Presidential Biographies | Eisenhower Administrations - Eisenhower's Advisers

Eisenhower's Advisers

Eisenhower's White House chief of staff was Sherman Adams, former governor of New Hampshire, to whom the president entrusted the running of everyday business. Adams once told Vice President Nixon that "Ike always had to have someone else who could do the firing, or the reprimanding, or give any order which he knew people would find unpleasant to carry out. Ike always had to be the nice guy" (Brendon, p. 233). He controlled access to Eisenhower and often had the job of saying "no" in response to requests for interviews—journalists nicknamed him "the Abominable No-Man."