Was Dwight Eisenhower a conservative?

[All Along The Watchtower]

Of course he was a conservative. Just because he supported a moderate amount of government intervention in the economy post-Depression and post-WWII (like all sane people, barring the Birchers and the...well like I said, all sane people) didn't mean he wasn't a conservative.

Much of the federal budget was spent on national defense, directly or indirectly, and an enormous segment of the economy was put on a peacetime defense footing that still continues (to a significant extent) to this day. Eisenhower pretty much rejected the portions of the New Deal that had little to no business support, and under his Administration (as well as Truman's before him), direct federal spending on public works, etc. declined in favor of private, corporate contracts.

In the uneasy post-war organization of the economy between Business, Labor, and Government, Eisenhower (like most Republicans, and many Democrats as well) did as much as he could to increase Business' role at the expense of the latter two. And he did what he could with a more liberal Democratic Congress. Yes, he did all this pragmatically and non-dogmatically, but just because you're not an ideologue ala Goldwater or Reagan doesn't mean you're not a conservative.