There are two aspects of Presidency Eisenhower’s life and presidency that resonate with the key themes of my Eisenhower Fellowship: Chronic Disease and the consequences of ungoverned Institutional Power.
As a consequence of a life of smoking, President Eisenhower later suffered terribly from heart disease, culminating in the first of a number of heart attacks (see this NEJM book review) that inevitably led to a deterioration in his health.
The second aspect is highlighted in a warning he gave during his televised farewell address in 1961 where he airs his concern for the power granted to, and then held by the military-industrial complex in the wake of the World War II and then later the Cold War.
“A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be might, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction. . . . American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. . . . This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. . . .Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. . . . In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”
More analysis on this here.