This happy occasion preserves unbroken a convention which began with president to get our roosevelt. The great and the near great have addressed this audience, but tonight we welcome the man whom history will record as behemoth among moral leaders in the hour of greatest need. [applause] i have in mind the rapid succession of communist aggression as millions of people were behind the fire reaching iron curtain. I have been buying the stalemate of the stalemate in korea, the inflation in our homeland which was eating up the savings and traveling the motors of our Free Enterprise economy. Here there is a man trained in lower who would be acclaimed by future generations as the man who laid the foundations of peace. [applause] and more, he is our president whom we love with a deep and abiding affection. [applause] welcome to the Commonwealth Club of california, i am george hammond. Along with the staff at the Commonwealth Club, the staff has helped to put you always online programs. We didnt dozens and dozens of them since the crisis began. Its been my great pleasure to introduce Susan Eisenhower who is here with us today. Shes a granddaughter of president eisenhower and shes written a great book, how ike led. Its like u2 spy plane overview of his hole, the principles led his presidency but with the young girls point of view on the man himself and is quite a combination and its a nice, nation because it also is a combination you live your life that, susan, because you are a political analyst if you lived your life but indication you know him personally for many, many years. He didnt pass the weight until you are already in college around that age, right . Yeah. Welcome everybody and we are going to get started to talk about president eisenhower, for those of you for nothing but with the dates he was president from 1953 until 1961. Jfk was a present right afterwards and he was the supreme allied commander during world war ii. Susan, first of all thank you for joining us from afar on our online world we have recognized can happen very much easily than we thought. But tell us a little bit about what inspired you to write the book. You have been working in this field for a long time as a political consultant, et cetera and advisor, and you decide to write about your own grandfathers worked the it lessening interesting to try to be objective and subjective at the same time. He do it successfully but it couldnt have been easy. George kent first of all let me thank you so much for the opportunity back at the Commonwealth Club. I had the wonderful opportunity of presenting to the convoy of the books of the club in years past so great to be back and to talk about this if yes, i think the question is a very interesting one. Maybe as part of the disclaimer for our discussion this evening i should say that as the kid i was really raised to compartmentalize what i knew about his politics, about the three in which he governed, about the issues that he dealt with. On the other side my relationship with them as a grandparent. This book is really is a of those things as you sit and it was quite an experience for me to put it together in one place because i was struck by how we were doing certain things as a family as he was dealing with some of these crises. So that was interesting. The impetus like to do it now revolved around three events i guess. One is the 75th anniversary of the end of world war ii, just, well, certainly vj day is about to occur, but we had of course the 75th the 75th anniversary of the end of the war in europe back in may of this year. Secondly, the eisenhower memorial in washington, d. C. Will be dedicated on September September 17 and a much more scaledback version of its original self but it will nevertheless, open to the public after that date. Finally were going to an election year, and theres always a lot of thinking about the presidency and the most important for your election occurs. Four year. I thought i had something to say to us today and i guess thats the reason i put it together. He really did and i found that, you took it from the ankle but theres so many different elements that were so interesting today. One as applicable. What of a thought, this is a small side, tangent, that there were people who sit in 1956 that were against him being reelected and saying you are going to be electing Richard Nixon. You would not be electing eisenhower because eisenhower sick. He just had his heart attack since olympic recent Richard Nixon will be the president. Same thing going on today the Democratic Party people think biden will never be present for more than a month or two so you really electing kamala harris. I found it interesting that keeps getting thrown out at people. Of course im not going to speculate on whether theres a difference in approach but eisenhower was very conscious of what it would be to be a diminished president. We have to remember that president wilson was really almost a scandal that people in the country did know how pale the president was. Ike was determined not to find itself in the situation for the good of the country, and after he had three illnesses during his presidency and after each one of them he would give himself a very arduous test, like around the world trip or a trip to europe the required loss the meetings and lots of stress, and he would always tell his advisers if i dont perform at top level, you have to tell me because then i will resign. In any case that never happened. He became actually rather adroit at managing his time, managing his stress and generally positioning himself to get through his second term. It was interesting also a small tangent but, the doctors lie to them about the heaving thing so we didnt think it was as serious, and he kind of thought he might have made a different decision in 56 if they had warned him about it. I thought i was interesting. One of the biggest decisions about running for a second term as you point out is he at heart attack in 1955. He had a doctor named Howard Snyder, and although there were devoted friends and it been together in one form or another since the war, Howard Snyder actually drove up the wall. First of all, he hovered. He came up with all sorts of things eisenhower wasnt allowed to do, including watching the Army Navy Football game because Howard Snyder decided it was going to raise the presidency blood pressure, you know. Ike really did care about the outcome of that game. And so it was, Howard Snyder was part of the team that kind of come wasnt actually very direct with the president about his phone united situation. And again back to your earlier question, ike was not going to be a diminished president. He might well have decided differently. But i think he really come at the end of the day my grandmother intervene for the first time i think since the early part of their marriage and encouraged him to run again because she thought he would probably die of another heart attack watching everything from the sidelines, you know . Watch out for that high blood pressure. I find it interesting the way your grandmothers decision was much more easy to understand. The doctors decision was this is a guy whos making all these decisions about the war in korea and about this come all these Big Decisions, and youre worried about if watching a football game. Even if he takes it too seriously, that seems a little bit ludicrous. Well, i told that story in the book in the context of how an extraordinary amount of power, how that often works in relationships you have with other people. It doesnt mean that it makes them will terrible, but it does change things. The doctors for some reason, i love this expression, actually try to handle this band which would only make him more wound up im sure because he was a guy just making Big Decisions and was perfectly capable of facing a difficult news. As a matter fact in his last year of his life, i saw this so often how great he was and how right he was to take whatever was coming. As a matteroffact he even volunteered for some rather exotic treatments for his condition because he thought might help people after he was gone. But this wasnt anybody he was straightforward with, i just want to save for the record. That the good transition because before we get to the big issues that he face, i think its good to talk about his personal relationships that he had. The friendships had come people are kept in and is a relationship with him. You have some pictures to show which include some pictures of yourself with them when you were younger. We will get this up on the screen. Theres the picture we have been showing. This is him right around the end of world war ii, right . Yes. This picture was taken in 1945. And i like this picture because i think he looks approachable. Though i would say tired and thats got to be a fairly accurate assessment since its impossible to know how you could be working 100 hours a week or 130 hours a week sometimes, all right, up in the middle of the night and not come out of a stint like that deeply tired. And at 45, how old was he . He was born in 1890. He was 59 years old. If you look at pictures when he was president of Columbia University he looks younger than he does in thatpicture even though it was another five years later. Well, he gave a lot of energy. The next picture is a picture of you. And this is as a teenagerwith the horse. Is there a horse in the picture . I cant see it from here. Perfect. I became an amateur photographer and we have in our family collections also the only things. What i like about that picture is somebody else took a picture of ike taking a picture of me and every time i take a picture it makes me smile because of the bald head of his. As my grandmother always said, she loved to roll over at night in bed and patches little bald head. But if theres a horse in the picture , its from the standpoint i cant quite see it but i was the family horseback rider. So this is a bond we had because the loved horses. The only animals on his farm at the indo in any way shape or form. He was with cattle and he certainly didnt like barnyard cats but he loved his horses. So i think its a great picture. You have a short story in your book about when you are 11 and the horses got away and he had just put in a putting green. His special putting green. You might tell that story because it shows your relationship nicely. I think the story shows a lot about ikes compassion because he put in a putting green and he put the putting green in because he wanted to have some privacy while he practiced his putting. Otherwise he had to have gone to a Gettysburg Country club which he enjoyed doing and seeing people but there wasnt actually anyprivacy in those events. People came out to watch him all so one evening i was padlocking a gate. And five of the horses on the farm pushed against the gate, so sort of almost knocked me over and went running all around the lawn in front of my parents, grandparents sitting there where they always sat in the evening and all five of these forces are running around like crazy and certainly here and going there. Then made a huge sweep across his golf green. And i was more than in a state of panic. Everybody came out field hands, secret service and everybody and we were trying to wrap around these animals. We finally did and then i had to go and safely use it and not only have a role and my grandfather stalking but obviously for dinner. This was one of those moments in childhood that you dont forget. So i walked in. He always in the swivel chair and swiveled around and he looked at me and he said you know what i said your grandmother lesson mark i havent seen horses run like that since i was a kid in kansas. And of course i apologize after that but i never heard it again and it was avery smart move on his part. Because the guilt would be lingering. I never make a mistake like that again but he was very nice not to bring it up or to hold it against me or hold it over my head because i think he knew i was devastated. And wouldnt doit again. Is one of those plastic experiences is in a disney parking for children child make that mistake responsibility and then in the ones where the parents are good, they do what ike did and when theyre bad and look like a witch. I had one more thing. I had the great sense apologize profusely and to take full responsibility and i think that went down very well. I fear i would have had a significant ongoing lecture about personal accountability and i not done so areas. I learned that one already. Here is, hes taking a picture i assume youre in thepicture. You can see from the postpartum painting. Its my mother and three of my four siblings. My youngest sister was born in 1955 after that portrait was painted but it was taken at camp david and i guess one of the helpers at camp david came in and took a picture of him but he took up painting actually after the war. He sort of followedwinston churchills example. He was intrigued by how much painting the Prime Minister did while he was trying to get his head together and then also, his own portrait painter gave him some oil paints as a present and i took it up then and then became really very attached because he found it centered him. And while he was concentrating on the painting he would go out and his mind and workthrough some difficult problems. You have a short story in the book about how he had an exhibit at an art museum and he told somebody theres only one reason theyre beingshown that because i was president. They never get a guy like me an exhibit for a painting look like this. Exactly, he was very modest. Unlike churchill who took his paintings so seriously that he wanted to be regarded almost as aprofessional. I did it to give away as gifts and he gave his cabinet members thinking of them. He painted all hiswartime colleagues. He actually even painted Prince Charles and rinses and for the queen of england and always was all apologies about theirexecution but he had some talent i think. We have a picture here of churchills, the picture of churchill. At the next picture. Looks quite talented. If not amateur. It looks not bad and the other charming thing about this painting is that he actually was able to present it to Prime Minister churchill when churchill, he just stepped down but hewas visiting. In the United States and theres a wonderful picture of churchill sort of looking it over. Like churchill behavior would area actually, ike also painted field marshall renard montgomery who was one of his , one of the personalities. He worked with during world war ii andits a lovely , lovely painting that hangs today in the British Embassy in washington dc. So you said is one of his interesting, sort of a friendly as you call it now. Some thing like that. Got along so they were enemies to read one picture is one gate to you, theres a story with this one class theres a story about this one. I often behind him when he was at the easel. He had inaddition to his retirement years , he always insisted on having a studio somewhere nearby so in the white house was on the second floor overlooking lafayette park. And it was around that time that i was standing behind, admiring his work. This was a landscape, i dont know what the scene is but as i said before he painted usually from postcards. And they were, these landscapes he did were always serene. Its been noted that theres something ironic about it because probably every brushstroke is full of some kind of turbulence hes trying to make sense of. This painting at the bottom is dated 1957. And in 1957, many things happen i was intrigued when i looked at the back of it and it says to susan, 1958. That means its likely a painting that was done first of all during the little rock crisis when eisenhower sent 101st Airborne Division to desegregate Little Rock High School and to escort nine africanamericans to start school in september. And then right after that of course was, the soviet union launched its first artificial satellite or i should say the world for artificial satellite into space. So i look at this painting and i think those strokes must have provided some relief during those times of great controversy and crisis. Going to go back to that, people talk about october surprises and in 1956, your grandfather certainly got to really. But lets finish the pictures and then go ahead and by the way, for the audience, if you have any questions just send them in the chat room. And will ask them and we got your theory and will get to the korean conflict alittle bit later area so next picture is. And thats you, right . Thats me. I look like im terribly thoughtful andhe looks very kind. I like that picture because i want, ive always wanted people to know that he had some very very tough decisions and some very dark times. During our history. When you think about what he saw and when he had ordered during the war, but you know he neverbecame art or cynical. And i think as both a Family Member and as an analyst, i think its remarkable area it says a lot about his character. It seems to me one of the hardest things to do to make those decisions. The later to know that the best so many people will die and that the worst, you dont even succeed at what youre trying to accomplish and even more people will die area and the people made those decisions for us i think its why they get admired for decades and even centuries to come because its so crucial. Your grandfather was certainly one of those. Thenext picture , theres a couple of pictures of him. Theres a picture of him as a young man on a baseball team, just so that you can see him for his ball. Thats right, i was looking and its always fun to see ike with a full head of hair. So hes, george, maybe you coulddescribe which one he is. I think this is in. Thats exactly right. He was, this is the Abilene High School and he was on the baseball team. He was a very good baseball player but i think his real passion was football. And he lost his wife for a little while when he broke his knee and was unable to continue playing football at west point because he had played against jim thorpe as a matter of fact. In the army versus carlisle game and he was regarded as a very fast, effective football player. And that was very discouraging for him. And he had to learn h