Leaders of the Free Culture

by Isaac Getz

AUGUST, 2011

Truman is said to have mused about Eisenhower taking over the president’s office, issuing orders only to discover that nothing gets done in the bureaucratic swamp. But this fine politician underestimated “Ike.” President Eisenhower realized the bureaucracy problem on day one when an assistant handed him a sealed envelope: he promptly changed this time-wasting procedure. Later, he asked for memos to be kept to a one page maximum—instead of several-dozen. Letters from congress were similarly summarized into mere one-liners. He signed only with initials, again, to save time. Yet, despite these and other streamlining measures, Eisenhower still kept the bureaucracy.

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