 In U.S. military doctrine, "center of gravity" refers to the basis of an opponent's power at the operational, strategic, or political level, though this is only one aspect of Clausewitz's use of the term.The deterrence strategy of the United States in the 1950s was closely inspired by President Dwight Eisenhower’s reading of Clausewitz as a young officer in the 1920s.Eisenhower was greatly impressed by Clausewitz’s example of a theoretical, idealised “absolute war” in "Vom Krieg" as a way of demonstrating how absurd it would be to attempt such a strategy in practice.