When Time named Dwight D. Eisenhower as its Man of the Year for 1959, it marked the second time he had received this media distinction; the first was in 1944, when he was winning victories as the supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe during World War II. Fifteen years later, Eisenhower, as president, was winning distinction for all but concluding two terms marked by peace and record prosperity. Time's editors had no difficulty in justifying their selection over such other noteworthy leaders of the free world as British prime minister Harold Macmillan, West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer, and French president Charles de Gaulle. In his goodwill trips abroad that year, Eisenhower was looked upon by millions of admirers as the model and the hope for all peace-loving peoples.
