Eisenhower's first step, of course, was to figure out what to do with Korea. The North Koreans, with help from the Chinese Military, had driven the U.N. forces back across the 38th parallel - the original border - and the fighting appeared to be at a stalemate.
Prior to the inauguration, as President-Elect, Eisenhower had traveled to Korea to figure out how to end the conflict. In July of 1953, an armistice was finally accepted and a cease-fire was established. Eisenhower could be thankful that, unlike President Truman, he would not have to have his entire Presidency overshadowed by the war in Asia.
Cold War Policies
The war in Korea may have ended, but the overall "conflict" with Communism itself remained just as present as ever in the world as a whole. Joseph Stalin died the same year that the Korean War ended, but relations with the U.S.S.R. remained tense.
Under Eisenhower, the United States continued to develop its nuclear arsenal (which now included the hydrogen bomb), and Russia did likewise. The Cold War arms race, which would continue until the late 1980's, had begun in earnest. The space race began as well, with Eisenhower's establishment of NASA and the launch of the Russian satellite Sputnik in 1957 (all of which occurred in Eisenhower's second term).
In 1956, Eisenhower famously passed the Federal-Aid Highway Act, which effectively created America's interstate highway system, which he hoped would aid interstate commerce and help to make America even more secure in light of international threats.
Medical Problems and Reelection
In the late summer of 1955, while on vacation in Denver, Colorado, President Eisenhower suffered a minor heart attack (up until only a few years prior he had been an avid smoker of cigarettes, smoking up to four packs a day) and was rushed to a local hospital, where he stayed for seven weeks to recover.
Despite this distressing time for the nation, Eisenhower recovered sufficiently from this setback and ran for reelection in 1956, facing Adlai Stevenson once again, and once again defeating him in a landslide.
After his second term was under way Eisenhower suffered still another medical setback when he suffered a minor stroke in November of 1957, which frightened him enough that he drafted a letter, granting Presidential authority to Vice President Richard Nixon, should he become incapacitated.
Other Presidential Policies
For the most part, Dwight Eisenhower continued much of the progressive New Deal legislation which had been growing the federal government for more than twenty years at this point, since the earliest years of Franklin Roosevelt's Presidency.
In many ways, Eisenhower represented a return to the almost Laizzes-Faire stile of governing which defined the Coolidge administration thirty years earlier. He attempted to allow the market economy to work, attempting to not react rashly to the three small recessions which occurred during his two terms.
Historians and political pundits at the time in which Eisenhower left office in 1961 ranked Eisenhower relatively low among Presidents. He was seen as being below average - a "do nothing" President who took frequent vacations and left the governing to others.
As time has passed, however, and more information has come to light, including personal writings of the President, he has risen greatly in public popularity, as it has been seen that in many cases, he was right to do nothing and to not take such drastic action as Roosevelt and Truman before him, either economically or militarily. Today, Eisenhower is often even ranked in the top ten American Presidents (or somewhere near this), and surely time will continue to refine this list more and more.
Just another example of how difficult it can be to truly pass objective judgment on an elected official without the benefit of hindsight.
Eisenhower retired to his farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania after leaving office, traveling and enjoying life (occassionally stopping to advize Presidents Kennedy and Johnson) until weakened by another heart attack in 1965. He died on March 28, 1969, a national hero.
For more information:
References:
"Dwight David Eisenhower." American Presidents: An Online Reference Resource.
"Biography of Dwight Eisenhower." The White House.
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