Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Dwight D. Eisenhower

These two documents are similar in the ways that they are both pleading for peace Dwight D. Eisenhower states in his farewell address that as a private citizen he would never stop trying to help America advance along the road to peace. Allen Ginsberg states in his poem ³America², ³America you don¹t really want to go to war. America it¹s them damn Russians.² Alan Ginsberg also states in his poem ³There must be some other way to settle this argument² meaning some way other than war.

Eisenhower was born in Texas and raised in a conservative military family. He excelled in sports and many other things. Eisenhower was a war hero and a commanding general of victorious forces in Europe during world war 2. During his two terms he worked to obtain a truce in Korea and worked to ease the tensions in the cold war.

Alan Ginsberg was born in Newark N.J. and attended the Columbia University and was expelled. Ginsberg was brought up in an immigrant Jewish family. His father was a teacher and a poet and his mother had a history of mental problems. He started experimenting with mind altering drugs at a young age and began writing poems about using them. He was a leading figure in the Beet generation. His poems celebrated drugs and homosexuality. Many of his poems were thought to be obscene and some were even confiscated because it was considered obscene and indecent. Ginsberg studied under Guru¹s and Zen Masters in the sixties. He was raised with very liberal ideas. He states in his poem that his mother took him to communist meetings and they were pleasant, the people were angelic and friendly and that he didn¹t regret being a communist when he was young.

These two pieces of writing are different because Eisenhower is telling what he has done to help. It is an inspirational piece that shows hope that there may one day be piece in the world if everyone does their part. Ginsberg¹s piece is full of rage and hate. He criticizes what America does but does not offer to help in any way. He states ³it¹s true I do not want to join the army.² Ginsberg believed in spontaneity and just doing thing for the moment whereas Eisenhower believes in being ready for what may come makes a nation stronger.

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