-
Ailes: A Voice for the Silent Majority
May 13, 2013 | 8 comments
-
Tangles of Pathologies
April 12, 2013 | 35 comments
-
An Enduring Partnership
March 25, 2013 | 5 comments
-
Spies, Traitors, Agents of Influence, and Useful Idiots
January 31, 2013 | 35 comments
-
On Knowing When to Shut Up
December 19, 2012 | 7 comments
Buy the Book
An American Hero Remembered
David Eisenhower’s excellent and incisive memoir of his grandfather.
Going Home to Glory: A Memoir of Life with Dwight D.
Eisenhower, 1961-1969
By David Eisenhower with Julie Nixon Eisenhower
(Simon & Schuster, 323 pages, $28)
“I like Ike” versus “Gladly for Adlai” or “Madly for Adlai.”
These were the slogans for the presidential campaigns of 1952 and 1956, Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois against General Dwight D. Eisenhower, former supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe. Seldom have political slogans so effectively encapsulated the perceived social, political, and cultural differences between candidates.
“Gladly for Adlai” or “Madly for Adlai,” with their off-rhyme — clever, languid, Noel-Cowardish — over against “I Like Ike” — direct, solid, positive — just right for the poor boy from Kansas with that great wide smile who played football for West Point and commanded the greatest multinational fighting force in the history of warfare, freeing Europe from fascism.
For a majority of Americans, that defined the difference — one the darling of the Eastern establishment, the other straight from the heartland. Eisenhower lived up to the image, providing a strong and steady leadership tempered by common sense. And beneath that image there was great depth — a superb military strategist, an historian and author, whose Crusade in Europe was a runaway bestseller; a successful executive and administrator; a diplomat and at times a psychologist, as witness his dealings with some of the most contentious figures of the 20th century — Churchill, de Gaulle, Montgomery, and even his own fighting commanders, among them George Patton, a favorite he always called “Georgie.”
In Going Home to Glory, historian David Eisenhower, author of the Pulitzer-finalist Eisenhower at War: 1943-1945, and Julie Nixon Eisenhower, whose previous books are Special People and Pat Nixon: The Untold Story, take us from Inauguration Day, January 20, 1961, when leaving the White House, “Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower drove north to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in the 1955 Chrysler Imperial that Mamie had purchased for Ike on his sixty-fifth birthday,” to March 28, 1969, at Walter Reed Hospital, where, “surrounded by others as always, at peace and in the company of his doctors and his lineal heirs, Dwight Eisenhower died.”
During those eight years, the man others called Mr. President or General, a title he much preferred, and who David Eisenhower called Grandad, remained active in politics, counseling his successors and other world leaders, commenting on important issues, but always behind the scenes.
MUCH HAS BEEN MADE OF STRAINS between Eisenhower and his former vice president, most of it more imagined than real. But on matters of import, Eisenhower and Nixon were in agreement on the central issues of the day, among them the war in Vietnam.
With the siege and eventual fall of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, every NCO in the First Marine Division knew we were preparing to intervene. Eisenhower, however, said no, emphatically. Although he did not oppose land wars in Asia in principle, “U.S. forces, if committed in 1954, would have been fighting for French colonialism alongside French forces that had proven themselves unable to pacify the region in five years of war. Nor had France promised to grant independence to Vietnam once the fighting was over.”
But in the early 1960s, the Kennedy administration committed us in insufficient numbers with unclearly delineated goals. LBJ inherited the war, was indecisive in planning and execution, massively escalated our involvement with the goals still unclear, and ended by attempting to micro-manage the war. Eisenhower believed LBJ should have gone all out: “Once a decision is made to commit American prestige, all else must take a second seat to winning.” But LBJ was unable to make that commitment.
In a discussion with Richard Nixon in 1967, “Both men [Eisenhower and Nixon] agreed that it would be difficult to chart the future course of the war because of the volatility of Lyndon Johnson.… Johnson’s problem, Eisenhower told Nixon, was that he lacked the inner pressure gauge that told him when to relax.” Johnson “was often up at 3 A.M. phoning Honolulu, Saigon, and the Pentagon to get the latest word on the air strikes and ground actions.”
Realizing that Johnson’s approach to the war was courting disaster, Nixon sent Eisenhower the draft of an article in which he laid out a long-range approach to dealing with Vietnam in particular and Asia in general, with emphasis on China. Eisenhower read the article carefully and telephoned suggestions, “none of which, to Nixon’s relief, disputed his foreign policy views. The general took no exception even to Nixon’s forward-thinking China views, which were unfurled for the first time in this article.”
“Nixon… perceived danger and opportunity in the Vietnam
morass,” David Eisenhower writes. “Nixon could envision
that an ‘acceptable’ outcome in Vietnam would serve as the
basis for an opening to China, which would formalize the
breakup of the communist world and the breakup of an
obsolete Cold War structure that had become the prop of
the
status quo, serving Soviet interests, not American.”
And with Eisenhower’s tacit approval, that’s just what happened. Nixon’s strategy in Vietnam, a gradual withdrawal that the historian Robert W. Merry called “the greatest retreat in U.S. history, one of the greatest in world history,” combined with intense diplomacy, led to the trip to China in 1972 that resulted in a successful end to the war, ultimately negated by Congress, and a distinct shift in the global balance of power.
Thus, Nixon’s much derided “secret plan” for ending the war was in fact a carefully developed, coherent, and largely successful long-term strategy, approved in its initial formulation some five years earlier by Dwight D. Eisenhower.
About the Author
John R. Coyne, Jr. a former White House speech-writer, is co-author with Linda Bridges of Strictly Right: William F. Buckley Jr. and the American Conservative Movement (Wiley).
Letter to the Editor View all comments (28) | Leave a comment
More Articles by John R. Coyne, Jr.
More Articles From Buy the Book
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/02/02/an-american-hero-remembered
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
H/T to National Review Online
ADVERTISEMENT
Kodos| 2.2.11 @ 8:19AM
We STILL like Ike.
Alan Brooks| 2.2.11 @ 6:02PM
Ike and Reagan were 16 out of all the other postwar years.
16 years out of almost 66 years since 1945-- 50 years you WASTED! a half-century wasted by a party that calls itself conservative and conserves NOTHING.
Ken (Old Texican)| 2.2.11 @ 8:37AM
I recall WEB Griffin's description of Ike in one of his novels...words to the effect: Never has a President exercised power so skillfully as to make him invisible.
Evidently, most people never felt his guiding hand, but it was an absolutely firm hand behind the scenes, and behind his smile.
skip| 2.2.11 @ 9:43AM
W.E.B. Griffin's 'Brotherhood Of War' and 'The Corps' series should be required reading before anyone opines on the U.S. military.
Ken (Old Texican)| 2.2.11 @ 1:11PM
Skip,
agreed! Not only that. His characters have become some of my best friends.
I can now open any of those books, to any page, and enjoy the 'visit' with my 'friends'.
Alan Brooks| 2.2.11 @ 6:10PM
I wont read it. If Robert E. Lee's son had written a book on the Civil War, "pass" would be the response as well. But read what you want; there are billions of books if you count web-books.
Read them all and tell us what you think--
we'll be sitting in front of the computers waiting.
And tell David's son to write a book about Nixon.
skip| 2.3.11 @ 11:59AM
Hey 'Brook no intelligent or honest thought',
If you were a character in one of W.E.B.'s books you would be Macklin.
Appleby| 2.2.11 @ 8:37AM
Ike was Daddys favourite General (he served in World War II in the Weather unit, at one time attached to Pattons 8th Army, but had no use for Patton) and he always had great respect for him as President too. All those who came after him did not fare so well in his opinion!
Howard| 2.2.11 @ 9:35AM
I remember how the cynical liberals made so much fun of the old "fuddy duddy", Ike. He was so 19th century. Well, let's see:
1. Balanced budgets
2. American strength
3. Strong families and communities
Sure, there were real problems as well; civil rights, crime, etc. But, Ike was a solid man who performed a solid job. RIP.
daddio| 2.2.11 @ 6:02PM
Our last great president (until Reagan).
Alan Brooks| 2.2.11 @ 6:16PM
"Sure, there were real problems as well; civil" rights [snip]"
if it were up to you, Obama wouldn't be president.
Make up your mind, Howard. If you want a black POTUS you could say "black conservative in 2012". But that isn't quite what you have in mind.
You don't have to agree, but you have to someday make up your mind-- do you like blacks or not?
Dai Alanye | 2.2.11 @ 9:48AM
One of, if not *the* biggest blot on Eisenhower's record is his mishandling of Patton during WW II, partly due, in my opinion, to the neophyte warrior's envy for the hardened and successful, but flamboyant, older soldier.
I could go on, but two words tell much of the story: Falaise Gap.
Alan Brooks| 2.2.11 @ 6:18PM
Monty was too cautious; his soldiers had to be saved many times by America's forces.
Dai Alanye | 2.3.11 @ 7:34PM
Monty was a great general... for the First World War.
Herb| 2.2.11 @ 11:18AM
What a remarkable contrast to today's top military brass who are more concerned with promoting sexual misfits and physically incapable females.
Amor de Cosmos| 2.2.11 @ 11:48AM
Contrast Ike's experience with the Community Organizer and part-time law lecturer. Who do you think has the better temperament, judgment and vision? Not even close.
Alan Brooks| 2.2.11 @ 6:22PM
Blacks were not allowed to be Supreme Commanders, much less presidents, in the '40s.
I thought perhaps most cons weren't racists, but might have been mistaken; maybe they are racists after all. How many black generals were there in the Big One?
Not a whole lot.
bookworm| 2.4.11 @ 12:42AM
How stupid can you get?
W| 2.2.11 @ 1:09PM
As soon as JFK replaced Ike, the Russians built the Berlin Wall and then installed nukes in Cuba. That conduct speaks more clearly than words on how the Russians regarded IKE and JFK
maxumumrandb| 2.2.11 @ 2:27PM
That he preferred to be called "General" as opposed to Mr. President" impresses me.
chris haynes| 2.2.11 @ 5:36PM
The biggest blot on Eisenhower's record, wasnt his "handling of Patton". It was his war crimes. He played significant roles in two American sponsored attrocities: Operation Keelhaul and the Morgenthau Plan.
bookworm| 2.4.11 @ 12:44AM
Well, Chris, next time there's a world war, we'll just put YOU in charge.
FREE tea| 2.2.11 @ 10:05PM
We MUST take into account the truly MASSIVE infiltrations of Soviet sympathizers, enablers, Globalist-eugenicists and banksters throughout our establishment begining with WW I---
STILL we have to admit Eisenhower
in the European theater viz a viz Soviet intentions
was a chump
(though here again he was probably just following Globalist agendas from the State Department)
---and, though again, he MASSIVELY misread
the long-term implications of REFUSING to
liberate North Korea from the RED Chinese
military takeover (again probably misdirected
and misinformed by the likes of Globalists
Dulles and Acheson, Harriman at al--who were
fresh off betraying China into the warm
'social eugenics agendas' of Mao Tse Tung
---and this after, in key family histories, having
betrayed Old China, TRUE China itself to the opium scourge thereby reaping VAST wealth,
power and, through Yale, Harvard and Princeton
which they OWNED ---influence)
--AND
though he failed to follow through and get to the bottom of the urgently REAL matter of Communist/Globalist infiltration of policy making, 'culture creation' and media
(CHECK OUT the declassified KGB documents
on the period if you already haven't. They
CONFIRM everything McCarthy was talking about ---AND MORE)
---HE was a genuine leader, a sane leader, a sober
leader on many other fronts and certainly
more solid than ANYTHING that's come our
way since.
He even had a moment or two of genuine awakeness.
-----------AGAIN, one really MUST go back
to Coolidge for a fully-functional American
citizen president.
Jerry Jones| 2.14.11 @ 12:06PM
Dwight Eisenhower was reared as a Jehovah's Witness. Ike's parents BOTH converted to the Jehovah's Witnesses when Ike was only 5 years old, and Ike's father became a JW Pastor. The Eisenhower home doubled as Abilene's Kingdom Hall throughout Ike's formative years, and for four years after Ike left home to attend West Point.
Mark Tooley's article attempts to perpetuate one of the biggest frauds perpetuated on the American public in the 20th century. Any 10 year-old with a computer now knows that President Eisenhower was not reared in the River Brethren religion.
To read the most brief and most comprehensive source of factual info on this topic simply google the phrase PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES REARED AS JEHOVAH'S WITNESS.
Bob K.| 2.14.11 @ 12:58PM
There are responses to this comment which Mr. Jones originally posted in Mark Tooley's article on this biography in today's (2/14/2011) American Spectator.
العاب بنات | 4.11.12 @ 4:11PM
I could go on, but two words tell much of the story
thanx