Tuesday, December 17, 2024

IKE'S MOO COWS

Photo from Eisenhower Presidential
Library and Museum

President Eisenhower's home at Gettysburg, which he acquired in 1950, was a working cattle farm. Just like how the Republicans used to complain about President Obama's frequent golf vacations in Hawai'i, Democrats used to gripe whenever Eisenhower spent any time with his herd in Pennsylvania. Eisenhower's Black Angus cattle won many prizes, and Ike, at least while he was President, had his cattle business partners enter the beeves in competition under his partners' own names, not the President's, so that there would be no favoritism shown by the judges.

Eisenhower hosted many dignitaries at his ranch, including Konrad Adenauer (pictured above in the dark suit in the center), Charles de Gaulle, and Winston Churchill. One of the most impressed visitors was Nikita Khrushchev, who was fascinated by the operation and evinced considerable knowledge about agriculture in general. Khrushchev was not nearly as awed by the drive to the farm, indicating that the numerous single-family homes he saw on the way were a waste of resources.

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