On May 8, 2018—the anniversary of V-E Day—William I. Hitchcock, PhD, author of The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s, presented a Gen. Mason Distinguished Lecture at the Museum. Its topic was how Dwight D. Eisenhower's WWII experiences prepared him for the presidency. 

Several hundred people filled Louisiana Memorial Pavilion for the talk by Dr. Hitchcock, professor of history at the University of Virginia and the Randolph P. Compton Professor at UVA’s Miller Center. 

“Eisenhower’s ranking in the polls of great presidents goes ever upward,” Hitchcock said in his concluding remarks. “He was once in the mid-twenties. Most recently it is number five of the great presidents. It seems that more and more Americans just like yourselves and certainly like me are finally saying ‘I like Ike.’”

Watch the presentation below to find out why.

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