International, diplomatic and military history of the 20th century, in particular the era of the world wars and the cold war and in addition of the age eisenhower, hes author of the bitter road to freedom, a lib history of the liberation of europe which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and also a bestseller in the united kingdom. Following d. Hitchcocks remarks, ann compton will join d. Hitchcock for a conversation on this great biography and the 34th path of the United States. Anne is a pioneer of journalism in america. She was the first woman to cover the white house for Network Television and was on the air for 41 years with abc news. Her on geoffty and impact are unparalleled. Anns career at abc news spanned seven president s of the United States, 10 president ial campaigns. She anchored from the white house, from capitol hill and president ial travel that took her to all 50 states and six continue innocents and ann, and this is a very significant part of american and white house history, ann was actually with president george w. Bush on september 11, 2001, and was the only broadcast reporter that was allowed to remain on air force 1. As you remember, the president was not allowed to return to washington and was kept away during those hours following the chaotic terrorist attack on our country. She was on the air force 1 on behalf of the entire press corps reporting back so she herself has become an important port part of white house history and shes a very good friend of the White House Historical department. If youll follow our website for future information on these other exciting lectures. Shell also be a part of those. Tonight for our featured presentation, please welcome dr. William hitchcock. [applause] dr. Hitchcock thank you so much. What a treat this is. Its just a splendid setting and a beautiful room and so many distinguished guests in the audience. Im quite overwhelmed and thrilled to be able to talk about eisenhower with you here tonight. Hope i will do him justice, although really hes a great man and we have to work hard to live up to his reputation. I want to thank stewart for inviting me and thank the White House HistoricalAssociation Staff for putting together this event. A lot of work goes into these and julian levine, whos done a lot of work, i want to thank you very much for your excellent work. Im honored to share the stage later with ann compton, an unparalleled and sparkling presence and someone i watched on tv so for so many years, so im a little starstruck but i also want to acknowledge the presence here of general ridell. He is a local hero and hes leading ask organizing the commission to get the great memorial built for the general and president eisenhower so that finally washington, d. C. Will have an appropriate monument for in very important general and the 34th president so i want to congratulate you on on your success. [applause] i believe may 8, 2020, may 8, of course, v. E. Day, well have a ribbon cutting. What a great day thats going to be. Thank you so much for your work. Lets get to it. I want to start out tonight with a president ial puzzle. Not really a quiz or anything, just a just a puzzle. If you look at American History in the years from 1945 to 1961, so the end of the Second World War up to the election of john kennedy. One figure stands out as the most dominant figure in that period. Oops. Not those guys. Not those guys. Ah, i see. That guy. Dwight eisenhower was the most popular man, the most respected and admired man of that period. 145 to 1961. He served the country as president and garnered massive approval from the public, having won two land slide elections. His average approval eight while he was president for eight years was 65 . Average. And the next president who comes closest to that was bill clinton at 55 and after that Ronald Reagan at 53 . Theyre way in the rearview mirror. But the puzzle is that from the moment he set out to run for president in 1951 all the way through his eight years in the white house and indeed for the 10 years after he left the white house until he died in 1969 eisenhower was consistently underrated as president. Thats the president ial puzzle. Senator robert taft, his opponent from the 195 republican primary scoffed atizen how weres get this, inexperience. Taft said oh, you would never hire such a greenhorn, someone without experience to be president , would you . Governor Adlai Stevenson mocked eisenhower as a light wight. He was just a tool of the right wing corporate figures, he said. President harry truman said the voters should send ike back to the army where me he belongs. Basically he was just a general and should stay there. A book in 1958 that came out while ike was in office was titled a cap captive hero. He had been captured and he was sort of a ventriloquist dummy mouthing words written by other people. That was the view of eisenhower while he was president. While hed won these two immense election and scholars agreed. Eisenhower, after he left office, the Harvard Hinch awe that are schlesinger sr. Pub accomplish published the infamous poll where the he asked harvard professors to rate the president s. It playsed eisenhower 22nd out of 31. He was nestled between chester a. Arthur, a figure who i dont know if were going to have a book talk on chester a. Arthur. We might get there but there are a lot of other guys you probably want to hear about first. And andrew johnson, widely thought to be one of the worst president s we ever had. Go figure. Thats the company they put ike in this 1962. And during the kennedy years, the camelot clan used eisenhower as a foil to reflect glory on their young and dynamic john kennedy and after all, its harder than it looks. My students would all get this. You know, wouldnt you if you were kennedys advance man use ike as the sort of counter foil . On the one hand in 1954, eisenhower and mamie are playing scrabble. I think that looks pleasant and lovely but they had to work with this guy so naturally trfs a sharp contrast and it works against eisenhowers memory and against the impression that was given to the public the by the time of his death on march 28, 19689 at the age of 78, the press seemed uninterested in ike and there was an obituary in Time Magazine that concluded that eizenhower was more of a figurehead man than a president. He was out of touch with his people. He was a great soldier but he was judged a mediocrity, maybe even a failure at president. Starting in the 1980s, a great deal of classified information started to become available to scholars. If you bo to kansas, and work in the eisenhower library, you can learn all kinds of juicy details about the eisenhower period. This showed thati eizenhower was deeply involved in government, deeply involved in the daytoday operations of his National Security council. On Foreign Policy especially, he was a master of his breach and deeply involved in the details of american National Security issues. But the emphasis of the scholarship that started to cocome out having read all this was to attack eisenhower for being a kind of evil genius. Over here hed overthrown the government in iran and guatemala and what about the kongo . So here we have him depicted as evil. The pendulum is constantly swinging and if your head is swimming, im not surprised. Wheres the real eisenhower . Im a historian but im not interested in making ike into a saint orville lain. I wanted to find out what made him tick but whats the real meaning of thize be hour impact on the country, what impact did he have and why was he so popular . People said i like ike but why . What was it about him that they liked . Im going to talk on on two big answers to that question. If you want to know why ike was popular, look at what he did, the accomplishments in his eight years. And ill touch on a few of those but then i want to talk about his character and the man the who he was and the kind of man he was. Let me talk about the substance of his presidency first and give you just a gist of whats in the book. Eisenhowers proudest accomplishment as president was that the United States did not go to war for eight years while he was in office. He said this again and again, it didnt just happen, ill tell you that he probably said it more heated and more colorfully than that. He worked hard to keep the United States at peace for eight years. When he came into office, the korean war was raging. An unpopular war. Eisenhower was determined to stop it. Even before he was sworn in as president he went to korea to see the front and what did he find . It was an unwinnable war. The only way it could have been won was to use nuclear weapons. He talked to his staff about it. He didnt want to do that. Joseph stalin dropped dead in march of 1953. This had a dramaticesque. They said were foot going to win this war, lets agree to an or mistist. The moment of leadership is whenizen hour said ill take that deal, ill take that or mist is. Many in his own party even criticized him. Ike took the deal against criticism from his own party. I think thats the kind thing that leaders. Com. He said the American Public wants this war to end. Im going to give them that and it was an overwhelmlingly popular decision. Americans were delighted the war was over. Eisenhower also decided to keep United States troops out of vietnam in 1954. The french with fighting a dogged defense of their empire and indochina trying to hang on to their colonial empire. They had one big battle at the end. It was a disaster. And the french, the generals and the prime ministers came to eisenhower and said send american troops to vietnam. 1954. Theyd been fighting for 10 years. Rescue our colony there. Eizenhower said no. He said no and he said it again ask again. I cannot conceive of a greater tragedy for america, he said, than to get heavily involved in an allout war in those regions. Many of his advisors here are two of them, disagreed and privately coaxed eisenhower to aid the french. Get involved in the fighting. Rad masks er and dulles, who was secretary of state. They found a way to back channel and try to get their views heard. He said no. I cannot tell you how bitterly opposed i am to such a course of action. This war in indochina would diverse dw our troops by divisions. Eisenhower then committed to help build the state of South Vietnam and we could have the argument about builtup future commitments but eisenhower had a choice to make and despite some of his most powerful advisors he said no, were not going to wage that war. So again in 1956, theres another conflict of the canal in egypt. Britain, france, israel invade egypt. Should the United States join in and overthrow the strong man that ike . Eizenhower said its an outrageous violation of International Law and put pressure on the french and british to get out. And again when the soviets put pressure on the divided city of berlin, eisenhower resorted to diplomacy rather than sabre rattling. He invited nikita crush hove to come to the United States and they had a rip roaring good time. At least khrushchev did, traveling the United States. That was the thing, resort to diplomacy first to avoid war. Mind you, eisenhower was no dove on defense system. He spent huge sums to build built up our defense base hit. In the eisenhower years, the United States spent on average 10 of its g. D. P. On defense in the 1950s. Today were at about 3. 3 . Obviously the size of the economy is very different baugh huge sum on investing in defense. The man who did so much to alert us to the dangerous of the military Industrial Complex did a lot to build that complex. The u. S. Nuclear arsenal soared from just over a few hundred weapons to over 20,000 war heads. The b5 bombers, the atlas and titan intercontinental ballistic missiles. All these came online in eisenhowers terms and he delighted in the details. He poured over the plans. He was deeply engaged in pushing these developments forward. The purpose of these weapons was to deter the communists, to keep the peace. This was the beginning of the formation of the peace through strength strategy that waged and won the cold war. We can debate whether it was the right choice but every president since has followed it and it was very much the advantage that helped to win the cold war. Ike is a paradox in this regard. He wanted to avoid war, he did but he invested greatly in the tools of the war. The second area of his achievements i want to talk on was in the economy. Heres a fact you might not have known the eisenhower balanced three bunts out of eight and he came pretty close on the others, except for the first one, which was trumans deficit. This is a record of fiscal discipline unmatched by any of his successors until bill clinton managed to balance a few budgets in the late 1990s and i want to talk about a figure often held up as a leading conservative figure. Ronald reagan sometimes is held up as the archetypal conservative leader but he added 1. 4 trillion to the National Debt and didnt come close to balancing a budget. And the reason is reagan was much more interested in cutting taxes. Ike and reagan had very different ideas about taxes. Eizenhower was very stern about taxes. He demanded that the u. S. Buffalo. Should be balanced before everyone got a tax cut. Worry, boy, does that date him. He said it repeatedly. He wasnt private about it. He Gave National radio addresses and public addresses about taxes. Heres the gist of it. The good american, eisenhower said, is proud to carry his share of the national burden. Whoo, i dont think thats going to be on the Bumper Sticker in 2020, whoever is out there. Its just a different world and this was simply his view, that paying your taxes was part of being an american and it was a patriotic duty, all americans should do it. No wonder that bill buckley when his magazine was just coming out. The national review, they viewed him as an apostate. Wasnt conservative enough for the conservatives. Ike thought of himself as a conservative but the fact on early on in his presidency he made his peace with the new deal, he expanded Social Security to include 10 million additional recipients. He raised the minimum wage. He founded the department of health, education, and welfare and of course he invested in a very big infrastructure program. The interstate highway is it costs billions but eizenhower came up with a clever way of doing it, a gas gas tax, essentially a user fee. It was an engine that fed itself. But it didnt place a heavy burdon on the treasury and that was key genius of the plan so strong on defense but Even Stronger on diplomacy. A budget hawk but also progressive on issues like Social Security and human welfare. Finally, one substansive topic i want to touch on before i get to ikes character is an area where ill bet you not many of you realize what a significant legacy he actually had and thats the field of civil right. In the 1950s, the Civil Rights Movement was, of course, gaining momentum and national attention. Africanamericans were using the courts to challenge the segregation of schools and public place across the country. The practice of jim crow was in place fully across the south and this was a practice that would come under increasing conflict and protests from africanamericans in the 1950s. Through court challenges, marches, sitins. Black americans were demanding an end to racial segregation. Its one of the things that made the decades such an exciting decade. Ike didnt know much about black life in america, he didnt know much about the Civil Rights Movement and wasnt all that interested in it initially before he became president. Hi grew up and his entire career had been in the segregated u. S. Military. Most of his friends from the army were southerners or had southern connections. Whered he most like to go on vacation . Augusta, georgia. They didnt allow women or africanamericans to join until the 1990s so ike didnt have a point of reference on how to handle this growing crisis in the country. But he accumulated a significantly progressive record of civil rights. He and his attorney general worked quietly through the courts to weaken jim crows segregation. They appointed five reasonably progressive jurists to the Supreme Court. Most significantly early warren to have Supreme Court as chief justice. Eisenhower had some qualms about the decision but at no point did he ever publicly denounce the decision or seek to under mine it. He never would dream of doubting it publicly. He would sign into law the 1957 Civil Rights Act. First one since the end of the civil war, since reconstruction. And he took a real risk when he ordered federal troops to surround Central High School in locke, arkansas to order to ensure that courtordered desegregation of that school would proceed despite the hostility of the governor of arkansas. Eisenhower saw the issue as one of federal power vs. State power in which the federal government had to right to impose and enforce the law. He may have been a reluctant warrior on civil weekes rights but he was an authority on federal Law Enforcement its true that ike didnt personally empbrace the civil rights cause as his own. He didnt speak on civil rights as an issue of justice. He spoke about it mainly as a fixture of the law and many critics have criticizedizen how were if not putting his shoulder to the wheel. But he wasnt really prepared to face this crisis and i think he managed very well and left a significant legacy in this field of civil rights. I could go on about his policyy achievements but it probably wasnt those that endeared him to so many americans. I want to reflect a little bit on his character and then well go into some q a. When americans looked at Dwight Eisenhower i love this picture of ike. Its 1940,. In hawaii. Hes confident, relaxed but the word that comes to mind is winner. This guy is a winner. They saw a man who playing football at army then running the Second World War, winning, liberating europe. Being the first commander of nato. Winning two land slide elections and never really looking like he was trying all that hard. He loved being around them him and people loved being around him. One of the things that struck me doing the research on this book were the reports about his physical charisma. He had tremendous criticize marks total star power. He was very athletic in his carriage. Carried himself like an athlete that he was. People loved his persona. Another reason for his appeal surely was his authenticity. Ike knew where we came from and he never forgot it. He loved where he came, from abilene, kansas. You know, he grew up in a family of six boys and eisenhower shared a bed not just a bedroom a bed with one of his brothers until he left to go to the army. They were poor. His father worked at the creamery down the street. Eisenhower sold vegetables in the summer to make a few extra pennies for the family. They lived in a small house, which i hope some of you have seen. If you go to abilene, you can see it, tour the house and its tinely. Im sure there was a lot of get the heck out of here, go play in the yard in that household. At the same time, eisenhower has a ton of glamour about him. Small town kansas boy. Who are his meantors . Black jack, george martial. He was at home and working with churnl hill and roosevelt. He had met stalin instantly, been in london. All around the world. The philippines. He was a global citizen. What an interesting contrast. The small town barefoot farm boy and then the fivestar general. He wrapped up this in his own personality. Im an ordinary guy, but im not ordinary at all. That was part of the magic. Let us not forget part of his appeal to the public was his wonderful wife mamie eisenhower. Mamie geneva doud, grew up in denver and melt eisenhower in san antonio soon after hed left west point and they married in i think shes beautiful and i love this picture. I think it has a lot of style and personality to it. Mamie ike and mamie mared in 1916. Theyve made a sparkling, happy couple and mamie devoted herself to eisenhowers career. In the white house be she presided over the executive mansion. Did everything to talking and wisecracking with heads of state. She had charm and personality much like eisenhower, a person who feels comfortable in any setting. A lot of people have forgotten mrs. Eisenhower but truth is she really did help to shape the role of the modern first lady and americans in the 1950s adored her. The public new perfectly well that eizenhowers had suffered through the lost of their first son. Nicknamed icky, he died of scarlet fever in 1921 at the age of 3. Eisenhower called his sons death the greatest disappointment and loss of my life. It was just another element of their lives that made them feel that much closer to the public. Perhaps their sadness, sorrow, vulnerability linked them to the public. Americans also liked eizenhower for his religious faith. A fascinating detail youll learn of his life. He was raised by parents who were members to have river brethren, an offshoot of the menennites. Eisenhowers parents later in their lives became jahovas witnesses. Interesting. Eisenhower read scripture every night in this living room but after he left, he barely went to church. He didnt publicly practice his faith until he was elected president. He had not been baptized as a child but decided a few weeks after his inauguration that he would join the church here in washington. And in a private this is the 53, president eisenhower was baptized. He made every effort while he was president to place religious faith in the public eye. Now, the 70s was an era of religious revival in the country. Eizenhower was fine with that and encouraged it. He started the National Prayer breakfast. He was the first foreign bring the young evangelical billy graham to the white house. He hardly approved of the congressional decision to place the word under god in our pledge of allegiance and to have the words in god we trust accounts named as our National Motto and placed on our currency. Its squared with the values of his time and americans loved this about eisenhower. Another aspect of his appeal and finally, on the subject of his character. We look back, a lot of my students do, im sure, look on ike as somebody from the stone age. In fact, he was the last president who had been born in the 19th century so he was a man of a rather distant past but at the time he believed himself and wanted to be associated with new technologiesings, new science. And he was during his time in office. He was the first president to hold a press conference in front of the television kamaru. They would be recorded and rebroadcast from 1955 onwards. After the sputnik crisis, ice be hour championed the Space Research and of course founded nasa and on july 12, 1957, he became the first president to ride in a helicopter something he loved to do and did regularly. Even with a very surprised nikita. This is why its a wonderful choice this year to have the White House Christmas orment field, the helicopter. May have been the first man to reach the ripe old age of 70, while in the white house. But he saw himself as the future. Cutting edge, innovative and eager to encourage technological breakthrough. Im going to wrap it up and go into some q a. Im sure you understand that ike has plenty of warts and there are questions we should raise about eisenhower and his presidency. Ill just name three topics maybe we can return to a little bit in the q a. I hear lots of oohs and ahs and. Well, yes, indeed. Ill just do this real quick so we can have a further discussion with questions. The first question i have is why nixon . Now, theres a political answer to why eizenhower chose him to be his running mate. Actually, he didnt use choose nixon to be his run mate. Dewey put him on the ticket. Eisenhower never net net nixon. They were worlds apart in everything and i think eisenhower accepted that in the spirit of the party, it was a good idea to have nixon be on the ticket. A bad decision. The two men didnt get looming, they didnt have a relationship. In my opinion eisenhower really didnt trust knucks be. He didnt feel he was grownup enough to do the job of being president. For eight years he tried. But nixon was so intimidated by eizenhower, the two never met in 1956 ike tried to knock nixon off the ticket. Nixon smelled a rat and said thanks very much for that but im ok where i am and eisenhower refused to tell him drenth limit he wanted nicks on the say sir, i think i need more executive experience, id like to go run the pentagon. The two of them were ships passing in the night. I think thats a question we should reyes raise about his legacy. Second, joe mccarthy. Why didnt ike do more, say more, go to wash with mccarthy . Theres a political answer. Joe mccarthy was reasonably popular in the United States in 195 and 154 the americas view was hey, if 10 of what hes saying is true, thats bad enough. There were communist sympathizers who had worked in the state department of the presidency. Eisenhower didnt want to be the president who said i think its all a lot of baloney and then have another communist on his hands. He approved the idea of vetting people to work in government but hated mccarthys should he have gone to war with mccarthy and eizenhower said no way. Im not getting in the grutter and that guy. But many of his Close Friends said general, whonet you staying in something about this awful man . And eisenhower said im trying and he worked hard behind the scenes. A lot of the information that led to the army of in fact came from the white house so ice be hour played a big role that hurt limb. Many people fell he never tangled with mccartney but behind the scenes he was trying to do just that. Allen dollars was the director the entire time that eisenhower was in the office. During the eisenhower years, president eisenhower significantly spammeded the power and responsibilities of the Central Intelligence agency, in order to conduct ro covert operations. Indeed eisenhower did aprove and help design the overthrow of the guatemalan. The c. I. A. Aided rebels in indonesia in the late 50s. Some of these operations we learned about in the 1970s because of the Church Committee but its still jaw dropping. These are still controversial today. The truth is eizenhower delegated enormous power and resources to secret agency and let them carry out quite violent exercises in the name of National Security. Spoiler alert, hes not the only one to arrange this we have to understood why eisenhower felt those kinds of decisions and policies were in the national interest. Historians have come along and criticized him for this. But we need to understand how he viewed the world. Well, ladies and gentlemen, these controversy are going to continue. No question. I hope they will continue. Its good for eisenhowers legacy that we debate it and talk about it. But it seems like unlikely theyre really going to marr his legacy. Oh, no not another poll of historians. Yes this is a very good wasnt it ranked eizenhower fifth greatest president right after washington, franklin and teddy roosevelt. This [beep] up the rankings. He left chester in the dust. This leap tells us that eisenhowers style of moderate governance combined with personal integrity with character, with dignity is something that even today americans admire and its up to us to make sure that these values are once again placed at the heart of our political discourse. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. [applause] let me just grab wow. So what do you think . A pretty good ranking for eisenhower . Doany of you even remember the eizenhower years . Most of you are much, much too young to remember but i was a kid back then but my parents should remember Dwight Eisenhower and i always thought he was one of the cool ones. Cool is not a word often used. Great maybe. So were going to open this us up to question and answer, thinking were going to have microphones in the aisle coming around to you and just catch the young ladys eyes when youre ready to ask a question but i want to start out, will, by asking you. Eisenhowers son john said that the worst time in his presidency was late 1957 when weeks after he had sent federal troops into little rock, just two weeks later, sputnik was launched and then a few weeks after that eisenhowers office waiting to greet a king and he gets woozy and dizzy and gets cold and numb and cant call his secretary and hes having a stroke. His health at that moment and that was after his big heart attack. It was, a couple of years later. How did Dwight David Eisenhower handle the multitasking of things which today is considered part of the how did he as a person handle the onslaught of unexpected crises . Thats a great question. The multitasking of a presidency must be so exhausting and its also hard to write about as a historian. If you just any about a day of what crosses a president s desk. Thats very hard to write. You end up choosing one and all the others tend to end up in the past. Imagine trying to look at it as the president sees it. On november 195, the soviet inveiled budapest, what else is going on . Oh, yeah, eisenhower is running for reelection. Theres a 10day period when ike is dealing with two international crises, either one of which could have led to a war with the soviet union and hes running for reelection and wins reelection and i can assure you that the thing he spent the least amount of time on was running for reelection. Of course, he was run against Adlai Stevenson. He said to his son, that guy is licked, lets go to the ballgame and he did. That is a great question, the sense of all of the things coming at the president eisenhowers health suffered a lot in that 10day period. He had a doctor by his side in that couple of weeks who was constantly monitoring him. This was after the heart attack. The sputnick moments was one we all recognize his political brillyedges. The soviets send up a satellite and everyone else is like weve lost the cold war, the soviets are going to run the table on us. He holds a press conference and says settle down. So they got a lump of aluminum up there. Were going to get there but were way ahead of them on the things that matter, the missiles and bomber fleet and also, that little radio up there, that toaster obviously circling the earth has absolutely no military value. The press gave him the thumbs down on that press conference. They said he doesnt realize what a big issue this is. Hes out of touch with the people. We have to go back and recalibrate his message and the memory was all right, ill grant you that theyve had a breakthrough. Were going to put our foot to the gas and redouble our efforts to build up the missile deterrent, were going to get a satellite into orbit, which they would do in january of 1958. But im also going to create nasa, which he did. Reorganize the defense department, which he did. He figured out the old adage, dont waste a crisis. He got a big bill reorganizing the powers of the pentagon, giving a defense secretary much more power so things like that reveal how he understood washington. The idea that ike was green, inexperienced, didnt get how washington worked. Hed worked in washington from the 20s onward. Questions, ladies and gentlemen. Hand up. We have one back over here. And second question lets bring the other microphone right over here. Put your hand up again and well come to you second. Yes sir, welcome. Hi, thank you. I very much very much enjoyed your presentation. One thing you didnt mention was eisenhowers farewell address. It was one of the great speeches in president ial history and if you havent seen it, id say go to youtube and listen to it. When you go home from this event. He is one of his big messages in that speech was the warning about the military Industrial Complex so what i want wanted to ask you was how do you square his role as a cold warrior with that admonition about the military Industrial Complex . Thank you, excellent question. You just wrote about this. Yes, i try to address it in the book. That was an interesting speech and i would urge all of you, go home and listen to it. What he says is, if theres one thing im sorry about is that we didnt have better breakthroughs on arms control, on peace with the soviets, on trying to end the cold war. I would have loved to have had significant breakthrough there but i pushed forward and we didnt get it so as a result we have been compelled to build a military Industrial Complex. What hes saying is to defend our country and way of life against the communists, we have been compelled to build the military Industrial Complex. Were sorry about that but its keeping us safe. Now its on you the citizens to be careful. To keep a watch on it to make sure that the brass doesnt have the run of the place. Who do you think that message might have been directed towards . January 1951. Hes on the way out, the new guy is already in there measuring the drapes. I think its a direct message to 43 yearold lieutenant john kennedy who had no experience managing the brass, the multitasking. Hes saying ok, america, you voted for john kennedy against my guy richard nixon. I understand that but its on you to hold them to a high standard. Its a direct message to the public. Make sure that you keep tabs on your leaders and make sure they have your best interests at heart. Actually, as the cold warriors message. Which is to say, i own in that but at the same time it comes with a burden, a responsibility he wants to place on the public so theyll keep an eye on this inexperienced guy whos now in the white house. Question right here. And do we have another hand up over here . Well bring a microphone over here in the green shirt. Hi. Good evening. You he took offers seven years after the end of world war ii but brought in a number of Senior Officers that had worked with him in world war ii and afterwards. And appointments like bradley. How important were those compared to other appointments he made to secretarial positions . Ill name two who i think were pretty successful. Beetle smith who he would have had run the state but couldnt. I think he was a wonderful advisor, very executive. Robert cutler, his first National Security advisor, general. Somewhat of an honor risk general but he really invented the role of National Security adviser. He defined the purposes of the National Security council and brought a military ethos. Eisenhower said again and again, the meetings of the National Security council was the most important meetings of a government. In fact, he said that to john kennedy when they were meeting during the handover. Kennedy said yeah, whatever, igot bobby, ill be fine. He didnt Pay Attention to the n. F. C. And it reflected very much a military operation, a staff system. Real quickly, george martial. What the relationship was with thats a lecture in itself but martial made eisenhower. We owe eizenhower to general marshall. And its a story with some pathos to it. Of course, martin brought eizenhower up, promoted him from. War plans to running the european theater to getting the command at normandy which martial probably wanted and the president said im going with ike. During the campaign of 195, george martial had been criticized for many, many months by senator march commark think. Hey, he was over there when the problems began. There must be a connection. Maybe hes a traitor. Of all the people, you wouldnt think that his greatest protege would stand up and say anyone who has a bad word to say about martial, well go out and settle it right here. He was a newbie in campaign politics. He listened to his advisors who made him cut a praise worthy paragraph out of a speech he was going to deliver in wisconsin. So he gave the speech, the press went crazy and they never relented. Ive seen the text. The actual speech was circulated on the campaign train. The advisers were in there saying, the wisconsin boys say this is a bad idea we need to cut the paragraph out. You can see the paragraphs written through with pencil. He gave the speech and the press went crazy and they never relented. They never forgave eisenhower in a sense for for this act of failing to support his mentor. There was correspondence between the both of them, marshal and eisenhower, after this event. Between the lines what i read is, if you go into the politics of ike, you just assume that. Once you left the army and went into politics, i expect knuckle headed things, i do not hold it against you. But ive subsequently heard that mrs. Marshall never forgave eisenhower. Question right here. Thank you so much sir. Thank you. Turning to the infrastructure, can you share any insight into eisenhowers inspiration for the interstate and advocating for the interstate system . Or what he hoped the countrys goals would accomplish by advocating for it . You may know the answer. Sometimes there are people who are knowledgeable on these topics, we have a lot of expertise in the audience, but it is often said, in fact eisenhower said it, that the trans continental convoy was in part in inspiration. Taking a great number of demobilized military equipment after world war one, to get the material across the country, it took them three months to cross the United States in 1919 i think it was. He thereafter said this is ridiculous, you cannot drive to win and of the coast to the other. It is said that eisenhower took the National Security imperative as a way to take this from congress. He did not do that, he claimed it would be a terrible thing if there was a Nuclear Attack on the United States and everyone was stuck on route one at a dunkindonuts trying to get from boston to washington or wherever it was. He did say it was a National Defense imperative that we have an integrated system of highways. Theyve been trying to pass such a bill for a long time but had not figured out how to pay for it. It was the breakthrough of the Eisenhower Administration to come through come up with the means of paying for it. We have a question right here. Yes sir. Hi. I was the youngest appointee of eisenhower and had some interactions with him. Good to see you sir. One of the things i think is not pointed out enough, i had some personal experience with this, is eisenhowers integration of the white house five years, or for five years before, it got a lot of publicity by appointing a black assistant. What people do not know is that when he went into the white house, Sherman Adams the governor of New Hampshire became the chief of staff and one of his two top assistance was a young black woman named lewis lippman. She was very helpful in the white house in what she did. As some of you may know, dissidents citizens for eisenhower was one of the groups that got him elected. Lois was in there with the founders early on. She became very significant in the white house. For example, one of the founders of citizens, charles willis, the other one was stanley rumbeau jr. He became the chief of new people coming in. He said with lois, they developed a system that is still in news today in the white house. This is a fascinating element thanks for raising this because weve already talked about was eisenhower too timid . Did he think twice about not just the education but the broader issue . Let me put it this way. To dodge the question. Historians disagree. There are those who feel he was quite out front on civil rights and those who feel he did not do enough. If i could just add to your very helpful and useful story and point to another figure in the white house another African American figure called frederick murrow. He was the one i referred to. He came in for five years later. He was a fascinating man and wrote repeatedly about his experiences in the white house. He wrote a memoir called black man in the white house which i recommend. Its about his experiences. Morrow tried very hard to get the Eisenhower Team and adams to meet civil rights leaders oneonone. He played an Important Role in the breakthrough meeting in 1958 when the Young Martin Luther King along with other African American civil rights leaders came to the white house and mitt eisenhower and presented a set of concerns to him. That took years to get that done and he took a lot of pride. Hes an unsung hero of the administration. But it was not all a bed of roses. He acknowledged that he felt his issues, this is probably true of every staff person, my portfolio is not getting enough attention. They talked a good game but did not get talk aggressively enough on it. We have hands over here. One right down front. Why dont we get the microphone right here and then we will come over to you sir. Thank you. Yes please, go ahead. I wondered if you could make some observations on the relationship with Sherman Adams and his influence and how all of that came about. I guess it became quite controversial and quite difficult for eisenhower. Sherman was his chief of staff, from New Hampshire, came on to the eisenhower Campaign Early and helped to organize the New Hampshire primary which eisenhower one. Robert taft was considered the guy, he was going to be the nominee. There was eisenhower in paris. He had not even said if he wanted to run. So they needed a team on the ground to help get him on the ballot and make sure he was going to be president of the primaries. Adams played a crucial role in getting him win in New Hampshire. Taft was campaigning like mad and one delegates. Taft went to the 1952 convention and they were deadlocked. There was no guarantee that eisenhower was going to get the nomination, it was that close. Can you believe that how considering how successful he became . Eisenhower was taciturn, he was known as the abominable in no man. Im not taking any got, get out of my office. Everyone thought he was a terror. He too in many ways invented the contemporary role of chief of staff. He was called assistant to the president but he was the first fulltime chief of staff. A very important figure. He was later, had to resign over claims that gifts had been given to his wife. A famously given persian rug and via kumagaya coat. When you think of where we have come since, taking a carpet from a rug dealer does not seem like a resigning offense. In 1958 he stepped down and went back to New Hampshire. He lived a happy life up there. A very important figure. While we are getting this microphone, can we bring it back up to the front row. I want to speak of one other figure, weve spoken so little about congress, who is the Senate Majority leader . A very big personality. In an era full of big personalities. Lyndon johnson. There was taft for a while. But when the Democratic Party to control the senate, Lyndon Johnson became party leader. The two of them could not have been more opposite. It is a fascinating story. Im no expert on Lyndon Johnson but i poured over a study of johnson. It is a wonderful compliment to study eisenhower. The signature achievement, one of the signature ones, they really went Lyndon Johnson can go after anybody, but he was trying to really undercut eisenhower. It was a fascinating story about getting the 1957 civil acts Civil Rights Act through. Lyndon johnson was a southerner and a democrat and had to deal with a lot of southerners who were hostile towards civil rights and the brown decision. Here comes eisenhower saying i want to strengthen the powers of the justice department. So the attorney general cant investigate voting irregularities and go down south and say things like the emmett till murder cannot happen anymore. Johnson said well see how it goes. Well see what we can work up. After a long period of time of negotiation, johnson watered down the bill. I have to take this one other piece out of the bill. By the end of it, eisenhower wanted to veto his own piece of legislation because he did not recognize it. Johnson eviscerated it. There were a few things left in it creating the Civil Rights Division of the justice department. Eisenhower signed the bill and it became an important steppingstone to johnsons later ability to deliver a civil rights legislation in the senate. He said i showed in that bill that i can control the southern democrats, they did not vote veto. And it passed. The passage was more important than what was in the bill. Its another example of why the fifties were so amazing. The Young Johnson making his bones, working the senate, it is a great moment. Eisenhower said while this guy is really good. He wanted to work with him but eisenhower runs around him. An interesting character study. We have one more question right here. You just preempted an issue that was not raised. What i find interesting about that was that eisenhower just admitted brown now is often give it credit for vetting eisenhower while he was in paris on civil rights can you going to that . William brownell was delegated to go to talk and persuade eisenhower to run. They spent time talking about how it would happen. He was part of the liberal new york team. They got along very well. I think when eisenhower realized this real pro coming from new york was telling him, we can make this work, he was not just a fan. He was a real machine guy. Brownell, very important in getting ike to run in making the Campaign Work and getting him in. I dont know about vetting dixon. Betting eisenhower. He did not really that eisenhower. Everyone knew that he was the political gold. Absolute political gold or it was getting him to say yes and that took a long time. Probably the most and important figure to get him to say yes was his good buddy. Have to do it and you have to do it or us the country will go to hell. You are the only person who can save the country. When enough people who admire you who you admire, he started saying, well maybe i am the only person who can save the country. He did. Never looked back. Ann i have got to ask one last question on my amp. There are such colorful moments. And the personalities from that era are just amazing frankly, wills book is so beautifully written. Written with the art and elegance of a novel. Give us, as you are gift to us come a little description of eisenhower and kruschev what a common scene. Someone should do it when i play a short scene or something. First of all he arrives, its 1959, he arrives. So this is the last year. Berlin crisis had been going on, sputnik has already happened, theres a lot of bad blood in the water. Hes not really known. Is he a stall unlike figure or comic figure . He has a bald head and he is only this high. They met in 1955 in geneva but didnt really know each other. Crushed off the sides hes eager to get an invitation, eyes and higher tenders invitation to try to ease the berlin crisis. He knows kristoff wants prestige, quality, wants to be seen with the american president. He flies the biggest plane to the United States talk about arriving with a bomb. A gigantic jet. They cannot land in a usual place. He steps down off, eisenhowers there. They drive back to washington. It is icy. They are not getting along. Kristoff says ive have gifts for you. He pulls up a little mini flag. He says this is a replica of the thing weve just sent to them. The surface landed a little chunk on the moon. They managed to get this little flag and planted it in the ground. He said this is a replica to taunt eisenhower telling him that they were behind and technology. Eisenhower had this plan that they were gonna sit together and eat oneonone. He would say let us and the cold war. Chris stops having none of it. Hes saying no, we are disagreeing with you. Doing his usual thing. Eisenhower says this is not working. I have an idea. Lets go for a helicopter ride. So he gets the chopper in and takes him on a tour around washington d. C. During rush hour. Kristoff says im not getting in that thing. This cant be right. Its wonderful. It softens the ice. Chris chop takes his own tour across the country. He famously goes out to l. A. , hollywood with his delegation of soviets. They see surely mcclain on set. You must have been 15. Anyway. I kid you not. They do a song and dance number for the visiting dignitaries. The ending of which is, one of the dancers slides on his knees underneath the legs of one female dancers. He pops up out of her bloomers with a pair of red underpants in his hands. That is the end of the number. Soviet delegation is watching this. They are appalled. This is disgraceful. This capitalist garbage. They are about to leave. They get back on the train, they go north to san francisco. It is beautiful. They have a wonderful time and come back to washington and makeup. Its a moment where eisenhower takes crushed off to camp david. They get to know one another. For a moment it looked like the cold war might soften. We might find a pathway to ease this thing called the cold war. Alas, it did not happen. The u2 crisis, a separate story will have to read about in the book. We missed a chance to miss the nature of the cold war. I think chris chug wanted desperately to do some kind of deal with ike, but the u2 crisis was impossible. My friend. This is not dry history. Thank you so much. Next, historian david mills on the world war Ii Partnership between the u. S. Armys chief of staff George Marshall and general dwight d eisenhower. He examines their tactical decisions to win the war. Mr. Mills is a military history professor with the u. S. Army command. The Kansas City Public Library hosted this event. Its just over an hour. Good evening. Im the Public Affairs staff here at the Kansas City Public Library and thank you all for being here tonight. Its great to have you. Great to have david mills, our speaker. Tonights program has been a long time in coming. David was originally scheduled to be here in february but was grounded by bad weather, by winter weather, and we are so happy that he hung with us and