"On this Christmas Eve," said Dwight Eisenhower, "all hearts in America are filled with special thanks to God that the blood of those we love no longer spills on battlefields abroad. May He receive the thanks of each of us for this, His greatest bounty—and our supplication that peace on earth may live with us, always." Then, after finishing his first Christmas Message to the American people, the President went to his backyard and turned on the thousand lights of the nation's Christmas tree, a 35-ft. Norway spruce.
With that, most of the 15 million Americans who watched him on TV...