Dwight D. Eisenhower was a five-star general of the US Army; governor of the American Zone of Occupied Germany from May 1945 to November 1945; chief of staff of the US Army from November 1945 to February 1948; Supreme Allied Commander in Europe from April 1951 to May 1952; president of Columbia University from 1948 to 1953; and president of the United States from January 1953 to January 1961.