Not how I remember Eisenhower

Stephen Walt has an article up a Foreign Policy describing some of ways in which he would like to see Dwight D. Eisenhower remembered as part of an Eisenhower Memorial on the mall in Washington, D.C.

When it comes to Eisenhower, therefore, I'd like to see a memorial that underscored his singular contribution to our understanding of post-World War II security problems: namely, his eloquent warnings about the danger of the "military-industrial complex" and his consistent efforts to advance the cause of peace. Think about it: Here is a West Point graduate and five-star general, who had seen as much of war as any American, and who had presided over a significant expansion of America's strategic nuclear arsenal in the 1950s, who nonetheless ends his second term with a message to his countrymen about the dangers of unchecked military/industrial power.

Eisenhower, like Reagan, is remembered quite differently for those interested in Latin America. Eisenhower approved PBSUCCESS, the CIA-invasion of Guatemala that would remove elected President Jacobo Arbenz in 1954. Arbenz's removal and the closing of political space under the military governments to follow would lead to thousands of deaths. (Happy Birthday URNG!)

Eisenhower also approved plans for the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion executed in 1961 during JFK's presidency. The failed invasion helped strengthen the Cuban government which oh by the ways just celebrated fifty years of surviving the US embargo.