America's most recent general-president rose from poverty in rural Kansas to being the Supreme Commander of Allied forces, leading the greatest army ever assembled in World War II.  Elected to guide the country through the new international landscape of the Cold War, Eisenhower became a man of peace who ended the Korean War and kept the country out of Vietnam.  He warned those who followed against military entanglements in the Nuclear Age and the growing power of what he termed "the military-industrial complex."

Brief Biography                        Campaign and Election Information

THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT
Program 7: "The Heroic Posture"

The president of the United States is also the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.  Understandably, no fewer than seventeen generals have been elected to the highest office in the land.  Are the habits and skills of military command good preparation for the presidency?  Of the four presidents profiled in this hour, one was the model for all presidents that followed; one was elected after a fraudulent campaign and served only a month; one proved unequal to the responsibilities of the office; and one made an exemplary transformation from a man of war to a man of peace.

A word about this show from the producers. 

For lesson plans developed for this program, go to Lessons on the Series.
For discussion questions on the featured presidents in this program, go to Issues to Ponder.

He was a general who refused to govern like one.  After leading America's eight-year struggle for independence, Washington shrugged off a popular movement to make him king.  He instead guided the new nation to establish a government that would be overseen by an elected official called a "president."  "I think every nation has the right to establish a government of the people," the nation's first soldier-statesman said, "[and] I think I see a path as clear and direct as a ray of light."  In the establishment of the presidency, as in so much else, Washington was the indispensable man.

Brief Biography                         Campaign and Election Information

A descendant of one of the nation's most prominent families, William Henry Harrison campaigned for the presidency by representing himself as a homespun-clad backwoodsman, a plain-speaking man of the people who gained fame through his tireless soldiering against Native Americans.  Harrison was a veteran of the Indian wars, but he was also a land-grabber who defrauded Native Americans of millions of acres of virgin land.  Elected as the first president nominated by the Whig party—formed from several smaller parties that opposed the sweeping policies of Andrew Jackson—Harrison died after only one month in office.

Brief Biography                         Campaign and Election Information

By the time Grant's armies vanquished the Confederacy, the presidency was his for the asking.  As narrator Hugh Sidey notes, however, "The capacities for presidential leadership do not always reside in military heroism."  As it played out during his administration, Grant's battlefield instincts did him little good in the subtler engagements of politics.  He repeatedly appointed dishonest and incompetent people to power.  Moreover, he refused to abandon them even when their shortcomings became obvious to all.  In the end, his presidency was an example of what to avoid—an administration racked with corruption and weakened by inconsistent and unsteady leadership.  After his term in office, Grant apologized to the American people for his incompetence.

Brief Biography                         Campaign and Election Information

George Washington (1789–97): America's First Hero

William Henry Harrison (1841):  A Manufactured Hero

Ulysses S. Grant (1869–77):  In Over His Head

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–61):  The Heroic Image