33. Dwight David Eisenhower
Known to all as Ike, Eisenhower used his considerable political and diplomatic skills to contain the often prickly personalities of the senior Allied leaders in the European Theater during the Second World War. Elected president in 1952 (the first Republican since Hoover), his presidency is remembered as one of economic prosperity. However, Cold War tensions increased throughout his presidency, and it was Eisenhower who approved the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1960, leaving its execution to his successor. His influence is still felt throughout the nation via the Interstate Highway System, authorized in 1956, with the original system completed in 1992 after thirty-five years of construction.