National Affairs: The Debits

No President lays down his burden of responsibility with the record wholly summed up on one side of the ledger. Dwight Eisenhower's accomplishments in eight years of peace and prosperity were a strong defense of freedom abroad and a positive push to free enterprise at home. But there were also debits:

THE FARM PROBLEM. When Harry Truman left office, the cost of price supports and food storage was averaging $1.5 billion a year; when Dwight Eisenhower retired to private life, the cost had soared to a disastrous $9 billion annually. Agriculture Secretary Ezra Taft Benson's principle of a free market for agriculture...

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