The General's Women

by Susan Wittig Albert

  To go a little further: I believe the impotence was a fabrication, either by Barbara Wyden (the second ghostwriter) or the Simon and Schuster editor—and more likely the latter. The publisher was caught in a bind. On the one hand, given the whispers and insinuations that had grown up around Ike and Kay over the years, readers were expecting a story with at least a modest dose of steamy sex. An entirely chaste memoir would have felt both disappointing and evasive—and wouldn’t have done much to settle the did-they-or-didn’t-they question. Further, it might have been difficult to explain to an editorial board why an editor paid today’s equivalent of a quarter of a million dollars for such an unsatisfactory manuscript. On the other hand, there was the pressure from the Eisenhowers and their friends—the same kind of pressure that John Eisenhower brought to bear on ABC Television that resulted in the removal of all but a whiff of romance from Ike: The War Years.

  Faced with this dilemma, Simon and Schuster might have considered canceling the project: the author was, after all, out of the picture. But the publisher had already invested a substantial sum in the advance. What’s more, the subsidiary magazine, paperback, film, and foreign rights had already been sold, and at very nice prices indeed. Past Forgetting was too ripe a plum not to pick. So somebody came up with a solution that even Bill Clinton might have envied: Ike did not have sex with that woman because he couldn’t.

  In my novel, the lawyer Kay consulted is a fiction, but both the ghostwriter and the editor are real people. Barbara Wyden continued to work as a ghostwriter into the 1990s. (I was fortunate to locate and obtain copies of her notes on this project, but they tell us nothing about who might have made changes to the book.) The editor’s visit to the dying Kay Summersby actually happened. Michael Korda, who was an editor at Simon and Schuster at the time, lays claim to that visit in his 2007 biography of Eisenhower, remarking that he “had the pleasure of talking briefly to Kay Summersby Morgan shortly before her death, and published her posthumous memoir.” In the same chapter, he relates the anecdote about his stepmother knocking down his father with Lady Mountbatten’s car, which his fictional counterpart shares with Kay. I have, however, invented that conversation and fictionalized the editor/publisher’s role in the production of Summersby’s memoir. I have no idea who is responsible for any deviations from the “truth” of the affair, or what those might be.

  Regarding my depiction of the circumstances around the writing of Kay’s first memoir, Eisenhower Was My Boss: Colonel McAndrews is fictional, and the nondisclosure document is pure invention. But Kay’s mother would later claim to a reporter that her daughter had “General Eisenhower’s approval before agreeing to write the book.” And after Kay’s death a friend hinted that Kay had signed “some papers” that kept her from telling the whole truth about the affair. It is logical to assume that she signed such an agreement, especially since some of Eisenhower’s staffers were disturbed by the publication of Harry Butcher’s gossipy memoir, which mixed military report and personal commentary in a way that required Ike to write apologetic letters to Churchill and Charles de Gaulle. The question of the affair aside, there would have been other very real concerns about what military secrets she might reveal. Kay, a British citizen, had been privy to some of Eisenhower’s most sensitive wartime discussions and correspondence. Her book was potentially a bombshell, and Ike’s staff at the Pentagon would have wanted to get out in front of the situation.

  Telek and Telegraph Cottage are real, of course, and there’s no reason to doubt Kay’s explanation of Telek’s odd name. Kay’s connection with the cottage is real, as is its code name—Da-de-da, Morse for the letter K—that Butcher reports in his diary.

  I decided to include Kay’s postwar biography as a nonfiction epilogue to the novel because her life after her three years with Eisenhower is virtually unknown, and because I thought it might answer some of the questions that the novel inevitably raises. Perhaps it can help us understand something more about why and how Kay first told one kind of truth, then another—and what happened to the “truth” after she was no longer around to defend it. The effort to erase her from the General’s life and cleanse the General of any hint of an illicit relationship with her is a part of the postwar creation of Ike the heroic figure, crafted by those who wanted to assist and ensure his ascension to the presidency.

  The mature, postwar Dwight Eisenhower was fully his own man. But he was also a commodity that many people wanted to exploit and a symbol that some needed to protect. Kay Summersby was never a threat to the General; she cared too much for him to want to do him harm. But her intentions aside, she remained both a real and an imagined threat to him—even after both he and she were gone.

  • • •

  Geraldine Brooks wrote, “The thing that most attracts me to historical fiction is taking the factual record as far as it is known, using that as scaffolding, and then letting imagination build the structure that fills in those things we can never find out for sure.” There is a great deal we will never know for sure about Kay, Ike, Mamie, and the triangular relationship that existed during the darkest days of the worst war the world has ever seen. But fiction is that path that brings us to the inner life, into the heart that is hidden and ultimately unknowable behind the closed curtain of actions and events. If this fictional work leads you to want to explore the real lives of these real people further—at least as far, that is, as the histories and biographies will allow—that is my reward.

  As always, I owe a great deal to the scholars whose work has helped me—a very great many, when it comes to Eisenhower and World War II. For my understanding of Eisenhower’s personality and style, I am especially indebted to Fred I. Greenstein and his seminal work, The Hidden-Hand Presidency: Eisenhower as Leader, and to Jean Edward Smith, the only biographer who pays careful attention to the events surrounding Eisenhower’s intention to divorce his wife and marry Kay Summersby. I was glad to find a recent biography of Kay Summersby by Kieron Wood, Ike’s Irish Lover: The Echo of a Sigh. Wood filled in many of the details of Kay’s Irish heritage and prewar experience and clarified some of the murky details of her postwar life. For Mamie Eisenhower, Susan Eisenhower’s Mrs. Ike has been most helpful. You will find a list of the other important reference works at the end of this book. I hope you will make use of it as a springboard for your own further reading and study.

  I am grateful to Ben Ohmart at BearManor Media for permission to quote the lengthy scene from Melville Shavelson’s memoir, How to Succeed in Hollywood without Really Trying: P.S. You Can’t! The cover image of Eisenhower is courtesy of the Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene, Kansas. The image of Mamie Eisenhower is courtesy of the United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs Division. The image of Kay Summersby is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

  Others have been especially helpful: Valoise Armstrong, archivist at the Eisenhower Presidential Library, who provided research assistance and copies of important documents; and Paula and Richard Woodman, who generously shared notes and papers relating to Past Forgetting from the estate of ghostwriter Barbara Wyden. For their careful reading of the manuscript, I thank Judy Alter, Jeanne Guy, and Susan Davenport. For their willingness to discuss various aspects of this book in detail, I owe an enormous debt of thanks to John G. Albert, William J. Albert, John E. Webber, and Kieron Wood.

  Thanks are also due to my writing sisters in the WorkInProgress group of the Story Circle Network for the nurturing friendship that does so much to brighten the writing week; to Kerry Sparks of Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency for her unflagging enthusiasm and belief in my work; and to my husband William J. Albert, for his steadfast love and constant support, always.

  Cast of Characters

  *Denotes Fictional Characters

  Richard Arnold: colonel in the American army and Kay’s fiancé

  Margaret Bourke-White: acclaimed photographer, Kay’s cabin mate on the Strathallan

  *Diane Bracken: Mamie’s friend

  Ruth Briggs:
WAC in Eisenhower’s office; Kay’s roommate in North Africa, England, Europe

  Harry C. Butcher (Butch): Eisenhower’s naval aide, former broadcasting executive

  Ruth Butcher: wife of Harry Butcher, Mamie’s apartment mate

  Margaret Chick: WAC in Eisenhower’s office; Kay’s roommate in North Africa, England, Europe

  Winston Churchill: Prime Minister of Britain

  Mark Wayne Clark: U.S. Army general, Eisenhower confidant

  Elspeth Duncan: British stenographer on Eisenhower’s staff, Kay’s cabin mate on the Strathallan

  Dwight David Eisenhower (Ike): U.S. Army General, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in World War II, and thirty-fourth President of the United States

  John Eisenhower: son of Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower

  Mamie Geneva Doud Eisenhower: wife of Dwight Eisenhower and First Lady of the United States

  *Pamela Farr: Mamie’s friend

  Molly Ford: American Red Cross worker in Algiers, Butch’s girlfriend

  Bess Furman: reporter, Washington Bureau of The New York Times

  George VI: King of England, 1936–1952

  Michael Korda: Eisenhower biographer and editor of Kay’s second memoir, Past Forgetting, at Simon and Schuster

  Ernest (Tex) Lee: Eisenhower’s aide-de-camp

  *Clyde McAndrew: staff member in Eisenhower’s office in the Pentagon

  George C. Marshall: U.S. Army General and Chief of Staff, Eisenhower’s boss

  Evie MacCarthy-Morrogh: Kay’s younger sister

  Kul MacCarthy-Morrogh: Kay’s mother

  Mickey McKeogh: Eisenhower’s orderly and personal valet

  Mike Reilly: Chief of security for President Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Franklin D. Roosevelt: thirty-second President of the United States

  George S. Patton: U.S. Army General with various commands throughout World War II

  Nana Rae: WAC in Eisenhower’s office; Kay’s roommate in North Africa, England, Europe

  Walter Bedell (Beetle) Smith: U.S. Army General and Eisenhower’s chief of staff

  Sue Sarafian: WAC in Eisenhower’s office; Kay’s roommate in North Africa, England, Europe

  *Cheryl Sullivan: Mamie’s friend

  Kay Summersby: General Eisenhower’s driver, personal secretary, and wartime companion

  Telek: black Scottie that belongs jointly to Eisenhower and Kay

  Ethel Westermann: American Army nurse, Beetle Smith’s girlfriend

  *Cookie Wilson: Mamie’s friend, wife of *General Marvin Wilson

  For Further Reading

  If you are interested in learning more about the background of this novel, you may enjoy these books. You will find more information about people and places on the book’s website: www.TheGeneralsWomen.com

  Ambrose, Stephen E. Eisenhower: Soldier and President. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991.

  ———. The Supreme Commander: The War Years of General Dwight D. Eisenhower. New York: Doubleday, 1970.

  Atkinson, Rick. An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942–1943. New York: Henry Holt, 2002.

  ———. The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943–1944. New York: Henry Holt, 2007.

  ———. The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944–1945. New York: Henry Holt, 2013.

  Brinkley, David. Washington Goes To War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988.

  Brown, Anthony Cave. Bodyguard of Lies. New York: Harper & Row, 1975.

  Butcher, Harry. My Three Years with Eisenhower: The Personal Diary of Captain Harry C. Butcher, USNR, Naval Aide to General Eisenhower, 1942–1945. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1946.

  D’Este, Carlo. Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life. New York: Henry Holt, 2002.

  Donovan, Robert J. Confidential Secretary: Ann Whitman’s 20 Years with Eisenhower and Rockefeller. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1988.

  Eisenhower, Dwight David. Crusade in Europe. New York: Doubleday, 1948.

  ———. Letters to Mamie. Edited by John S. D. Eisenhower. New York: Doubleday, 1978.

  ———. The Eisenhower Diaries. Edited by Robert H. Ferrell. New York: W. W. Norton, 1981.

  Eisenhower, Susan. Mrs. Ike: Memories and Reflections on the Life of Mamie Eisenhower. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996.

  Hart, Scott. Washington at War: 1941–1945. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1970.

  Holt, Marilyn Irvin. Mamie Doud Eisenhower: The General’s First Lady. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2007.

  Korda, Michael. Ike: An American Hero. New York: Harper Perennial, 2008.

  McKeogh, Michael, and Richard Lockridge. Sgt. Mickey and General Ike. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1946.

  Miller, Merle. Ike the Soldier: As They Knew Him. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1987.

  ———. Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman. New York: Berkley, 1974.

  Morgan, Kay Summersby. Past Forgetting: My Love Affair with Dwight D. Eisenhower. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1976.

  Murrow, Edward R. This Is London. Edited by Elmer Davis. New York: Schocken Books, 1941.

  Perret, Geoffrey. Eisenhower. New York: Random House, 1999.

  Shavelson, Melville, How to Succeed in Hollywood without Really Trying: P.S. You Can’t!. Albany, Georgia: BearManor Media, 2013.

  ———. Ike. New York: Warner Books, 1978.

  Smith, Jean Edward. Eisenhower in War and Peace. New York: Random House, 2012.

  Summersby, Kay. Eisenhower Was My Boss. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1948.

  Weintraub, Stanley. 15 Stars: Eisenhower, MacArthur, Marshall: Three Generals Who Saved the American Century. New York: Free Press, 2007.

  West, J. B., and Mary Lynn Kotz. Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1973.

  Wood, Kieron. Ike’s Irish Lover: The Echo of a Sigh. Dublin: Eprint Ltd., 2016.

  Discussion Questions

  How much did you know about Ike, Mamie, and Kay before you began this book? What kind of general impressions did you have about these people? Where did those impressions come from?

  This novel is different from other wartime romances you may have read because it is based in the actual experiences of real people. Does this affect your reading of the book? If so, how?

  Ike is deeply involved with both Kay and Mamie. How are these two women different? What about each of them attracts and holds him?

  War is often a catalyzing process. How does WWII affect Ike’s life? Kay’s? Mamie’s? In what ways does the war both create and shape their relationships?

  This novel is structured in alternating chapters, moving between Kay and Ike’s wartime relationship and Mamie’s life in Washington. Did you find this organization helpful in understanding the changing situation?

  The torpedoing of the Strathallan is a momentous experience in Kay’s life. How does this experience change her? The torpedoing of the Strathallan is momentous for Mamie, too, but in a different way. How does it affect her?

  Kay’s fiancé, Richard Arnold, is killed in Tunisia. What effect does his death have on Kay? On Ike? What do you think would have happened if Arnold had lived?

  Ike gives Kay a number of gifts. What are these? How does each gift alter their relationship? After V-E Day, he offers her a gift that she refuses. What is it? What might have happened if she had accepted it?

  Ike’s notes to Kay are very discreet. If he had been involved with her today, do you think he would have been as careful with email?

  Albert’s telling of the Darlan assassination suggests that Eisenhower knew what was to happen and conveniently absented himself from Algiers. Whether this is true may be debatable, but it does serve to characterize the General. In what way? How does this fit the characterization of Eisenhower that Albert has developed?

  Kay’s two memoirs (Eisenhower Was My Boss and Past Forgetting) were ghostwritten by different people under different circumstances. How have these two versions of the
story affected our understanding of what might have happened? What do you think of Albert’s idea that the second memoir was altered by the editor/publisher in order to meet the Eisenhower family’s objections and at least partially redeem Ike?

  Several historians have suggested that Kay was “airbrushed” out of Ike’s wartime and postwar life—and that this is the reason there is so little evidence of their relationship. Do you agree? Do you think this kind of cover-up could happen now?

  Ultimately, this is the story of a relationship that grew during a specific time and place—and was out of place in any other context. Have you ever been involved in a relationship like that?

  What are your thoughts about Kay’s postwar life? About Mamie’s? About Ike’s?

  The fictional section of this novel (Chapters 1-23) is followed by a nonfiction “Biographical Afterword” and an “Author’s Afterword” in which Albert discusses the factual postwar events and some of the real-life questions that people have raised about the Eisenhower-Summersby relationship. Did these sections help you understand more about this story? Why? Why not?

  About Susan Wittig Albert

  Growing up on a farm on the Illinois prairie, Susan learned that books could take her anywhere, and reading and writing became passions that have accompanied her throughout her life. She earned an undergraduate degree in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana and a PhD in medieval studies from the University of California at Berkeley, then turned to teaching. After faculty and administrative appointments at the University of Texas, Tulane University, and Texas State University, she left her academic career and began writing full time. Her bestselling fiction includes mysteries in the China Bayles series, the Darling Dahlias, the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter, and (under the pseudonym of Robin Paige) a series of Victorian-Edwardian mysteries with her husband, Bill Albert.