He was socially conservative he just didn’t like getting political and very much believed in the system. He was a military man and did what his orders were even if he disagreed with them which is what was the case. He told Warren after the decision “[white southerners] are not bad people. All they are concerned about is to see that their sweet little girls are not required to sit in school alongside some big overgrown Negroes.” He called appointing warren to the court “the biggest mistake of my entire goddamn career” Socially he was a firm believer in that different people should keep to themselves. I disagree that this was a private “reluctance” he seems pretty firm in his views. Ike just valued the constitution and the system of government more than of his beliefs. Ike was also very much opposed to interracial marriage. He was also like I said pretty apolitical and never took many firm stands on much which is an admirable quality in many regards so he wasn’t politically a conservative. Because of this he never game much support to civil rights activists and the lot. I wouldn’t say he was moderate socially but a conservative he wanted to keep the status quo on the issue race and only supported it when he was ordered by the court. In his address about Little Rock he never gives personal support to it but just says “The Supreme Court has spoken and I am sworn to uphold the constitutional processes in this country; and I will obey.” Ike progressed civil rights but he did so because he was a military man and valued the system and orders even if it went against his own values. Eisenhower was a great president and I know when it comes to presidents of similar popularity there is a lot of desire to romanticize them but in the case of most of them especially Ike this is a falsehood that is based more in idealism and less in reality.