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Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his first inaugural address on Tuesday, 20 January 1953. He began with a prayer for guidance from God and for bipartisan cooperation. Since he was the first Republican president in twenty years, he clearly worried about his ability to bring the parties together.
As a general and as the leader of a country that was still recovering from WWII and was facing an ever more clear Cold War, Eisenhower naturally framed large parts of his speech in terms of battle. He urged Americans to see their everyday lives as a contribution to the “war effort” of defending and promoting freedom and peace around the world. Since most of the public would have lived through the War and participated in it either as soldiers or as part of the domestic effort, this appeal echoed the values of the electorate and reframes them in a way that served the changing needs of the country.
Eisenhower makes several references to America’s exceptional position in the world as an ideal of freedom and the leader on the global stage. In doing so, he reinforces the American people’s sense of specialness and imposes on them a democratic noblesse oblige. He also links American success to economic power and the hard work of its citizens.
The only surprising element of the speech comes in the repeated emphasis he places on the importance of treating all races as equals.