President Eisenhower told Good Morning America host George Stephanopoulos in 1955 that education should be free from political domination.
It was a year later in 1956 when Eisenhower revealed in an interview with CNN’s Larry King that divisive propaganda and prejudice can be defeated through a true fellowship of people of all religious beliefs and national origins.
And the 34th president and famous five-star general who fought in WWII met in 1955 with the USA Baseball Team — that wasn’t founded until 1978 — to discuss leadership.
That’s all according to the heavily photo-shopped historic pictures of the famous president with contemporary photos that are posted on the Eisenhower Memorial Commission’s new webpage that has bristled some Beltway insiders.
The webpage is designed to raise money for the contentious memorial – the design of which has been criticized by the Eisenhower family. For a mere $3 million donation, one can meet with the artist, Frank Gehry.
“What this has to do with the honoring the president in a national memorial is beyond us,” said a statement released Thursday from the National Civic Art Society.
“The National Civic Art Society believes the images are manipulative, misleading, and undignified. Nowhere does the website state that the images are simulated. They are as tawdry as the 1996 television commercial that used a dancing Fred Astaire to sell vacuum cleaners,” the art society said.
“The website prompts the question: Why has the Eisenhower Commission launched a tax-payer-funded marketing campaign to get their Memorial design built? We believe it is a sign of desperation. And it eats away at the $142 million the Memorial is already estimated to cost,” the art society said.
We’re still waiting to hear from Queen Elizabeth II. We don’t expect she will appreciate the photo-shopped image of her meeting with Eisenhower in 1952 looking 80-years old, especially since she would have only been 26 at the time.
