In california, a distinguished core room, dwight d eisenhower, president of the United States of america. [applause] this happy occasion, a tradition which began with the other roosevelt, they have addressed this audience but tonight we will, man whom history will record among World Leaders in the hour of greatest need. [applause] i have in mind the rapid succession of communists aggression his millions of people were involved behind farreaching iron curtain. The stalemate in korea, a rampaging inflation in the homeland, the traveling motors of our Free Enterprise economy. Here is the land framed in war who will be acclaimed by different generations as the man who laid the foundations of peace. [applause] and more is our presence who we love with a deep and abiding affection. [applause] welcome. Im george hammond, chair of the humanities forum. Along with the staff, putting together these online programs, doesnt since the covid19 crisis began. Im glad to introduce susan eisenhower, granddaughter of president eisenhower it has written a great book, how ike led the principles behind eisenhowers biggest decisions. It is like a spy plane overview of the principles of his presidency. It is a combination because it is also the combination you lived your life because you are a political analyst, you knew him personally for many years. He didnt pass away until you were already at college. So lets get started and talk about president eisenhower, for those not familiar he was president from 1953 until 1961. Jfk was president right after words and he was the supreme allied commander during world war ii. So susan, thank you for joining us. The online world we all recognize more easily than we thought. Can you tell us a little bit about what inspired you to write the book. You have been watching in this field for a long time as a political consultant and advisor and you decided to write about your own grandfathers work to be objective, it is easier. Thank you for the opportunity to be back at the Commonwealth Club. It is a wonderful opportunity of presenting two in years past, great to be back and talk about this and the question is a very interesting one, part of the disclaimer this evening. As a kid i was raised to compartmentalize what i knew about his politics, government about the issues that he dealt with and on the other side my relationship with him as a grandparent. It was quite an experience, i was continually struck by how we were doing certain things as a family, dealing with these crises. The impetus for why to do it now, would revolve around 3 events. One is at the end of world war ii, certainly vj day is about to occur and the 70 fifth anniversary of the end of the war in europe in may of this year. Secondly the eisenhower memorial in washington dc dedicated on september 17th. Much more scaledback version of its original self. It is open to the public after that date, theres a lot of thinking about the presidency, the most important four year election occurs, so i cant something to say to us today and that is the reason i put it together. You took it from that angle and so many elements we are so interested in today. And and you will be electing Richard Nixon or eisenhower because eisenhower is sick because he had his heart attack. Richard nixon, the same is going on today in the democratic party. And that keeps getting thrown out at people. I wont speculate on the difference in approach but eisenhower is very conscious of what it is to be a diminished president. President wilson was a scandal, people dont know how ill the president was. That is in the situation for the good of the country. After he had 3 illnesses during his presidency, he would give himself and arduous test like a round the world trip or trip to europe that require lots of meetings and lots of stress. And and and not very adroit at managing his time, to stress, generally position himself to get through his second term. Interesting, a small tangent but doctors lied to him about the helium thing so he didnt think it was as serious and he thought he might have made a decision in 56 if they warned him about it. That was interesting. One of the biggest decisions about running for a second term, in 1955, he had a doctor named general Howard Schneider. Although they were devoted friends in one form or another since the war, Howard Schneider drove brandon up the wall, because first of all he hovered, he came up with all sorts of things eisenhower wasnt allowed to do including watching the armynavy Football Game but Howard Schneider decided to raise the president s blood pressure. I didnt care about the outcome of that game and i think Howard Schneider was part of the team that wasnt actually very direct with the president and back to your earlier question, i was not going to be a domestic president and he might well have decided differently but i think at the end of the day my grandmother intervened for the First Time Since the early part of their marriage and encouraged him to run again because they thought he would die of another heart attack watching everything from the sidelines. With high blood pressure. Interesting the way your grandmothers decision was more easy to understand. This guy was making decisions about the war in korea, all these Big Decisions and you are worried about him watching a Football Game even if he takes it too seriously, seems a little bit ludicrous. I told that story in the book in the context of how a next ordinary amount of power often dwarfs the relationships with other people. It doesnt mean it makes them terrible but does change things and the doctors for some reason tried to handle this man which would only make them more wound up because he was used to making Big Decisions and perfectly capable of facing any difficult news. In his last years of life i saw this so often how gravy wasnt how ready he was to take what was coming and he volunteered for some rather exotic treatments for his condition because he thought it might help people after he was gone. This wasnt anybody you were straightforward with. It was a good transition. Before we get to the big issues, talking about personal relationships he had the friendships he had, his family and your own relationship and you have pictures which include pictures of yourself with him when you were younger so we will get those onscreen. This is him around the end of world war ii. This picture was taken 1945. He had his fifth star and i think he looks tired. I dont know if you would agree but he looks content. If the picture were fooling the you would see he is wearing only a single bar of ribbons. The soviet general down to the waist. He looks approachable. And impossible to know how to work 100 hours a week or 130 hours a week in the middle of the night. Out of a 3year stint like that, deeply tired. How old was he . He was he was born in 1890. 55 years old. If you look at pictures when he was president of Columbia University he looks younger than he does in that picture even though it was another 5 years later. He gave a lot of energy in the next is a picture of you. As a teenager and a horse. Yes. Is there a horse in that picture . I cant see it. Ike became an amateur photographer and we have it in our family collections, all sorts of homemade things. What i like about that picture is somebody took a picture of ike taking a picture of me. Whenever i see this picture it makes me smile because of this bald head of his, my grandfather is my grandmother loved role overnight in bed and pat his little bald head. If there is a horse in the picture from the standpoint i cant see it but a horseback rider, this is the bond we had because he loved horses. The only animals he indulged in any way, shape or form. It is a sweet picture. You have a short story in your book when you were 11, put in a putting green, special putting green. It is about my lifetime guilt. Putting the putting green, he practices putting. He enjoyed doing that and seeing people but there wasnt any privacy in those events. Padlocking a gate, horses on the farm, almost knocked me over. Knocked me over the lawn, in the sitting area where we sat in the evening. All 5 of these circling here and made a huge sweep across the gulf green. I was more than in a state of panic. Field hands, secret service, trying to wrap around these animals and had to face the music and not only had they ruined my grandfathers gulf green but i was late for dinner and this was one of those moments you dont forget. He said in the swivel chair and swiveled around and looked at me and said you know what i said to your grandmother . I can see horses run like that since i was a kid in kansas and i apologized after that but never heard of it again. It was a smart move on his part because the guilt would be lingering, never make a mistake like that again but he was nice not to hold it against me because he knew i was devastated and wouldnt do it again. One of the scholastic experiences from the disney cartoon the child makes that mistake a responsibility where the parents are good, they do what ike did and when bad they look like a witch. One more thing, i had the sense to apologize profusely and take full responsibility. That went down very well, and personal accountability had i not done so. You learned that lesson. I learned that one already. Hes taking a picture, you are in that picture. You see from the postcard that it is my mother and my youngest sister was born in 1955 after that was painting it but it was taken at camp david and one of the helpers in camp david came and took a picture of him but he took a painting after the war, he followed Winston Churchills example, was intrigued by what the Prime Minister did when he was trying to get to gather and also his own portrait painter gave him some oil paints is a present and then became very attached to this pastime because it centered him and when he was concentrating on the painting he was allowing his mind to work through some difficult problems. You have an exhibited art museum and told somebody there is only one reason this is being shown and that is because i am president. He would never do that, exhibiting paintings that look like this. He was very modest unlike churchill who took his paintings so seriously that he wanted to be regarded almost as a professional. I did it to give away his gifts and cabinet members, paintings of them, painted all those wartime colleagues, painted Prince Charles and princess and for the king of england and his execution but he had some talent. You have a picture here, the picture of churchill. Not bad. The other charming thing, presented to Prime Minister churchill when churchill stepped down but he was visiting in the United States and theres a wonderful picture of churchill looking it over is churchill the painter would. Field Marshal Bernard montgomery was one of the big personalities he worked with during world war 2. One of the interesting thing. The next when he gave to you, the next painting a little story with this. It is a story, i often stood behind him at the easel. In addition to his retirement years he always insisted on having a studio somewhere nearby. And standing beside him, admiring his work. This baby beatty at the bottoms dated 1957, and in 1957 many things happened but i was intrigued when i looked at the back of it that it says to susan, 1958. That means its likely a painting that was done during the little rock crisis when eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne Division to desegregate Little Rock High School and two scored nine africanamericans to start school in that september. And then right after that of course was sputnik, soviet union launched its first artificial satellite, i should say world artificial satellite into space. I look at this painting at the fake those brush strokes must have provided some relief during those times of great controversy and crisis. Were going to go back to that. People talk about october surprises, and in 1956 your grandfather certainly got two really huge ones. We will finish the pictures and then by the way, for the audience if you have any questions just send it in the chat room and we will ask them. We got yours and will get to the korean conflict of little bit later. Next picture is yes if thats you, right . Thats me. I look like im terribly thoughtful and he looks very kind. I like the picture because 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 what he had to order during the war. But you know he never became hard or cynical. I think is both a Family Member and as an analyst i think its remarkable, says a lot about his character. Seems to be one of the hardest things to do to make those decisions, well get to dday later, to know the best so many people will die and at the worst you dont even succeed at what youre trying to accomplish and even more people will die. The people have made those decisions for us is why they get admired for decades and even centuries to come because its so crucial. Your grandfather is certainly one of those. Next picture, a couple pictures of them. Heres a picture of him as a young man on a baseball team, just so you can see him before he is bald, right . Thats right. I was looking, its always fun to see ike with a full head of hair. George, maybe you could describe what 20 is because im not sure thats exactly right. 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. 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. That was very discouraging for him, and he had to learn how to snap out of that downer after taking cigarettes, of course. One tangent, wasnt planning on going there but its interesting you mentioned that all leaders are not people just have obeyed their whole time, he was kind of a not a a bad by but he got himself in trouble when he was at west point. He didnt even go there to become a soldier. He went there for the free education, another very interesting tangent. He shared that with ulysses s. Grant. A lot of great leader turned out to be civilians would never imagined himself a soldiers. One thing that is worth mentioning a special and context of west point come he grew up in a very religious household, and the eisenhowers were pacifists. They were godfearing pacifists. There wasnt an eisenhower who fought in the civil war, though they named ikes uncle Abraham Lincoln eisenhower because they wanted to express their views, but they were conscientious objectors. You can imagine the family feelings when ike goes off to west point, because he cant wait any longer or younger brothers to put him through college. Fascinating. The next picture is meeting with khrushchev, which was a very your grandfather had a very interesting idea. You mentioned it, we were talking about it earlier. I dont think very many people know about this but when he was talking about the distinction between what was going on during the cold war. It wasnt a matter of capitalism versus socialism or even communism. It was yes, he says in a speech to the Commonwealth Club that its really about, its really about openness, democracy versus authoritarianism. And then he goes on to say its about a free and open society as opposed to a close and secretive society. I just thought that was rather intriguing. A lot of times in order to fight the enemy that is perceived, you become like the enemy and become secretive yourself sometimes. If i could add two things about this picture. This is in 1959 and even though they are smiling, the United States at this point has been thrown into what is called the berlin ultimatum. Nikita khrushchev is currently threatening the United States with punitive action over berlin, and if it had turned into war there would be no way to defend berlin with conventional weapons so it might have turned nuclear. So today we have those kinds of standoffs but eisenhower actually invited khrushchev to come to the United States and khrushchev was here for ten days. Ten days. During that time the soviet premier was subjected to eisenhowers grandchildren as a way to soften him up. [laughing] and all i can say is that the future of the world hung in the balance as what not we would be well behaved that afternoon. [laughing] we apparently managed to save the world for the first and last time. No, should make jokes about this. It was a very serious time. After the trip the soviets did lift the ultimatum with some agreement to continue to talk about it at the summit in paris. We will talk about the u2, as long as we have khrushchev on the screen we were going to do it later but let me do it now. Theres this u2 that is famous but was also very fascinating about this is how much information president eisenhower had about what the russians actually done and he knew everybody was lying about the missile gap and other stuff that was driving the cold war. Perfectly clear that they did not have a forest that we need to worry about at that time because they had the information. Maybe see a little bit about what happened. It so intriguing and actually sputnik is tied up in this because we just had the dawn of the space age during his administration and there were no rules for outer space at all. It was undecided legally whether or not sovereign airspace would extend all the way out into outer space. Through an agreement with the soviet union the United States and the soviet union agreed to launch artificial satellites in 1957. Of the Eisenhower Administration, there was no surprise about that. The point of free access to space which is what eisenhower strongly endorsed, and had to make it possible for the use of, the free use of satellites in orbit, and the reason