It was 1969, and Mary Brooks, who had been sworn in as Mint Director in September, wanted to reissue the silver dollar. Thirty-four years had passed since a silver dollar had been released (the 1935 Peace dollar). And, even though Brooks, who had a degree in economics, knew a silver dollar was impractical because bullion prices were rising, it represented fidelity to tradition. And, that was important to Brooks, who ran her family's sheep ranch in Idaho before she entered politics and would later restore the San Francisco Mint. 

Former President Dwight Eisenhower had died earlier in the year. The World War II hero and two term president who had presided over a peaceful and prosperous interlude in American history was immensely well liked. So, New Jersey representative Florence Dwyer, called for a dollar coin bearing his likeness. Dwyer, a progressive Republican Congresswoman had first been elected to Congress in 1956 by courting Eisenhower Republicans. Her campaign literature read" Ike Likes Flo" and "A Vote for Flo is a Vote for Ike". 

The idea of an Eisenhower dollar gained momentum when Democrat Missouri Representative Leonor Sullivan offered bipartisan support for a dollar that would bear a portrait of Republican president Dwight Eisenhower as "equal time" to the half dollar, which bore the likeness of Democrat president John F. Kennedy.

Even though the only need for a large dollar coin was by the gaming industry for its slot machines, the opportunity to honor Eisenhower and the Apollo moon landing (on the reverse) on a large coin became appealing to many legislators.  Mary Brooks steered compromise legislation through Congress authorizing an Eisenhower dollar that was not composed of silver but made in the same copper-nickel (Cu-Ni) clad composition in use for the dime and quarter dollar. It was signed into law in late 1970 by Eisenhower's former Vice President Richard Nixon, and the first Eisenhower dollar was issued in 1971.