The Age of Eisenhower by William I. Hitchcock

 This is a fascinating book. Eisenhower, a WW2 warrior who knew the horrific consequences of war resisted efforts to draw America into any global conflicts but at the same time, he presided over the development of the CIA and its subsequent insidious interventions around the World. He was a man beset by contradictions: personal integrity and a fervent morality vied with an unwillingness to "impose" upon others even when the Supreme Court mandated an end to segregation in schools. His reign of eight years reflected a strong commitment to fiscal prudence, even as he authorized large expenditures for defense against the overwhelming fear of Communism posed by the Soviet Union and the escalating fear of the spread of Communism into Latin America and Asia. This book was very informative and revealing about a modern president who served two terms in an important yet often sentimentalized decade. Leave to Beaver and Lassie aside, the reality was so much more complex and provides so clearly a context for the following tumultuous decade.