THE EXCEPTIONAL AMERICAN
“I Like Ike” was the successful 1952 presidential campaign slogan for Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the World War II Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force, and Cold War commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. On September 17, 2020, the United States of America honored the exceptional American president and multilateralist allied commanding general by dedicating the Eisenhower Memorial in Washington, DC. Moreover, as president and supreme commander, Dwight D. Eisenhower of Abilene, Kansas (1890-1969) personifies exceptional American restraint and resolve in eviscerating fascism and transcending communism. Therefore, here is an appreciation of Ike, from the pages of my critically praised books America Ascendant, the Rise of American Exceptionalism and Glenn Miller Declassified.
WAR PLANNING
After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Army chief of staff Gen. George C. Marshall made Brig. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower (West Point class of 1915) his coordinator of war planning. However, “Ike” did not serve in combat during World War I and wanted to see action. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was about to name Ike’s talented brother Milton as Deputy Director for the new Office of War Information. Likewise, at Marshall’s recommendation, FDR would also soon have an important assignment for Ike. The West Point class of 1915 became known as the “class the stars fell on”. More than half of its members became World War II generals. But to begin 1942, Ike’ had formidable responsibility. His was the impossible task of organizing support for his beleaguered former boss Gen. Douglas MacArthur and the doomed defenders of the Philippines.
COORDINATING EGOS
MacArthur would label Ike as a “traitor” for developing a “Europe first” strategy. Marshall, FDR, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill agreed with Ike. However, Ike and Marshall’s adjutant, Walter Bedell Smith, both earned their sphinxlike Chief’s confidence. Firstly, Ike learned how to deal with egos, Pentagon and Congressional infighting. Therefore, when Marshall needed a trusted confidant in England, the Chief found a way to jump Ike over many senior officers. As genial as Ike was, he had a famous temper. Consequently. when he attended a briefing by Gen. Bernard Montgomery, where smoke-averse Monty pointedly ordered chain-smoker Ike to put out his cigarette. Ike never forgot the slight or Monty’s superior, aristocratic attitude.
BLOODIED IN NORTH AFRICA
To Ike’s surprise, Marshall appointed him to command American Forces and Operation Torch, the November 1942 invasion of French North Africa at Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers. Furthermore, the purpose of the invasion was to trap the Nazi Afrika Korps and Italian divisions in Tunisia, with the Americans advancing from the west and the British Eighth Army advancing from the east. Meanwhile, Ike became embroiled in French politics. With the support of FDR and the State Department, he kept the former Vichy government and military in Morocco and Algeria in place. This infuriated Free-French leader Gen. Charles de Gaulle. Likewise, the media and the American public condemned the decision. But three-star Ike was concerned about driving east and avoiding a rear-guard action. Following an error-prone offensive by the inexperienced but bloodied Americans, Gen. Hans-Jürgen von Arnim surrendered 230,000 troops on May 7, 1943, and North Africa was cleared of Axis forces.
ITALY AND SUPREME COMMAND
Next for Ike came Operation Husky, the successful liberation of Sicily. Furthermore, following Operation Avalanche, the September 1943 invasion of the Italian mainland, Ike handled the surrender of Italy and ouster of Benito Mussolini. Again, there was media and public concern about the nature of a new Italian government. But Marshall, with FDR’s approval and Churchill’s concurrence, had other plans for Ike: the greatest command responsibility of World War II. Therefore, promoted to four-star rank, on January 17, 1944, he became Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and all allied air, sea, and land forces. One of Ike’s first important decisions was to build outstanding Public Relations and Psychological Warfare units, including a strong radio broadcasting group. Ike established important and cordial relationships with key British officers, and he developed an excellent relationship with Gen. Charles De Gaulle.
MEDIA AND MORALE
Ike believed that an effective psyops campaign could shorten the war and save many lives on both sides. Likewise, he felt that “public opinion wins wars” and “without public opinion behind us, we would be nothing but mercenaries.” Therefore, he supported informing the public of success and failure alike, within the reasonable norms of military security. Furthermore, he told correspondents that he would not condone censorship of reports critical about him or his decisions. Ike’s candor and self-depreciation impressed the 530 members of the press corps accredited to SHAEF. Moreover, the Supreme Commander ordered Col. David Sarnoff, chairman of RCA and NBC, to build his communications operation. Ike required an elevated level of troop morale. With the blessing of his ardent advocate, Prime Minister Churchill, Ike created an all-allied radio broadcasting service and brought over Maj. Glenn Miller and his Army Air Forces Band to staff it.
O. K., LET’S GO!
Ike made arguably the most courageous decision in American history before dawn on Monday, June 5, 1944, when he simply said, “o.k., let’s go!” giving the order for allied forces to invade northwest Europe on D-Day, in spite of bad weather conditions. He was fully prepared to take sole responsibility for failure. Moreover, Ike’s historic decision to set Operation Overlord in motion would decide which side won World War II. Likewise, after he gave the order, Ike instinctively went to visit young men who he was sending into battle, specifically, units of the 101st Airborne Division, “the Screaming Eagles,” who would help lead the invasion by dropping into Normandy that night. Consequently, as he worried all day on June 5 and anxiously awaited word from the hedgerows and beaches on the morning of June 6, Ike was overheard to say, “I hope to God I know what I’m doing.”
THE GREAT CRUSADE
Ike’s “Great Crusade” to liberate Europe succeeded but not without challenges. Firstly, his forces faced significant logistical problems. Secondly, Nazi Germany began to use V-1 flying bombs and V-2 guided missiles to terrorize the Allies. But De Gaulle welcomed Ike for a triumphant liberation celebration in Paris. The argumentative Monty argued for a September 1944 airborne assault on Holland, Operation Market Garden, which failed. Meanwhile, Gen. George Patton’s Third Army raced across France to the Rhine and ran out of gas. Next, Gen. Jacob Devers’ Sixth Army Group invaded Provence in Operation Dragoon and advanced along the Rhone only to get bogged down in the Voges Mountains.
VICTORY IN EUROPE
Then Hitler gambled everything on his December 16, 1944 counterattack that we now call the “Battle of the Bulge,” just as Ike was celebrating his fifth star as General of the Army. Gen. Omar Bradley’s Twelfth Army Group’s First Army, commanded by Gen. Courtney Hodges took the brunt of the assault in the snow and fog and held. Moreover, at Bastogne, Belgium, the Screaming Eagles famously answered “nuts” rather than surrender. Hitler’s gambit failed and the Allied armies inevitably reached the Autobahns and the heart of the thousand-year Reich. Ike saved American lives by properly deferring Berlin to our Soviet allies. Finally, at SHAEF Forward HQ in Rheims, France, Gen. Alfred Jodl of the German High Command signed the instrument of surrender. Therefore, Ike sent a characteristically succinct cable to London and Washington, “the mission of this command ended at 2:41 a.m., May 7, 1945.”
NATO – KEEPING THE PEACE
Following V-E Day and after Ike returned home to a rousing welcome, FDR’s successor Harry Truman appointed him Army Chief of Staff. Following a sojourn as President of Columbia University, Ike returned to serve as the first military commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. This seminal collective security initiative was one of the great achievements of Ike’s mentor, Gen. George C. Marshall, who had served as both Truman’s Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense. Ike was the ideal choice to lead the new coalition of western democracies against Soviet hegemony, the Warsaw Pact and communist infiltration. Ike was also the right leader to integrate the new West German armed forces into NATO.
POPULAR CANDIDATE
But political winds blew across the Atlantic and drew the popular Ike home as a presidential candidate. To the ire of Truman, Ike declared that he was a Republican. Moreover, Ike further irritated Truman by promising to “go to Korea” and end what the president had labeled a “police action.” The Korean War had bogged the Truman administration down in controversy, including the unpopular if correct dismissal of the other Eisenhower mentor, Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Firstly, the moderate Eisenhower defeated the conservative favorite Sen. Robert Taft of Ohio for the Republican nomination. Then, a 1952 election tsunami swept Ike into the White House. He defeated Gov. Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, who held the traditionally Democrat “solid south.” Ike carried thirty-nine of the forty-eight states and won an overwhelming 442 electoral votes. Consequently, he would repeat his big win over Stevenson again in 1956.
CONSEQUENTIAL PRESIDENT
Racial desegregation of the armed forces was stalled, and Ike would have none of it, remarking, “We have not taken, and shall not take, a backward step. There must be no second-class citizens in (the United States).” In 1954 the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, Ike’s nominee, ruled that racially separate schools are inherently unequal. In 1957, when Gov. Orval Faubus rejected a federal court order to integrate public schools, Ike nationalized the Arkansas National Guard and then sent in the 101st Airborne — to escort children safely to school. Consequently, Ike’s Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 were the most decisive since Reconstruction. Meanwhile, although correctly concerned about actual communist infiltration, Ike also abhorred the reckless tactics of the outrageous and alcoholic Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) in pursuing obsessive “witch hunts” and imaginary communists. The Senate eventually censored the cruel and homophobic inquisitor.
MATURE, MEASURED AND MULTILATERAL
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles advocated the continued containment of Soviet communism. Ike approved a “triad” of national defense, consisting of nuclear submarines, strategic missiles, and long-range bombers. But following Joseph Stalin’s death and the rise of Nikita Khrushchev, Ike pursued multiple points of engagement, such as Chance for Peace and Atoms for Peace. In 1956, when Israel, Britain and France seized the Suez Canal, Ike won international acclaim for siding with Egypt. When the Soviets jumped ahead into outer space, America responded. Ike was keenly interested in international messaging and approved many initiatives, including the Voice of America’s popular Jazz Ambassadors series. Ike warned us about political ambition, government overreach and the military-industrial complex. His guidance predicted Vietnam and Watergate. Historians have come to respect Ike’s mature, measured, and multilateral leadership in competently if quietly governing a progressive America and a free world during relative peace.
HONORING IKE’S LEGACY
America appropriately honors our exceptional commander and president Dwight David Eisenhower with a spectacular and evocative memorial. Designed by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry, the memorial encapsulates Ike’s legacy in a four-acre urban park at the base of Capitol Hill. Firstly, Gehry’s unique vision is a grand new civic space in the heart of our capital. Moreover, the memorial features an awesome, one-of-a-kind stainless-steel tapestry depicting the beaches of D-Day, heroic-sized bronze sculptures, and stone bas reliefs.
VIVID CONTRASTS
In conclusion, the contrasts between President Eisenhower and the 2020 presidential options were palpable. Firstly, his multilateralism and personal restraint versus the unilateralist incumbent, former President Donald Trump. Secondly, his courage and consistency versus the malleable current President, Joseph Biden. Lastly, Ike also contrasts vividly from many of his successors in terms of integrity, competence, and sound policy. The forthright Ike earned the wartime loyalty of the Allied forces and the postwar respect of the American people. Furthermore, he won many admirers around the world, including his wartime Soviet counterparts Marshalls Zhukov and Konev. To this day, many Americans are justifiably proud to think of themselves as “Eisenhower Republicans.” You can learn more about our exceptional wartime leader and 34th president by reading America Ascendant, the Rise of American Exceptionalism and Glenn Miller Declassified by Dennis M. Spragg, available from fine booksellers everywhere.