On Jan. 21, 1957, Dwight Eisenhower used his second inaugural address not only to extol the nation’s economic prosperity, but also to warn against the rise of communism.
“In our nation work and wealth abound,” he said from a podium at the US Capitol. “Our population grows. Commerce crowds our rivers and rails, our skies, harbors, and highways. Our soil is fertile, our agriculture productive. The air rings with the song of our industry – rolling mills and blast furnaces, dynamos, dams, and assembly lines – the chorus of America the bountiful.”
The World War II five-star general committed his second term to defending the world from communism, cautioning Americans about the impending escalation of the cold war.
“The designs of that power, dark in purpose, are clear in practice,” he said. “It strives to seal forever the fate of those it has enslaved. It strives to break the ties that unite the free. And it strives to capture – to exploit for its own greater power – all forces of change in the world, especially the needs of the hungry and the hopes of the oppressed.”
Because Jan. 20 fell on a Sunday, Chief Justice Earl Warren swore in Eisenhower that day in the White House East Room and the public ceremony was held the next day.
