BY PAUL JOHNSON
Learns the qualities of Ike which made him supremely successful in varied careers
5 stars out of 5 stars
While anyone who has a passing knowledge of World War II history knows that Dwight D. Eisenhower (Ike) was the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe, it is doubtful that this same person is aware that Eisenhower, when he was appointed Supreme Commander, had never seen combat. Indeed, the question was often asked, notably by the British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery (Monty), how it happened that an officer of the age of fifty-one when America entered the war in December 1941, who had been stuck in the rank of major for sixteen years and had never heard a shot fired in anger, suddenly rose in rank to command million of men.
There are more questions: How a West Point graduate, with no advanced degrees and no prior academic positions, was offered the Presidency by many famous Universities and who accepted and served four and a half years as President of Columbia University? How was a person never held an elective office served two terms as President of the United States, presiding over what some historians labelled “The Best Decade in American History”?
The reader will find answers to the above questions in the delightful short biography “Eisenhower” by Paul Johnson. The eight qualities possessed by Ike were spotted early by General Fox Conner when Ike attended the Command and Staff School. They were subsequently recognized by General Douglas McAuthur and General George Marshall. These qualities enabled Ike to successfully work with strong personalities as varied as McAuthur, Patton, Montgomery, Churchill, and various Generals during the War and later, when he was President, to skillfully deal with Heads of State including Charles De Gaulle and Joseph Stalin. Amazingly, even Stalin paid him the tribute that “General Eisenhower is a very great man, not much because of his military accomplishments but because of his human, friendly, kind, and frank nature. Unlike most military man, he is not a grubi.”
To learn what the qualities are that enabled Ike to be supremely successful in such varied careers, one needs to read the book. A slight disappointment is that the book does not tell you what the nickname “Ike” came from and what it meant.
The following are two interesting utterances by Ike:
“Don’t curse. Give it a smile”
“Definition of an intellectual is : A man who takes more words than is necessary to tell more than he knows.”
The latter probably arose from his experiences with professors while serving as President of
Columbia University.
Audio Version on YouTube:
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