The
man known to history as the Supreme Allied Commander, the hero of D-Day, and thirty-fourth
President of the United States, Dwight David Eisenhower, was born on the fourteenth of
October 1890, in Denison, Texas. The third of seven boys, Dwight acquired his
more well-known nickname of “Ike” from his parents, who meant it to be a diminutive
of their last name. Interestingly, all of the Eisenhower boys
were called some variation of “Ike” when they were children, but only Dwight retained
the nickname into his adulthood. His modest, working-class upbringing and early
educational career gave little hint of the grand accomplishments he would achieve in
the coming decades. Eisenhower was descended from German, English,
and Scottish immigrants to North America. His paternal ancestors had been German Protestant
farmers who had emigrated to Pennsylvania during the 1740s. A branch of this family moved to Kansas during
the nineteenth century, and there, at Lane University, David Eisenhower met his future
wife, Ida Stover. The two were married in the autumn of 1885
and settled in the town of Hope, Kansas. The Eisenhowers opened a general store in
Hope, and Ida gave birth to their first son, Arthur, the following year. Unfortunately, the family business failed,
not only because of the economic downturn in American farming communities, but also
due to the dishonest behavior and dealings of David’s business partners. Now facing much poorer circumstances, the
family was forced to relocate to Texas. Using his college education as an engineer,
David secured employment on the Missouri-Texas-Kansas railroad for a monthly wage of forty dollars. The family rented a small house in Denison
and began a slow financial recovery. During their few years in Texas, two more
Eisenhower sons were born, Edgar and Dwight. In 1892, the family returned to Kansas, settling
in Abilene. That year, Ida gave birth to the family’s
fourth son, Roy, and David became a mechanic for the Belle Springs Creamery, typically
working twelve-hour shifts, six days per week, and now earning fifty dollars per month. The Eisenhowers thereafter put down their
roots in Abilene, and Dwight always considered it his “real” hometown, despite having
been born in Texas. David and Ida raised their six boisterous
and competitive sons in a modest 800-square-foot house, on the “wrong” side of the tracks
in Abilene, but with enough land on their property to grow a few subsistence crops and
keep a few animals. Combined with David’s salary, the Eisenhower
family were able to support themselves well enough. Dwight later reflected on his mostly happy
childhood. “I never knew we were poor,” he said. The values stressed at home were typical of
the ethical culture of people of the American Plains regions: responsibility, hard work,
faith, humility, modesty, honesty, and sincerity. In addition to their regular chores, each
of the boys was assigned a plot of the family’s property to cultivate crops and each boy was
responsible for selling the crops he produced to help support the family. David responded to any and all misbehavior
on the part of his sons with firm discipline. Ike more than occasionally found himself in
trouble for his hot and quick temper, which often landed him in fights with other boys
in and out of school. Religion played an important role in the Eisenhowers’
family life. David and Ida were members of a Mennonite
sect called the “Brethren of Christ,” also known as the “River Brethren,” for
their practice of baptizing their followers in rivers. A religious shift took place in the Eisenhower
house in the spring of 1895, when the whole family fell into deep mourning. The family’s fifth son, Paul, died of diphtheria
at only ten months old. As often happens in response to tragedy, Ida’s
faith seems to have undergone an alteration following her son’s death. Some months earlier, Ida had begun attending
meetings of the International Bible Students Association, an organization that would later
become known as the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Following her son’s death, Ida’s association
with this sect became more pronounced, and the Abilene chapter of this group began holding
meetings regularly at the Eisenhower home. David and Ida encouraged their children in
their religious education and observance, holding daily Bible study sessions as a family. Both David and Ida were pacifists, and Ida
focused much attention on Dwight’s religious development in an attempt to temper his fascination
with the historical wars and struggles he so enjoyed reading about. By the time Dwight left home for college,
he had read the entire Bible, twice. Predictably, his command of scripture remained
formidable throughout his life. Yet, while religion figured centrally in his
childhood, Ike never actually joined a church himself. He never seemed to favor any particular Christian
denomination either, though he had connections to the Presbyterian church through his wife,
Mamie. He described himself as a deeply religious
man, but his religious sensibilities largely remained a private matter for him. Some historians speculate that this reticence
to speak about religion might have been connected to his mother’s religious affiliation. Some speculate that the Eisenhower sons, particularly
Dwight, might have wanted to keep public discussion of their mother’s religious practices muted
for public relations purposes. The Jehovah’s Witnesses were considered
to be a rather radical fringe sect of millenarianism for much of the twentieth century, and it
is possible that the Eisenhower siblings, who all achieved and enjoyed impressive careers
in law, banking, academia, engineering, healthcare, and the military, were keen to protect their
family’s reputation. Even John F. Kennedy, Eisenhower’s presidential
successor, was considered a controversial candidate for political office because of
his Catholicism. In fact, America’s current president, Joe
Biden, is only the second Catholic, and also only the second non-Protestant to hold the
office of President of the United States. Abilene was typical of small-town America:
a small city surrounded by a vast rural expanse. The Eisenhower children were therefore exposed
to both city and country modes of life, although the rural experience was undoubtedly more
familiar to them. Young Dwight developed a keen interest in
the outdoors, particularly in hunting and fishing. At this particular time and place in America,
life was tough for non-professionals and the working class, but most people firmly believed
that hard work and honest dealings could eventually produce success, no matter where one started. Moreover, it was easier to achieve a modestly
genteel prosperity in a town like Abilene than in a major urban or commercial center. Perhaps this sense of possibility and opportunity
was part of the key to Ike’s later confidence and success. For most of his early education, Ike was a
fairly average student. He enjoyed his spelling and arithmetic lessons
and became a voracious reader early in life. His mother Ida, a former teacher, had a decent
collection of history books, and once Ike began reading them, history quickly became
one of his favorite subjects, particularly military history. He pored over the military exploits of his
favorite historical generals, including Hannibal and predictably, George Washington. As a highly active and athletic boy however,
Ike was far more interested in football than anything else in his early academic career. The sheer physicality of the sport likely
provided an outlet for Dwight’s excessive energy and often quick temper. His love of the game and his desire to keep
playing even caused him to risk his life at the age of fourteen. Ike had sustained a leg injury which led to
a serious infection, for which his doctor recommended a leg amputation. Ike implored his parents to respect his decision
to forego the amputation, even if the infection killed him. He preferred to take a chance that he might
get better and retain the use of his legs. This would not be the first time that luck
was demonstrably with him, and Ike made a full recovery, going on to play football in
high school and college. Throughout his educational career, he continued
to demonstrate fairly average academic performance overall, but retained his interest in history
and reading. Western novels were a particular favorite
of Ike’s. He also showed an aptitude and interest in
the practical applications of maths and sciences, which is unsurprising for the son of a college-educated
engineer, as well as a man whose admirers would come to consider as a strategic and
organizational genius. Ike’s strategic thinking also manifested
itself in his skill at card-playing, a pursuit he continued to enjoy and to get better at
throughout his life, particularly poker and bridge. His high school contemporaries predicted that
Ike would enjoy a successful career as an Ivy League history professor however financial
circumstances and personal inclinations, guided Eisenhower in a vastly different direction. Dwight and his older brother Edgar graduated
from Abilene High School together in 1909. Both wanted to go to college but the family’s
income at that time was insufficient to pay tuition for two sons at once. Dwight and Edgar therefore agreed that Edgar
would attend college first, while Dwight went to work at the creamery where their father
worked. In this way, Dwight would help finance his
brother’s education, with the understanding that after Edgar graduated, he would do the
same for Dwight. He spent more than a year working six days
a week for a wage of $3 at the creamery. It was soon suggested to him that entering
a military academy could secure him a tuition-free college education. Ike’s long love affair with military history
and his active, sometimes temperamental personality as a young man made him an ideal fit for such
an institution. It would teach him structure, self-control,
and the value of cooperation, all of which would be crucial to his later military and
political roles. In 1911, with decent test scores and a recommendation
from his Congressman, Eisenhower was admitted to West Point Military Academy in New York. Eisenhower’s college career was formative
and the experiences he had there, taught him much about the value of organization and calm,
competent leadership. He started out less interested in becoming
a military career man than in simply obtaining a college education and getting to play football
at the same time. During his freshman year, Eisenhower even
got the chance to confront the legendary Native American football player and Olympic gold-medalist,
Jim Thorpe, in the 1912 game between West Point and the Carlisle Institute, a Native
American trade school. Seeking the glory of victory over the team
who boasted America’s foremost athlete at the time, Ike and several of his teammates
focused their offensive on Thorpe in particular, hoping to bolster their team’s advantage
by taking him out of the game. Thorpe persevered through the onslaught however,
and Carlisle won the game. But this historic match was to be Eisenhower’s
last. He badly injured his knee following the game,
with resulting permanent damage. Being no longer able to play football was
a significant loss for Ike, but by his second year at West Point, he was coaching the junior
varsity team and continued in this role until graduation. It is likely that coaching helped to foster
the general in him rather than the soldier, and brought out the calm, competent, supportive,
strategic, and organized side of him rather than the brash, impulsive, and sometimes aggressive
side. Beyond his admittedly fulfilling role as a
football coach, Ike continued to be a decent, though not an excellent student. He took mostly science and technology courses,
graduating 61st in a class of 164 students. He finished 10th in his class however, in
English and History, and was much admired for his eloquent writing. He had made the best of a college career which
had largely not included playing football, a reality which had embittered him for a time. Ike began to smoke heavily by his second year
at West Point and enjoyed as many poker games as he could, both prohibited activities at
the academy. While his academic record was merely average,
his discipline record was even less impressive and he ranked 125th in discipline in a class
of 164 students. Still, Eisenhower made lifelong friends in
college and formed relationships that would one day figure in international importance. Many of the young men with whom he attended
college, would be tapped for high military command by the beginning of World War II. Popularly dubbed “the class the stars fell
on,” no less than 59 graduates, roughly a third of West Point’s class of 1915, went
on to become generals, including two five-star generals: Eisenhower himself, and Omar Bradley. Ike’s life shifted significantly after graduation
and within a year, his future military career had begun to take shape just as he met and
fell in love with his future wife. Ike opted for the infantry after graduating
from West Point and was posted to Fort Sam Houston near San Antonio, Texas. He was introduced to Mary Doud, known as “Mamie,”
soon after his arrival on the base. Mamie was the pretty, charming, and vivacious
daughter of a wealthy family from Denver, Colorado. The Douds owned a lucrative meat-packing company
and spent the winters in Texas. “He was just about the handsomest man I’d
ever seen,” Mamie later wrote about the fair-haired, blue-eyed man who would become
her husband. Ike proposed to Mamie on Valentine’s Day
in 1916 and the two were married that July. Their first son, who they named Doud, adorably
nicknamed “Icky,” was born the following year. Despite attempts to be posted overseas in
a more active role, Eisenhower spent most of the next few years in junior officer training,
coaching football for Peacock Military Academy and St. Louis College, training units and
regiments, or serving in supply and logistics roles. His emerging organizational, administrative,
and leadership qualities served him well through the First World War years, although he was
repeatedly denied the opportunity to see any real military action. Eisenhower learned a great deal during this
period however, forming opinions about how the military of the future should be developed,
both strategically and technologically. Like many other career military men of his
day, Eisenhower saw the value of developing tanks and firepower rather than infantry offensives. He trained tank regiments in Georgia in 1917,
and in Pennsylvania in 1918. In 1919, after being posted to Camp Meade,
he helped orchestrate a transcontinental vehicle convoy from Washington D.C. to San Francisco
which taught him a great deal about tank and truck capabilities depending on terrain. This massive effort involving hundreds of
men and over eighty vehicles was carried out with very little paved road to smooth the
convoy’s way and there were literally dozens of breakdown events during the 3,200-mile,
62-day journey. The experience convinced him of the efficiency,
productivity, and logistical benefits to be gleaned from the creation of a national highway
system – which would later be a staple infrastructure program of his Presidency. It wounded Ike’s pride deeply that he had
not been able to serve in a combat role in the War. He had finally received orders to depart for
Europe with a unit he had finished training, on the 18th of November 1918. However, exactly one week prior to the date
of his departure, the armistice was announced. Ike was deeply disappointed. Conventionally, the way to establish a reputation
and earn promotion in the military was through distinguished combat service and Ike worried
that his career might stagnate as a result of his never having served overseas. Yet, it may have been a blessing in disguise,
as few soldiers were prepared for the brutal savagery of the new, more technologically-advanced
warfare. The casualties were staggering and the impact
on the average soldier’s mental health often debilitating. Instead, Eisenhower was lucky enough to spend
the First World War years safely and contentedly with his young family and the friends he had
made in the service. In 1920, Mamie and Icky, who had been staying
with her parents off and on during the previous year, rejoined Ike at Camp Meade, Pennsylvania,
where they settled into their own house on the base, right next door to George Patton,
with whom Ike had quickly become friends. The two shared an enthusiasm for experimentation
with military strategy and equipment, forming a personal and professional relationship that
would continue through three decades and a World War. Tragedy struck in January 1921, however, when
three-year-old Icky died after contracting scarlet fever. The child had caught the disease from a maid
Ike and Mamie had hired, who had begun work in the Eisenhower household before she had
fully recovered from her illness. Devastated, Ike and Mamie blamed themselves
and the tragedy had a profound impact on their marriage. Both grieved deeply and privately. Ike rarely spoke about his son’s death,
later writing: “This was the greatest disappointment and disaster in my life, the one I have never
been able to forget completely.” A year after Icky’s passing, their second
and only son, John, was born, and a sense of joy, comfort, and continuity began to return
to the Eisenhower household once again. Every year, without fail, Ike sent Mamie flowers
on the anniversary of Icky’s death. Some of his biographers view Eisenhower’s
career during the Interwar period as relatively stagnant since he attained a rank no higher
than lieutenant colonel prior to the beginning of World War II, when he was fifty-one years
old. However, the 1920s and 1930s were in fact
a highly productive learning period for Ike, when his more modern views on military development
and his emerging promise as a leader, administrator, and strategist brought him to the attention
of highly influential military men who mentored him and helped promote his career. Chief among them was General Fox Conner, whom
Eisenhower met over dinner at George Patton’s house at Campe Meade. Conner was impressed with Eisenhower and having
been appointed Army Chief of Staff by General Pershing, used his influence to have Ike appointed
his executive officer in the Panama Canal Zone in 1922, where Conner commanded the 20th
Infantry Brigade. Ike, Mamie, and baby John spent the next two
years in Panama. The Canal Zone was a rather dreary and undeveloped
area, not the most stimulating environment for a new mother or her child. Being together was important for the Eisenhowers
however, and while it strained their marriage, Ike and Mamie coped as well as they could
with family life and child-rearing under the stress of constant relocation and new, sometimes
uncomfortable environments, as many career-military families do. Fortunately, his duties as a staff officer
in Panama were relatively light and General Conner encouraged Ike to use the extra time
to read extensively on history and philosophy, particularly military history and strategy. Eisenhower learned a great deal from Conner
while serving as his executive officer and came to understand that Conner took such a
personal interest in him because of the general’s conviction that another World War was coming. When it did, Conner knew that the Allies would
need the ablest and best-prepared men available to step into high command. Accordingly, as part of his tutelage, Conner
shared his First World War experiences with Eisenhower, the tactics of battle, the successes
and failures, the heavy decision making involved in maintaining alliances and mobilizing men
and resources. He expressed his grave concerns about the
questionable soundness and potentially problematic nature of the Versailles treaty as well. Eisenhower emerged from Conner’s mentorship
more confident in his perspectives and abilities and prepared to excel more than ever before. After returning to Campe Meade in 1924, Eisenhower,
thanks partly to General Conner’s influence, was admitted to the Command and General Staff
School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he studied army tactics and operations and
the problem-solving involved in managing them. Completion of general staff school was necessary
to rise in the army ranks and the curriculum was notoriously grueling. No longer simply an “average” student,
in 1926, Ike graduated first in a class of 275. Conner intervened once again in 1927 to have
Eisenhower assigned to the American Battle Monuments Commission in Washington, D.C. where
he was tasked by General Pershing with writing a narrative history of the American Expeditionary
Force’s service in Belgium and France during World War I. Later that year, he was admitted to the Army
War College in D.C., where he once again graduated first in his class in 1928. Ike and Mamie spent the next year in France
where Eisenhower was commissioned to tour and produce a guide of the First World War
battle sites in France. He was then assigned to the War Department
in D.C. and tasked with developing plans and strategies for industrial mobilization should
another major war break out. In 1930, he met the newly-appointed army chief
of staff, Douglas MacArthur, whom he quickly impressed with his intelligence and competence. “This is the best damn officer in the Army,”
MacArthur once remarked about Eisenhower, and resolved, like General Conner before him,
to promote Eisenhower’s career. Like Conner, MacArthur believed another war
could be on the horizon, and in terms of potential military leaders, Eisenhower was one of the
most promising. Ike spent the 1930s working closely with MacArthur. As his assistant in Washington, Eisenhower
helped to formulate policy and mobilization strategy for a potential upcoming war, according
to MacArthur’s vision and in 1935, he accompanied the General to the Philippines where MacArthur
had been assigned to serve as military advisor to President Manuel Quezon. The Philippines were in a transitional period
towards independence and U.S. authorities were anxious that the region be defended from
a potential invasion, which they worried might be launched by the Japanese. Eisenhower spent the next four years attempting
to operationalize and implement MacArthur’s plan for the Philippine’s defense, one which
required key regions to be reinforced, using a citizen army properly trained to fight,
and which could be carried out with limited support and resources from the United States. The task was daunting and the odds of success
seemed bleak, but Eisenhower dutifully pursued his assigned goals and did the best he could
under the circumstances. Unfortunately, the Philippines would fall
to the Japanese by 1942 anyway. What made Ike’s experience in MacArthur’s
service much more difficult was the political in-fighting among the Americans stationed
there and the personality clashes with MacArthur. But Ike had come a long way from being the
hot-tempered young man spoiling for a fight. He had learned instead to compromise, conciliate,
and negotiate. He was also noted for maintaining cordial
relations with people he disagreed with – a skill he undoubtedly perfected in MacArthur’s
service. MacArthur was notorious for his irascible
personality and nearly a decade working with him effectively ruined all but the most professional
part of the relationship between the two men. Eisenhower, however, proved to have truly
mastered himself by having served so well under MacArthur. Ike’s strong suit, going forward, would
be his remarkable ability to deal diplomatically, patiently, and effectively with the many high-ranking
Allied leaders and commanders, all of whom had to collaborate if they were to secure
victory. And many of the Allied leaders and generals
of the Second World War were famously difficult, even intolerable personalities: Churchill,
De Gaulle, Stalin, Montgomery, and Patton, to name just a few, were all more than challenging
to work with. And while they rarely expressed any unreserved
approval of their international compatriots, virtually all had good things to say about
Eisenhower, seeing him as infinitely competent, fair-minded, genuine, and trustworthy. By 1939, Ike was more than ready for a change
and he discreetly wrote to friends in Washington to help him find a new posting. He returned to Washington shortly after war
was declared between Britain and Germany in September. He spent the next two years in multiple postings,
both as a staff officer and in the field, advising and assisting in the expansion and
mobilization of U.S. forces in preparation for a possible entry into World War II. He was given command of the Third Army and
received acclaim and commendations for their successes against the Second Army in the 1941
war games in Louisiana, after which he was promoted to Brigadier General. Five days after the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor in December 1941, Secretary of War, General George Marshall, summoned Eisenhower
to Washington and appointed him to head the War Plans Division, eventually giving him
command of all U.S. forces in the European theater. It is possible that Ike had been shuffled
around in so many different postings in the two years leading to U.S. entry into the war
because his performance in various roles was being carefully watched. Apparently, Marshall had decided that Ike
was most valuable for his ability to plan, organize, and facilitate the execution of
effective military policy and maneuvers. As Secretary of War, Marshal could not afford
to promote men who would need to be micro-managed. Marshal needed eminently competent, responsible,
accountable generals to whom he could delegate charge of the various large-scale operations,
and who could act confidently and independently in the moment when necessary. With his two-plus decades of experience, Eisenhower
fitted the bill perfectly. Yet he now had a greater task before him than
he had ever faced and with little notion of just how great his challenges would be by
the last months of the European theater, Eisenhower departed for London in June of 1942. Ike arrived in England with his work cut out
for him. Not only nationalistic rivalry, but also unease
and distrust clouded the interactions between the Allied military and political leaders. This made planning and cooperation challenging
but communicating effectively with prickly personalities and encouraging many conflicting
elements to work together was Eisenhower’s strong suit. He was given command of the Allied invasion
of North Africa, launched in November of 1942. Accompanying Ike to North Africa was a pretty,
thirty-three-year-old Irish divorcee named Kay Summersby. She had been assigned to Eisenhower as a driver
after his arrival in London and she remained with him as his personal secretary for the
duration of the war. The nature of the relationship between Eisenhower
and Summersby has been the subject of much historical controversy and debate. Away from the front, World War II was a very
flirtatious time and numerous members of the American military, both young privates and
great generals, formed romantic relationships with British women. Ike and Kay clearly liked each other a great
deal, but the exact nature of their relationship has never been fully clarified. Rumors abounded that they were having an affair
and that Eisenhower would seek a divorce. However, Ike gave no sign of any such thing
in the more than three hundred letters he wrote to his wife, Mamie, while he was overseas. After Eisenhower’s death, Kay published
a memoir in which it was claimed that while there was a romance between them, they had
never slept together. Whatever the truth of their relationship,
Ike cut ties with Kay when the war was over, returning home to his wife and son. Eisenhower’s first major challenge in the
Second World War was the North African theater, and while the operation was ultimately a success,
it was also plagued by missed opportunities, logistics problems, and painful mistakes. Ike ruefully observed that students at the
General Staff College in Washington would be criticizing American performance in North
Africa for decades to come. However, the general learned important lessons
during the campaign which he would carry forward with him through subsequent challenges. Operation TORCH was the largest amphibious
invasion in military history up until that time and pitted General Eisenhower against
the “Desert Fox,” General Erwin Rommel. Rommel’s forces had been struggling against
the British Eighth Army led by General Montgomery in the Western Desert Campaign. The Allies took three key ports on the northwest
coast, Oran, Casablanca, and Algiers, before proceeding east toward Tunisia. The Eighth Army, in turn, marched west and
by May 1943, the Tunisian Campaign ended with the surrender of the Axis forces. Most were of the opinion that the North African
Theater of Operations had continued for much longer than it should have. Eisenhower had been too cautious to proceed
on multiple occasions and had not dealt decisively enough with personnel issues or supply problems. Although the Allies took over a quarter of
a million German prisoners of war and were left in command of the field, Rommel and the
bulk of his German forces had escaped. Eisenhower would confront the Desert Fox again,
next time on the Western Front. One of Ike’s greatest strengths was his
ability to learn from his mistakes. Going forward, he resolved to act more decisively
and to fine-tune all logistical and personnel relationships. He got tougher on himself as well as on the
men serving under him, who nonetheless thought highly of him. Ike was not the “inspirational” sort of
general. Many of the most admired generals were highly
charismatic, temperamental men who inspired gut-level loyalty for their abilities, but
often had near-intolerable personalities and diva-like attitudes. Eisenhower had famously had to interfere in
a disciplinary scandal to keep the near-indispensable Patton from a court-martial after the abrasive
general, disgusted at their shows of emotion, had physically assaulted two shell-shocked
soldiers. Ike was not a fiery, charismatic sort, but
he was admired for being plain-spoken, respectful, compassionate, and a conciliator who never
tried to dodge responsibility when the failure was his. His troops may not have viewed him in the
same worshipful light as generals like Patton or Montgomery, but they knew that General
Eisenhower cared about them. The kind of “diva squabbling” which Eisenhower
notably avoided as a general actually impeded the progress of Operation Husky, when Patton
and Montgomery seemed more interested in competing with one another in an absurdly nationalistic
display during the invasion of Sicily. Rather than cooperating in a swift takeover
of the island so that they could press the Allied advantage, their respective armies
competed in a race to take Messina. Meanwhile, the Axis powers managed to evacuate
100,000 men, 10,000 vehicles, and 17,000 tons of supplies with which to reinforce and defend
the Italian mainland. The Allies would thus quite literally face
an “uphill” battle, all the way up the Italian boot, to secure victory. In fact, the fascists in Italy held out even
after the fall of Berlin in 1945, as the war was coming to an end. In December 1943, President Franklin Roosevelt
selected Eisenhower to plan and orchestrate has become known popularly as D-Day. For most historians and general admirers of
Eisenhower, this was his magnum opus, his greatest achievement. Knowing that sixty German divisions, commanded
by his old foe, Rommel, were waiting for him, Eisenhower assiduously planned and organized
these last stages of the war’s long struggle, trying to provide for every eventuality, and
implementing lessons he had learned about collaboration, delegation, strategy, logistics,
and maneuvers during his thirty-year military career. The Germans knew that the Allies would attack
western Europe via the English Channel but they did not know exactly where or when the
attack would come. Having learned the importance of preserving
the element of surprise from the North African and Italian campaigns, Eisenhower determined
to cripple Axis supply lines in a preliminary bombing campaign before invading France. To keep the Germans guessing as to his real
strategy, Eisenhower planned two other fake invasions at alternate locations on the French
coast to keep the Germans away from the site where the Allies planned to strike. These mock invasions even featured inflatable
tanks and parachuting dummies, which kept the far-flung German divisions along the Atlantic
wall confused for weeks after the initial landings while the Allied invasion continued. The deception campaign was truly elaborate. The Allies air-dropped thin strips of metal
to interfere with German radar communications, they created fake radio and code traffic which
they allowed the enemy to intercept, and they sent in double agents to pose as Axis spies
who fed the enemy erroneous intelligence about Allied plans and movements. Still the largest amphibious invasion in military
history, the D-Day landings involved 156,000 Allied troops from the British, American,
and Canadian forces, who established a beachhead around ten miles deep into occupied territory. Here, Eisenhower gave Patton and his troops
free reign to promptly and furiously begin to break through the German lines. In a matter of weeks, the Allies had landed
two million more troops, tens of thousands of vehicles, and untold amounts of supplies. The westward push across Europe began. Eisenhower now had no reticence about proceeding
both decisively and aggressively. But the Germans would make one last stand,
one that threatened to potentially tip the scales back in their favor long enough for
them to regroup – the Battle of the Bulge. By the fall of 1944, Hitler had quite clearly
and correctly anticipated that Germany would soon be overrun and occupied. The Soviets were closing in from the east,
and the rest of the Allied forces were advancing on Germany from the west. In an attempt to deal the Allies a blow deadly
enough to forestall the western invasion, the Germans launched a last desperate counter-offensive
in the Ardennes region of northern France and Belgium. Hitler’s goal was to force an Allied retreat
westward, to get enough divisions across the Meuse River to take Antwerp, and thereby cripple
the Allied supply lines, forcing them to sign a peace with Germany. Then, perhaps they might have a chance of
defeating the Soviets. As things stood, the Germans could not continue
fighting a multi-front war. The Battle of the Bulge was highly crucial
to the war’s ultimate outcome. Troops on both sides were exhausted and experiencing
continuous supply problems. Both Allied and Axis leaders understood that
the winners of this battle would in all likelihood win the war. The surprise offensive came in December of
1944. The Germans sent in 400,000 men, nearly twice
as many troops as the Allies to the west, and roughly 10% more tanks. Accordingly, the Germans initially showed
significant success, pushing the British and American troops back toward the west, encircling
and besieging Allied-held towns, with two divisions advancing as far as a mere five
miles from the Meuse River. This early success was partly attributable
to the winter weather conditions in the region which prevented Allied air power from providing
support. But once the weather lifted in January, American
and British planes took to the skies once again and devastated the German supply lines. What was left of the German air force spent
itself trying to destroy the Allied supply lines as well, but it was too late. In desperation, the German Panzer divisions
flung themselves at the enemy, hoping for a victory before remaining supplies collapsed. General Eisenhower, however, orchestrated
a brilliant and valiant defense in key locations in the Ardennes region, and the Allies held
out until the Germans were forced to retreat. They had suffered nearly as many casualties
as the Allies, they had lost 600 tanks, and the Luftwaffe. The war appeared to be all but over, bar the
mopping up. Most historians and history buffs will immediately
point to D-Day as Eisenhower’s greatest achievement, which is hard to argue. There was, after all, something almost supernatural
about the level of intricacy involved in the venture. The Bulge, however, was Eisenhower’s only
real test as a field commander on the ground. The glory he had sought and been denied by
being kept stateside during the First World War was now his to claim, and in a moment
when it truly counted. Consequently, some historians see the Battle
of the Bulge as an achievement that was as significant for Eisenhower as the execution
of the D-Day landings. Following the German surrender, Eisenhower
remained in Europe to help oversee the Allied occupation, and to organize the investigation
and documentation necessary for the Nuremberg Trials. According to American policy which viewed
most of the German people as victims of the Nazi regime, Eisenhower made efforts to ensure
an adequate supply of food to support the local populace and labor to help repair necessary
infrastructure. He also placed a heavy emphasis on the thorough
documentation of the death camps, commissioning extensive photographic and video evidence,
and not just to serve as evidence for the Nuremberg Trials. The grisly and haunting spectacle of the camps
had utterly horrified Eisenhower. What had taken place in these facilities was
so hideous as to be almost unbelievable, and he correctly anticipated that in future, propagandists
might use people’s unwillingness to believe that such extreme crimes were possible in
order to deny the reality of the Holocaust. Eisenhower finally returned home in the summer
of 1945, to a hero’s welcome. With the recent death of President Roosevelt
prior to the end of the war, Ike was now the most popular man in America and many influential
friends were urging him to enter the Presidential race for the 1948 election, including President
Truman himself, who even offered to serve as Ike’s running mate if Eisenhower joined
the Democrats. The fact of his high military office and lack
of political experience, however, made him wary of entering the race, believing it might
hint at military dictatorship. Additionally, the prospect of political office
seemed daunting to a fifty-six-year-old man who might prefer a less demanding occupation
after his wartime exertions. Instead, Eisenhower was offered the position
of President at the prestigious Columbia University, which he gladly accepted in 1948. Later that year, he published his World War
II memoir, Crusade in Europe, which was an immediate bestseller. For the first time in his life, Eisenhower
was a man of means. Ike had mixed experiences during his two years
at Columbia. He founded the Institute of War and Peace
Studies to research the causes and consequences of armed conflict. He also established an informal Council on
Foreign Relations to deliberate on important foreign policy initiatives. The opportunities for meaningful interaction
with political, military, and intellectual leaders therefore made Ike’s time at Columbia
a rich experience in many ways. However, he did not get as many opportunities
to participate in the formulation of educational policy, or to engage directly with the students
and faculty as much as he wished. Moreover, the academic establishment at the
university sometimes made him feel less than welcome. Some members of the tenured faculty tended
to look down their noses at Eisenhower for what they perceived as his rusticity, his
lack of sophistication, such as his literary preference for dime-store Western novels. As well as this, his relative lack of involvement
in the daily educational life of the university stoked some resentment towards him as university
president. In 1950, he resigned his post at Columbia
and departed once again for Europe, this time serving as the Supreme Commander of the NATO
Alliance. Eisenhower spent the next year advising America’s
European allies and helping to build a broad and powerful military coalition which could
stand against the rising forces of communism, provide a bulwark to defend democracies, and
present enough united force to discourage the outbreak of future wars. Upon his return to the U.S. in 1951, he made
an eloquent appeal to Congress, convincing the typically isolationist legislative body,
to offer firm support for the NATO Alliance. With unprecedented grassroots support for
an Eisenhower Presidency growing across the country, President Truman once again approached
Eisenhower offering to support his candidacy as a Democrat. Eisenhower, who had never voted or publicly
aired any political opinion or affiliation up until this time, declined, finally declaring
himself to be a Republican. This was the beginning of a permanent and
bitter rift between Truman and Eisenhower which only worsened through the 1952 election
campaign season. Ike’s political declaration inspired a “Draft
Eisenhower” movement in the Republican Party. Understanding that his opponent for the party
nomination, Robert A. Taft, had far less concern for foreign than for domestic policy and that
all of his work for international security might be at risk in a more isolationist America,
Ike finally decided to throw his hat into the ring. “I Like IKE” buttons were suddenly everywhere,
and enthusiastic voters could be heard humming the unavoidably catchy television jingle,
also called “I like Ike,” under their breath. Ike’s campaign was notably populist in its
character, which is odd since Eisenhower himself was nothing of the sort, and if left to his
own devices, likely would have campaigned simply on his established record of sober,
calm, competent, leadership and administration. He achieved an impressive victory over the
Democratic candidate, Adlai Stevenson, in November of 1952, winning the votes from every
state in the electoral college, except for the South, and winning 55% of the popular
vote. He would repeat this success even more impressively
in the election of 1956, achieving a landslide victory over Stevenson a second time. While he was one of the oldest presidents
elected in many decades, Ike continued to be an active man. As President, he was committed and hardworking
while still knowing how to delegate. And he continued to pursue his hobbies and
interests including his reading, his poker and bridge games, attending baseball and football
games, and a rather more recently acquired passion, landscape painting, which, he was
surprised to find, he was rather good at. Eisenhower’s two-term presidency featured
massive economic growth, social change, and increasing international tension. Ike is generally thought of as a president
more concerned with foreign policy than domestic, and he certainly gave top priority to unfolding
events in the Cold War world. However, his reticence to encroach on Constitutional
conventions such as the self-determination of States and the separation of powers has
been interpreted by some as a lack of concern for serious social issues, particularly civil
rights. Eisenhower had insisted on campaigning in
the segregationist South, trying to win both white and black voters. He refused to condemn the segregationists
outright, but promptly implemented the full desegregation of Washington, D.C., all U.S.
armed forces, and the foreign service. He encouraged increased recruitment of African
Americans to government positions and privately deplored the attempts of white supremacists
to keep black people from voting. Hearing about the attacks on black Americans
who achieved economic success in the South infuriated him, but he would not take a more
activist role in the cause of civil rights or anti-racism. This deeply disappointed many black voters
and civil rights leaders, particularly when Eisenhower refused to comment publicly on
the brutal and racially-motivated murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi in
1955 or the bombing of Dr. Martin Luther King’s house the following year. Several subsequent presidents have been far
more outspoken about racist extremism and hate crimes and been more openly supportive
of civil rights. The way Ike saw it, bold action on civil rights
might produce immediate change, but might also prove destabilizing if change occurred
too quickly. He also did not believe that he could, as
President, usurp the legislative prerogatives of Congress. He could dismantle the structural racism of
segregation within the federal jurisdiction, but it was up to Congress to pass comprehensive
civil rights legislation, a Congress which the Republicans had lost once again to the
Democrats in 1954, and which they had held by only the slimmest margins to begin with. Eisenhower could, however, appoint Supreme
Court justices with civil rights leanings, and accordingly appointed two of them to the
bench, including Chief Justice Earl Warren, whose judicial opinion in the Brown v Board
of Education case finally struck down the segregationist Plessy v Ferguson. Further, Eisenhower did not hesitate to enforce
the Brown decision in the South when they refused to cooperate and allow school desegregation
to go forward. He assumed control of the Arkansas National
Guard to force the racial integration of Little Rock High School in 1957. Previously, Eisenhower had quietly negotiated
with the Arkansas governor, Orval Faubus, to ensure that the integration would go ahead
peacefully, and was infuriated when the governor went back on his word. National Guard troops remained on the Little
Rock High School campus for several weeks, escorting the nine black students safely to
and from their classes in an overwhelming and often hostile sea of white students. Eisenhower’s civil rights record also received
criticism for his continued implementation of Native American assimilationist policies. Native American leaders charged that the Eisenhower
administration’s Indian policy to remove Native Americans from federal jurisdiction
and abolish the reservation system threatened their culture and way of life. They accused Washington of continuing to abuse
centuries-old treaty agreements and force all tribes, who each saw themselves as distinct
nations, to become “Americans,” which previous administrations had been trying to
do for decades. Eisenhower was also criticized for his failure
to condemn the blatantly unconstitutional attacks on people suspected of communist ties
during the Red Scare campaign of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Those who suffered under Joseph McCarthy’s
witch-hunt among federal government employees, likewise criticized Eisenhower for failing
to openly condemn McCarthy for his unconstitutional attacks on privacy and free speech. Anyone with any documented communist leanings
was targeted, but so too were civil rights activists, whom many authorities associated
with a sympathy for communism. The gay and lesbian community were also targeted
in these attacks, not for their political affiliation, but because their so-called “lack
of moral fiber” left them open to blackmail by communist spies, making them untrustworthy. This mass firing of gay and lesbian employees
from government positions is remembered as the Lavender Scare and was instrumental in
awakening a nascent Gay Liberation Movement, which found much louder expression by the
late 1960s. While Eisenhower loathed McCarthy personally,
he made no move to curtail his campaign against domestic communism, except when McCarthy attempted
to start issuing congressional subpoenas to White House staff members. In response, Eisenhower was the first President
to both invoke and fully define the principle of “executive privilege.” As far as Ike was concerned, overall political
stability and national security were best served by keeping certain access to the executive
branch on a privileged basis, especially from someone as ruthless, dishonest, and opportunistic
as McCarthy. As President, Eisenhower is most frequently
praised for presiding over one of the largest economic expansions in American history, and
helping the nation achieve some of the world’s best quality of life outcomes. The American automobile, construction, retail,
and service industries all exploded in the aftermath of World War II. Unemployment levels reached historic lows,
an unprecedented number of American families bought cars, homes, and numerous other consumer
goods, and began to take annual vacations. American productivity and job creation owed
much to World War II. Industries continued to benefit from infrastructure
built during the war, such as the automobile industry. Democratic Party members claimed that their
New Deal programs and GI Bill, which Ike had had no hand in, were key factors in America’s
healthy post-war economy. There is truth in these claims. Ike did not pioneer the farming subsidy programs,
the Social Security administration, or the infrastructure to promote fair labor practices. He was not responsible for the GI Bill which
helped former soldiers and their families reach the economic equilibrium necessary to
participate in the booming economy. However, Eisenhower did work to help facilitate
the economic expansion in multiple ways. He disentangled private industries from government
finances, many of whom had become accustomed to receiving hefty government paychecks during
the war for producing whatever was needed for the war effort. He also allowed tax rates for top earners,
capital gains, and the wealthiest estates to remain high – a decidedly un-conservative
decision which brought him into conflict with members of his own party. A surplus of tax revenue allowed him to expand
Social Security programs to benefit an additional ten million American workers, providing them
with access to unemployment insurance and pensions. Ike had never been the New Deal’s biggest
fan, particularly in his younger years. In fact, it was his exposure to Roosevelt’s
administration in Washington during the 1930s which hardened his largely conservative outlook. But by the 1950s, he was under no illusions
about the benefits of the basic social welfare state. Any political party who tried to get rid of
the New Deal programs now, he said, would never be heard from again. He described those who still aimed to deconstruct
the New Deal as a “negligible” and “stupid” splinter group. Finally, one of Eisenhower’s most significant
contributions to America’s economic expansion was his pioneering of the Interstate Highway
Act of 1956. Originally envisioned as a quick evacuation
solution from densely populated urban areas in the event of a nuclear attack, the creation
of the nationwide highway system opened up national markets for trade and shipping, put
small towns on the map allowing them to grow, encouraged interstate leisure travel, and
facilitated the creation of businesses to serve all highway travelers. Eisenhower’s America enjoyed the world’s
highest standard of living during the 1950s. When it came to foreign policy, Ike faced
the daunting task of representing America on the world stage at the dawn of the nuclear
era. His perspectives on both communism and nuclear
weapons had evolved since the end of World War II. Ike had been in Russia when the atomic bomb
was dropped on Hiroshima. He had been horrified, believing it had done
more harm than good. The Japanese, he thought, had been close enough
to surrender to make the use of the atomic bomb unnecessary, although some historians
continue to disagree on this point. He found it repugnant that the United States
had been the first to use nuclear weapons. He was also of the opinion that the atomic
bomb had done more than anything to make the Soviets distrust the Americans, leading to
increasing tensions in the years ahead. Eisenhower was still hopeful during the immediate
post-war period, believing that Russia wanted friendship more than competition with the
United States. By 1948, however, the Russians had tested
their first atomic bomb and tensions over Germany’s economic recovery and Greece’s
civil war had risen considerably. The Soviets seemed bent on expansion, and
Ike’s stance on communism therefore hardened. He began to believe, as his Republican contemporaries
did, that an overall policy of containment backed by the threat of military action or
nuclear strike was the best path to secure American interests and continued world peace. Impressions of Eisenhower’s handling of
the Cold War continue to vary. Modern critics mostly condemn the activities
of the CIA which Eisenhower approved during his administration, including the overthrow
of elected governments in Iran and Guatemala, charging that these operations had less to
do with containing communism than installing governments more friendly to U.S. economic
interests. These actions made Iranian oil accessible
to U.S. and British companies and prevented the nationalization and equitable distribution
of land among Guatemalans to facilitate the dominance of large-scale, corporate, American
agricultural interests in the region. Containment of communism in Latin America
and the Middle East continued to be a feature of American foreign policy in the years to
come. The “Eisenhower Doctrine,” which offered
military support to Middle Eastern countries determined to resist Soviet communism, profoundly
affected the stability and geopolitics of the Middle East region during Eisenhower’s
presidency. He was praised for his contribution to solving
the Suez Crisis in Egypt, but overall American policy in the Middle East has frequently been
criticized for being at cross-purposes with Arab countries, who viewed “Zionist imperialism”
as a far greater threat than communism and who deeply resented American and British support
for Israel. In principle, Eisenhower was more in favor
of “liberating” communist countries than in containing them, but he understood that
one could not constantly go to war in this new age of warfare. This is evident in his handling of the Korean
War, his subsequent strategy of nuclear brinkmanship with Communist China, and his policy in Southeast
Asia. The death of Stalin greatly facilitated the
resolution of the Korean War, as it left a temporary power vacuum which rendered China
more vulnerable to U.S. military threats which Eisenhower did not hesitate to employ to force
China to withdraw from the Korean Peninsula. Subsequently, Eisenhower was instrumental
in formulating the U.S. policy of support for Taiwan against encroachments by Red China. Unwilling to commit more than funding and
military advisors to the defense of French Indochina, later, South Vietnam, Eisenhower’s
initially minimal commitment to defeating communism in Vietnam would eventually snowball,
under the subsequent Kennedy and Johnson administrations, into an arduous and undeclared war that would
take the lives of 50,000 Americans and millions of Vietnamese troops and civilians. Kennedy also inherited the task of executing
the Bay of Pigs invasion, planned by the Eisenhower administration, which spiraled into the Cuban
Missile Crisis in 1962. Because Ike’s foreign policy discouraged
the pursuit of all-out war, his strategy for dealing with the expansion of Soviet influence
and nuclear capability involved intricate negotiation and the building and maintenance
of America’s own nuclear arsenal and capabilities. Admirers of Eisenhower praise his efforts
at nuclear disarmament, however unsuccessful they may have proven to be. When the Soviets exploded their first hydrogen
bomb, Eisenhower went against the advice of his cabinet to propose mutual nuclear disarmament
with the Soviets. The campaign was called “Atoms for Peace”
and suggested that the two superpowers might agree to decommission their weapons, using
them instead to create nuclear power plants for the benefit of both countries. Ike consistently tried to avoid the one-upmanship
of the arms race with the Soviets but also did not hesitate to enlarge the U.S. nuclear
stockpile as the Russian arsenal increased. Eisenhower’s “Open Skies” policy and
proposed mutual inspections were also met with Russian refusal. Ultimately, neither side was willing to be
the first to establish real trust by disarming first or by being the first to permit UN-supervised
nuclear inspections. The Eisenhower administration was significantly
embarrassed by the U2 Incident, when they approved one last illegal and covert surveillance
flight of the Soviet Union prior to a summit with the Russians. Khruschev promptly produced the pilot, Francis
Gary Powers, whose plane had been shot down over Soviet airspace, and who confirmed that
Eisenhower had lied when he denied the existence of the U2 flight. Furious at Ike’s unabashed refusal to apologize
for the incident, Khruschev promptly cancelled the summit and rescinded Eisenhower’s invitation
to visit the Soviet Union. Throughout his Presidency, Eisenhower grew
to resent the absurdly high price tag for America’s foreign policy. He had massively defunded America’s conventional
military forces and poured money into the development of a nuclear strategy which paradoxically
kept Americans safe using the principle of assured mutual destruction. The Space Race eventually came to seem excessive
to him as well, and Ike referred to any administration that could spend $40 billion dollars on a
race to the moon as “nuts.” Ike reached the end of his Presidency concerned
above all about what he referred to as the “military industrial complex” and its
potential to hijack and erode American democracy. He had tried hard to end the excessive allocation
of government and military funding to private companies after World War II, but in the thick
of the arms race with the Soviets, he had not been able to prevent weapons manufacturers,
who grew more powerful every year, from claiming an increasingly enormous share of American
tax money for the weapons they produced. When his Presidency was over, Eisenhower handed
the reigns of government to Kennedy, who had emerged victorious against Richard Nixon,
Eisenhower’s vice president, in the 1960 election. Accompanied by Secret Service detail, Ike
and Mamie departed the White House for their farm in Gettysburg Pennsylvania. Ike’s retirement was both pleasant and fairly
active. It meant much more time with Mamie, their
son John, and their grandchildren. He wrote three more memoirs between 1963 and
1967 and continued his hobbies and pursuits including poker, bridge, landscape painting,
and a rather newer hobby for him, golfing. He also continued his support for Republican
electoral candidates in his retirement. Eisenhower’s health had begun failing as
early as 1955, when he had his first heart attack, although Vice President Nixon and
Eisenhower’s cabinet had done everything possible to minimize the President’s health
problems to the media. Ike suffered no less than four more heart
attacks over the next ten years, the last of which left him fairly debilitated and he
was permanently hospitalized by 1968. Dwight Eisenhower died of heart failure on
the 28th of March 1969 at the age of 78. His coffin lay in state in the rotunda of
Washington’s Capitol Building for several days before he was laid to rest in his beloved
hometown of Abilene, Kansas, in the grounds of the Eisenhower Presidential Library and
Museum. He is buried next to his wife Mamie, and their
beloved first son, Icky. Like most other globally-prominent figures
of the twentieth century, probably the most turbulent century of the modern period, Eisenhower
has a complicated and frequently debated legacy. As one of the greatest heroes among the Allies
in the Second World War, Eisenhower’s contributions to victory give him indisputable historical
importance and place him shoulder to shoulder with the Allies’ greatest generals like
Montgomery and Patton, and alongside political leaders like Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin,
and De Gaulle in terms of his influence. It is therefore interesting that while biographies
on Eisenhower began to appear almost immediately following the end of World War II and many
more have been published in the decades since, Ike is in fact a great deal less visible in
popular culture, iconography, and historical biography compared to these other prominent
personages. Historians documenting his political record
during the 1960s and immediately following his death were fairly critical of his presidency,
particularly his silence or relative inaction on civil rights issues, or what they perceived
as his limited success in preventing escalation of the Cold War. By the late 1970s and 80s however, the conservative
tide of politics had risen once again in the West and new perspectives were offered by
historians seeking to rehabilitate Eisenhower’s reputation from the criticisms of earlier
historians. Many of these more conservative historians
attributed greater political skill to Eisenhower than he had previously been credited with. Eisenhower post-revisionists agree with this
assessment, but criticize his performance as a political party leader, accusing him
of failing to cultivate unity within the Republican Party or to sufficiently support Nixon in
the 1960 election against Democratic candidate, John F. Kennedy. This see-saw of historical perspectives continues,
yet Eisenhower consistently continues to rank among the top ten best U.S. presidents across
multiple polling sources. His greatest admirers continue to tout his
Presidency as a period of exceptional economic and infrastructural development, and affirm
that with Ike at the tiller, the NATO alliance held, communism remained fairly well “contained,”
and the Cold War remained “cold.” Some go as far as crediting Eisenhower with
the prevention of a Third World War. Deeper research and examination of this fascinating
man is certainly called for. Although many commentators have judged his
politics as significantly right-wing, Ike himself claimed to represent, in his own words,
a political philosophy of “progressive conservatism,” dedicated to improving productivity, efficiency,
and quality of life while maintaining both overall fiscal and political stability. This kind of blended, moderate, political
perspective would almost certainly enjoy dubious popularity in modern America’s current atmosphere
of polarization, and political and cultural tribalism. Perhaps most worthy of additional study is
the fascinating dual role Eisenhower played by helping to promulgate the age of hyper-militarism
and nuclear weapons, sometimes wittingly and sometimes unwittingly, while simultaneously
trying to forestall and/or deconstruct it. The complexities of this legacy continue both
to cement, and to complicate international relationships today. Above all, Eisenhower’s story is one which
resonates strongly among those who believe in the concept of the American Dream. The poor boy from, rural, small-town America,
no more remarkable than any other boy, had become one of modern history’s greatest
military heroes and had twice been elected President. What do you think of Dwight D. Eisenhower? Was he a weak party leader who shied away
from many important issues of his day or was he one of the greatest Generals of the Second
World War whose leadership qualities made him a renowned and well-loved president? Please let us know in the comments below,
and as always, thank you very much for watching!
