Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Presidency David Eisenhower On Ikes Leadership 20220905

We are pleased to welcome David Eisenhower who will talk to us a little bit about general eisenhowers military service and how he developed into a leader and eventually led to him being president. I always allow our speakers to introduce themselves and tell us what they want us to know about them. So i will turn this over to you, david. David thank you very much. Good to talk with you. I am use to looking into a screen but im talking to my classroom. We just had a three hour class on a president ial speech that broke up several minutes ago and i think for accommodating me. There was a several minute overlap in this program but we were able to resolve it. For myself, i am grandson of Dwight Eisenhower. I have spent a fair amount of time in abilene. Mary is living there now. This is a town that probably more than any other place in america reminds me of the town i grew up in. Gettysburg is on route 30 which turns into route 70 about a mile and a half north of where you all are. In the eisenhowers really shuttled between the two. They lived in gettysburg when i was growing up because of the proximity to new york and washington. But they decided to situate their library in abilene. So i spent a fair amount of time in abilene over the years. One is eisenhower war published by random house, and the second is going home to glory published in 2011 by simon schuster. These are books that bookend the eisenhower presidency. I will explain how those books came about. I went to amherst. Im a graduate of George Washington law school. Over the last 35 years or so, i have been a fellow at university of pennsylvania. And here, i teach Political Science communications. And i run a program here called the institute for Public Service. We provide kind of an alternative to the great business school. We have Public Service minded people that come to this school and its our job to inspire them. We have a unique feature in our program. We send students, everybody in our classes to the library of Congress National archives. To do primary research on speeches. And i have had a policy of not sending people to the Eisenhower Library because i would be prejudiced in the sense that i would be an impossible editor on any eisenhower project. I also dont want students to think that they are pleasing me or displeasing me by choice of topics. Ive made a couple of exceptions. Every exception i have made has been a use university project. It is one of the great facilities in the world. The only thing i would say is they match each other. I think abilene is the best possible place to do research on the presidency. Our topic tonight is at ease. The military eisenhower, the making of an officer and there is a lot of speculation on this topic because not a lot is known about Dwight Eisenhowers early years. Looking at the subject in the abstract, how he became a military officer is really a question of nature or nurture. Was it a role he was educated into or born into . I think mary would back me up on this. When we lived in gettysburg. With my father and my grandfather nearby, i grew up sort of attending a seamless seminar on military history. I wouldve called my grandfather a natural. The Gettysburg National park is a special place. And in the sense he had served, i think just the inspirational setting, the association between gettysburg and white eyes and hours test, the normandy battle, they are in a sense, parallel event. Normandy is the 20th century gettysburg in many ways. I think at some level, associating Dwight Eisenhower to this convenient place between new york and washington. Anyway, it was kind of a substitute for talking about world war ii. I was not discouraged from learning about world war ii but one of the reason i took it up was to fill in gaps. I was conscious that the Second World War and the european gator was something that my grandfather and father had in common that i was not a part of. The subject that they declined to discuss casually, but they discussed with enthusiasm the american civil war. We are approaching centennials of the various events. Publishers are turning out book after book after book so there is something to discuss every week. And i get the sense from both my father and my grandfather as military people. And we had no doubt about the importance of the war. We were surrounded by war figures. There is kind of a family story that we all tell. The year was 1954, 10 years after the normandy landings. Dwight eisenhower is president and his brother milton is president of penn state. Milton invites dwight to the commencement at penn state. This was a big event. Penn state is a huge diversity. And so what occurs there is a major logistical undertaking. June 1954, the event was threatened by rain and weather. And so there is a seem a scene that people describe. What are we going to do . He was standing off to the side and smiling and says june 6, 1944, i never worried about the rain. I think thats probably a pretty accurate description of what the war meant to him, never having to worry about the rain. Weve gone through a series of anniversaries. 2019 was the 75th anniversary. It really began a trend in 2014 when at the normandy battlefield , either a head of state or head of government and the european theater decided to turn up for the dday 70th anniversary. This is beyond significant. We have put in the ukrainian president. The belarusians were there, the germans were there for the first time. Every belligerent decided that normandy was the point at which they would commemorate the victory of world war ii together. It couldve been moscow, leningrad, a lot of places. They came together to identify that site is a central moment of world war ii. One of my favorites put it on june 6, 1940 4, 75 years ago, the nazi war machine was attacked on the beaches of normandy. Dday was and is the single greatest event for good ever wrought by mankind. Which is a critical moment in central to the legacy of Dwight Eisenhower. What kinds of things could have trained him or his contemporaries for this supreme moment in American History and all that followed it. To say i grew up on a Civil War Battlefield and listens to Civil War History would be one thing. I am a great believer in visiting battlefield. My grandparents did expose us to normandy and fairly spectacular way. Remember, 1962, i was 14 years old. My grandparents decided to take my sister and myself to europe on a 38day trip. Thanks to records i have been sent from the library, to the extent that eisenhower was on a Diplomatic Mission for president kennedy, but the point of this was to tour, for the last time, these areas that had been so faithful for Dwight Eisenhowers wife. We took a passenger ship, the queen elizabeth. We disembarked at a critical allied port. I remember we boarded a train and it was introducing me and and to the war. We made our way down the invasion front which is very long. We stopped at every town and we can remember the throngs that turned out. So forth, these people who had living memories of the war that just ended 17 years before. We continued on from there and we get a sense of europe in the postwar era and we went to paris several times. We went to the point where allied forces entered germany. We took a cruise up and down the rhine. On to denmark which was liberated by british forces, to sweden which is a side trip back to paris and back to england and my grandfather was actually able to call on churchill who was still alive. We met many of his wartime colleagues in scotland which was close to the airbase where eisenhower was a military commander flying from washington back england and several transatlantic flights. At least the place had a great deal of sentimental significance for him. This time were we observed the sadness of postwar europe. The tumble and the significance in the european mind. Hundreds of thousands of people turning out from paris, london, and so forth. Brought home to us not by a trip, but a lecture. I was raised and mary probably the same in a nonpolitical environment. Knowing my grandfather as a neighbor for a number of years, my legal residence was in gettysburg some years after he died. We grew up knowing them principally as grandparents. We were aware of the war heritage, of worse. I knew my grandfather as a painter, golfer, bridge player, shooter. I knew him as a president. I knew him as a farm manager. Dwight eisenhower was the first to give me my job at . 25 an hour working as a farm hand. He was also the first to fire me in the summer of 19 to three, five years into my duty. I overstayed a lunch hour but fired and rehired that afternoon on the golf course. He allowed all of his associates one mistake a year. By and large, this was an idyllic. Gettysburg was a special place in politics seemed far away. I became a target of one of the most famous practical jokes, which was my election by acclamation to the only partisan position ive ever been elected to were held in my life which was secretary treasury for the democrats. It was supports to be supposed to be a welcoming gesture and practical joke. There is a little story on it that appeared in the new york times. My parents found out about it and thought it was funny. Granddad did not think it was funny at all. The man i had known for years i became to see general eisenhower in those moments. Someone who had an important persona when he had decided to exhibit it. I would remain that way perhaps indefinitely to Amherst College in the fall of 1966. My current wife julie nixon was at wellington smith that same fall. I got to know her very quickly and we were engaged very rapidly. We became an item and it almost didnt ha, imagine the awkwardness i felt presenting myself at her dorm in the early days. I am david howes David Eisenhower and i would like to see julie nixon. She would say my name is harry truman. But i persisted. So we got together and i experienced this great adventure of 1968, an election that really moved the United States beyond. It was an Election Year dominated by the vietnam war. The candidate i was with throughout was Richard Nixon who is campaigning on a promise to end the war in vietnam and when the peace. Suggesting the natural connection between victory and war and victory and peace were being rearranged as the United States moves to a post world war era which begins at a final point in the nixon presidency. One of the things i learned throughout that campaign, a lesson about president ial leadership is something that i applied and studying about my grandfather. That is the fact that the presidency is a Mission Oriented job. The mission of the 1968 campaign was coming to grips with the vietnam problem. They explain most things about the nixon presidency. The dynamics of the watergate resignation in many ways. But the thing that made things work was the ability of people to relate particulars to the general. And that is to concentrate on the main task at hand, to extract the United States from a losing effort in vietnam and doing so in a way that would ultimately win the peace. As Dwight Eisenhower put it, we succeed only in so far as we identify in war a single overriding objective. And experiencing the 1968 campaign, i did not realize it at the time but i was rehearsing the eisenhower book. The singular purpose is what stands out in the record of Dwight Eisenhower as a record in that conflict. That aspect of leadership is something that he came by how . Was it nature or nurture . Its a question that i consider gradually over time but never wrote anything formally. My original intent going into the writing field was to become a writer. Perhaps to become a journalist. One of things you do as a writer is write what you know about. And in the late 70s i was at a point in my life where i think i was nostalgic. I want to revisit this time in gettysburg so i entered a contract with random house to do a book on Dwight Eisenhower. This would have been a profile of him late presidency and early retirement years. And i came up with a manuscript on that pretty quickly. The problem was i could not start it. Random house was my it or, Jason Epstein was enthusiastic about what we had. If youre going to have a vivid portrait of a farmer, its not exactly poignant in the context of his hopes in 1960s. Above all, the resumption of the cold war in 1960 which greatly disappointed Dwight Eisenhower who became president unconvinced with the idea of bringing about the kind of reconstruction brought about after the u. S. Civil war. I found that the u2 affair really required me to go back to 1958 to the lebanese intervention. The brinksmanship over the u. S. And soviet. Sputnik events of 1957. I cannot tell that story without going back to the 1956 election. This was a fair and hungry which is a great melodrama. Clashes across the board and one of the high points of the cold war. I would have to go back to the geneva conference of 1955. The indochina war made me look at korea and required me to look at mccarthyism in the 1950 two election, and you get the idea. I keep all in back. I find myself committed to a much longer project than i anticipated. At one point, i did the logical thing and i tried to approach it from the other side. Dwight eisenhower was born on october 14, 1990 1890 in texas. That raises the question of nature, not necessarily nurture. Who was he early in life . There are a lot of problems that developed and theres also the question of context. This is abilene as we know, very close to the western frontier. This is something that Dwight Eisenhower as a young boy was imbued. It was part of his character. Think the late 19th century, it was probably very special, being an american anywhere. The individual hes often compared with is ulysses s grant. I do not recall my grandfather offering a lot of opinions on grant. He offered many opinions in defense of his lieutenants. But ulysses grants presidency begins as close to Dwight Eisenhowers birth as george w. Bush is to us today. He was born in a postgrant civil war environment. Grant is a very interesting speaker. A very interesting president in a very underrated president. The great and all girls kind of capture the spirit that Dwight Eisenhower was born into. His first inaugural, grant says, the young men of this country, those who from their age must the the rulers 25 years from now have a peculiar interest in maintaining the national honor. A moments reflection as to what will be our commanding influence and the nations of the earth. If they are only true to themselves, should inspire them with national pride. Four years later, he speaks thusly and a sort of forecasting dwight career. In the future, while i hold my present office, the subject of acquiring territory must have the support of people before i will move into any position looking towards the acquisition of new land. But i do not share in the apprehensions held by many as to the dangers of our government becoming weakened by reason of the expansion of american territory. Commerce, education, and the Rapid Transmission of thought and material had changed all of this. I do believe that our great maker is preparing the world in his own good time become one nation speaking one language and armies and navies will no longer be required. So he had these themes in america with Dwight Eisenhower as a young boy. America as kind of a city on a hill and preparing ourselves with great responsibility. And we are leading to kind of an international and noble civilization. The body it seems to me that the paradox and yet his greatest fame will be achieved serving overseas not as far. And so he is an american citizen and a citizen of the world. Who was he . I encountered all kinds of ambiguities. Theres very scant documentation of his boyhood. It covered a lot of sins. Dwight eisenhower was able to register at west point in june of 1911 listing tyler texas. Apparently its better to be from tyler. He called himself david Dwight Eisenhower. Theres no explanation for why he did that, particularly. He neglected to tell west point that he had played professional baseball in 1909 and 1910 which would have cost him his amateur status. An episode where red patterson asked general eisenhower at a 1947 giants game, he was that then director of a public relations. He said organized baseball has all kinds of rumors that you played pro ball and the story is you played under the alias of wilson in the kansas stately. There were two wilsons in that league. Which one was you . Dwight eisenhower the one that could hit. Thats the story he told me. Look at Kansas State League and you can see there are two wilsons. Another was a picture and another was a first baseman. Nobody knew the difference. Dwight eisenhower as a young man studied history and was imbued by the stories of general washington, general grant. Alexander the great. Whether Dwight Eisenhower was a reader or not, we dont know. He went to west point and we knew he was an outstanding athlete. The class of 1915 was loaded with football players. Dwight eisenhower gets injured, played the game of the century against carlisle. I believe his second year, he injured his knee and that knee injury permanently took him out of football. I am back from a trip to west point. Had lunch with several instructors and we were talking about west point war. Theres not a lot on file at the Eisenhower Library. His roommate kept a diary the whole time. So you can get sort of a picture of this fella, but it is somewhat indistinct. We do note he accumulated a lot of demerits. He graduated with 68 out of 165. He was not particularly academically distinguished. However, according to one fitness report written of him, this cadet is born to command. Nature or nurture . By nature, he impressed west point, though he was not their top student, as somebody who had a great aptitude for command and the various personality traits. His next stop was Houston Texas where he meets maybe. They go on to a particularly important stop, which is gettysburg. Two and a half years out of west point for three, eisenhower is promoted practically to rank of colonel. He was in charge of training the tank at gettysburg in camp fulton. I dont know how many times we drove right past the evergreen that marks the spot of the headquarters. So he spent a number of months training american soldiers who were going to ride into world war i and using french equipment to train them and was organizing a unit that he was going to lead in the european campaign. And this was extraordinary responsibility. There are some snapshots of him as a young commander. And i wouldve recognized this individual because i work for him on the farm and he was a stickler for detail and a strict disciplinarian. I remember my grandfather as my boss and he was wellinformed about what i was doing. I was felt that if he had time, he could take my job. I think he had a great sense of tangibles and was a very hard worker and determined to learn everything about the things he was responsible for. There is a leadership lesson in there. Leaders dont ask others to do that which they are unwilling or unable to do themselves. At any rate, he was a major success and was preparing for distinguished service in world war i. They are in new york loading equipment. The armistice comes down and hes going to miss service. Like bradley and others, finding himself in a situation then causing him to reconsider his career but not very seriously. And this is where i think nature takes hold. Dwight eisenhower reached an intellectual conclusion. He was an army man. So hes not going to be deterred by this happenstance. In common with many of the stars of this era of those who served in world war i, there was a hardened calculation that world war i had not resolved. I am reading a book on my bedside title called 111111. This is the last day of the european war. Its a very interesting and well done history of the final days of world war i that featured attack well up and down the line well after the allied commanders that the armistice had been signed. Why are they pressing the battle . Pershing and others understood that germany had not been fetid in the sense that it had not been occupied or experienced defeat in a way that would table the decision. He would go on to mentor eisenhower and panama and saw that in terms of completeness. If you are a professional, your thinking right away that this is an armistice, but it is a truce and that this issue will recur. That america would return to europe as a superficial reading of world war i. My father and i went to world war i battlefields in 1999. We walked the same fields that his own father had walked with him in 1929. 70 years later, dad and i took the same trip that he and his father took. My father wrote a book called yanks which is about world war i. I got a copy from him acknowledging that i made a contribution to that book. But we had a kind of the tiffany on that trip which must have impressed americans who served in that theater at some point. America intervenes in the spring of 1918. Germany has actually defeated and subdued russia. They occupied a live ukraine. They have ended the eastern front. They are fighting the allies on the western front supposedly an answer to all their strategic problems. America intervenes with under 2 million troops. There are two or three major battles. The front was nearby. And the germans quit. Why . We had an epiphany one afternoon. This was close to where the American Army mounted a major offensive and we were overlooking a town which was supposedly the scene of our great setback in world war ii. Or world war i. This was a town where American Forces were being integrated with french and british forces. American forces are introduced in march of 1918. As they assume positions, they launch attacks. The germans respond with extraordinary fury. They drive americans back. This becomes a defeat that is studied and restudied by the Army War College and other institutions with what went wrong. We stood out looking at this town in this battlefield and i think it occurred to us that all of the army studies were asking the wrong question. The question was not what it wrong, the question was why did the germans respond with that kind of fury . And as we looked out with a guide book in hand, this was a quiet sector. The germans would show the french, from 12 to one, the germans would show the french, resuming by 2 00 or 3 00 in the afternoon. Everybody would file their reports. Nobody got hurt. Everybody was happy. The americans, the minute they arrive, they go into battle. They did not know the rules. They did not know the reputations. Think of how the germans responded when they see americans watching all out attack on positions which had been considered unassailable for three years. These lines going all the way. They simply dont know the rules. They do not know their limitations. It was entirely foreseeable that americans some years hence would travel from the United States to battle against the germans, a feat that no other nation in the world was full of, simultaneously taking on japan and germany, the preeminent military forces and their respective spheres. And we would simultaneously reach these destinations through sub infested waters and assault carriers considered impossible such as the normandy coast line. We would achieve the manufacturing miracles we did. 300,000 combat aircraft. That we would equip the red army and do all of these things. I think at some level, Dwight Eisenhowers contemporaries understood this. When he went to the war college where he finished first, he begins to make a series of associations. They are studying problems, all of which had to do with european theater. By the way, he is networking. Immediately after world war ii, patton was a hero and my dad and i were touring and took a pilgrimage to the spot where George Patton had led a cavalry charge. He led a take charge into a fixture of the position. We saw the sites where Douglas Macarthurs Rainbow Division encounter german resistance around november 11. He got the medal of honor for his service in world war i. Dwight eisenhower would go on to work for macarthur. And another staple that i would say was educational, being assigned to paris where my father went to grades will. To work for john j pershing. Pershing became head of the American Battle monuments division. Dwight eisenhower was his assistant. Identifying, organizing, and creating memorial sites in europe among his other duties. Putting together a guidebook for american tourists that wanted to visit world war i battlefields. This is the project that took my father and grandfather on the trip that we went on in 1999. Dwight eisenhower had to perform reconnaissance. My grandmother considered that very faithful. At this point, he is beginning to understand command under the tutelage of foxconn are with operations under pushing. He understood how commanders thought. He went on to serve Douglas Macarthur. So he studies under Douglas Macarthur and so forth. And so his education begins. I would say that american officers perform. We had dinner years ago in the mid80s and my book was about to come out and we were talking about the world war ii i thought it would be impossible for america to ever return to europe and fight in the war there. Among other things, the war never happened. The people would never allow governments to get involved in a war again. So this would never happen. So the never again americans spent any years investigating setbacks including november 11, 1918. A feeling that europe was a fire trap. We outlawed wars and International Policy as did the germans. It was impossible after the great war that germany would be allowed or find a way to open all the issues that he thought he resolved. Its impossible to think that this conflict could not be averted. But eisenhower and the military officers he was born to command is now being educated. I think they knew better and were preparing for a war. Dwight eisenhower has written about his mentorship, working with George Patton. This comes up a fair amount, Dwight Eisenhowers personal heroes. As somebody who has been immersed in the subject over the years, i concluded he had several personal heroes. One was macarthur and the other was patton. As fate would have it, he would wind up commanding it. He was separated from macarthur and had misunderstandings with any of them. Macarthur was critical of eisenhowers command. Or critical of eisenhower later as a public personality. Look back on the service and he says eisenhower was the best clerk i ever had. The finest instructor of dramatics i ever studied under. He was learning command. The final line of resistance, the idea that allied forces would deter a rearmed germany and fails the french front and we find ourselves in war. As churchill put it, this is not a question of fighting for poland, we are fighting to save the whole world from nazi tyranny and in defense of all is a most sacred demand. This is no war of material gain. It is a war viewed in its inherent quality that was established unpardonable rocks, the rights of the individual and to establish the stature of man. This was a great cause that eisenhower saw coming for many years. My dad told the story that when granddad was there, he asked his father, why dont you leave the army . This is the pearl of the orient and there are Business Opportunities all around you. Eisenhower replies that war is coming in 24 to 36 months and when it does, im going straight to the top. Eisenhower attests to this in the diaries, he was upset. He let the general down. Macarthur ended up discharging him saying this is the finest officer in the united dates army. When hostilities breakout, you must be moved immediately, which is what happened. And in the course of this, he finds himself moving to various combat commands during maneuvers to checkboxes so that he would not be ineligible for command. He turns down an assignment to join his old friend which means he is not present when pearl harbor happens. Jarreau would go on to command omaha beach, but he is greatly compromised by messages in 1941 and spent text six months testifying. Eisenhower this is that. He finds himself coming to the attention of franklin roosevelt. He impressed roosevelt with his steely qualities, with his toughness, and also with his willingness to sacrifice for the war effort. One of the things my father felt was instrumental in my grandfathers career where Dwight Eisenhower took responsibility for working out an armistice in charge of northern france. This was supposedly trucking with fascism. This was a deal where americans were above. This would sully the american cause. Eisenhowers willingness to do this was controversial and almost cost him command but he took responsibility. Franklin roosevelt noted that anna knew that in eisenhower, he had somebody who would make things easy in leadership, which was one of the things Dwight Eisenhower would prove that he would do throughout the early days of european conflict or the north african conflict. He is somebody that is underqualified for command. Because hes willing to sacrifice his reputation because he was lucky. He proved he had diplomatic skills, and his abilities as a strategist were debatable but his campaigns worked. He was eligible. General marshall was overqualified. Americans would have found great difficulty in that effort. Dwight eisenhower finds himself moving towards a point where in my studies, it is safe to say that what happens to Dwight Eisenhower is very important to understanding him as a person. Nothing could have prepared himself and this goes for his military leadership, for the responsibilities he would assume in the european theater. By contrast, what happens makes it predictable that he would become president of the United States. By the same token, the american people, easygoing as they were, between 1900 and 1943, nothing preordained or prepares americans for the intensive campaigns they will fight in 1944 and 45. It becomes predictable that the u. S. Will assume the preeminence it did in the cold war. So who was he . Professional soldier. And i asked him about this charge by politicians. And it was a very dark experience. He turned to me and says youve got something and i have to say that he was a very formidable guy. He was popular in the theater. One of the reasons he was popular was he never wore a helmet. He was somebody in a hurry to get the war over. He was doing his own job and he was focused on getting it done. Centuries ago, a powerful emotion was stirred and the ambition of the great military leader. He must stir the emotions and the ability to create whether it be the ambition of caesar, or pride and glorious defeat. What was montgomery . Montgomery was somebody with a passion for tidiness but is characterized by many people having something in common with eisenhower. It is akin to descriptions of german generals. Hes a man with relentless clarity and purpose and an absolute whirlwind. Was dedicated to the cause and dedicated to the mission, which was one of the extraordinary traits. As he wrote as war breaks out, april fairy prophetic entry, his determination as a parent, if were he wrote with news of the declaration which now seems to be upon us is as long, drawnout, and disastrous. The remnants of nations emerging from it will be scarcely recognizable. It does not seem possible that people who proudly refer to themselves as intelligent would let this situation come about. Millions will be killed and wounded because one man so wills it. A power drunk egocentric. Criminally insane and the absolute ruler of 89 million people. And by his personal magnetism, he has converted a large portion of those millions to his explain insane schemes. Once he is successful of overcoming the whole world by brute force, the final result will be that germany will be dismembered and destroyed. He never deviated from that. Nor did he deviate from his ability to get along with the british in a very profound way. The big test and world war ii was there was a lot of people in the world. The challenge is not so much recognizing people but doing something about it. This is an approach that Dwight Eisenhower brought to his generalship. That the real issue was to mobilize democracy and fight totalitarian armies on terms and prevail over them in a moral test of strength. This is something that is inherent in dday strategy. It is something that permeated his relations with the british. Because the british faced the very same challenge. One of my favorite movies is darkest hour, based on my favorite speech. Winston churchill, when he brings the new world into the british cause, which is not a matter of survival or recognizing people or even stopping it. Its a matter of mobilizing democracy to do what the circumstances were wire. Toward the end of the conflict, i will close with this. These were convictions and orientation for his mission. Things he came by. Through character, temperament, experience, a fair amount of nurture and also nature. He told of the British Parliament to come from north america. The superficial aspects by which we ordinarily recognize family relationships, the town where i was born, where i was. Our separated from the city. By our standards, our towns are young. To those people, i am proud to belong. Kinship among nations is not determined by proximity in age. Rather, we turn to the intangibles, the return real treasures freeman princes. Possess. A londoner will fight and so will a citizen of abilene. The most important one of his entire career as a speaker. Can davis on the first book on Dwight Eisenhower that i regard as the best. First impressions are always very lasting. He wrote a book called Dwight Eisenhower soldier of democracy. I think that is what he wants. He was born a soldier. He ended as a soldier of democracy. He was educated on the fine points of military strategy. That the 30s, typical of concern to citizens throughout the world, he understood mission that his forces were called upon to achieve. He was able to do so with a relentlessness of purpose that is his claim to more than stewards ship. The key to his success in world war ii, and i would say his success as president , sitting before himself a task that needs to be done and a devoting mind, body and a spirit to doing that. That would be my question better answer to the question of nature versus nurture. It has been a pleasure to talk about this for a while at ease. I am looking forward to getting out there. I keep saying i am coming. I have things i want to do in the library. We will be sending students from my seminar next year probably. I want to get out there and see how things are going. I want to see the new exhibits. I want to pay my respects to old friends. I have a lot of old friends out there. Thank you very much think you, david. We have questions and comments in the chat but it is past our time. You are welcome to stay on and we will work through these questions. Sure. If you dont mind, i have food here and i might take a bite or two. But i am game. I dont think anyone minds. To the audience, we will keep going. If you cannot stay with us, thank you for joining. If you can, stay with us and we will try to get through all the questions. First, what did your father say about your grandfather great best dwight d. Eisenhower out of the war years . What was the dwight d. Eisenhowers parental philosophy . Dad summed it up in the first line of his autobiography. I was born standing at attention. In other words, i think Dwight Eisenhower was probably as rewarding a parent or grandparent as you ever encounter. I think that his he was a tough disciplinarian. You respected that. I was sort of awed by it. But i never doubted, and i am positive my father is in the same position, that he cared greatly for us. And, that he was teaching us important things. In hindsight, he was teaching us things that were probably unattainable. How many Dwight Eisenhowers are there in the world . How many have there ever been . His story is literally, considering abilene, his background, one in 10 million. This is a very farfetched thing. But he did set standards. In a way that made it impossible not to want to be better. And possible not to feel profound fondness for his energy. I think thats what he dedicated to raising my father. I got a fair portion of that because we were living on the boundary of a farm and i think at a certain point he took me on as a sort of project. He wanted to prevent me and other people my age, my sisters can attest to this as well, from falling for the temptations of postwar america where everything is comfortable. He believed that is one reason why he was on a farm. You dont want to get too far from nature. You want to be selfsufficient. You want to learn skills. That means survival and in the world. That is the foundation of selfconfidence. Selfconfidence is the foundation of a good life and also a good political system and selfrule as well. So my answer to what kind of parent was he . What did my dad say . My dad told me often that he was protecting me for my grandfather. That is one reason i did not go to west point, to be given options my father did not feel he had. But i was never deceived in any way that my father was critical of his father. He regarded Dwight Eisenhower as i did, as the most extort neri individual i have ever known. His energy like you have never seen. Intelligence, dedication. An impossible example in many ways, but very inspiring. Thank you. If your grandfather was resident when the ussr and warsaw pact dissolved, what are your grandfather have withdrawn the u. S. From nato . Would your grandfather have withdrawn the u. S. From nato . We have researchers in abilene that are fresher on the subject than i am. I dont know what he wouldve actually done. One of the points Dwight Eisenhower was anxious to make in the late 50s was that we should be open minded about things when we have the ability to be open minded about things. His farewell address, to me, contains two pearls of wisdom that are related. They relate to a lot of messaging. One was the warning against the militaryindustrial complex. The other was the danger that Public Policy would fall captive to a technological elite. Both these suggestions are reflected in a lot of speeches by reagan, by others. A problem we have when we organized to accomplish a task is we create organizations. These become perpetual. They operate independently of the purpose for which they are established and independent of any real control. Towards the end of his presidency, and he is i am certain of this, because i have documentation in my home, president eisenhower was very skeptical of nato appropriations. He was pressing advisors on the nato question. I dont think he had the faintest thought of pulling out of nato. It was an organization we entered an order to meet a threat, the threat of soviet aggression in western europe. Having met that threat, we are not in a position to we appraised to reappraise. The ability to reappraise, to reassess, to hold organizations to account, he regards in his farewell address, and, i think, philosophically, as the critical element in selfgovernment. What he have dissolved nato in the wake of the warsaw pact . I dont think so it all. At all. But what he might not have done would be pushing nato east of where it was. When the soviet union dissolved. He was a he would have understood based on wartime experience the sensitivity of bumper zones and things like that that americans dont like to take into account of a foreign policy. How far he would have pushed nato east is something i am skeptical about. I saw that on the 62 trip. This is one of my indelible impressions of him. Touring the nato round, so to speak realm so to speak. It is impossible for me to imagine that he would have ever entertained the idea of dissolving the relationships, the bonds we forged in world war ii. I think emotionally he felt as deeply for the areas he served overseas as he felt about his own country and loved his own country. I think that the idea of nato as a community would have been. I hope that is responsive. We have a issue now. The war in ukraine. We are spurred by the spectacle of ukrainian assistance demonstrating the Ukrainian Resistance demonstrating the ukrainian nation. That raises the question of nato. I think one thing that has come out of this for better or worse, nato is in a lot of places where it ought to be or its future is. I think we rekindled a sense of community and an appreciation at least for the kinds of things we have in common. I think it is very effectively protecting these values now. One thing that has been impressive to me from the outset of the ukrainian crisis was we served notice on the russians that nato territory cannot be touched. Im not reading a lot of speculation that there is any thought that the russians will do it. I think that the confrontation over a nato territory has passed by signaling our resolution. We are a community. Every trip we make to normandy, we are about to make more in a couple weeks. We will be making five. Every trip we take to normandy, that cements that we are proud of our countries, we are americans. We are french. We have very deep things in common. These are things we will never get up. Give up. Our next question is from jim. It says, i really enjoyed eisenhower at war. Do you plan to write another volume covering his later career . I have a draft, yes. I think that the my plan, the problem is it was all dictated and drafted before my current appointment at university of pennsylvania. Meaning, i suddenly ran out of time, number one. Number two, this is prework processes. I have these massive drafts. I suppose i could scan them, but thats not very helpful because they are so massively edited. What i will do god willing over the next year or two or three, i will transcribe these drafts. The idea is i will edit and publish, perhaps, one of my children will copublished with me. I have every intention of filling in the story between victory in europe and going home to glory. Theres a big story there. Winning the peace, what the americans perceive from 45 onward. We won the war in 1945. We one piece. Won peace. This is the ambition. Another thing i have in better shape, because its electronic, is a volume on the year 1968. I approached it somewhat like eisenhower at war. Eisenhower at war was inspired by a book on nixons shelf in florida. By a fellow by the name of thompson. The name of the book was 1940. The thesis is something basic happens in a year like that. This is a hint. This is a moment a hinge. This is a moment where the world emerges different from the world that entered it. When i approached 1944, my idea was 43, we are one nation, one force. In 1945, we are a different one. What is that transition about . That is what 68 is. The eisenhower presidency is a great challenge. It sprawls over many subjects. I think the central theme is pretty much familiar. If you are looking at other past american wars, the timeframe of reconstruction. Who better to carry that out then Dwight Eisenhower who has the reputation to be able to command some bipartisan consensus to put the country back together in a way where you can resume the various political contests and the way of life in the 1960s. The quick answer is, i intend to do this. Whether i do this is a question mark. It is to return to abilene in order to trace my footsteps through research that i have lost over the years, bundling up packages. I think things were thrown away, and so forth. I have lost the documentation on some of this. I will reresearch a manuscript. Students at president ial libraries do that all the time. I should be able to do that myself. Because of time, i will skip some of the questions that are not directly related to our suspect. Subject. I apologize. We are getting a little late. We will go down to jim english. The theological backgrounds of his parents, what personality traits do you believe he had it that created opposition to the wishes of his elders . Did that play an important part in his desire for military service . Whats wonderful question. Wonderful question. There is to me, it seems, a theme of not opposition, at least identity. That has something to do with this military thing. I do was ida was tolerant of his choice. Whend he announced he was going to west point she said, that is your choice. But this idea of identity and independence, number one. Number two, swede, you know, i never met swede hazel what i read his fantastic correspondence. My sentiment is, ike was kind of a big guy, a little guy. Swede, i am of the mind that there is a sort of protectiveness about this. The responsibility is a theme that runs through all biographies of president s. Some years ago i got a call in my office from bonnie angelo, a journalist writing a book about first mothers. She elicited something from me. I thought no one would ever ask. She said, i am just back from the eisenhower boyhood home in abilene. I have been to the nixon boyhood home at yorba linda. You have seen both. Are you as struck as i am by the similarities . I said, bonnie, you are talking about again, i mentioned the word epiphany earlier. But this was one of the epiphanies of my life. That is, going to the nixon birthplace, now, the nixon president ial library, a friend of nixons that will be one of the prime movers in the early days of the Nixon Foundation to acquire the property and save it from condemnation and develop it as a historic site, i can remember walking into the house, right there in yorba linda, famously. I was stunned by the similarity between that house and the one in abilene. Same room, same bunk beds upstairs. Same mother, same father. Same room full of boys, etc. , same, same, same. I said to her, i always thought eisenhower and nixon are different people. It was in that moment that i began to see similarities. I began to ask myself, what is the crucible that forms leadership . If you look at president s, you would be amazed as how and how the pattern repeats itself. The pattern of a lot of responsibility at a young age and a strong sense of identity. One reason you assume responsibility at a young age is because the family dynamic required it. Franklin roosevelt had an absentee father. His mother lived in the white house with him until she died in 1940. Harry truman had a wayward father. His mother was a disciple of christ. You had the ida type figure, the inspiration. Harry must have been very important to his mother. She confused him with a lot of idealism. Part eisenhower was Dwight Eisenhower was somebody the family relied on to a large extent. His father was disappointed in many ways, david was. He gambled in a Business Venture in the late 1880s. In 1890. He suffered the stigma. Having lost a farm. That was a big deal for mennonites. In a community for the farmers. I say that made him a very tough guy. I think Dwight Eisenhower probably budget horns with him fairly often. By the time same token, he is being inspired by a very observant mother who won bible quotation contests all over Dickenson County and that sort of thing. Kennedy appears an exception. His father was a real taskmaster. His mother was a beautiful rose. Look at lyndon johnson. His mother father wasnt alcoholic and his was an alcoholic and his mother was a disciple of christ. You look at nixon, his mother, hannah, a devout quaker. There gerald ford had no father. His mother was in the same vein. Jimmy carter, his father was a bourbon politician in the south. His mother was a peace corps volunteer. Ronald reagan his father is an alcoholic and his mother is a disciple of christ. George bush is an apparent exception followed by bill clinton. Does somebody assume a lot of responsibility at an early age . I think if they are forced to do that that can wear people out but also make very strong characters and i think that strong characters have a way to make their own way what they will do. They dont wait for others to make up their mind for them. The eisenhowers had a practical problem in the early 1900s, how to survive. The eisenhower brothers entered into an agreement. They would put each other through college. They knew they would have to do that. The fact that they lost their land really meant they would have to make their way in the world the way most people do. By becoming professionals. It is different from running a farm. They embarked on this program that has nothing to do with dave and eisenhower as far as i can see. Establishing a Conveyor Belt where one would finance the other through college and so on and they would go to the four corners of america and make a mark and they did. They were an Extraordinary Group of achievers, the eisenhower boys in abilene in the late 1890s. Extraordinary group. By the same token, people who never lost a sense of where they were from. I was certain that my grandfather became a farmer after he left the presidency. In a matter of redeeming something his father had lost. I have no doubt about that. I think this was his way of reminding himself, affirming, or living reliving something he felt was the right way to live. Tilling the land. As professional as he became, as cosmopolitan as he became, he always had the idea that he would return to that. So, responsibility. There were a spot the important influence on the mother. That has been characteristics for president s. Down the mind, obama, in search of my father, his mother is a social worker, in and so forth. The looming question is, what will be the pattern for our first female president. We will have a female president soon. How will that dynamic change . I would say, the pattern of early responsibility and idealism is so pronounced that i would say it is a pattern. Dwight eisenhower would part of that. He was a great deal more, but we dont know a lot about him. So we have to guess. What came out of abilene in the form of him and others was something very extraordinary. The monument in washington, the eisenhower monument in washington captures a portion of that. There is a miniature, smaller statue that resembles the one in abilene. I think it is testimony to how important his roots were. I was told at the height of the controversy for this thing, after the groundbreaking of the eisenhower memorial, a former student of mine who is now a prominent pollster said, i get emotional every time i look at the plans for this thing. This will be the only place in all of washington. A young boy can look into the eyes of the statue and say, that is me. And aspire to the kinds of achievements quite eisenhower accomplished. I think its where he came from. The heart of america. And what the heart of america meant to america in the late 20th century and hopefully still means for america today. We will ask one final question. I apologize to everyone his question i cannot get to. We are short on time. The final question will be, with the great sensations that come from great power over many decades, how did eisenhower remain grounded without abusing his power or abusing his discretion . That goes to the heart of one of the key biographical insights about Dwight Eisenhower. My quick answer is to consider this. I think professionally, flight eisenhower was somebody that was recognized throughout the army as a very capable officer. There is a new story about the louisiana in Time Magazine that said that the news that eisenhower had been promoted was greeted with an amen throughout the army. So we had a great deal of peer respect. But he was not known until 1942. He was turning 52 that year. He becomes wellknown at the age of 52. From the age of 52 until 79, 78. 5, in this 26 years, he leads one of the greatest lives of the 20th century. Prior to that, he is somebody you might have, prior to world war ii, retired to kansas or argentina or something. He is somebody by the time most people are filling their mission, he finds himself entering extraordinary responsibility, having gotten over a lot of the things that ambition drives you towards. So, he is a person of extraordinary balance and wisdom in his writing. That is something i would recommend to people in the abilene area. You have a great facility at the dwight Eisenhower Library. These records belong to the public. I would recommend going there and examining the collections. Hours in the documents of the president ial library are meaningful. When you read the eisenhower correspondence, you can see an extraordinary maturity. And, i would say, that would have been different. I would venture to say that would have been different if he had been born the way Herbert Walker bush was born or john kennedy was born. In other words, somebody born in an environment where you have a very early sense of yourself as someone important. I think eisenhower probably esteemed himself. But, he was not born important. He did not spend his maturing years nourishing a reputation. Or, defending a reputation. He was not somebody who had much to lose. That distinguishes him from patent general patent and mccarthy. They both developed great reputations as dashing, valiant soldiers. I think to a degree. When you gain that kind of celebrity and notoriety, your curiosity and growth to some degree is stunted. It stops. Once you have succeeded, why be Something Else . I think mccarthy becomes care a caricature of himself at the right motivation and they both embodied qualities. That are absolutely essential in world war ii. But it causes them to be observed and known for better or worse as larger figures. I think there is a certain corruption in that. I think they see themselves as untouchable. I think that got both of them in trouble. Leaving aside all of the things that are behavioral that a behaviorist would say about quite eisenhower based on earlier writings, i do see a consistency of character. Thats the point. He is the same guy in 1953 and 1954 as he is in the 1930s when he is writing a diary of working for macarthur. Or in the 1920s, there is a diary that captures something. There are snapshots of him earlier. He is the same guy. He is allowed to be the same guy. Then suddenly there is this great responsibility upon him. No doubt about it, he is somebody that felt equal to the moment in preparing for it. But he had not been preparing for it in the way that he is going to abuse power. I think he viewed both of his responsibilities both general and president as trusteeships. That is what my father said once to become a reflecting on his father. He said he is a trustee, whats wrong with that . We ought to have somebody that approaches that office that way from time to time, we really should. One of the life lessons that i was raised with, raised with, was the idea that everything we enjoyed as kids was transitory. We went from duty station to duty station in the army. We were taught about the white house and other things we came into contact with. Then, we were constantly brought back to earth. My grandparents and parents understood this was a transitory thing. This was a byproduct. He was allowed to be himself for an extended time. When it mattered, he was himself. The rest is history. Right, thank you so much. Thank you. We will wrap this up. Thank you david for your presentation. That was very informative. Thank you to the other oh, ladies and gentlemen, i would now like to introduce our texting wish guest from