WEBVTT - Ambrose on Ike 0:00:10.360 --> 0:00:13.800 This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories, 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:16.280 and we tell stories about everything here on this show 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:20.560 and our favorite subject history and all of our history 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:22.239 stories are brought to us by the great folks at 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:24.639 Hillsdale College, where you can go to study all the 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:27.000 things that are beautiful in life, all the things that 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:29.360 matter in life. And if you can't get to Hillsdale, 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:31.960 Hillsdale will come to you with their free and terrific 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:33.199 online courses. 0:00:33.200 --> 0:00:34.640 Go to Hillsdale dot edu. 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:39.680 Stephen Ambrose was one of America's leading historians. Stephen Ambrose 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:42.640 passed in two thousand and two, but his storytelling accounts 0:00:42.680 --> 0:00:46.120 can now be heard here at Our American Stories, thanks 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:50.080 to those who run his estate. Ambrose wrote the definitive 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:54.800 biography of Dwight Eisenhower. Ike was born in eighteen ninety 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:58.720 in a rented shack near the railroad tracks in Dennison, Texas. 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:02.160 He was raised in a fan of Mennonites, fundamentalists in 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:06.360 their Christian faith were also pacifists. Here's Stephen Ambrose with 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:08.600 the story of Dwight D. Eisenhower. 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:12.760 Drog David Eisenhower was a great and a good man. 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:19.040 These two qualities don't always or even often go together. 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:25.240 But they did with him. Obviously, that is an assertion 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:31.360 that needs proof. Let me begin with some definitions. In 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:35.559 nineteen fifty four, President Eisenhower wrote his childhood friend Sweet 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:40.880 Hazlet on the subject of greatness. He thought greatness depended 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:45.240 either on achieving pre eminence in some broad field of 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:50.360 human thought or endeavor, or on assuming some position of 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:55.120 great responsibility, and then so discharging his duties as to 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:59.960 have left a marked and favorable imprint upon the future. 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:05.640 The qualities of goodness in a man I believe include 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:10.120 a broad sympathy for the human condition, that is, an 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:14.080 awareness of human weaknesses and shortcomings, and a willingness to 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:18.680 be forgiving of them. A sense of responsibility toward others, 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:26.080 a genuine modesty combined with justified self confidence, a sense 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:31.680 of humor, and most of all, a love of life 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:39.400 and of people. That last is the key. Eisenhower loved life, 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:43.240 and he loved people. To me, that's the heart of 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:49.320 his character. From it flowed all the rest. In the 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:54.160 fall of nineteen twelve, third class Cadet Dwight Eisenhower, twenty 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:57.359 two years old, was walking down a hallway at West 0:02:57.360 --> 0:03:02.480 Point when a plead running full tilt on some fool 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:05.880 errand for an upperclassman, ran into him knocked him over. 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:10.560 Reacting with what he called a bellow of astonishment and 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:15.639 mock indignation, Eisenhower scornfully demanded, mister dumguard a generic term 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:20.679 for a pleb, what was your PCs previous condition of servitude? 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:23.360 What did you do before you became a cadet? And 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:28.320 then Eisenhower added, sarcastically, you look like a barber. I 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:34.200 was a barber, sir. It was Eisenhower's turn to go 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:38.520 red with embarrassment. Without a word, he returned to his room, 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:42.560 where he told his roommate, I'm never gonna haze another 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:46.080 pleab as long as I'm at this place. As a 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:47.800 matter of fact, they'll have to run over and knock 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:49.600 me out of the company street before I'll make any 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:52.920 attempt again. I've just done something that was stupid and unforgivable. 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:55.640 I managed to make a man ashamed of what he 0:03:55.680 --> 0:04:02.360 did to earn a living. He never hazed again, and 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:06.920 as an adult, he never shamed a man. Respect for others, 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:10.960 honesty in his dealings, love of life. These were some 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:13.280 of the basic parts of his character. From whence did 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:20.800 they come. Nurture and nature played their respective roles in 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:26.400 shaping Dwight Eisenhaer. Physically, he inherited a strong, tough, big 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:31.279 athletic body and extremely good looks with a quite fabulous grin, 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:37.640 along with keen intelligence. He also inherited a strong competitive 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:42.240 streak from his parents, plus a bad temper, along with 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:49.360 unquestioning love, stern discipline, ambition, and religion. They made him study. 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:53.240 His parents did read the Bible aloud, do chores, hold jobs. 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:56.360 As soon as he was old enough, they instilled in 0:04:56.440 --> 0:04:59.960 him a series of controls over his emotions, his temper. 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:03.680 Most of all, they gave him a solid Victorian outlook 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:07.520 on the relations between the sexes and on proper conduct. 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:10.560 All his life he would blush if he slipped and 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:13.279 said a hell or a dam in front of a lady. 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:21.359 Thus he grew up in a strong Christian atmosphere, not 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:25.400 a sectarian atmosphere. He said once as president that this 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:28.359 country has to be founded on a strong religious faith, 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:30.800 and I don't care what it is. What he meant 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:32.720 was he didn't care if it was Baptist or Methodist, 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:38.480 or Presbyterian or River Brethren. He wants to find an 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:41.880 atheist as someone who could watch Southern Methodists play Notre 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:50.880 Dame and not care who won. As president, he began 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:54.200 attending church regularly because he felt it was important to 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:57.120 set an example. It wasn't something that he had done 0:05:57.160 --> 0:05:59.960 earlier in his life, but the religion was always very 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:03.440 deeply there. He began his first inaugural address with a prayer, 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:06.279 and it went over so well he decided to begin 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:10.200 all of his cabinet meetings with prayers. About a year 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:12.440 after he'd been in office, he was a half hour 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:14.880 into a cabinet meeting when he slapped himself on the 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:24.960 head and said, God, do we forgot the prayer from 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:28.960 his parents and from his experiences in Abilene, which is 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:33.240 after all, almost exactly in the heart of America the 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:37.760 Glower forty eight. He absorbed such values as honesty and 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:41.080 fair play and all dealings into the very marrow of 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:46.080 his bones. He abhorred the idea of cheating or lying, 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:51.239 and he never did either. He also absorbed a fervent 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:57.240 attachment to democracy that amounted to a religious faith. This 0:06:57.279 --> 0:06:59.880 grew naturally in the soil of that little town out there, 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:01.360 the Kansas Prairie. 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:04.719 And you've been listening to Stephen Ambrose tell the story 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:09.360 of Dwight D. Eisenhower. More of this remarkable story here 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:33.800 on Our American Stories. Liehbibe here the host of our 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:37.760 American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing inspiring 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:41.120 stories from across this great country, stories from our big 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:44.560 cities and small towns. But we truly can't do the 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:47.280 show without you. Our stories are free to listen to, 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:49.960 but they're not free to make. If you love what 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:53.680 you hear, go to Alamericanstories dot com and click the 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:56.560 donate button. Give a little, give a lot. Go to 0:07:56.600 --> 0:08:10.000 Alamerican Stories dot com and give And we continue with 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:13.440 our American Stories, and with the story of Dwight D. 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:17.360 Eisenhower told by the person who wrote the best book 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:21.000 on Ike and we're talking about Stephen Ambrose. Let's return 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:24.160 to Ambrose with more of this remarkable story. 0:08:25.680 --> 0:08:28.600 At West Point and in his first twenty five years 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:33.000 in the army, Eisenhower satisfied few of his ambitions. He 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:35.320 didn't get to war in the First War, the Great War, 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:38.480 and he was still a lieutenant colonel when the Second 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:43.280 World War began and about to be forcibly retired, but 0:08:43.320 --> 0:08:46.760 he had learned his profession, and he had demonstrated another 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:53.960 characteristic trait, patience, and it was rewarded. After Pearl Harbor, 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:57.520 his star arose, and soon he was in Washington making 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:00.719 war plans for Chief of Staff George Marshall, and then 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:03.440 on to London to take command of the American forces 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:07.079 in the European theater of operations. This threw him into 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:09.400 the middle of the great decision making process of the 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:14.280 Allies at the very highest level in London, dealing daily 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:18.360 with Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He proved to be an 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:22.560 outstanding diplomat and politician, not only with Churchill, but with 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:26.080 de gaul and other French leaders as well. He was 0:09:26.120 --> 0:09:31.480 successful because he was true to his character. The situation 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:34.240 in North Africa following the invasion in the fall of 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:37.800 nineteen forty two was exceedingly complicated, with a lot of 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:41.120 false promises coming from the British, the Americans, to the 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:46.400 various French factions, but not from Eisner. I know only 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:48.840 one method of operation, he wrote in his diary, to 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:51.120 be as honest with others as I am with myself. 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:55.840 When President Franklin Roosevelt pressured him to get tough with 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:59.800 the local French. Eisenhower refused, explaining, my whole strength and 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.880 dealing with the French has been based upon my refusal 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:06.199 to quibble or to stoop to any kind of subterfuge 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:12.720 or double dealing. The French responded to this, De Gaulle 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:15.319 told him, as long as you say that, I believe it. 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:21.040 He was equally successful with his sometimes difficult British subordinates 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:27.160 and his sometimes egotistical American subordinates. And he'd only mentioned 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:29.240 the names of Montgomery and Patent. You know what I'm 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:33.320 talking about. They might not agree with his decisions, but 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:39.320 they gave him their trust. Indeed, whenever his wartime associates 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:43.960 described Eisenhower, whether they were superiors or subordinates, there was 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:47.319 one word that almost every one of them used. It 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:52.679 was trust. General Montgomery didn't think much of Eisenhower as 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:56.720 a soldier, but he appreciated other qualities. His real strength 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:00.640 lies in his human qualities, Montgomery, he said, he has 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:03.440 the power of drawing the hearts of men towards him, 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:07.760 as the magnet attracts the bit of metal. He merely 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:10.040 has to smile at you when you trust him. At 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:16.520 once scrupulous honesty was an integral part of Eisenhower's character 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:22.600 and a learned experience. He saw an experienced the payoff 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:25.360 for this trust. He knew that telling the truth was 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:29.440 the only way to deal effectively with his problems. He 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:34.240 also developed a technique to deliver his message. I refuse, 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:38.720 he wrote, I refuse to put anything in diplomatic or 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:43.720 suave terminology, and carefully cultivate the manner and reputation of 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:48.920 complete bluntness and honesty. Just a man too simple minded 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:54.400 to indulge in circumlocution. Thus did the Kansas farm boy 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:59.559 approach Charles de Gaulle, Ann Winston, Kerchiam and Franklin Roosevelt 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:05.800 and so many others, and it always worked. He was 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:10.360 the general who hated war. Some like pat and gloried 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:14.079 in it, but Eisenhower could not. He signed every letter 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:18.880 of condolence coming out of Europe for three years, a 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:23.720 very sobering experience. He was the one who ordered the 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:26.880 bombing and shelling of German cities. He hated doing that too, 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:31.560 hated having to destroy when he wanted to build, But 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:33.680 he did his duty with all his skill and energy. 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:37.440 In nineteen forty three, his older brother, Arthur, sent him 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:43.400 a newspaper clipping that stressed his mother's pacifism and the 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:47.640 irony of her son being a general. Eisenower wrote back 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:50.080 to say, the pacifist I doubt whether any of them 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:54.640 detest war as I do. They probably have not seen 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:57.640 bodies riding on the ground, or smelled the stinch of 0:12:57.679 --> 0:13:02.760 decaying human flesh. Probably they have not visited a field 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:07.360 hospital crowded with the desperately wounded. What separates me from 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:11.679 the pacifist is that I hate the Nazis more than 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:17.600 I hate war. He told Mamy in a wartime letter. 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:20.600 I think that all these trials and tribulations must come 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:25.520 upon the world because of some great wickedness. Yet one 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:29.320 would feel that man's mere intelligence, to say nothing of 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:33.080 his spiritual perceptions, would find some way of eliminating war. 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:38.640 The contrast between Eisenhower and those generals who gloried in 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:42.760 war could not have been greater. He had a very 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:45.959 keen sense of family, of the way in which each 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:51.360 casualty meant a grieving family back home. In nineteen sixty three, 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:54.600 when he was filming with Walter Cronkite a television special 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:59.080 entitled D Day Plus twenty years Cronkite sitting on that 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:03.880 stone wall that looks onto that magnificent cemetery at Omaha. 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:06.440 Conkie asked him what he thought about when he returned 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:11.120 to Normandy. In reply, he spoke not of the things 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:13.400 that other generals would have brought up. He didn't speak 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:15.719 about the tanks or the guns, or the planes or 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:18.600 the ships, or the personalities of the commanders of their opponents, 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:21.400 or how he fooled the Germans or of the victory. Instead, 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:24.640 he spoke of the families of the men buried in 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:29.040 the American cemetery. He said he could never come to 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:32.480 this spot without thinking of how blessed he and Mami 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:37.080 were to have grandchildren, and how much it saddened him 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:40.320 to think of all the couples in America who had 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:43.760 never had that blessing because their only son was buried here. 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:50.680 So far, he looks like a saint, But he was 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:53.880 a healthy, vigorous man in his early fifties during the war, 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.720 and men at war are notoriously receptive to female charm 0:14:57.760 --> 0:14:59.920 when they are far from home and close to danger. 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:04.520 For many people, the test of character is the marriage vow. 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:14.080 In other words, what about Kay Sommersby. Kay was Ike's 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:18.200 personal secretary and sometime driver. She was young enough to 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:21.400 be his daughter, very attractive, with a bubbly personality The 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:25.880 Churchill and almost everyone else found charming. She had lost 0:15:25.880 --> 0:15:28.920 her fiance in North Africa and had fallen in love 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:33.480 with her boss. For his part, how could he help it? 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:37.880 Be responsive? He liked her enormously, probably had a crush 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:43.440 on her. They were always together, but almost never alone. 0:15:44.120 --> 0:15:46.840 Decades later, in a book published after her death, Kay 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:50.520 claimed that they had fallen in love and that both 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:53.320 had realized it. In January nineteen forty four, when he 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:57.960 returned to England from a short visit to Washington, they 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:01.840 had their only evening together alone. There was a fireplace. 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:07.960 They sat on the floor. His kisses absolutely unrattled me, 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:13.040 Kay wrote. According to her account, it was a passionate 0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:17.840 but unconsummated experience, because after they took off each other's clothes, 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:22.560 Eisenhower was flastened. This may have been because, as one 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:24.640 aid put it, in a grand understatement, he had a 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:33.200 lot on his mind. More likely, it seems to me 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:37.520 his stern sense of morality, character and honesty overrote his passion. 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:43.320 He was incapable of cheating on his wife, or maybe 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:46.680 if the incident never happened, that it was merely an 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:51.120 old woman's fantasy. No one will ever know. What is 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:53.840 important to note is that not even Kay ever claimed 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:56.960 that they had a genuine love affair. Nor is it 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:00.760 true that Eisenhower asked President Harry Truman for permission to 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:05.879 divorce his wife in order to marry Kay, which was 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:09.199 always a ridiculous story to begin with, because he was 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:13.320 a five star general. They don't ask anybody's permission to 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:18.120 do anything. What he did ask Truman for was permission 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:22.760 to have Mamie join him and occupied Germany throughout the war. 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:26.240 When Kay was with him always, his love for Mamie 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:30.320 was constant. His sustaining force was the thought that when 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:33.199 the war was over, he and Mamie could live together again. 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:38.119 He loved Mamie for half a century, except when he 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:40.280 was off at war. They slept in the same bed 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:41.760 for fifty years. 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:45.320 And you've been listening to the voice of Stephen Ambrose. 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:50.360 The story of Dwight D. Eisenhower continues here on our 0:17:50.359 --> 0:18:12.199 American stories, And we continue with our American stories, and 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:15.800 with the story of Dwight d. Eisenhower is told by 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:18.600 Stephen Ambrose, let's return to the story. 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:25.760 Loving Mamy did not necessarily preclude loving Kay, or at 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:28.560 least loving her under the special situation in which they 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:30.720 lived from the summer of nineteen forty two to the 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:35.199 spring of nineteen forty five. He was lucky to have 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:38.600 her around, and the Allies were lucky she was there. 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:43.000 The best advice in attempting to pass any judgment on 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:46.439 the Eisenhower Summersby relationship was given by one of Eisenhower's 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:50.680 staff officers to an office gossip back in nineteen forty three. 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:54.320 Leave Kay and Ike alone. She's helping him win the war. 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:58.560 In nineteen thirty nine, when it looked like he might 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:02.440 be forcibly retired as a lieutenant colonel, his son John 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:04.680 had asked him if he regretted having spent his career 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:08.280 in the army. Not at all, he is now replied. 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:10.720 He said, he had found his life in the army 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:15.800 wonderfully interesting. It brought me into contact with men of ability, honor, 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:18.600 and a sense of high dedication to their country. The 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:21.639 real satisfaction for a man is to do the best 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:24.840 he can. My ambition in the army was to make 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:27.720 everybody I worked for regretful when I was ordered to 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:35.040 other duty. Leadership was another part of his character. He 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:38.960 was born to lead, and he was trained to lead. 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:43.480 He told John once that leadership was the one art 0:19:43.520 --> 0:19:46.800 that could be learned. But of course only the born 0:19:46.880 --> 0:19:51.639 leader can say that. Eisenhower reinforced his natural talent. He 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:55.439 studied the subject of leadership intensely, and he wrote some 0:19:55.520 --> 0:20:00.520 of his best analytical material on the subject. An important 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:04.119 part of leadership for Eisenhower rested on certain matters of character. 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:09.520 These included modesty and a genuine eagerness to share the applause. Thus, 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:11.960 through the war, he never forgot how much he was 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:16.000 dependent on others. Thus, through the war, when reporters came 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:18.560 to him, he would say, go see Bradley, go see Patton. 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:20.199 Get your story there. And they're the ones that are 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:25.439 winning this war for us. Sharing the credit for a 0:20:25.480 --> 0:20:29.200 success and taking the personal blame for what went wrong 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:35.160 was Eisenhower's leadership style. In all the announcements of D Day, 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:40.080 the operative words were the Allies or we. In the 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:45.520 announcement Eisenhower wrote by hand to release to the press 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:50.960 in the event of failure, The operative word was I, 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:57.920 as in, it's all my fault. Always take your job seriously, 0:20:58.040 --> 0:21:02.520 never yourself. One of his favorite lines. A corollary to 0:21:02.560 --> 0:21:05.600 that sentiment was his willingness to sacrifice himself for the 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:09.639 good of the whole. In early nineteen forty four, Eisenhower 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:12.280 wanted to put the Allied bombers to work on transportation 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:16.399 targets in France in order to isolate Normandy. The bomber 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:20.320 commander said no, they wanted to continue the strategic bombing 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:25.480 campaign inside Germany. Eisenhower felt so strongly about the issue 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:27.560 that he told the combined chiefs of Staff that either 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:31.960 they gave him his transportation targets railroads and turntables and 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:37.520 marshaling yards and bridges and the like in France, or 0:21:38.000 --> 0:21:42.040 I'm simply going to have to go home. In other words, 0:21:42.040 --> 0:21:44.320 Eisenhower was not ready to commit his forces to the 0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:47.560 attack until he was certain that he had utilized every 0:21:47.600 --> 0:21:51.440 asset he had to the uttermost. If he couldn't use 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:54.200 the assets as he saw fit, he would resign his commission. 0:21:56.880 --> 0:21:58.600 When he made the threat, he was holding the most 0:21:58.680 --> 0:22:03.640 coveted command in the history of warfare. He got his way, 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:08.639 and the transportation plan was a big success. He later 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:12.080 used the same threat and a knockdown dispute with Montgomery 0:22:12.160 --> 0:22:14.720 over strategy and command, and he again had his way. 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:17.720 It was an integral part of him, this ability to 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:21.040 know exactly when to use his personal asset, the power 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:26.440 of his name, to make the ultimate threat. It showed 0:22:26.440 --> 0:22:30.000 a nice sense of balance about political factors and an 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:35.720 accurate measurement of his own strength in a struggle over policy. 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:38.679 He much preferred working with the team to having to 0:22:38.720 --> 0:22:42.440 act on his own. A stress on teamwork began when 0:22:42.480 --> 0:22:45.320 he was a child, showed again at West Point and 0:22:45.440 --> 0:22:48.760 was reinforced by his experiences as a football coach on 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:56.040 various army bases in the nineteen twenties. By nineteen fifty two, 0:22:56.119 --> 0:22:59.160 the year Eisenhower entered into politics at age sixty two, 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:03.760 his character is formed by heredity and experience, was set 0:23:03.800 --> 0:23:07.560 and cement. It included, as I have said, the qualities 0:23:07.600 --> 0:23:12.960 of love, honesty, faithfulness, responsibility, modesty, generosity, duty, and leadership, 0:23:13.560 --> 0:23:19.560 along with the hatred of war. These were bedrock or 0:23:19.600 --> 0:23:25.360 were they? This paragon of virtue I am describing had 0:23:25.400 --> 0:23:28.040 lived in the shelter of the army nearly all of 0:23:28.080 --> 0:23:34.760 his life, character testing opportunities or temptations were almost unknown 0:23:34.800 --> 0:23:39.119 to him. It's easy to be virtuous when virtue is rewarded, 0:23:41.480 --> 0:23:43.240 and this will be a hard sell of many veterans 0:23:43.240 --> 0:23:46.840 in here, but it usually is in the army. It's 0:23:46.880 --> 0:23:49.440 not so easy to be virtuous when virtue is ignored 0:23:49.760 --> 0:23:54.919 and partisanship is rewarded, as in politics. He grew up 0:23:54.920 --> 0:23:59.600 in the army, and he swore like a sergeant, although 0:23:59.600 --> 0:24:02.320 the words he used were never a secrual or had 0:24:02.359 --> 0:24:06.240 anything to do with anatomy. They were always christ and 0:24:06.440 --> 0:24:12.160 damn and goddamn words like that. Once he was at 0:24:12.160 --> 0:24:18.760 a luncheon with some cabinet members during the fifty six 0:24:18.840 --> 0:24:23.280 reelection campaign, and someone said something about somebody proposing something, 0:24:23.320 --> 0:24:26.720 and Eisenharers snored these damned amateurs. He said, you know, 0:24:26.960 --> 0:24:30.639 there's only in all the world, there's only two places 0:24:30.640 --> 0:24:34.280 where amateurs think that they're better than the professionals, military 0:24:34.320 --> 0:24:40.280 strategy and prostitution. Now, this was an all male luncheon, 0:24:41.280 --> 0:24:47.359 and having said that, he blushed and confessed a bit shamefacedly. 0:24:47.520 --> 0:24:54.960 That's the only off color story I know where his 0:24:55.119 --> 0:24:59.199 characters showed most decisively was on questions of war and 0:24:59.280 --> 0:25:03.159 more specific a first strike against the Soviet Union or 0:25:03.200 --> 0:25:07.439 in Asia. He was president during the worst decade of 0:25:07.440 --> 0:25:10.639 the Cold War. He was the only president to have 0:25:10.680 --> 0:25:14.240 a decisive lead over the Soviets and nuclear weapons, a 0:25:14.359 --> 0:25:16.879 lead so decisive that he could have ordered a preventative 0:25:16.880 --> 0:25:20.639 war which would have destroyed the Soviet Union as a 0:25:20.680 --> 0:25:24.119 military power, and they would have been unable to retaliate. 0:25:26.160 --> 0:25:28.479 Given the amounts of money the United States was spending 0:25:28.520 --> 0:25:32.080 in the arms race and the fear it engendered, and 0:25:32.119 --> 0:25:34.320 the fact that the Soviets would soon be able to 0:25:34.359 --> 0:25:38.919 retaliate and eventually might pull even in nuclear weaponry, the 0:25:38.960 --> 0:25:41.520 temptation to use the bomb while we still had the 0:25:41.640 --> 0:25:47.240 lead was tremendous at the time of the nbn FU 0:25:47.359 --> 0:25:50.159 in nineteen fifty four, during the various crises over the 0:25:50.240 --> 0:25:54.000 Chinese offshore islands in the mid fifties, and regularly with 0:25:54.080 --> 0:25:57.639 regard to the Soviet Union, some of Eisenhower's principal advisers 0:25:57.680 --> 0:26:02.679 gave into that temptation. These included his joint chiefs of Staff, 0:26:02.720 --> 0:26:05.159 his vice president, his Secretary of State, members of his 0:26:05.280 --> 0:26:10.880 National Security Council, and many pundits told on May one, 0:26:10.960 --> 0:26:14.000 nineteen fifty four, that the National Security Council was preparing 0:26:14.000 --> 0:26:16.639 a paper calling for the use of atomic bombs to 0:26:16.640 --> 0:26:20.560 save the French at the NBN. Foo Eyes now responded, 0:26:21.080 --> 0:26:24.280 I certainly do not think that the Adam bomb can 0:26:24.280 --> 0:26:28.120 be used by the United States unilaterally. He then went 0:26:28.160 --> 0:26:30.840 on to get to the heart of the matter. You 0:26:30.920 --> 0:26:34.960 boys must be crazy. We can't use those awful things 0:26:34.960 --> 0:26:37.760 against Asians. For the second time in less than ten years. 0:26:37.800 --> 0:26:43.520 My God, And you're listening to Steven Ambrose recounting many 0:26:43.600 --> 0:26:47.439 of the stories he told in his Definitive biography of 0:26:47.560 --> 0:26:50.919 Dwight D. Eisenhower. And I love a few of the 0:26:50.960 --> 0:26:54.119 things he said about Ike's leadership style, and this the 0:26:54.160 --> 0:26:58.359 most important. Sharing the credit for success and taking the 0:26:58.400 --> 0:27:02.880 blame for what went wrong was his leadership style. And 0:27:03.160 --> 0:27:08.440 this quote perhaps best states his character. Always take your 0:27:08.560 --> 0:27:13.040 job seriously, not yourself. When we come back, more of 0:27:13.080 --> 0:27:17.159 this remarkable story with one of the great storytellers in 0:27:17.240 --> 0:27:20.280 American history telling the story of one of the great 0:27:20.640 --> 0:27:25.520 military leaders in American history. Ambrose on Eisenhower. Here on 0:27:25.680 --> 0:27:39.440 our American stories, and we continue here with our American 0:27:39.600 --> 0:27:43.119 stories and the story of Twight d. Eisenhower is told 0:27:43.640 --> 0:27:46.760 by Stephen Ambrose, let's return to the story. 0:27:48.080 --> 0:27:52.359 It was characteristic of him always to ask what happens next? 0:27:54.280 --> 0:27:57.560 If we do suck and soul, what are the likely consequences? 0:27:57.560 --> 0:28:01.119 Suppose we do pull it off, then what and what 0:28:01.160 --> 0:28:05.000 did the other players do? It was an attempt to 0:28:05.000 --> 0:28:06.800 look into the future, and it stood him in good 0:28:06.880 --> 0:28:11.920 stead as president. After DNB and Foo fell, the Joint 0:28:11.960 --> 0:28:16.520 Chiefs recommended a preventative attack against the Soviet Union. Eisenhower 0:28:16.600 --> 0:28:19.199 asked them to think about what they were proposing. I 0:28:19.320 --> 0:28:21.480 want you to carry this question home with you. Gain 0:28:21.560 --> 0:28:22.919 such a victory, and what are you going to do 0:28:22.960 --> 0:28:27.119 with it? Here would be a great area from the 0:28:27.119 --> 0:28:29.879