Eisenhower Administration, Dwight

Dwight D. Eisenhower was born in October 1890 and died in March 1969. Eisenhower served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961 and was followed by John F. Kennedy in January 1961. During the 1950s, overall rates of illegal drug use remained relatively low.

However, amphetamine, barbiturate, and heroin use began to increase, and the public grew increasingly concerned. Armed with this heightened concern and an increasingly anti-drug public sentiment, the federal government renewed its push toward eradicating drugs from American society. To reduce drug use, the government adopted a strategy of deterrence, based on the idea that increasingly harsh penalties would stop illegal drug activity. At the same time, the position of the World Health Organization was that addicts should ...