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Eisenhower: Turning Himself Toward Peace
Author(s) -
Chernus Ira
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
peace and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1468-0130
pISSN - 0149-0508
DOI - 10.1111/0149-0508.00109
Subject(s) - ideology , civilization , elite , meaning (existential) , law , order (exchange) , peace movement , peace and conflict studies , world order , peace economics , cold war , sociology , political science , politics , philosophy , epistemology , finance , economics
In the months immediately following the end of World War II, General Dwight D. Eisenhower gave many speeches in which he bestowed symbolic meaning on the war and the ensuing peace. He urged a continuing struggle to protect civilization and achieve lasting global peace. These speeches were designed to boost the interests of the U.S. Army and the liberal internationalist elite. To this end, Eisenhower used several different concepts of peace, all rooted in his own religious ideology. All of them spoke of peace as order and stability, but all implied that civilization's war against disorder could never end. Therefore Eisenhower developed a new image of peace as a precarious order endlessly struggling to save itself from chaos. This was the image of peace he would employ as president, reshaping U.S. cold war discourse.