Portland Public Library

Ike's bluff, President Eisenhower's secret battle to save the world, Evan Thomas

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 455-467) and index

contains biographical information

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Ike's bluff

bibliography

776523661

Evan Thomas

President Eisenhower's secret battle to save the world

Upon assuming the presidency in 1953, Dwight Eisenhower came to be seen by many as a doddering lightweight. Yet behind the bland smile and apparent simplemindedness was a brilliant, intellectual tactician. As Evan Thomas reveals in his provocative examination of Ike's White House years, Eisenhower was a master of calculated duplicity. As with his bridge and poker games, he was eventually forced to stop playing after leaving too many fellow army officers insolvent. Ike could be patient and ruthless in the con and generous and expedient in his partnerships. Facing the Soviet Union, China, and his own generals, some of whom believed a first strike was the only means of survival, Eisenhower would make his boldest and riskiest bet yet, one of such enormity that there could be but two outcomes: the survival of the world, or its end.--From publisher description