Dinner with Eisenhower by Abubakarr

Dinner with Eisenhower by Abubakarr - October 2017 Scholarship Essay

If I was given the chance to have dinner with any past U.S. President, I would pick President Dwight D. Eisenhower. I admire his character and would love to talk to him and see his response to the currents events occurring right now. He created the Eisenhower Doctrine which was a life changing policy. In 1957 the policy allowed for any Middle Eastern country when under armed violence or aggression from others, to ask the U.S. Government for military or economic aid. That next year it was used during the Lebanon Crisis. It was a rebellion against Lebanon’s President which almost resulted in civil war(years later a civil war did happen.) Eisenhower started Operation Blue Bat which was when they sent more than 10,000 troops to Lebanon to secure land and suppress the rebels. The plan worked and after three months the U.S. troops went back home.
I am of Sierra Leonean descent which is a country located on Africa’s west coast. I have family that live and originated from all over Africa and the Middle East. I’m grateful to the Doctrine because I have family in Lebanon and because of the U.S. help they were able to escape the country during the violence and come to Sierra Leone for safety. Without the Doctrine, in those times of violence anything could have happened to my family and I would never have been able to have known them.
The Doctrine shows that Eisenhower was a caring man. He controlled the most powerful country in the world. He had no obligations to helping another country, yet, he did so out the kindness of his heart. He went out of his way to help others to secure peace. He also helped fight off invaders in Egypt and communists in Vietnam. To him America was the other countries big brother, and it is their duty to protect or help the other countries just as a big brother would do for his little brother.
If I had dinner with him I would thank him for his contribution to others. Then I would ask his opinions on the world’s current affairs. I would want to know how he feels about our current administration, the spread of global terror, and the threat of North Korea. As a man who promotes peace I want to know what methods he would use to stop the violent tendencies of countries and organizations that are occurring right now.