A bona fide American hero at the close of World War II, General Dwight D. Eisenhower rode an enormous wave of popularity into the Oval Office seven years later. We may view the Eisenhower years through a hazy lens of nostalgia, but the good times of the 1950s distracted the public from a world in the throes of great transition, and masked profound unease both at home and abroad. Americans didn't seem to mind much that their fatherly president spent much of his time on the golf course with his wealthy businessman cronies, or that his health was suspect.<BR>Veteran journalist Tom Wicker traces Eisenhower's life from his hardscrabble Kansas childhood, through his West Point years and his dramatic success during the war to his reluctant entry into politics.