative command of all U.S. forces, on the Western Front north of the Alps. As recognition of his senior position in the Allied command, on December 20, 1944, he was promoted to General of the Army, equivalent to the rank of Field Marshal in most European armies. In this and the previous high commands he held, Eisenhower showed his great talents for leadership and diplomacy. Although he had never seen action himself, he won the respect of front-line commanders. He dealt skillfully with difficult subordinates such as Patton, and allies such as Winston Churchill, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and General Charles de Gaulle. He had fundamental disagreements with Churchill and Montgomery over questions of strategy, but these rarely upset his relationships with them. He negotiated with Soviet Marshal Zhukov, and such was the confidence that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had in him, he sometimes worked directly with Stalin, much to the chagrin of the British High Command who disliked being bypassed.

It was never certain that Operation Overlord would succeed. The seriousness surrounding the entire decision, including the timing and the location of the Normandy invasion, might be summarized by a second shorter speech that Eisenhower wrote in advance, in case he needed it. Long after the successful landings on D-Day and the BBC broadcast of Eisenhower's brief speech concerning them, the never-used second speech was found in a shirt pocket by an aide. It read:

:Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.

Aftermath of World War II

Military Governor and Chief of Staff

Following the German unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945, Eisenhower was appointed Military Governor of the U.S. Occupation Zone, based in Frankfurt am Main. He had no responsibility for the other three zones, controlled by Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. Upon discovery of the Nazi concentration camps, he ordered camera crews to comprehensively document evidence of the atrocities in them for use in the Nuremberg Trials. He made the decision to reclassify German prisoners of war (POWs) in U.S. custody as Disarmed Enemy Forces (DEFs). For the treatment of German economy and German civilians Eisenhower followed the orders laid down by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) in directive JCS 1067, but softened them by bringing in 400,000 tons of food for civilians and allowing more fraternization. In dealing with the devastation of postwar Germany he dealt with severe food shortages and a huge influx of refugees by distributing American food and medical supplies. His actions reflected the shifting American attitudes from seeing the German people as villains to seeing them as victims of the Nazis, while aggressively purging ex-Nazis.

In November 1945, Eisenhower returned to Washington to replace Marshall as Chief of Staff of the Army. His main role was rapid demobilization of millions of soldiers, a slow job that was delayed by lack of shipping. As East-West tensions over Germany and Greece escalated, Eisenhower was strongly convinced in 1946 that Russia did not want war and that friendly relations could be maintained; he strongly supported the new United Nations. However, in formulating policies regarding the atomic bomb as well as toward the Soviets Truman listened to the State Department and ignored Eisenhower and the entire Pentagon. By mid-1947 Eisenhower was moving toward a containment policy to stop Soviet expansion.

Eisenhower was a Life Member of the National Rifle Association and gave the keynote speech at the Association's 75th annual meeting in 1946.

President at Columbia University and NATO Supreme Commander

In 1948, Eisenhower became President of Columbia University, a premier private university in New York. The assignment was described as not being a good fit in either direction. During that year Eisenhower's memoir, ''Crusade in Europe'', was published. Critics regarded it as one of the finest U.S. military memoirs, and it was a major financial success as well. [[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-14059-0018, Berlin, Oberbefehlshaber der vier Verbündeten.jpg|thumb|The Supreme Commanders on June 5, 1945 in Berlin: Bernard Montgomery, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Georgy Zhukov and Jean de Lattre de Tassigny.]] Eisenhower's stint as president of Columbia University was punctuated by his activity within the Council on Foreign Relations, a study group he led as president concerning the political and military implications of the Marshall Plan, and The American Assembly, Eisenhower's "vision of a great cultural center where business, professional and governmental leaders could meet from time to time to discuss and reach conclusions concerning problems of a social and political nature". Biographer Blanche Weisen Cook suggests that this period served as "the political education of General Eisenhower", as he had to prioritize wide ranging educational, administrative, and financial demands for the university. Through his involvement in the Council on Foreign Relations, he also gained exposure to economic analysis which would become the bedrock of his understanding in economic policy. "Whatever General Eisenhower knows about economics he has learned at the study group meetings" one Aid to Europe member claimed.

One reason for Eisenhower's acceptance of the presidency of the university was to expand his ability to promote "the American form of democracy" through education. He was clear on this point to the trustees involved in the search committee. He informed them that his main purpose was "to promote the basic concepts of education in a democracy." As a result he was "almost incessantly" devoted to the idea of the American Assembly, a concept which he developed into an institution by the end of 1950.

Within months of beginning his tenure as university president, Eisenhower was requested to advise Secretary of Defense James Forrestal on unification of the armed services. Approximately six months after his installation, he became the informal chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon. Two months later he fell ill and spent over a month in recovery at Augusta National Golf Club. He returned to his post in mid-May and in July 1949 took a two-month vacation out of state. Because the American Assembly had begun to take shape, he traveled around the country in mid to late 1950 building financial support from Columbia Associates, an alumni association. Eisenhower was unknowingly building resentment and a reputation among the Columbia faculty and staff as an absentee president who was using the university for his own interests. However, the Columbia trustees refused to accept his resignation in December 1950, when he took leave from the university to become the Supreme Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and was given operational command of NATO forces in Europe. Eisenhower retired from active service on May 31, 1952, and resumed the university presidency, which he held until January 1953.

The contacts gained through university and American Assembly fund-raising activities would later become important supporters in Eisenhower's bid for the Republican party nomination and the presidency. Meanwhile, Columbia University's liberal faculty members became disenchanted with the university president's ties to oilmen and businessmen including Leonard McCollum, president of Continental Oil, Frank Abrams, chairman of Standard Oil of New Jersey, Bob Kleberg, president of King Ranch, H.J. Porter, a Texas oil producer, Bob Woodruff, president of Coca-Cola and Clarence Francis, General Foods chairman.

As president of Columbia University, Eisenhower gave voice and form to his ingrained opinions about the supremacy and difficulties of American democracy. His tenure marked his transformation from military to civilian leadership. It also enabled him to demonstrate his profound commitment to democratic citizenship. Biographer Travis Beal Jacobs also suggests that the alienation of the Columbia faculty contributed to sharp intellectual criticism of him for many years.

Entry into politics

Not long after his return in 1952, a "Draft Eisenhower" movement in the Republican party persuaded him to declare his candidacy in the 1952 presidential election to counter the candidacy of non-interventionist Senator Robert Taft. (Eisenhower had been courted by both parties in 1948 and had declined to run then.) Eisenhower defeated Taft for the nomination, having won critical delegate votes from Texas, but came to an agreement that Taft would stay out of foreign affairs as Eisenhower followed a conservative domestic policy. Eisenhower's campaign was noted for the simple but effective slogan, "I Like Ike", and was a crusade against the Truman administration's policies regarding "Korea, Communism and Corruption."

Eisenhower promised during his campaign to go to Korea himself and end the war there. He also promised to maintain both a strong NATO commitment against Communism and a corruption-free frugal administration at home. He and his running mate Richard Nixon, whose daughter later married Eisenhower's grandson David, defeated Democrats Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman in a landslide, marking the first Republican return to the White House in 20 years, with Eisenhower becoming the last President born in the 19th century. Eisenhower, at 62, was the oldest man to be elected President since James Buchanan in 1856. Eisenhower was the only general to serve as President in the 20th century, and the most recent President to have never held elected office prior to the Presidency. The other Presidents not to have sought prior elected office were Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant, William Howard Taft, and Herbert Hoover.

Presidency 1953–1961

Throughout his presidency, Eisenhower preached a doctrine of dynamic conservatism. He continued all the major New Deal programs still in operation, especially Social Security. He expanded its programs and rolled them into a new cabinet-level agency, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, while extending benefits to an additional ten million workers. His cabinet, consisting of several corporate executives and one labor leader, was dubbed by one journalist, "Eight millionaires and a plumber."

In 1956, Eisenhower faced Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver on the Democratic ticket. Eisenhower won his second term with 457 of 531 votes in the Electoral College, and 57.6% of the popular vote.

Interstate Highway System

One of Eisenhower's enduring achievements was championing and signing the bill that authorized the Interstate Highway System in 1956. He justified the project through the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 as essential to American security during the Cold War. It was believed that large cities would be targets in a possible future war, and the highways were designed to evacuate them and allow the military to move in.

Eisenhower's goal to create improved highways was influenced by his involvement in the U.S. Army's 1919 Transcontinental Motor Convoy. He was assigned as an observer for the mission, which involved sending a convoy of U.S. Army vehicles coast to coast. His subsequent experience with German autobahns during World War II convinced him of the benefits of an Interstate Highway System. Noticing the improved ability to move logistics throughout the country, he thought an Interstate Highway System in the U.S. would not only be beneficial for military operations, but be the building block for continued economic growth.

Foreign policy

Eisenhower's foreign policy was marked by "the brave new world of CIA-led coups and assassinations. It was Eisenhower whose CIA deposed the leaders of Iran, Guatemala, and possibly the Belgian Congo. The Eisenhower administration also planned the Bay of Pigs Invasion to overthrow Fidel Castro in Cuba, which John F. Kennedy was left to carry out." However, he held out an olive branch to the Soviet Union after Joseph Stalin's death.

Mideast and Eisenhower doctrine

Soon after taking office, the Eisenhower administration, in cooperation with the British government, authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to help the Iranian army overthrow Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, and restore the Shah to power.

In November 1956 Eisenhower decided that he could not support the combined British, French and Israeli invasion of Egypt in response to the Suez Crisis, while at the same time condemn the brutal Soviet invasion of Hungary in response to the Hungarian Revolution. Therefore he publicly disavowed his allies at the United Nations, and forced them to withdraw from Egypt. However he later privately acknowledged this as his biggest foreign policy mistake, since he felt it weakened two crucial European Cold War allies, and established Gamel Abdel Nasser as an anti-Western leader who could dominate the Arab world. After the Suez Crisis the United States became the protector of unstable friendly governments in the Middle East via the "Eisenhower Doctrine". Designed by Secretary of State Dulles, it held the U.S. would be "prepared to use armed force...[to counter] aggression from any country controlled by international communism." Further, the United States would provide economic and military aid and, if necessary, use military force to stop the spread of communism in the Middle East.

Eisenhower applied the doctrine in 1957–58 by dispensing economic aid to shore up the Kingdom of Jordan, and by encouraging Syria's neighbors not to consider military operations against it. More dramatically, in July 1958, he sent 15,000 Marines and soldiers to Lebanon as part of ''Operation Blue Bat'', a non-combat peace-keeping mission to stabilize the pro-Western government and to prevent a radical revolution from sweeping over that country. The mission proved a success and the Marines departed three months later. The deployment came in response to the urgent request of Lebanese president Camille Chamoun after sectarian violence had erupted in the country. Washington considered the military intervention successful since it brought about regional stability, weakened Soviet influence, and intimidated the Egyptian and Syrian governments, whose anti-West political position had hardened after the Suez Crisis.

Most Arab countries were skeptical about the "Eisenhower doctrine" because they considered "Zionist imperialism" the real danger. They did, however, take the opportunity to take free money and weapons. Egypt and Syria openly opposed the initiative and were supported by the Soviet Union. However, Egypt received American aid until 1967.

As the Cold War deepened, Dulles sought to isolate the Soviet Union by building regional alliances of nations against it. Critics sometimes called it "pacto-mania".

Southeast Asia

The French asked Eisenhower for help in French Indochina against the Communists, supplied from China, who were fighting the First Indochina War. In 1953, Eisenhower sent Lt. General John W. "Iron Mike" O'Daniel to Vietnam to study and "assess" the French forces therein. Chief of Staff Matthew Ridgway dissuaded the President from intervening by presenting a comprehensive estimate of the massive military deployment that would be necessary. However, later in 1954, Eisenhower did offer military and economic aid to the new nation of South Vietnam. In the years that followed, Eisenhower increased the number of US military advisors in South Vietnam to 900 men. This due to North Vietnam's support of "uprisings" in the south and concern the nation would fall. After the election of November 1960, Eisenhower in briefing with John F. Kennedy pointed out the communist threat in Southeast Asia as requiring prioritization in the next administration. Eisenhower told Kennedy he considered Laos to be "the cork in the bottle" in regards to the regional threat.

Racial issues

The Eisenhower administration declared racial discrimination a national security issue, meaning that the Communists around the world were using racial discrimination in the U.S. as a point of propaganda attack. The day after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in ''Brown v. Board of Education'' in which segregated ("separate but equal") schools were ruled to be unconstitutional, Eisenhower told District of Columbia officials to make Washington a model for the rest of the country in integrating black and white public school children. He proposed to Congress the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 and signed those acts into law. The 1957 Act for the first time established a permanent civil rights office inside the Justice Department. Although both Acts were weaker than subsequent civil rights legislation (due mostly to the Democratically controlled Senate opposing the original bills (especially Southern Democrats) lead by then-Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Baines Johnson), they constituted the first significant civil rights acts since the Civil Rights Act of 1875, signed by President Ulysses S. Grant.

The "Little Rock Nine" incident of 1957 involved the refusal by Arkansas to honor a Federal court order to integrate the schools. Under , Eisenhower placed the Arkansas National Guard under Federal control and sent Army troops to escort nine black students into Little Rock Central High School, an all-white public school. The integration did not occur without violence. Eisenhower and Arkansas governor Orval Faubus engaged in tense arguments.

Relations with Congress

Eisenhower had a Republican Congress only for his first two years in office; thereafter, he was compelled to consult closely with Democratic Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson in the Senate and Speaker Sam Rayburn in the House, both of Texas. Joe Martin, the Republican Speaker from 1947–1949 and again from 1953–1955, wrote that Eisenhower "never surrounded himself with assistants who could solve political problems with professional skill. There were exceptions, like . . . Leonard W. Hall, who as chairman of the Republican National Committee, tried to open the administration's eyes to the political facts of life, with occasional success. But these exceptions were not enough to right the balance."

Martin concluded that Eisenhower worked through subordinates in dealing with Congress, with results, "often the reverse of what he has desired. Men and women in Congress arrived there by their own wits and exertions, and they know they have got to be reelected on their own. They are inclined to resent having some young fellow who was picked up by the White House without ever having been elected to office himself coming around and telling them 'The Chief wants this.'. . . The administration never made use of many Republicans of consequence whose services in one form or another would have been available for the asking. . . . "

Judicial appointments

Supreme Court

Eisenhower appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:

Earl Warren, 1953 (Chief Justice)

John Marshall Harlan II, 1954

William J. Brennan, 1956

Charles Evans Whittaker, 1957

Potter Stewart, 1958

Other courts

In addition to his five Supreme Court appointments, Eisenhower appointed 45 judges to the United States Courts of Appeals, and 129 judges to the United States district courts.

States admitted to the Union

Alaska – January 3, 1959 49th state

Hawaii – August 21, 1959 50th state

Health issues

Eisenhower was a chain smoker until March 1949. He was probably the first president to allow his personal health problems to become public while in office. On September 24, 1955, while vacationing in Colorado, he had a serious heart attack that required several weeks' hospitalization. He was treated by Dr. Paul Dudley White, a cardiologist with a national reputation, who regularly informed the press of the president's progress. As a consequence of his heart attack, Eisenhower developed a left ventricular aneurysm, which was in turn the cause of a mild stroke on November 25, 1957. The president also suffered from Crohn's disease, a chronic inflammatory condition of the intestine, which necessitated surgery for a bowel obstruction in June 1956. The last three years of Eisenhower's term in office were ones of relatively good health. Eventually, however, after leaving the White House, he suffered several additional heart attacks and was ultimately impaired physically because of them.

End of presidency 1960-1961

In 1961, Eisenhower became the first U.S. president to be constitutionally prevented from running for re-election to the office, having served the maximum two terms allowed by the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment was ratified in 1951, during Harry S. Truman's term, but it stipulated that Truman would not be affected by the amendment.

Eisenhower was also the first outgoing President to come under the protection of the Former Presidents Act; two then-living former Presidents, Herbert Hoover and Harry S. Truman, left office before the Act was passed. Under the act, Eisenhower was entitled to receive a lifetime pension, state-provided staff and a Secret Service detail.

In the 1960 election to choose his successor, Eisenhower endorsed his own Vice-President, Republican Richard Nixon against Democrat John F. Kennedy. He thoroughly supported Nixon over Kennedy, telling friends: "I will do almost anything to avoid turning my chair and country over to Kennedy." However, he only campaigned for Nixon in the campaign's final days and even did Nixon some harm. When asked by reporters at the end of a televised press conference to list one of Nixon's policy ideas he had adopted, he joked, "If you give me a week, I might think of one. I don't remember." Kennedy's campaign used the quote in one of its campaign commercials. Nixon lost narrowly to Kennedy. Eisenhower, who was the oldest president in history at that time (then 70), thus handed power over to the youngest elected president - Kennedy then being aged 43.

On January 17, 1961, Eisenhower gave his final televised Address to the Nation from the Oval Office. In his farewell speech to the nation, Eisenhower raised the issue of the Cold War and role of the U.S. armed forces. He described the Cold War saying: "We face a hostile ideology global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose and insidious in method..." and warned about what he saw as unjustified government spending proposals and continued with a warning that "we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex." Though he said that "we recognize the imperative need for this development," he cautioned that "the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist... Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

Because of legal issues related to holding a military rank while in a civilian office, Eisenhower had resigned his permanent commission as General of the Army before entering the office of President of the United States. Upon completion of his Presidential term, his commission on the retired list was reactivated and Eisenhower again was commissioned a five-star general in the United States Army.

Retirement, death and funeral

Eisenhower retired to the place where he and Mamie had spent much of their post-war time, a working farm adjacent to the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. In 1967, the Eisenhowers donated the farm to the National Park Service and since 1980 it has been open to the public as the Eisenhower National Historic Site. In retirement, he did not completely retreat from political life; he spoke at the 1964 Republican National Convention and appeared with Barry Goldwater in a Republican campaign commercial from Gettysburg.

Eisenhower died of congestive heart failure on March 28, 1969, at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington D.C. The following day his body was moved to the Washington National Cathedral's Bethlehem Chapel where he lay in repose for 28 hours. On March 30, his body was brought by caisson to the United States Capitol where he lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda. On March 31, Eisenhower's body was returned to the National Cathedral where he was given an Episcopal Church funeral service. That evening, Eisenhower's body was placed onto a train en route to Abilene, Kansas. His body arrived on April 2, and was interred later that day in a small chapel on the grounds of the Eisenhower Presidential Library. Eisenhower is buried alongside his son Doud who died at age 3 in 1921, and his wife, Mamie, who died in 1979.

Richard Nixon, by this time himself President, spoke of Eisenhower's death, "Some men are considered great because they lead great armies or they lead powerful nations. For eight years now, Dwight Eisenhower has neither commanded an army nor led a nation; and yet he remained through his final days the world's most admired and respected man, truly the first citizen of the world."

Legacy

After Eisenhower left office, his reputation declined and he was seen as having been a relatively quiet Presidency. This was partly because of the contrast between Eisenhower and his young activist successor, John F. Kennedy. Despite his unprecedented use of Army troops to enforce a federal desegregation order at Central High School in Little Rock, Eisenhower was criticized for his reluctance to support the civil rights movement to the degree which other activists wanted. Eisenhower was also criticized for his handling of the 1960 U-2 incident and the international embarrassment, the Soviet Union's perceived leadership in the Arms race and the Space race, and his failure to publicly oppose McCarthyism. In particular, Eisenhower was criticized for failing to defend George Marshall from attacks by Joseph McCarthy, though he privately deplored McCarthy's tactics and claims. Such omissions were held against him during the liberal climate of the 1960s and 1970s. Since that time, however, Eisenhower's reputation has risen. In recent surveys of historians, Eisenhower often is ranked in the top 10 among all U.S. Presidents.

Although conservatism was riding on the crest of the wave in the 1950s, and Eisenhower shared the sentiment, his administration played a very modest role in shaping the political landscape. Instead of adhering to the party's right-wing orthodoxy, Eisenhower instead looked to moderation and cooperation as a means of governance. This was evidenced in his goal of slowing the growth of New Deal/Fair Deal-era government programs, but not weakening them or rolling them back entirely. Conservative critics of his administration found that he did not do enough to advance the goals of the right: "Eisenhower's victories were," according to Hans Morgenthau, "but accidents without consequence in the history of the Republican party."

Eisenhower was the first President to hire a White House Chief of Staff or "gatekeeper" – an idea that he borrowed from the United States Army, and that has been copied by every president after Lyndon Johnson. (Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter initially tried to operate without a Chief of Staff but both eventually gave up the effort and hired one.)

Eisenhower founded People to People International in 1956, based on his belief that citizen interaction would promote cultural interaction and world peace. The program includes a student ambassador component which sends American youth on educational trips to other countries.

Eisenhower described his position on space and the need for peace during his speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations, New York City, September 22, 1960.

The emergence of this new world poses a vital issue: will outer space be preserved for peaceful use and developed for the benefit of all mankind? Or will it become another focus for the arms race – and thus an area of dangerous and sterile competition? The choice is urgent. And it is ours to make. The nations of the world have recently united in declaring the continent of Antarctica "off limits" to military preparations. We could extend this principle to an even more important sphere. National vested interests have not yet been developed in space or in celestial bodies. Barriers to agreement are now lower than they will ever be again.

Eisenhower also warned about the emerging military–industrial complex in his Chance for Peace Speech:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. ... Is there no other way the world may live?

Eisenhower was the first president to appear on color television. He was videotaped when he spoke at the dedication of WRC-TV's new studios in Washington, D.C., on May 21, 1958. The tape has been preserved and is believed to be the oldest surviving color videotape.

Eisenhower was the last President of the United States born in the 19th century.

Tributes and memorials

He is remembered for his role in World War II, the creation of the Interstate Highway System and ending the Korean War. USS ''Dwight D. Eisenhower'', the second ''Nimitz''-class supercarrier, was named in his honor.

The Interstate Highway System is officially known as the 'Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways' in his honor. Commemorative signs reading "Eisenhower Interstate System" and bearing Eisenhower's permanent 5-star rank insignia were introduced in 1993 and are currently displayed throughout the Interstate System. Several highways are also named for him, including the Eisenhower Expressway (Interstate 290) near Chicago and the Eisenhower Tunnel on Interstate 70 west of Denver.

The British A4 class steam locomotive No. 4496 (renumbered 60008) ''Golden Shuttle'' was renamed ''Dwight D. Eisenhower'' in 1946. It is preserved at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Eisenhower College was a small, liberal arts college chartered in Seneca Falls, New York in 1965, with classes beginning in 1968. Financial problems forced the school to fall under the management of the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1979. Its last class graduated in 1983.

Eisenhower Hall, the cadet activities building at West Point, was completed in 1974. In 1983, the Eisenhower Monument was unveiled at West Point.

The Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California was named after the President in 1971.

The Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center, located at Fort Gordon near Augusta, Georgia, was named in his honor.

In February 1971, ''Dwight D. Eisenhower School'' of Freehold Township, New Jersey was officially opened.

In 1983, The Eisenhower Institute was founded in Washington, D.C., as a policy institute to advance Eisenhower's intellectual and leadership legacies.

In 1989, U.S. Ambassador Charles Price and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dedicated a bronze statue of Eisenhower in Grosvenor Square, London. The statue is located in front of the current US Embassy, London and across from the former command center for the Allied Expeditionary Force during World War II, offices Eisenhower occupied during the war.

In 1999, the United States Congress created the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission, to create an enduring national memorial in Washington, D.C. In 2009, the commission chose the architect Frank Gehry to design the memorial. The memorial will stand near the National Mall on Maryland Avenue, SW across the street from the National Air and Space Museum.

On May 7, 2002, the Old Executive Office Building was officially renamed the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. This building is part of the White House Complex, west of the West Wing. It currently houses a number of executive offices, including ones for the Vice President and his or her spouse.

A county park in East Meadow, New York (Long Island) is named in his honor. In addition, Eisenhower State Park on Lake Texoma near his birthplace of Denison is named in his honor; his actual birthplace is currently operated by the State of Texas as Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site.

Many public high schools and middle schools in the U.S. are named after Eisenhower.

There is a Mount Eisenhower in the Presidential Range of the White Mountains in New Hampshire.

A tree overhanging the 17th hole that always gave him trouble at Augusta National Golf Club, where he was a member, is named the Eisenhower Tree in his honor.

The Eisenhower Golf Club at the United States Air Force Academy, a 36-hole facility featuring the Blue and Silver courses and which is ranked #1 among DoD courses, is named in Eisenhower's honor.

The 18th hole at Cherry Hills Country Club, near Denver, is named in his honor. Eisenhower was a longtime member of the club, one of his favorite courses.

In front of City Hall in Chula Vista, California a tree was dedicated to Eisenhower for the anniversary of his visit to Chula Vista.

Awards and decorations

{| width="100%" |valign="top" |

colspan=2	U.S. military decorations
	Army Distinguished Service Medal w/ 4 oak leaf clusters
	Navy Distinguished Service Medal
	Legion of Merit
	Mexican Border Service Medal
	American Defense Service Medal
	European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal w/ 9 service stars
	World War II Victory Medal
	Army of Occupation Medal w/ "Germany" clasp
	National Defense Service Medal w/ 1 service star
	Order of the Liberator San Martin, Grand Cross (Argentine)
	Order of Merit (Austria), Type II, Grand Cross (Austria)
	Order of the Southern Cross, Grand Cross (Brazil)
	Order of Military Merit, Grand Cross (Brazil)
	Order of Aeronautical Merit, Grand Cross (Brazil)
	War Medal (Brazil)
	Campaign Medal (Brazil)
	Order of the Merit of Chile, Grand Cross (Chile)
	Order of the White Lion, Grand cross (Czechoslovakia)
	Order of the Elephant, Knight (Denmark)
	Order of Abdon Calderón, First Class (Ecuador)
	Order of Ismal, Grand Cordon with Star (Egypt)
	Legion of Honor, Grand Cross (France)
	Order of Liberation, Companion (France)
	Croix de guerre w/ palm (France)
	Order of the Savior
	[[Cross of Military Merit, First Class (Guatemala)
	National Order of Honour and Merit, Grand Cross with Gold Badge (Haiti)
	Order of the Holy Sepulchre, Knight (Holy See)
	Military Order of Italy, Knight Grand Cross with Swords (Italy)
	Order of the Chrysanthemum, Grand Cordon (Japan)
	Order of the Oak Crown, Grand Cross (Luxembourg)
	Luxembourg War Cross (Luxembourg)
	Order of the Aztec Eagle, Collar (Mexico)
	Medal of Civic Merit (Mexico)
	Order of Ouissam Alaouite, Grand Cross (Morocco)
	Order of the Netherlands Lion, Knight Grand Cross (Netherlands)
	Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, Grand Cross (Norway)
	Orden Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Grand Cross (Panama)
	Order of Manuel Amador Guerrero, Grand Collar (Panama)
	Order of Sikatuna, Grand Collar (Philippines)
	Shield of Honor Medal, Chief Commander (Philippines)
	Distinguished Service Star, (Philippines)
	Order of Polonia Restituta, Knight (Poland)
	Order of Virtuti Militari, First Class (Poland)
	Cross of Grunwald, First Class (Poland)
		Order pro merito Melitensi, Knight Grand Cross (Sovereign Military Order of Malta)
	Order of the Royal House of Chakri, Knight (Thailand)
	Order of the Bath, Knight Grand Cross (United Kingdom)
	Order of Merit, Member (United Kingdom)
	Africa Star, with "8" and "1" numerical devices (United Kingdom)

Other honors

In 1966, Eisenhower was the second person to be awarded Civitan International's World Citizenship Award. The aircraft carrier, commissioned in 1977, was named after the former president.

Eisenhower's name was given to a variety of streets, avenues, etc., in cities around the world, including Paris, France.

In December 1999, Eisenhower was listed on Gallup's List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century.

In 2009, Eisenhower was named to the World Golf Hall of Fame in the Lifetime Achievement category for his contributions to the sport.

See also

Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower

Atoms for Peace, a speech to the UN General Assembly in December 1953

Eisenhower National Historic Site

Eisenhower Presidential Center

Historical rankings of United States Presidents

History of the United States (1945–1964)

People to People Student Ambassador Program

Ike: Countdown to D-Day A 2004 American television film about Eisenhower's difficult decisions he had to make as Supreme Commander that led to the successful D-Day invasion of World War II.

List of Presidents of the United States

Eisenhower on U.S. Postage stamps

Eisenhower Dollar

References

Specific references: General references:

Further reading

Military career

Ambrose, Stephen E. ''Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952'' (1983);'

Ambrose, Stephen E. ''The Victors: Eisenhower and his Boys: The Men of World War II'', New York : Simon & Schuster, 1998. ISBN 0-684-85628-X

Eisenhower, David. ''Eisenhower at War 1943–1945'' (1986), New York : Random House. ISBN 978-0-394-41237-5. A detailed study by his grandson.

Eisenhower, John S.D. ''General Ike.'' (2003). Free Press, New York. ISBN 0-7432-4474-5

Irish, Kerry E. "Apt Pupil: Dwight Eisenhower and the 1930 Industrial Mobilization Plan", ''The Journal of Military History'' 70.1 (2006) 31–61 online in Project Muse.

Nadich, Judah. ''Eisenhower and the Jews.'' Twayne Publishers, Inc., New York, 1953. Deals mainly with the story of the Jewish displaced persons in Germany and Austria early in their liberation and the part played by then General Eisenhower and his Advisor for Jewish Affairs, Lt. Col Judah Nadich.

Pogue, Forrest C. ''The Supreme Command'', Washington, D.C. : Office of the Chief of Military History, Dept. of the Army, 1954. The official Army history of SHAEF.

Weigley, Russell. ''Eisenhower's Lieutenants.'' Indiana University Press, 1981. Ike's dealings with his key generals in World War II

Civilian career

Albertson, Dean, ed. ''Eisenhower as President'' (1963).

Alexander, Charles C. ''Holding the Line: The Eisenhower Era, 1952–1961'' (1975).

Ambrose, Stephen E. ''Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890–1952'' (1983); ''Eisenhower. The President'' (1984); one volume edition titled ''Eisenhower: Soldier and President'' (2003). Standard biography.

Bowie, Robert R. and Richard H. Immerman; ''Waging Peace: How Eisenhower Shaped an Enduring Cold War Strategy'', Oxford University Press, 1998.

Burk, Robert. "Eisenhower Revisionism Revisited: Reflections on Eisenhower Scholarship," ''Historian,'' Spring 1988, Vol. 50 Issue 2, pp 196–209

Chernus, Ira. ''Apocalypse Management: Eisenhower and the Discourse of National Insecurity'', Stanford University Press, 2008.

Damms, Richard V. ''The Eisenhower Presidency, 1953–1961'' (2002).

David Paul T. (ed.), ''Presidential Nominating Politics in 1952''. 5 vols., Johns Hopkins Press, 1954.

Divine, Robert A. ''Eisenhower and the Cold War'' (1981).

Greenstein, Fred I. ''The Hidden-Hand Presidency: Eisenhower as Leader'' (1991).

Harris, Douglas B. "Dwight Eisenhower and the New Deal: The Politics of Preemption" ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'', Vol. 27, 1997.

Harris, Seymour E. ''The Economics of the Political Parties, with Special Attention to Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy'' (1962).

Krieg, Joann P. ed. ''Dwight D. Eisenhower, Soldier, President, Statesman'' (1987). 24 essays by scholars.

McAuliffe, Mary S. "Eisenhower, the President", ''Journal of American History'' 68 (1981), pp. 625–632.

Medhurst, Martin J. ''Dwight D. Eisenhower: Strategic Communicator'' Greenwood Press, 1993.

Pach, Chester J. and Elmo Richardson. ''Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower'' (1991). Standard scholarly survey.

Primary sources

Boyle, Peter G., ed. ''The Churchill-Eisenhower Correspondence, 1953–1955'' University of North Carolina Press, 1990.

Eisenhower, Dwight D. ''Crusade in Europe'' (1948), his war memoirs.

Eisenhower, Dwight D. ''The White House Years: Waging Peace 1956–1961'', Doubleday and Co., 1965.

''Eisenhower Papers'' 21 volume scholarly edition; complete for 1940–1961.

Summersby, Kay. ''Eisenhower was my boss'' (1948) New York: Prentice Hall; (1949) Dell paperback.

External links

Audio and video

1952 Ike for President TV Ad

Full audio of Eisenhower speeches via the Miller Center of Public Affairs (University of Virginia)

Eisenhower's Secret White House Recordings via the Miller Center of Public Affairs (University of Virginia)

Audio clips of Eisenhower's speeches

For additional research

Dwight D. Eisenhower Papers at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University

Annotated Bibliography for Dwight D. Eisenhower from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues

Dwight D. Eisenhower: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress

First Inaugural Address

Second Inaugural Address

Farewell Address (Wikisource)

The Presidential Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower (searchable online)

''TIME'' Magazine Cover: Dwight D. Eisenhower, April 4, 1969

''Thaw in the Cold War: Eisenhower and Khrushchev at Gettysburg,'' a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan

Essay on Dwight D. Eisenhower with shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs

Organizations

Eisenhower Presidential Library & Museum, including Home and Tomb

The Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans

The Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, Abilene, Kansas

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Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
name	John Pilger
birth place	Sydney, Australia
residence	United Kingdom
nationality	Australian
occupation	Journalist, writer, documentary filmmaker
website	www.johnpilger.com
footnotes	}}

John Richard Pilger (born 9 October 1939) is a left-wing Australian journalist and documentary maker, based in London. He has twice won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award, and his documentaries have received academy awards in Britain and the US.

Since his early years as a war correspondent in Vietnam, Pilger has been a strong critic of Western foreign policy. He is particularly opposed to many aspects of United States foreign policy, which he regards as being driven by an imperialist agenda.

Life and career

Pilger was born in Bondi, a suburb of Sydney. He attended Sydney Boys High School, where he started a student newspaper, ''The Messenger''. He began as a copy boy with the ''Sydney Sun'' in 1958 and later moved to the city's ''Daily Telegraph''. In the early 1960s he was recruited by the British ''Daily Mirror''. He has been based in London ever since.

On 5 June 1968 he witnessed the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Pilger says "there's no question that there was another gunman".

During the ''Daily Mirror'' 's campaigning heyday Pilger became its star reporter, particularly on social issues. He was a war correspondent in Vietnam, Cambodia, Egypt, India, Bangladesh and Biafra. Later, TV documentaries and books cemented his reputation.

Activities of the military

Vietnam

"The Quiet Mutiny" in 1970 was the first of over 60 documentary films by Pilger. Filmed at Camp Snuffy, the film presented a character study of the common US soldier during the Vietnam War, revealing the shifting morale and open rebellion of Western troops. Pilger described the film as "something of a scoop" - it was the first documentary to show the open rebellion within the drafted ranks of the US military that led to the withdrawal of the land army in 1973. "When I flew to New York and showed it to Mike Wallace, the star reporter of CBS' ''60 Minutes'', he agreed. "Real shame we can't show it here"", Pilger said in an interview with the ''New Statesman''.

Further films about Vietnam followed on from "The Quiet Mutiny" - "Vietnam: Still America's War" (1974), "Do You Remember Vietnam?" (1978) and "Vietnam: The Last Battle" (1995)

Cambodia

In 1979, Pilger and two colleagues with whom he collaborated for many years, film director David Munro and photographer Eric Piper, entered Cambodia in the wake of the overthrow of the Pol Pot regime. The result was a series of world exclusives, the first of which occupied almost the entire ''Daily Mirror'', which sold out. This was followed by an ITV documentary, "Year Zero: the Silent Death of Cambodia", which brought to people's living rooms the suffering of the Khmer people. Some $45 million was raised, unsolicited, in mostly small donations following the showing of Year Zero, including almost £4 million raised by schoolchildren in the UK. This funded the first substantial relief to Cambodia, including life saving drugs like penicillin and the manufacture of clothes to replace the black uniforms people had been forced to wear. Thanks to "Year Zero", said Brian Walker, director of Oxfam, "a solidarity and compassion surged across our nation". Pilger and Munro went on to make another four films on Cambodia. During the filming of Cambodia Year One, they were warned that Pilger was on a Khmer Rouge 'death list' and, in one incident, they narrowly escaped an ambush. The British Film Institute (BFI) has described Year Zero as one of the ten most influential documentary films of the 20th century.

Pilger himself has described the British reaction to 'Year Zero' as follows:

The documentary as a television "event" can send ripples far and wide... 'Year Zero' not only revealed the horror of the Pol Pot years, it showed how Richard Nixon's and Henry Kissinger's "secret" bombing of that country had provided a critical catalyst for the rise of the Khmer Rouge. It also exposed how the west, led by the United States and Britain, was imposing an embargo, like a medieval siege, on the most stricken country on earth. This was a reaction to the fact that Cambodia's liberator was Vietnam - a country that had come from the wrong side of the Cold War and that had recently defeated the US. Cambodia's suffering was a wilful revenge. Britain and the US even backed Pol Pot's demand that his man continue to occupy Cambodia's seat at the UN, while Margaret Thatcher stopped children's milk going to the survivors of his nightmare regime. Little of this was reported. Had 'Year Zero' simply described the monster that Pol Pot was, it would have been quickly forgotten. By reporting the collusion of "our" governments, it told a wider truth about how the world was run. Within two days of 'Year Zero' going to air, 40 sacks of post arrived at ATV (later Central Television) in Birmingham - 26,000 first-class letters in the first post alone. The station quickly amassed £1m, almost all of it in small amounts. "This is for Cambodia," wrote a Bristol bus driver, enclosing his week's wage. Entire pensions were sent, along with entire savings. Petitions arrived at Downing Street, one after the other, for weeks. MPs received hundreds of thousands of letters, demanding that British policy change (which it did, eventually). And none of it was asked for. For me, the public response to 'Year Zero' gave the lie to clichés about "compassion fatigue", an excuse that some broadcasters and television executives use to justify the current descent into the cynicism and passivity of Big Brotherland. Above all, I learned that a documentary could reclaim shared historical and political memories, and present their hidden truths. The reward then was a compassionate and an informed public; and it still is."

In a 2007 speech, 'Freedom Next Time: Resisting the Empire', Pilger describes his experience with PBS executives who refused to air the film in the USA. In that speech he claims that Year Zero has never been broadcast in the USA.

The Times, 6 July 1991 reported on a libel case stemming out of Pilger's documentary "Cambodia - The Betrayal":

Two men who claimed that a television documentary accused them of being SAS members who trained Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge to lay mines, accepted "very substantial" libel damages in the High Court yesterday. Christopher Geidt and Anthony De Normann settled their action against the journalist John Pilger and Central Television on the third day of the hearing. Desmond Browne, QC, for Mr Pilger and Central Television, said his clients had not intended to allege the two men trained the Khmer Rouge to lay mines, but they accepted that was how the program had been understood.

East Timor

In 1993 Pilger slipped into East Timor and filmed "Death of a Nation: The Timor Conspiracy." The revelations of this film alerted the public to the horror of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, which began in 1975. "Death of a Nation" prompted an international outcry and helped force Indonesian withdrawal from East Timor and eventual independence in 2000. When "Death of a Nation" was screened in Britain it was the highest rating documentary in 15 years and 4000 telephone calls per minute were recorded on the action line set up after the program. When "Death of a Nation" was screened in Australia in June 1994, Foreign Minister Gareth Evans declared that Pilger "had a track record of distorted sensationalism mixed with sanctimony." .

Diego Garcia

Pilger's 2004 film ''Stealing a Nation'' told the story of the people of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean. In the 1960s and 70s, British governments expelled the entire population of the Chagos Archipelago, dumping them in the slums of Mauritius. The aim was to give the principal island of this Crown Colony, Diego Garcia, to the Americans who wanted it as a major military base, from where US planes have since bombed Afghanistan and Iraq. The International Criminal Court later described this act as "a crime against humanity". Pilger strongly criticised Tony Blair for not making any real response to the 2000 High Court ruling that the British expulsion of the island's natives to Mauritius in order to make way for a US Air Force base had been illegal.

In March 2005, ''Stealing a Nation'' was awarded Britain's most prestigious documentary prize, the Royal Television Society Award.

In May 2006, the UK High Court ruled in favour of the Chagossians in their battle to prove they were illegally removed by the UK government during the depopulation of Diego Garcia, paving the way for a return to their homeland. The leader of the Chagos Refugee Group, Olivier Bancoult, described it as a "special day, a day to remember". In May 2007, the UK Government's appeal against the 2006 High Court ruling was dismissed and they took the matter to the House of Lords. In October 2008, the House of Lords ruled in favour of the Government, overturning the original High Court ruling.

Political views

Criticism of Australia

Pilger has long been a critic of Australian government policy, particularly of what he regards as its inherent racism and the poor treatment of its indigenous population. Pilger wrote that the legislation that removed common law rights of Aborigines (Wik), "is just one of the disgraces that has given Australia the distinction of being the only developed country whose government has been condemned as racist by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination."

World leaders

In addition to criticizing the policies of former United States President George W. Bush, Pilger has also taken aim at former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whom he believes to be just as culpable as President Bush for the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

On 25 July 2005, Pilger ascribed blame for the 2005 London bombings that took place the same month to Blair, whose decision to follow Bush helped to generate the rage that he maintains precipitated those bombings.

In the same column a year later, Pilger described Blair as a war criminal for supporting Israel's actions during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. He also asserted that Blair gave permission to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2001 to initiate what would ultimately become Operation Defensive Shield.

Pilger has also criticised United States President Barack Obama, describing him as "a glossy Uncle Tom who would bomb Pakistan." and whose theme "was the renewal of America as a dominant, avaricious bully." Pilger asserts, "In his first 100 days, Obama has excused torture, opposed habeas corpus and demanded more secret government."

Latin America

His 2007 film ''The War on Democracy'' was Pilger's first cinema release and was named Best Documentary at the 2008 One World Media Awards. The film explores the historic and current relationship of Washington with Latin American countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile. Using, among other sources, archive footage sourced by Michael Moore's archivist Carl Deal, the film explores the role of US intervention, overt and covert, in toppling a series of governments in the region since the 1950s. This includes, for example, discussing reports of US involvement in the overthrow of the democratically elected Chilean government of Salvador Allende in 1973 and its replacement by the military dictatorship of General Pinochet. Pilger interviews several ex-CIA agents who purportedly took part in secret campaigns against democratic countries. He investigates the School of the Americas in the US state of Georgia, where Pinochet’s torture squads were reportedly trained along with tyrants and death squad leaders in Haiti, El Salvador, Brazil and Argentina.

The film also explores the attempted overthrow of Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez in 2002 and how the people of Caracas rose up to force his return to power. It looks at the wider rise of populist governments across South America led by figures calling for loosening ties with Washington and a fairer redistribution of the continent's natural wealth. "[The film]" says Pilger, "is about the struggle of people to free themselves from a modern form of slavery". These people, he says, "describe a world not as American presidents like to see it as useful or expendable, they describe the power of courage and humanity among people with next to nothing. They reclaim noble words like democracy, freedom, liberation, justice, and in doing so they are defending the most basic human rights of all of us in a war being waged against all of us".

In May 2007, Pilger co-signed and put forward a letter supporting the refusal of the government of Venezuela under Hugo Chavez to renew the broadcasting licence of Venezuela's largest television network Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV), as they openly supported a 2002 coup attempt against the democratically elected government. Pilger and other signatories suggest that if the BBC or ITV used their news broadcasts to publicly support a coup against the British government, they would suffer similar consequences. Human rights groups including Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists have described the RCTV decision as an effort to stifle freedom of expression.

Blockade of Gaza

In 2010, Pilger endorsed the Canadian Boat to Gaza , part of the Freedom Flotilla 2 which aims to end the Israeli blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip.

Other Pilger documentaries

Other documentaries have dealt with human rights issues in Burma, Australia, the Israeli-occupied territories, in Iraq as a consequence of UN sanctions and in Afghanistan.

Following broadcast on ITV in the UK, Pilger's 2002 documentary ''Palestine Is Still the Issue'' was criticised in the UK press for allegedly being inaccurate and biased. The UK television regulator, the Independent Television Commission (ITC), ordered an investigation. Based on the results of the investigation, the ITC rejected the complaints made about the film, stating:

The ITC raised with Carlton all the significant areas of inaccuracy critics of the programme alleged and the broadcaster answered them by reference to a range of historical texts. The ITC is not a tribunal of fact and is particularly aware of the difficulties of verifying 'historical fact' but the comprehensiveness and authority of Carlton's sources were persuasive, not least because many appeared to be of Israeli origin.

Pilger's documentary, the ITC added, "was not in breach of the ITC Programme Code... Adequate opportunity was given to a pro-Israeli government perspective."

The Media

Mainstream journalism

Pilger has a bi-weekly column in ''New Statesman'', which is his most frequent outlet. He is a strong critic of the institutions and economic forces that structure 'mainstream' journalism. In an address at Columbia University on 14 April 2006, he said:

During the Cold War, a group of Russian journalists toured the United States. On the final day of their visit, they were asked by their hosts for their impressions. 'I have to tell you,' said their spokesman, 'that we were astonished to find after reading all the newspapers and watching TV, that all the opinions on all the vital issues were by and large, the same. To get that result in our country, we imprison people, we tear out their fingernails. Here, you don't have that. What's the secret? How do you do it?'

Pilger said, while speaking to journalism students at the University of Lincoln, that mainstream journalism means corporate journalism, and as such represents vested corporate interests over those of the public.

He is particularly scornful of pro-Iraq war commentators on the liberal left, or 'liberal interventionists', such as Nick Cohen and David Aaronovitch.

In 2003 he was interviewed by the New Zealand journalist Kim Hill on her television show ''Face to Face With Kim Hill''. The interview became infamous in New Zealand. Pilger, being interviewed via a live-cross, complained that Hill had not researched him before the interview, saying "You waste my time because you have not prepared for this interview, as any journalist does, and I've done many interviews. The one thing is to prepare for them and this interview, frankly, is a disgrace." Hill, who had commenced the interview by proposing that the Iraq war was "a just war", eventually threw Pilger's book at his image on the screen.

Honours and awards

Sydney Peace Prize

Pilger has received human rights and journalism awards, including the Richard Dimbleby Award for factual reporting at the 1990 BAFTA Awards, as well as honorary doctorates. He was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize at a ceremony at the Sydney Opera House in November 2009. The jury’s citation reads as follows: "For work as an author, film-maker and journalist as well as for courage as a foreign and war correspondent in enabling the voices of the powerless to be heard. For commitment to peace with justice by exposing and holding governments to account for human rights abuses and for fearless challenges to censorship in any form."

Other awards

''Awards include:''

Descriptive Writer of the Year (1966)

Reporter of the Year (1967)

Journalist of the Year (1967)

International Reporter of the Year (1970)

News Reporter of the Year (1974)

Campaigning Journalist of the Year (1977)

Journalist of the Year (1979)

UN Media Peace Prize, Australia (1979 – 80)

UN Media Peace Prize and Gold Medal, Australia (1980 – 81)

TV Times Readers' Award (1979)

United Kingdom Academy Award (1990)

The George Foster Peabody Award, USA (1990)

American Television Academy Award ('Emmy') (1991)

British Academy of Film and Television Arts – The Richard Dimbleby Award (1991)

Reporters Sans Frontiers Award, France (1990)

International de Television Geneve Award (1995)

The Monismanien Prize, Sweden (2001)

The Sophie Prize for Human Rights, Norway (2003)

EMMA Media Personality of the Year (2003)

Royal Television Society – Best British Documentary for ''Stealing a Nation'' (2004)

One World Media Awards - TV Documentary Award for his ITV1 film ''The War on Democracy'', on the role of Washington in Latin American politics. (2008) Sydney Peace Prize, Australia (2009)

''Honorary degrees and academic appointments:''

Hon. D. Litt. (Staffordshire)

D. Phil. (Dublin City)

D. Arts (Oxford Brooks and Kingston)

D. Arts (University of Lincoln)

D. Arts (Rhodes University, South Africa)

Hon. LL.D. (St Andrews)

DUniv (Open University, UK)

Edward Wilson Fellow, Deakin University (Australia)

Visiting Professor, Cornell University, USA

Praise and criticism

Praise

In ''Breaking the Silence: The Television Reporting of John Pilger'', his appraisal of the journalist's documentaries, Anthony Hayward wrote, "For more than a generation, he has been an ever stronger voice for those without a voice and a thorn in the side of authority, the Establishment. His work, particularly his television documentaries, has also made him rare in being a journalist who is universally known, a champion of those for whom he fights and the scourge of politicians and others whose actions he exposes." Noam Chomsky said of Pilger: "John Pilger's work has been a beacon of light in often dark times. The realities he has brought to light have been a revelation, over and over again, and his courage and insight a constant inspiration." According to Harold Pinter, Nobel Laureate and member of the Stop the War Coalition, "John Pilger is fearless. He unearths, with steely attention to facts, the filthy truth, and tells it as it is... I salute him." Martha Gellhorn, the American novelist, journalist and war correspondent, said that "[John Pilger] has taken on the great theme of justice and injustice... He documents and proclaims the official lies that we are told and that most people accept or don't bother to think about. [He] belongs to an old and unending worldwide company, the men and women of conscience. Some are as famous as Tom Paine and William Wilberforce, some as unknown as a tiny group calling itself Grandmothers Against The Bomb.... If they win, it is slowly; but they never entirely lose. To my mind, they are the blessed proof of the dignity of man. John has an assured place among them. I'd say he is a charter member for his generation." John Simpson, the BBC's world affairs editor, has said, "A country that does not have a John Pilger in its journalism is a very feeble place indeed."

Criticism

The writer Christopher Hitchens has said of Pilger: "I remember thinking that his work from Vietnam was very good at the time. I dare say if I went back and read it again I’d probably still admire quite a lot of it. But there is a word that gets overused and can be misused – namely, anti-American – and it has to be used about him. So that for me sort of spoils it... even when I’m inclined to agree." Gerard Henderson, the Australian newspaper columnist (and a former Chief of Staff for John Howard), is one of Pilger's most outspoken critics and has accused him of "engaging in hyperbole against western democracies."

''The Economist's'' Lexington columnist commented on Pilger's account of the Arab uprising:

Next up is the egregious John Pilger, who thinks the Arab revolts show that the West in general and the United States in particular are "fascist":

The revolt in the Arab world is against not merely a resident dictator, but a worldwide economic tyranny, designed by the US Treasury and imposed by the US Agency for International Development, the IMF and the World Bank, which have ensured that rich countries such as Egypt are reduced to vast sweatshops, with 40 per cent of the population earning less than $2 a day. The people's triumph in Cairo was the first blow against what Benito Mussolini called corporatism, a word that appears in his definition of fascism.

I don't know why the formerly serious ''New Statesman'' gives Pilger house room (actually I do: depressingly, they sell a few more copies when he's on the cover). Maybe he hasn't noticed, but what most of the Arab protesters say they want are the very freedoms that they know full well, even if Pilger doesn't, to be available in the West. No doubt he believes they are labouring under some massive mind-control delusion engineered by the CIA.

The English writer Auberon Waugh, writing in ''The Spectator'' in the 1970s in response to an article Pilger had written alleging Thai complicity in child trafficking (whose research was challenged), coined the verb "to pilger", defined as: ''to present information in a sensationalist manner to reach a foregone conclusion''. The word was included in the Oxford Dictionary of New Words in 1991, but removed from the subsequent edition after Pilger complained and, according to some sources, threatened legal action. Noam Chomsky responded to Waugh's neologism by stating that "pilger" and "pilgerise" were "invented by journalists furious about his incisive and courageous reporting, and knowing that the only response they are capable of is ridicule."

Chronology

1958–62: Reporter, freelance writer, sports writer and sub-editor - ''Daily & Sunday Telegraph'', Sydney

1962: Freelance correspondent - Italy 1962

1962–63: Middle East desk, Reuters, London

1963–86: Reporter, sub-editor, feature writer and Chief Foreign Correspondent - ''Daily Mirror''

1969–71: Reporter, ''World in Action'', Granada Television

1974–81: Reporter/Producer, ATV

1987: A founder of ''News on Sunday'', London, and titular Editor-in-Chief but resigned before publication

1981 to present: Documentary film-maker, Central, Carlton Television and ITV

Bibliography

Books

''The Last Day'' (1975)

''Aftermath: The Struggles of Cambodia and Vietnam'' (1981)

''The Outsiders'' (1984)

''Heroes'' (1986)

''A Secret Country'' (1989)

''Distant Voices'' (1992 and 1994)

''Hidden Agendas'' (1998)

''Reporting the World: John Pilger's Great Eyewitness Photographers'' (2001)

''The New Rulers of the World'' (2002)

''Tell Me No Lies: Investigative Journalism and its Triumphs'' (ed.) Cape (2004)

''Freedom Next Time'' (2006)

Plays

''The Last Day'' (1983)

Selected documentaries

''Vietnam-The Quiet Mutiny'' 1971

''An Unfashionable Tragedy'' 1975

''Nobody's Children'' 1975

''Zap-The Weapon is Food'' 1976

''Do You Remember Vietnam'' 1978

''Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia'' 1979

''The Mexicans'' 1980

''Heroes'' 1980

''Burp! Pepsi V Coke in the Ice Cold War'' 1984

''In Search Of Truth In Wartime'' 1982

''Nicaragua. A Nations Right to Survive'' 1983

''The Truth Game'' 1983

''The Secret Country-The First Australians Fight Back'' 1985

''Japan Behind the Mask'' 1987

''Cambodia: The Betrayal'' 1990

''War By Other Means'' 1992

''Cambodia: Return to Year Zero'' 1993

''Death of a Nation: The Timor Conspiracy'' (1994)

''Flying the Flag, Arming the World'' 1994

''Vietnam: the Last Battle'' (1995)

''Inside Burma: Land of Fear'' (1996)

''Breaking the Mirror - The Murdoch Effect'' (1997)

''Apartheid Did Not Die'' (1998)

''Welcome to Australia'' (1999)

''Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq'' (2000)

''The New Rulers of the World'' (2001)

''Palestine Is Still the Issue'' (2002)

''Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror'' (2003)

''Stealing a Nation'' (2004)

''The War on Democracy'' (2007)

''The War You Don't See'' (2010)

References

See also

Media Lens

External links

John Pilger - official website

John Pilger at IMDb

''Freedom Next Time: Filmmaker & Journalist John Pilger on Propaganda, the Press, Censorship and Resisting the American Empire'', Democracy Now!, 7 August 2007. Listen and Watch.

John Pilger at Random House Australia

John Pilger: There Is a War on Journalism - video interview by ''Democracy Now!''

John Pilger: Global Support for WikiLeaks is "Rebellion" Against U.S. Militarism - video report by ''Democracy Now!''

Category:1939 births Category:Australian documentary filmmakers Category:Australian expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:Australian freelance journalists Category:Australian journalists Category:Investigative journalists Category:Living people Category:People from Sydney Category:People educated at Sydney Boys High School Category:War correspondents

bn:জন পিলজার cs:John Pilger cy:John Pilger de:John Pilger es:John Pilger fr:John Pilger it:John Pilger nl:John Pilger no:John Pilger pt:John Pilger ru:Пилджер, Джон fi:John Pilger sv:John Pilger

Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
name	10 Years
background	group_or_band
origin	Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
genre	Alternative metal, post-grunge
years active	1999–present
label	Universal Records
website	www.10yearsmusic.com
current members	Jesse HasekRyan "Tater" JohnsonLewis "Big Lew" CosbyBrian Vodinh
past members	Mike UnderdownAndy ParksMatt Wantland }}

10 Years is an American alternative metal band, formed in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1999.

History

Early Years, ''Into the Half Moon'' (1999–2001)

10 Years was initially formed in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1999 with singer Mike Underdown, drummer Brian Vodinh, bassist Lewis Cosby, and guitarists Ryan "Tater" Johnson (also of The American Plague) and Matt Wantland. In 2001, Cosby left and the band recruited Andy Parks on bass. They independently recorded ''Into the Half Moon'' the same year.

''Killing All That Holds You'', ''The Autumn Effect'' (2002–2006)

Lead vocalist Mike Underdown left the band to pursue a career in acting. 10 Years soon recruited current vocalist Jesse Hasek from another local band. In 2002, Parks decided to leave the band and Cosby returned. The band then released their independent album ''Killing All That Holds You'' in 2004.

10 Years was then signed to Universal Records in 2005 and released their major label debut, ''The Autumn Effect'' on August 16, 2005 with the songs "Wasteland" and "Through the Iris" picking up regional radio play. Their first single, "Wasteland" spent over 12 months on the rock charts, finally reaching #1 at active rock radio in December 2005.

That same summer, the band toured with Disturbed and Ill Niño. In the fall of 2005, they toured with Breaking Benjamin and Smile Empty Soul, then followed up with the Masters of Horror tour with Mudvayne and Sevendust. They opened for Korn and Mudvayne on Korn's ''See You on the Other Side'' tour. They also toured with Korn and Deftones on the Family Values Tour, which started in late July 2006.

In mid February 2006, "Wasteland" reached #1 on the ''Billboard'' Alternative Songs chart. "Wasteland" has been certified Gold by the RIAA.

In mid-2006, the band toured Australia in a lineup which included Hatebreed, Disturbed and Korn.

Their first music video, "Wasteland", addresses the social problem of human rights as well as addiction around the world. The video received a nomination for Best Direction and Best Art Direction at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, but did not win either.

On March 27, 2006, an EP was released on iTunes containing acoustic versions of "Wasteland" and other tracks from ''The Autumn Effect''.

''Division'' (2006–2008)

On November 19, 2006, 10 Years unveiled and confirmed the title "Division" for their second album. The band would begin recording Division in late June 2007 after spending the better part of a year writing.

Lewis told in an interview that the album is "so different from the first one [The Autumn Effect], but it's still 10 Years," and, "It just sounds like [the songs] would be from a totally different album, which was, you know, the goal." It was also revealed that the track titled "Focus" was co-written with Stone Temple Pilots and former Army of Anyone guitarist Dean DeLeo.

On May 21, 2007 a demo song titled "All Your Lies" from Division was released onto their MySpace along with a post stating the band had chosen producer Rick Parasher to produce the new album. On September 7, the band announced on their MySpace that the album was finished and would be released in 2008, following a tour with Dir En Grey, Sevendust, Operator, Thousand Foot Krutch and Chevelle.

On January 29, 2008, "Beautiful," the new single from Division, was released to iTunes and a snippet was also posted on the band's MySpace page. ''Division'' was released on May 13, 2008 after being pushed back due to finalization of the album's artwork.

10 Years was featured on the Revolution Stage of Linkin Park's Summer Projekt Revolution 2008 tour with Atreyu, Hawthorne Heights and Armor For Sleep.

They went on tour with Mudvayne until mid December 2008.

''Feeding the Wolves'' (2009–present)

10 Years announced that their upcoming third major label album would be entitled ''Feeding the Wolves''. The album was produced by Grammy-nominated producer Howard Benson and mixed by Chris "Lord" Alge. The band has mentioned the album is of their heaviest material to date and "very similar to some of their early songs."

Throughout the first half of 2010, the band went back and forth between putting on live shows and working in the studio. Before the album was released, the band debuted new songs at live performances such as "Dead in the Water", "Now is the Time", and the new album's first single "Shoot It Out".

On June 12, 2010, "Shoot It Out" was featured on Sirius/XM Radio. The track was released to radio later that month, and was made available for download on iTunes July 6. ''Feeding the Wolves'' was released on August 31, 2010.

To promote the album's release, the band opened Shinedown's 2010 Carnival of Madness summer tour alongside Chevelle, Puddle of Mudd, and Sevendust. In the fall they joined Sevendust again on the Hard Drive Live tour with support from Since October and Anew Revolution.

In December, the band went on a mini-headline tour, where they played some older songs that they had not played in some time. February 2011, their new single "Fix Me" releases to radio while they headline a spring tour with Hollywood Undead.

On June 17 and 18 the band shot a music video for "Fix Me" in Columbus, Ohio with production company Thunder Down Country. The video was released via YouTube on August 9, 2011.

Band members

Current

Jesse Hasek – Vocals (2002–present)

Ryan "Tater" Johnson – Guitar, Backing Vocals (1999–present)

Lewis Cosby – Bass (1999–present)

Brian Vodinh – Guitar, Backing Vocals (2009–present); Drums (1999–2009)

Matt Brown – Drums (2010–present)

Live

Sam Anderson – Drums (2010)

Kyle Mayer – Drums (2010)

Former

Mike Underdown – Vocals (1999–2001)

Matt Wantland – Guitar (1999–2009)

Discography

Studio albums

Year	Album details	Peak chart positions
		!style="width:3em;font-size:75%"	!style="width:3em;font-size:75%"
2001	''Into the Half Moon''	* Released: 2001	Compact Disc>CD
2004	''Killing All That Holds You''	* Released: 2004	Universal Records>Universal	* Format: CD
2005	''The Autumn Effect''	* Released: August 16, 2005	* Label: Universal Republic	* Format: CD
2008		* Released: May 13, 2008	* Label: Universal Republic	* Format: CD
2010		* Released: August 31, 2010	* Label: Universal Republic	* Format: CD

Extended plays

2006: ''Acoustic EP''

Singles

Year	Title	Peak chart positions	Album
!style="width:3em;font-size:75%"	!style="width:3em;font-size:75%"	!style="width:3em;font-size:75%"
2005
	"Through the Iris"
"Waking Up"
2009	"Actions & Motives"
2010	"Shoot It Out"
2011	"Fix Me"

References

External links

Official Site

Category:American post-grunge musical groups Category:Musical groups from Knoxville, Tennessee Category:Musical groups established in 1999 Category:Rock music groups from Tennessee Category:Musical quartets

de:10 Years es:10 Years fr:10 Years (groupe) it:10 Years lt:10 Years pl:10 Years pt:10 Years ru:10 Years