Eisenhower National Historic Site: Difference between revisions

From its completion in 1955 to the end of Eisenhower's second term on January 20 1961, the President spent 365 days total on the Gettysburg farm. The longest of these stays was 38 days, due to recovering from an heart attack he suffered in [[Colorado]] in 1955. Afterwards, the Eisenhowers spent most weekends and summer vacations at the Gettysburg Farm, sometimes going to both the Gettysburg farm and [[Camp David]], prompting one person to call Camp David "an annex to Gettysburg".<ref>Walsh p.126</ref>

 

The Gettysburg farm provided a few headaches. [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]] chose the amount of time the Eisenhowers spent at the Gettysburg farm as another way to attack him. Paul M. Butler, head of the [[Democratic National Committee]], called him a part-time president due to his many stays in Gettysburg. When his [[World War II]] ally [[Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein|Bernard Montgomery]] visited the farm, speaking as military commander to military commander Eisenhower commented to Montgomery that he would have fired a subordinate that would initiate [[Pickett's Charge]], which many Southerners saw as disrespecting the highly-esteemed [[Robert E. Lee]], causing a protest.<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,824901,00.html Gettysburg Refought] ''Time Magazine'' May. 27, 1957</ref> When the [[Soviet Union]]'s premier [[Nikita Khrushchev]] visited the farm in September 1959, he was so "grandfathery" to the Eisenhower grandchildren that [[David Eisenhower]] said that Khrushchev was such a nice guy, he (David) could become a communist if he did not know better; causing much embarrassment to the Eisenhowers.<ref>Walsh pp.126, 132, 133</ref>