Richard Nixon served as the 36th vice president from 1953 to 1961, having risen to national prominence as a representative and senator from California.
Heidi the Weimaraner only lived at the White House for a short time. After she had an accident on a $20,000 rug in the diplomatic reception room, the Eisenhowers decided to send her to their farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
The election was a re-match of 1952, with Eisenhower once again defeating Democrat Adlai Stevenson, the former Illinois governor whom he had defeated four years earlier, this time by an even bigger landslide.
Eisenhower championed and signed the bill that authorized the Interstate Highway System in 1956. He justified the project through the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 as essential to American security during the Cold War. It was believed that large cities would be targets in a possible war, so the highways were designed to facilitate their evacuation and ease military maneuvers.
He was given the code name Providence when he came into office in 1953. After he retired, it was changed to "Scorecard" because of his love for golf.
In his farewell address to the nation, Eisenhower expressed concern about the dangers of massive military spending, particularly deficit spending and government contracts to private military manufacturers, which he dubbed "the military-industrial complex". His administration also coined the term "executive privilege", although he was not the first to invoke its principle.
Eisenhower took up painting as a hobby after watching artist Thomas Stephens paint a portrait of his wife Mamie. Among his more than 200 paintings were landscapes and portraits of his wife and grandchildren, as well as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. His works were even displayed at a 1967 show in a New York art museum, although Eisenhower told a reporter, "They would have burned this [expletive] a long time ago if I weren't the president of the United States."
On the morning of March 28, 1969, Eisenhower died in Washington, D.C., of congestive heart failure at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He was 78 years old. At the president's request, he was buried in a Government Issue casket, wearing his World War II uniform, decorated with: Army Distinguished Service Medal with three oak leaf clusters, Navy Distinguished Service Medal, and the Legion of Merit.
The Eisenhower dollar was a one-dollar coin issued by the United States Mint from 1971 to 1978. It was the first coin of that denomination issued by the Mint since the Peace dollar series ended in 1935. The coin depicts President Dwight D. Eisenhower on the obverse, and a stylized image honoring the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon mission on the reverse.
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