Eisenhower in War and Peace

Eisenhower’s “Open Skies” proposal captured the world’s imagination, even though the Soviets were uninterested.

The upshot was that Eisenhower paid lip service to the nonrecognition policy Roosevelt insisted upon, but for all practical purposes dealt with de Gaulle as France’s legitimate head of state.

Ike was articulate, especially with the written word, and he suffered from a violent temper. Forced to suppress that temper in his dealings with others, he committed his frustrations to paper.

One of the reasons was that German commanders habitually led their troops from the front.

But when the prime minister suggested that the Allies destroy specific German cities in a tit-for-tat reprisal, Eisenhower refused.32 A week later, when the British chiefs of staff proposed using poison gas against the launch sites, Ike blew his stack. “Let’s for God’s sake, keep our eye on the ball and use some sense,” he told Air Chief Marshal Si

Kay’s pedigree made her invaluable to her American bosses, who were painfully unfamiliar with English social customs.

But the heroic stand of the U.S. 30th Division outside Mortain, which Collins called “one of the outstanding small-unit actions of World War II”75—combined with the round-the-clock bombardment from the air—forced the Germans to fall back.

For the first—but not the last—time during the war, Roosevelt asserted his constitutional prerogative as commander in chief and overruled his senior military and naval commanders.c FDR’s command decision to invade North Africa rather than attempt a cross-Channel attack in 1942 was the most far-reaching American strategic decision of the war.

Eisenhower followed a familiar game plan. When stymied in his career, he invariably sought outside assistance.