Status Updates From Eisenhower: Becoming the Le...

Eisenhower as president resists the inclination to try and reverse the New Deal and considers any attempt to go back, ridiculous and bad politics. In foreign affairs, he faces the reality that now both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. can destroy human civilization in a few hours. He thwarts colonialism at Suez, but backs the French in Indochina.

Somehow in 17 pages, Galambos sums up Ike's supervision of German disarmament, U.S.-Soviet relations, his time as president of Columbia Univ., and head of NATO and then his election of president in 1952. Talk about brevity.

A pretty brief summation of the last seven months of the war; the Battle of the Bulge is covered in a few paragraphs. This book is annoyingly vague sometimes and occasionally more detailed. While the Soviets take Berlin, the Western Allies carve out their sphere of influence. Eisenhower emerges as the hero of the allied armies, and is treated as such.

D-Day goes off after years of planning. Eisenhower is on pins and needles until the three beachheads are established. Now the allies are bogged down in the hedgerows of France. Hard to believe that Germany had only 52 divisions on the Western Front. The main battles are in the east, with the Russians, (where they have 132.) If there had been no second front, D-Day could have never succeeded.

After the U.S. gets into World War II, Gen. Marshall appoints Ike as commander in Europe over better-known choices. Eisenhower is a good choice because of his natural ability to suppress his ego while dealing with the allies. The British want an African front in the west by the end of 1942, and at first it doesn't go well. Ike is learning. Patton saves the U.S.'s reputation in Tunisia. The British win in Egypt.

After his success at War College, Eisenhower is steered into becoming Douglas MacArthur's chief of staff in 1930. He spends the rest of the decade in Washington, and then Manila, putting up with MacArthur's "dramatics." He recognizes MacArthur's talents, but hates being associated with his demagoguery. When war breaks out in Europe, Ike pines to command troops. He's sent back to the states at the end of 1939.

Pigeon-holed as a bit of a military meathead by higher ups who only want him to coach football and train recruits, Eisenhower yearns for a better assignment. After a stint in Panama, he finds a mentor in Fox Conner, and along with another protege of Conner's, George Patton, they learn the value of the tank. Eisenhower gets into the army War College and excels, much to his superior's surprise.

Eisenhower was raised in Abilene, Kansas in a family just over the poverty line. He had the stereotypical early-20th century boyhood, was an average student but above-average athlete. Eisenhower yearned for a way out and after passing his entrance exam but finding he was too old for Annapolis, got admitted to West Point. Defiant but sturdy, he graduated in 1915. The army found him skillful as a trainer of men.

Dwight Eisenhower's life traversed an inward looking America that thought of military officers as being from the Civil War to the space age and nuclear weapons. In 1920, Eisenhower at 30 clashes with superiors over his opinion regarding the future of tank warfare. They believe in infantry and cavalry.

I was looking to read a recently released presidential biography and also wanted to read up on and learn more about Dwight D. Eisenhower, hailed as being among the most centrist presidents we have ever had along with George Washington. This is a great way to fulfill them both!