WEBVTT - Ambrose on Ike 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:13.760 This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories, 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:16.200 and we tell stories about everything here on this show 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:20.480 and our favorite subject history and all of our history 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:22.159 stories are brought to us by the great folks at 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:24.599 Hillsdale College, where you can go to study all the 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:26.920 things that are beautiful in life, all the things that 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:29.280 matter in life. And if you can't get to Hillsdale, 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:31.880 Hillsdale will come to you with their free and terrific 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:33.120 online courses. 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:34.560 Go to Hillsdale dot edu. 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:39.600 Stephen Ambrose was one of America's leading historians. Stephen Ambrose 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:42.599 passed in two thousand and two, but his storytelling accounts 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:46.080 can now be heard here at Our American Stories, thanks 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:50.000 to those who run his estate. Ambrose wrote the definitive 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:54.720 biography of Dwight Eisenhower. Ike was born in eighteen ninety 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:58.680 in a rented shack near the railroad tracks in Dennison, Texas. 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:02.120 He was raised in a family of Mennonites, fundamentalists in 0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:06.280 their Christian faith, were also pacifists. Here's Stephen Ambrose with 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:07.720 the story of Dwight d. 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:12.720 Eisenhow Dwight David Eisenhower was a great and a good man. 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:18.959 These two qualities don't always or even often go together, 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:25.160 but they did with him. Obviously, that is an assertion 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:31.240 that needs proof. Let me begin with some definitions. In 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:35.520 nineteen fifty four, President Eisenhower wrote his childhood friend Sweet 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:40.800 Hazlet on the subject of greatness. He thought greatness depended 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:45.160 either on achieving pre eminence in some broad field of 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:50.320 human thought or endeavor, or on assuming some position of 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:55.040 great responsibility, and then so discharging his duties as to 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:59.920 have left a marked and favorable imprint upon the future. 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:05.600 The qualities of goodness in a man I believe include 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:10.080 a broad sympathy for the human condition, that is, an 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:14.040 awareness of human weaknesses and shortcomings, and a willingness to 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:18.639 be forgiving of them. A sense of responsibility toward others, 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:26.000 a genuine modesty combined with justified self confidence, a sense 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:31.600 of humor, and most of all, a love of life 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:39.000 and of people. That last is the key. Eisenhower loved 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:43.079 life and he loved people. To me, that's the heart 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:49.120 of his character. From it flowed all the rest. In 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:53.600 the fall of nineteen twelve, third class Cadet Dwight Eisenhower, 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:56.960 twenty two years old, was walking down a hallway at 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:01.920 West point when a plead running full tilt on some 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:05.799 fool errand for an upperclassman, ran into him knocked him over. 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:10.480 Reacting with what he called a bellow of astonishment and 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:15.560 mock indignation, Eisenhower scornfully demanded, mister dumguard a generic term 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:20.639 for a pleb, what was your PCs previous condition of servitude? 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:23.280 What did you do before you became a cadet? And 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:28.280 then Eisenhower added, sarcastically, you look like a barber. I 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:34.160 was a barber, sir. It was Eisenhower's turn to go 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:39.480 red with embarrassment. Without a word, he returned to his room, 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:42.520 where he told his roommate, I'm never gonna haze another 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:46.000 pleab as long as I'm at this place. As a 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:47.760 matter of fact, they'll have to run over and knock 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:49.520 me out of the company street before I'll make any 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:52.840 attempt again. I've just done something that was stupid and unforgivable. 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:55.560 I managed to make a man ashamed of what he 0:03:55.600 --> 0:04:02.280 did to earn a living. He never hazed again, and 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:06.840 as an adult, he never shamed a man. Respect for others, 0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:10.880 honesty in his dealings, love of life. These were some 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:13.200 of the basic parts of his character from whence did 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:20.719 they come? Nurture and nature played their respective roles in 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:26.320 shaping Dwight Eisenher. Physically, he inherited a strong, tough, big 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:31.200 athletic body and extremely good looks with a quite fabulous grin, 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:37.600 along with keen intelligence. He also inherited a strong competitive 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:42.159 streak from his parents, plus a bad temper, along with 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:49.280 unquestioning love, stern discipline, ambition, and religion. They made him study. 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:53.200 His parents did read the Bible aloud, do chores, hold jobs. 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:56.320 As soon as he was old enough, they instilled in 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:59.960 him a series of controls over his emotions, his temper. 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:03.640 Most of all, they gave him a solid Victorian outlook 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:07.440 on the relations between the sexes and on proper conduct. 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:10.480 All his life he would blush if he slipped and 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:12.560 said a hell or a dam in front of a lady. 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:21.320 Thus he grew up in a strong Christian atmosphere, not 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:25.359 a sectarian atmosphere. He said once as president that this 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:28.280 country has to be founded on a strong religious faith, 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:30.800 and I don't care what it is. What he meant 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:32.599 was he didn't care if it was Baptist or Methodist, 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:38.400 or Presbyterian or River Brethren. He wants to find an 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:41.800 atheist as someone who could watch Southern Methodists play Notre 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:50.839 Dame and not care who won. As president, he began 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:54.120 attending church regularly because he felt it was important to 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:57.040 set an example. It wasn't something that he had done 0:05:57.080 --> 0:05:59.880 earlier in his life, but the religion was always very 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:03.360 deeply there. He began his first inaugural address with a prayer, 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:06.200 and it went over so well he decided to begin 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:10.120 all of his cabinet meetings with prayers. About a year 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:12.360 after he'd been in office, he was a half hour 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:14.800 into a cabinet meeting when he slapped himself on the 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:25.000 head and said, God, we forgot the prayer from his 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:29.560 parents and from his experiences in Abilene, which is after all, 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:34.159 almost exactly in the heart of America the lower forty eight. 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:38.600 He absorbed such values as honesty and fair play and 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:43.200 all dealings into the very marrow of his bones. He 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:47.400 abhorred the idea of cheating or lying, and he never 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:52.840 did either. He also absorbed a fervent attachment to democracy 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:58.120 that amounted to a religious faith. This grew naturally in 0:06:58.200 --> 0:07:00.960 the soil of that little town out there on Kansas Prairie. 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:04.640 And you've been listening to Stephen Ambrose tell the story 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:09.360 of Dwight D. Eisenhower. More of this remarkable story here 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:33.760 on Our American Stories. Liehibibe here the host of our 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:37.720 American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing inspiring 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:41.040 stories from across this great country, stories from our big 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:44.520 cities and small towns. But we truly can't do the 0:07:44.560 --> 0:07:47.240 show without you. Our stories are free to listen to, 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:49.920 but they're not free to make. If you love what 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:53.640 you hear, go to Alamericanstories dot com and click the 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:56.480 donate button. Give a little, give a lot. Go to 0:07:56.520 --> 0:08:09.960 Alamerican Stories dot com and give. And we continue with 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:13.400 our American Stories, and with the story of Dwight D. 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:17.320 Eisenhower told by the person who wrote the best book 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:20.920 on Ike and we're talking about Stephen Ambrose. Let's return 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:24.080 to Ambrose with more of this remarkable story. 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:28.600 At West Point and in his first twenty five years 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:32.960 in the army, Eisenhower satisfied few of his ambitions. He 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:35.280 didn't get to war in the First War, the Great War, 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:38.400 and he was still a lieutenant colonel when the Second 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:43.200 World War began and about to be forcibly retired. But 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:46.679 he had learned his profession, and he had demonstrated another 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:53.880 characteristic trait, patience, and it was rewarded. After Pearl Harbor, 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:57.439 his star arose, and soon he was in Washington making 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:00.600 war plans for Chief of Staff George Marshall, and then 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:03.360 on to London to take command of the American forces 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:07.000 in the European theater of operations. This threw him into 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:09.360 the middle of the great decision making process of the 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:14.200 Allies at the very highest level in London, dealing daily 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:18.320 with Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He proved to be an 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:22.480 outstanding diplomat and politician, not only with Churchill, but with 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:26.000 de gaul and other French leaders as well. He was 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:31.400 successful because he was true to his character. The situation 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:34.200 in North Africa following the invasion in the fall of 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:37.720 nineteen forty two was exceedingly complicated, with a lot of 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:41.040 false promises coming from the British, the Americans, to the 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:46.360 various French factions, but not from Eisner. I know only 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:48.800 one method of operation, he wrote in his diary, to 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:51.079 be as honest with others as I am with myself. 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:55.760 When President Franklin Roosevelt pressured him to get tough with 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:59.719 the local French. Eisenhower refused, explaining, my whole strength and 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:02.760 deal with the French has been based upon my refusal 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:06.160 to quibble or to stoop to any kind of subterfuge 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:12.640 or double dealing. The French responded to this, De Gaulle 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:15.240 told him, as long as you say that, I believe it. 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:20.960 He was equally successful with his sometimes difficult British subordinates 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:27.079 and his sometimes egotistical American subordinates. And he'd only mentioned 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:29.000 the names of Montgomery and Patent, and you know what 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:32.920 I'm talking about. They might not agree with his decisions, 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:38.480 that they gave him their trust. Indeed, whenever his wartime 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:43.760 associates described Eisenhower, whether they were superiors or subordinates, there 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:46.240 was one word that almost every one of them used. 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:52.439 It was trust. General Montgomery didn't think much of Eisenhower 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:56.199 as a soldier, but he appreciated other qualities. His real 0:10:56.240 --> 0:11:00.600 strength lies in his human qualities. Montgomery that he has 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:03.360 the power of drawing the hearts of men towards him, 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:07.679 as the magnet attracts the bit of metal. He merely 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:10.280 has to smile at you, and you trust him at once. 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:16.640 Scrupulous honesty was an integral part of Eisenhower's character and 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:22.640 a learned experience. He saw an experience the payoff for 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:25.440 this trust. He knew that telling the truth was the 0:11:25.480 --> 0:11:29.720 only way to deal effectively with his problems. He also 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:36.000 developed a technique to deliver his message. I refuse, he wrote, 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:39.920 I refuse to put anything in diplomatic or suave terminology, 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:44.880 and carefully cultivate the manner and reputation of complete bluntness 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:50.000 and honesty. Just a man too simple minded to indulge 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:55.360 in circumlocution. Thus did the Kansas farm boy approach Charles 0:11:55.400 --> 0:12:00.200 de gaulle, An Winston Kirchill, and Franklin Roosevelt and so 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:06.199 many others, and it always worked. He was the general 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:10.560 who hated war. Some like pat and gloried in it, 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:15.439 but Eisenhower could not. He signed every letter of condolence 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:20.760 coming out of Europe for three years, a very sobering experience. 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:24.520 He was the one who ordered the bombing and shelling 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:28.079 of German cities. He hated doing that too, hated having 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:31.839 to destroy when he wanted to build, but he did 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:35.160 his duty with all his skill and energy. In nineteen 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:38.000 forty three, his older brother Arthur sent him a newspaper 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:43.880 clipping that stressed his mother's pacifism and the irony of 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:47.920 her son being a general. Eisenow wrote back to say 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:50.439 of the pacifist, I doubt whether any of them detest 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:54.960 war as I do. They probably have not seen bodies 0:12:55.040 --> 0:12:58.040 riding on the ground, or smelled the stench of decaying 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:03.200 human flesh. Probably they have not visited a field hospital 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:07.400 crowded with the desperately wounded. What separates me from the 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:11.679 pacifist is that I hate the Nazis more than I 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:17.840 hate war. He told Mamy in a wartime letter. I 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:20.840 think that all these trials and tribulations must come upon 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:25.680 the world because of some great wickedness. Yet one would 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:29.360 feel that man's mere intelligence, to say nothing of his 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:35.640 spiritual perceptions, would find some way of eliminating war. The 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:38.840 contrast between Eisenhower and those generals who gloried in war 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:42.960 could not have been greater. He had a very keen 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:46.760 sense of family, of the way in which each casualty 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:51.320 meant a grieving family back home. In nineteen sixty three, 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:54.520 when he was filming with Walter Cronkite a television special 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:59.040 entitled D Day Plus Twenty Years cronkite sitting on that 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:03.760 stone wall that looks onto that magnificent cemetery at Omaha. 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:06.360 Conkie asked him what he thought about when he returned 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:11.040 to Normandy. In reply, he spoke not of the things 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:13.360 that other generals would have brought up. He didn't speak 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:15.680 about the tanks or the guns, or the planes or 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:18.559 the ships, or the personalities of the commanders of their opponents, 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:21.320 or how he fooled the Germans or of the victory. Instead, 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:24.560 he spoke of the families of the men buried in 0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:28.960 the American cemetery. He said he could never come to 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:32.440 this spot without thinking of how blessed he and Mami 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:37.000 were to have grandchildren, and how much it saddened him 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:40.280 to think of all the couples in America who had 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:43.720 never had that blessing because their only son was buried here. 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:50.600 So far, he looks like a saint, But he was 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:53.800 a healthy, vigorous man in his early fifties during the war, 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:57.680 and men at war are notoriously receptive to female charm 0:14:57.680 --> 0:14:59.840 when they are far from home and close to danger. 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:04.440 For many people, the test of character is the marriage vow. 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:14.000 In other words, what about Kay Summersby Kay was Ike's 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:18.120 personal secretary and sometime driver. She was young enough to 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:21.320 be his daughter, very attractive, with a bubbly personality The 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:25.760 Churchill and almost everyone else found charming. She had lost 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:28.840 her fiance in North Africa and had fallen in love 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:33.320 with her boss. For his part, how could he help 0:15:33.360 --> 0:15:37.520 it be responsive? He liked her enormously, probably had a 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:43.400 crush on her. They were always together, but almost never alone. 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:46.800 Decades later, in a book published after her death, Kay 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:50.480 claimed that they had fallen in love and that both 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:53.280 had realized it. In January nineteen forty four, when he 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:57.880 returned to England from a short visit to Washington, they 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:01.800 had their only evening together alone. There was a fireplace. 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:07.920 They sat on the floor. His kisses absolutely unrattled me, 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:12.960 Kay wrote. According to her account, it was a passionate 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:17.760 but unconsummated experience, because after they took off each other's clothes, 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:22.520 Eisenhower was flaccied. This may have been because, as one 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:24.560 aid put it in a grand understatement, he had a 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:33.160 lot on his mind. More likely, it seems to me 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:37.400 his stern sense of morality, character, and honesty overwrote his passion. 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:43.320 He was incapable of cheating on his wife, or maybe 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:46.600 if the incident never happened, that it was merely an 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:51.080 old woman's fantasy. No one will ever know. What is 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:53.800 important to note is that not even Kay ever claimed 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:56.880 that they had a genuine love affair. Nor is it 0:16:56.920 --> 0:17:01.160 true that Eisenhower asked President Harry Truman permissioned to divorce 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:06.119 his wife in order to marry Kay, which was always 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:09.240 a ridiculous story to begin with, because he was a 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:13.800 five star general. They don't ask anybody's permission to do anything. 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:18.240 What he did ask Truman for was permission to have 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:22.879 Mamie join him and occupied Germany throughout the war. When 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:26.800 Kay was with him always, his love for Mamie was constant. 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:30.600 His sustaining force was the thought that when the war 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:34.840 was over, he and Mamie could live together again. He 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:38.240 loved Mami for half a century, except when he was 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:41.000 off at war. They slept in the same bed for 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:41.680 fifty years. 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:45.240 And you've been listening to the voice of Stephen Ambrose. 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:50.280 The story of Dwight D. Eisenhower continues here on our 0:17:50.320 --> 0:18:12.159 American stories, And we continue with our American stories and 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:15.720 with the story of Dwight D. Eisenhower is told by 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:18.560 Stephen Ambrose Let's return to the story. 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:25.679 Loving Mamy did not necessarily preclude loving Kay, or at 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:28.479 least loving her under the special situation in which they 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:30.679 lived from the summer of nineteen forty two to the 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:35.159 spring of nineteen forty five. He was lucky to have 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:38.520 her around, and the Allies were lucky she was there. 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:42.920 The best advice in attempting to pass any judgment on 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:46.400 the Eisenhower Summersby relationship was given by one of Eisenhower's 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:50.600 staff officers to an office gossip back in nineteen forty three. 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:54.240 Leave Kay and Ike alone. She's helping him win the war. 0:18:56.520 --> 0:18:58.520 In nineteen thirty nine, when it looked like he might 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:02.359 be forcibly retired as a tenant colonel, his son John 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:04.600 had asked him if he regretted having spent his career 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:08.240 in the army. Not at all, he is now replied. 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:10.680 He said, he had found his life in the army 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:15.720 wonderfully interesting. It brought me into contact with men of ability, honor, 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:18.520 and a sense of high dedication to their country. The 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:21.560 real satisfaction for a man is to do the best 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:24.760 he can. My ambition in the army was to make 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:27.679 everybody I worked for regretful when I was ordered to 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:34.959 other duty. Leadership was another part of his character. He 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:38.920 was born to lead, and he was trained to lead. 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:43.440 He told John once that leadership was the one art 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:46.720 that could be learned. But of course only the born 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:51.600 leader can say that. Eisenhower reinforced his natural talent. He 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:55.359 studied the subject of leadership intensely, and he wrote some 0:19:55.440 --> 0:20:00.480 of his best analytical material on the subject. An important 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:04.040 part of leadership for Eisenhower rested on certain matters of character. 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:09.440 These included modesty and a genuine eagerness to share the applause. Thus, 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:11.879 through the war, he never forgot how much he was 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:15.920 dependent on others. Thus, through the war, when reporters came 0:20:15.960 --> 0:20:18.520 to him, he would say, go see Bradley, Go see Patent, 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:20.440 get your story. There. They're the ones that are winning 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:25.920 this war for us. Sharing the credit for a success 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:29.439 and taking the personal blame for what went wrong was 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:35.080 Eisenhower's leadership style. In all the announcements of D Day, 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:40.040 the operative words were the allies or we, and the 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:45.479 announcement Eisenhower wrote by hand to release to the press 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:50.880 in the event of failure. The operative word was I, 0:20:50.920 --> 0:20:57.879 as in it's all my fault. Always take your job seriously, 0:20:57.960 --> 0:21:02.359 never yourself, was one of his favorite lines. A corollary 0:21:02.400 --> 0:21:05.399 to that sentiment was his willingness to sacrifice himself for 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:08.960 the good of the whole. In early nineteen forty four, 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:11.480 Eisenhower wanted to put the Allied bombers to work on 0:21:11.560 --> 0:21:16.000 transportation targets in France in order to isolate Normandy. The 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:19.840 bomber commander said no, they wanted to continue the strategic 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:25.080 bombing campaign inside Germany. Eisenhower felt so strongly about the 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:27.240 issue that he told the combined chiefs of staff that 0:21:27.320 --> 0:21:31.800 either they gave him his transportation targets railroads and turntables 0:21:31.800 --> 0:21:36.400 and marshaling yards and bridges and the like in France, 0:21:37.400 --> 0:21:41.399 or I'm simply going to have to go home. In 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:44.080 other words, Eisenhower was not ready to commit his forces 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:46.479 to the attack until he was certain that he had 0:21:46.560 --> 0:21:50.760 utilized every asset he had to the uttermost. If he 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:53.160 couldn't use the assets as he saw fit, he would 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:57.960 resign his commission. When he made the threat, he was 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:00.560 holding the most coveted command in the history of war warfare. 0:22:02.840 --> 0:22:05.920 He got his way, and the transportation plan was a 0:22:05.960 --> 0:22:09.920 big success. He later used the same threat in a 0:22:10.000 --> 0:22:13.639 knockdown dispute with Montgomery over strategy and command, and he 0:22:13.680 --> 0:22:16.960 again had his way. It was an integral part of him, 0:22:16.960 --> 0:22:20.000 this ability to know exactly when to use his personal asset, 0:22:20.400 --> 0:22:24.480 the power of his name, to make the ultimate threat. 0:22:26.000 --> 0:22:28.720 It showed a nice sense of balance about political factors 0:22:29.680 --> 0:22:32.679 and an accurate measurement of his own strength in a 0:22:32.720 --> 0:22:38.119 struggle over policy. He much preferred working with the team 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:41.280 to having to act on his own. A stress on 0:22:41.359 --> 0:22:44.600 teamwork began when he was a child, showed again at 0:22:44.600 --> 0:22:47.320 West Point and was reinforced by his experiences as a 0:22:47.320 --> 0:22:52.440 football coach on various army bases in the nineteen twenties. 0:22:54.800 --> 0:22:57.920 By nineteen fifty two, the year Eisenhower entered into politics 0:22:57.920 --> 0:23:02.040 at age sixty two, his character is formed by heredity 0:23:02.119 --> 0:23:06.320 and experience, was set and cement. It included, as I 0:23:06.320 --> 0:23:12.159 have said, the qualities of love, honesty, faithfulness, responsibility, modesty, generosity, duty, 0:23:12.200 --> 0:23:15.920 and leadership, along with the hatred of war. These were 0:23:16.000 --> 0:23:23.720 bedrock or were they? This paragon of virtue I am 0:23:23.760 --> 0:23:27.639 describing had lived in the shelter of the army nearly 0:23:27.720 --> 0:23:33.920 all of his life. Character testing opportunities or temptations were 0:23:33.920 --> 0:23:37.919 almost unknown to him. It's easy to be virtuous when 0:23:38.000 --> 0:23:42.560 virtue is rewarded, and this will be a hard seldom 0:23:42.600 --> 0:23:45.600 any veterans in here, but it usually is in the army. 0:23:46.600 --> 0:23:48.879 It's not so easy to be virtuous when virtue is 0:23:48.920 --> 0:23:54.680 ignored and partisanship is rewarded, as in politics. He grew 0:23:54.760 --> 0:23:58.200 up in the army, and he swore like a sergeant, 0:23:59.240 --> 0:24:02.280 although the words used were never a secrule or had 0:24:02.280 --> 0:24:06.199 anything to do with anatomy. They were always christ and 0:24:06.359 --> 0:24:11.879 damned and goddamn and words like that. Once he was 0:24:11.920 --> 0:24:18.440 at a luncheon with some cabinet members during the fifty 0:24:18.480 --> 0:24:23.240 six reelection campaign, and someone said something about somebody proposing something, 0:24:23.240 --> 0:24:26.639 and Eisenhawers snorted, these damned amateurs. He said, you know, 0:24:26.880 --> 0:24:30.520 there's only in all the world, there's only two places 0:24:30.560 --> 0:24:34.240 where amateurs think that they're better than the professionals, military 0:24:34.280 --> 0:24:40.240 strategy and prostitution. Now, this was an all male luncheon, 0:24:41.200 --> 0:24:47.280 and having said that, he blushed and confessed a bit shamefacedly. 0:24:47.440 --> 0:24:54.879 That's the only off color story I know. Where his 0:24:55.040 --> 0:24:59.159 character showed most decisively was on questions of war and 0:24:59.240 --> 0:25:03.119 more specific a first strike against the Soviet Union or 0:25:03.119 --> 0:25:07.359 in Asia. He was president during the worst decade of 0:25:07.359 --> 0:25:10.560 the Cold War. He was the only president to have 0:25:10.600 --> 0:25:14.199 a decisive lead over the Soviets and nuclear weapons, a 0:25:14.280 --> 0:25:16.800 lead so decisive that he could have ordered a preventative 0:25:16.840 --> 0:25:20.560 war which would have destroyed the Soviet Union as a 0:25:20.600 --> 0:25:24.040 military power, and they would have been unable to retaliate. 0:25:26.080 --> 0:25:28.439 Given the amounts of money the United States was spending 0:25:28.440 --> 0:25:32.000 in the arms race and the fear it engendered, and 0:25:32.040 --> 0:25:34.200 the fact that the Soviets would soon be able to 0:25:34.280 --> 0:25:38.840 retaliate and eventually might pull even in nuclear weaponry, the 0:25:38.920 --> 0:25:41.480 temptation to use the bomb while we still had the 0:25:41.560 --> 0:25:47.160 lead was tremendous at the time of the nbn FU 0:25:47.320 --> 0:25:50.080 in nineteen fifty four, during the various crises over the 0:25:50.160 --> 0:25:53.919 Chinese offshore islands in the mid fifties, and regularly with 0:25:54.000 --> 0:25:57.520 regard to the Soviet Union, some of Eisenhower's principal advisers 0:25:57.600 --> 0:26:02.600 gave into that temptation. These included his joint chiefs of Staff, 0:26:02.640 --> 0:26:05.119 his vice president, his Secretary of State, members of his 0:26:05.200 --> 0:26:10.760 National Security Council, and many pundits. Told on May one, 0:26:10.880 --> 0:26:13.920 nineteen fifty four, that the National Security Consul was preparing 0:26:13.960 --> 0:26:16.560 a paper calling for the use of atomic bombs to 0:26:16.600 --> 0:26:20.480 save the French at d NBN. Foo Eyes now responded, 0:26:21.000 --> 0:26:24.199 I certainly do not think that the Adam bomb can 0:26:24.240 --> 0:26:28.080 be used by the United States unilaterally. He then went 0:26:28.119 --> 0:26:30.800 on to get to the heart of the matter. You 0:26:30.880 --> 0:26:34.880 boys must be crazy. We can't use those awful things 0:26:34.920 --> 0:26:37.679 against Asians. For the second time in less than ten years. 0:26:37.720 --> 0:26:43.480 My God, and you're listening to Steven Ambrose recounting many 0:26:43.520 --> 0:26:47.399 of the stories he told in his definitive biography of 0:26:47.520 --> 0:26:50.879 Dwight D. Eisenhower. And I love a few of the 0:26:50.920 --> 0:26:54.080 things he said about Ike's leadership style, and this the 0:26:54.119 --> 0:26:58.280 most important. Sharing the credit for success and taking the 0:26:58.320 --> 0:27:02.800 blame for what went wrong was his leadership style. And 0:27:03.119 --> 0:27:08.359 this quote perhaps best states his character. Always take your 0:27:08.480 --> 0:27:13.000 job seriously, not yourself. When we come back, more of 0:27:13.040 --> 0:27:17.119 this remarkable story with one of the great storytellers in 0:27:17.200 --> 0:27:20.240 American history telling the story of one of the great 0:27:20.560 --> 0:27:25.439 military leaders in American history. Ambrose on Eisenhower. Here on 0:27:25.600 --> 0:27:40.160 our American stories, and we continue here with our American stories, 0:27:40.359 --> 0:27:43.760 and the story of Dwight D. Eisenhower is told by 0:27:43.800 --> 0:27:46.720 Stephen Ambrose. Let's return to the story. 0:27:48.000 --> 0:27:52.280 It was characteristic of him always to ask what happens next? 0:27:54.200 --> 0:27:57.480 If we do suck and Soul, what are the likely consequences? 0:27:57.520 --> 0:28:01.080 Suppose we do pull it off, then what and what 0:28:01.119 --> 0:28:04.920 do the other players do? It was an attempt to 0:28:04.920 --> 0:28:06.800 look into the future, and it stood him in good 0:28:06.800 --> 0:28:11.840 stead as president. After DNB and Food fell, the Joint 0:28:11.920 --> 0:28:16.520 Chiefs recommended a preventative attack against the Soviet Union. Eisenhower 0:28:16.560 --> 0:28:19.159 asked them to think about what they were proposing. I 0:28:19.240 --> 0:28:21.440 want you to carry this question home with you. Gain 0:28:21.520 --> 0:28:22.840 such a victory, and what are you going to do 0:28:22.880 --> 0:28:27.040 with it? Here would be a great area from the 0:28:27.080 --> 0:28:29.800 Elba River all the way to vladis Vostok, just torn 0:28:29.880 --> 0:28:33.040