Maybe because I was there when he was President, he looks a hell of a lot better in retrospect than some folks like to admit. Among other things, he was the President who warned of the rise of the "military-industrial complex." For those who thought him a "do-nothing," I'd prefer that to the "do-somethings" who have brought us into two major wars and several minor ones since his administration.

"Ike" reflected the times. Conformism, bland innocence and avoidance of conflict were hallmarks of the period. People who had endured WWII and Korea and for whom the "cold war" was very real, wanted to feel secure. The sixties began to shock people out of it. I never quite understood blaming the man in the White House for all that.

It is also the period when a lot of us older types began to hang out in our local coffee houses to learn and practice the craft of folk singing. If Eisenhower's era gave rise to that, I'm OK with it.