Eisenhower in War and Peace

by Jean Edward Smith

  For Grant, see Jean Edward Smith, Grant 622–25.

  Acknowledgments

  Once again my principal indebtedness is to Rhonda Frye in the office of the president at Marshall University. I write in longhand with a ballpoint pen on yellow legal pads. As with FDR, Mrs. Frye reads what I have written, transfers it to typescript, and presents me with clean copy every morning. She has typed at least a dozen drafts of every chapter, and does so faultlessly and without complaint. I have been privileged to work with her.

  I am also deeply indebted to Professor Sanford Lakoff of the University of California, San Diego, and Professor John Seaman of the University of the Pacific. Sandy, a former colleague at the University of Toronto, has read the drafts of every biography I have written. His erudition and vast knowledge of the literature has saved me from countless errors. John, a 1954 classmate of mine at Princeton, has read every word in the manuscripts of every book I have written, beginning with The Defense of Berlin in 1964. If the prose now flows smoothly, it is in no small measure attributable to his influence.

  My research assistant, Elizabeth Williams, deserves special recognition. Ms. Williams, former chief paralegal at Ashland Oil and now a graduate student at Marshall, not only prepared the bibliography, but ran down and verified each of the citations in the notes. Her assistance has been invaluable. Rick Haye of Marshall University served as illustrations editor. No one is better at tweaking photos than Rick, and I am deeply indebted.

  To others who have read the manuscript of Eisenhower in War and Peace and offered suggestions, I am eternally grateful. Each reader brings a different perspective, and their individual criticism has been especially helpful. They include Tom Berquist, Steven Canby, Paul Ehrlich, Bennett Feigenbaum, Ellen Feldman, Alan Gould, Henry Graff, Harry Moul, William Nelson, Kristen Pack, Kelly and David Vaziri, Judge Frank Williams, and Jack Zeiler.

  Dr. Sonya Vaziri of the Harvard Medical School provided professional advice pertaining to Ike’s heart condition, just as she did for FDR’s hypertension.

  The archivists and librarians at the Eisenhower Presidential Library have been especially helpful: Timothy Rives, Kathy Struss, Chalsea Millner, and Catherine Cain. I am also indebted to Jocelyn Wilk at the Manuscript Library of Columbia University.

  The title, Eisenhower in War and Peace, was suggested by Victoria Coates in the office of Donald Rumsfeld.

  To the “Eisenhower Irregulars” at Marshall University—my students over the past several years—I am also indebted. They have read chapters in the manuscript, offered suggestions, and kept me apprised of contemporary attitudes. I would especially like to commend Jessica Elliott, Matthew Newlon, and Yasmine Zeid.

  At Random House I am especially indebted to Dennis Ambrose, Jonathan Jao, and Ben Steinberg. My agent was Elizabeth Kaplan. The index was prepared by Judith Hancock and Melvin Hancock. Copyediting was done by Michelle Daniel. Ms. Daniel deserves special commendation. She is the best of the best, and I am eternally grateful.

  My final debt is to my editor at Random House, the legendary Robert Loomis. Bob retired last year after fifty-four years at Random House, and this was one of his last books. Bob was a pleasure to work with. He reads every word of every manuscript submitted to him, and offers gentle but always insightful suggestions. His example is an inspiration to every author who has had the privilege of working with him.

  Notes

  The initial epigraph is from General Eisenhower’s speech to the Canadian Club, Ottawa, Canada, January 10, 1946. The preface is written without endnotes. The quotations appear elsewhere in the text and are fully cited at that point.

  ABBREVIATIONS

  AG Adjutant General

  CCS Combined Chiefs of Staff

  COHP Columbia Oral History Project, Columbia University

  DDE Dwight D. Eisenhower

  EL Eisenhower Library

  FDR Franklin Delano Roosevelt

  FDRL Franklin D. Roosevelt Library

  FRUS Foreign Relations of the United States

  GCM George C. Marshall

  GSP George S. Patton

  HST Harry S. Truman

  JCS Joint Chiefs of Staff

  JFD John Foster Dulles

  LDC Lucius D. Clay

  MDE Mamie Doud Eisenhower

  MMBA MacArthur Memorial Bureau of Archives

  NARA National Archives and Records Administration

  TR Theodore Roosevelt

  WSC Winston S. Churchill

  CHAPTER ONE: JUST FOLKS

  The epigraph is a quote from General Eisenhower reminiscing about the difference between his heritage and that of the “aristocrat” Douglas MacArthur. Quoted in John Gunther, Eisenhower: The Man and the Symbol 50 (New York: Harper and Row, 1952).

  1. Birth certificates were not issued in Grayson County, Tex., when Eisenhower was born. His mother recorded his name in the family Bible as “D. Dwight Eisenhower,” the “D” for David, his father’s name. “Dwight” was for the noted evangelist Dwight Lyman Moody, whom Ida admired. Eisenhower was always called Dwight, not David, and when he entered school his name was officially entered as Dwight D. Eisenhower, reversing the order of his two given names.

  2. Jacob Eisenhower sold his farm in Pennsylvania for $175 an acre. In Kansas, his quarter section cost $7.50 an acre. Dwight D. Eisenhower, At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends 62 (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1967).

  3. A. T. Andreas, History of the State of Kansas Containing a Full Account of Its Growth from an Uninhabited Territory to a Wealthy and Important State 686 (Chicago: A. T. Andreas, 1883). Currency conversions are based on the calculations of Robert C. Sahr, Political Science Department, Oregon State University.

  4. The River Brethren chose Dickinson County after an extensive survey of Kansas property. Except for annual rainfall, the climate was similar to Pennsylvania’s, with winter temperatures averaging from 41 to 44 degrees. The fertile topsoil, similar to that of the Susquehanna Valley, was an astounding twelve feet deep. For an extensive comparison between Dickinson County and Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, see John R. Hertzler, “The 1879 Brethren in Christ [River Brethren] Migration from Southeastern Pennsylvania to Dickinson County, Kansas,” Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage 11–18, January 1980.

  5. Carlo D’Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life 15–16 (New York: Henry Holt, 2002).

  6. Stephen E. Ambrose, 1 Eisenhower 16 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983).

  7. Instead of giving David a quarter section of farmland, Jacob mortgaged it to his son-in-law Chris Musser for $2,000, which he presented to David. That, plus Jacob’s standard gift of $2,000, allowed David to construct a store on the main street of Hope and stock it with merchandise. The Eisenhower Building, as it was called, was the largest structure on Hope’s main street. Thomas Branigar, “No Villains—No Heroes,” Kansas History 170, Autumn 1990.

  8. DDE, At Ease 31. Also see Edgar Eisenhower’s statement recorded in Edgar Newton Eisenhower and John McCallum, Six Roads from Abilene: Some Personal Recollections of Edgar Eisenhower 18 (Seattle: Wood and Reber, 1960). Earl Eisenhower is quoted to the same effect in Bela Kornitzer, The Great American Heritage: The Story of the Five Eisenhower Brothers 11–12 (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Cudahy, 1955). Early biographers repeated the Eisenhower version. See, for example, Kenneth S. Davis, Soldier of Democracy: A Biography of Dwight Eisenhower 36–37 (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1946); Ambrose, 1 Eisenhower 17.

  9. Chattel Mortgage Record Book O, page 74, Archives Division, Dickinson County Historical Society. On November 4, 1886, The Hope Dispatch published the following notice signed by David Eisenhower: “This is to certify that I have this day bought all the interest in the late firm of Good & Eisenhower, thereby releasing M. D. Good from all responsibilities of the late firm.”

  10. The Hope Dispatch, November 5, 19, 1886. Unlike David Eisenhower, Milton Good was well-liked by the community. He not only did not flee, but after the partnership was dissolved the Dispatch encouraged him “to spend the rema
inder of his natural days” in Hope, regardless of the type of business he chose to pursue. Ibid.

  11. The exhaustive primary research into David’s early failure was conducted by Thomas Branigar of the Eisenhower Library and published in 1990 in Kansas History 168–79 under the title “No Villains—No Heroes: The David Eisenhower–Milton Good Controversy.” According to Branigar, at page 179,

  When historians began studying the Eisenhower family history after David’s death, the older Eisenhower generation, even those who may have known the truth, probably repeated David’s stories out of loyalty to his memory. The younger generation, represented by the President and his brothers, who were not alive at the time of the partnership, could only repeat what they had been told by their elders.… By relying solely on Eisenhower family tradition, historians obtained and perpetuated a distorted view of the Good–Eisenhower partnership.

  12. D’Este, Eisenhower 22.

  13. By the late 1890s, the Belle Springs Creamery was producing well over two million pounds of butter annually. It had established milk-buying stations in twenty-nine Kansas locations and processing plants in Abilene and Salina, and employed fifty persons full-time. See Hertzler, “1879 Brethren in Christ Migration” 15–17.

  14. Peter Lyon, Eisenhower: Portrait of the Hero 36 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1974). Musser was concerned about David’s stability. After advancing the money for train tickets for the family’s return to Abilene, he gave David a contract that specified he would receive a salary of $340 a year: $25 a month for six months, $30 a month for four months, and $35 a month for two months. In addition, the contract specified that “at the end of each month 12% of the salary is retained until the end of the year when the full amount is paid.” Musser wanted to be doubly certain David did not bolt from the job. Merle Miller, Ike the Soldier 60 (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1987).

  15. Whether by prior agreement or not, in 1908, ten years later, Ida transferred the title to David. Geoffrey Perret, Eisenhower 15 (New York: Random House, 1999).

  16. Kornitzer, Great American Heritage 26.

  17. Ibid. 32–33.

  18. When they were serving together in the 1930s, General MacArthur rebuked Eisenhower for never attending church. “I’ve gone to West Point Chapel so goddamn often,” said Ike, “I’m never going inside a church again.” William Clark to Stewart Alsop, March 3, 1954, Alsops’ Papers, Library of Congress. Cited in Piers Brendon, Ike: His Life and Times 9 (New York: Harper and Row, 1986).

  19. Eisenhower signed the legislation adding the words “under God” to the pledge on Flag Day (June 14) 1954. “From this day forward,” said the president, “the millions of our school children will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural school house, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty.” Public Papers of the Presidents: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1954 141 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Service, 1960).

  20. Jerry Bergman, “Steeped in Religion: President Eisenhower and the Influence of the Jehovah’s Witnesses,” Kansas History 148–67, Autumn 1998. When Ike graduated from West Point in 1915, Ida gave him a standard Watchtower Bible, in which the word “Jehovah” is substituted throughout for the word “God.” Eisenhower used this Bible when he was sworn in for his second presidential term in 1957, but in his quotation from it, “Blessed is the nation whose God is Jehovah,” he substituted “Lord” for “Jehovah.” N. H. Knorr, “Conspiracy Against Jehovah’s Name,” 78 Watchtower 323–24 (June 1, 1957).

  After Ida’s death in 1946, Milton, then president of Kansas State University, quietly disposed of her fifty-year collection of Watchtower, the monthly publication of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, lest there be any unfavorable publicity. Presumably, David’s pyramid diagram was removed at the same time. Jack Anderson, Washington Merry-Go-Round, The Washington Post, September 23, 1956; Merle Miller, Ike the Soldier 79.

  21. Edgar Newton Eisenhower and McCallum, Six Roads from Abilene 21.

  22. Ibid. 31–32.

  23. DDE, At Ease 31.

  24. Perret, Eisenhower 11.

  25. DDE, At Ease 37. “Our love for our father was based on respect,” said Edgar. “Our love for our mother was based on something more.” Edgar Newton Eisenhower and McCallum, Six Roads from Abilene 35.

  26. Milton Eisenhower, interview by Stephen Ambrose, in Ambrose, 1 Eisenhower 21.

  27. “From my present position as a banker,” Arthur once said, “I can grasp our early economic situation better than I could while I was a youngster. Indeed, were it not for the three-acre garden patch behind the house, we might have faced real want at times.” Kornitzer, Great American Heritage 63.

  28. Edgar Newton Eisenhower and McCallum, Six Roads from Abilene 92–93.

  29. With characteristic rigidity, David agreed to support Edgar if he would attend medical school at the University of Kansas but not if he wanted to study law. With equally characteristic stubbornness, Edgar refused and was partially supported at Michigan by his uncle, Chris Musser, who countersigned Edgar’s notes at the Farmers National Bank of Abilene. Neither Edgar nor Chris Musser ever informed David of the arrangement. Ibid.

  30. “I had nothing to do with the decision to move Japanese nationals and Japanese-Americans from the Pacific coast,” Milton told Bela Kornitzer. “When the decision was made, I was asked by the President to establish an agency that would be responsible for bringing about the movement of some hundred and twenty thousand men, women, and children in about three months.” Later Milton wrote, “I have brooded over this episode on and off for the past three decades. It need not have happened.” Kornitzer, Great American Heritage 232.

  31. Lyon, Eisenhower 38.

  32. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ike’s Letters to a Friend: 1941–1958, Robert Griffith, ed. (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1984).

  33. DDE, At Ease 104.

  34. Kenneth S. Davis, one of the earliest biographers of Eisenhower, postulated that Ike spent the summer of 1910 worrying about attending one of the service academies given his mother’s faith. Numerous biographers have followed Davis’s lead, but there is not a shred of evidence to substantiate his assertion. At a presidential press conference on July 7, 1954, Eisenhower said the stories of his parents’ objections were totally incorrect. “She [Ida] never said one single word to me.” The New York Times, July 8, 1954. Compare Kenneth S. Davis, Soldier of Democracy 107–8.

  35. DDE to Bristow, August 20, 1910, in Dwight D. Eisenhower, Eisenhower: The Prewar Diaries and Selected Papers, 1905–1941 8, Daniel D. Holt and James W. Leyerzapf, eds. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998).

  36. Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay: An American Life 26 (New York: Henry Holt, 1990).

  37. DDE, Eisenhower: Prewar Diaries 8.

  38. Pulsifer joined Ike in the Class of 1915, graduated 116th of 164 (Eisenhower ranked 61st), and retired from the Army because of a disability in 1920 with the rank of major. Merle Miller, Ike the Soldier 116.

  39. Bristow to DDE, October 24, 1910, Joseph L. Bristow Papers, Kansas State Historical Society Archives.

  40. DDE to Bristow, October 25, 1910, ibid.

  41. DDE, At Ease 108.

  42. Ibid. 8.

  43. Ibid. 5.

  44. Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay 34.

  45. General Hugh Scott, Some Memories of a Soldier 420 (New York: Century, 1928).

  46. Quoted in Edward M. Coffman, The Hilt of the Sword: The Career of Peyton C. March 186 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1966).

  47. “The graduates of West Point,” wrote Eliot, “did not escape, with few exceptions, from the methods they had been taught and drilled in during peace. The methods of fighting were in the main new, and the methods of supply and accounting ought to have been new. The red tape methods [of the peacetime Army] were very mischievous all through the actual fighting and remain a serious impediment to the efficiency of the War Department to this day.” The New York Times, May 9, 1920.

  48. Quoted in T. Be
ntley Mott, “West Point: A Criticism,” Harpers 478–79, March 1934.

  49. William Manchester, American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur, 1880–1964 121 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1978). “I am not the most rabid worshipper of MacArthur that there is in this world,” said Lucius D. Clay. “But I give him a tremendous amount of credit for recognizing the need for change at the Military Academy to meet the change in the whole national outlook and environment. He knew it had to be changed, and he changed it—against a good deal of opposition from members of his own faculty.” Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay 39.

  50. Ibid. Eisenhower inclined to the more conventional view. “One thing that has struck me very forcibly … is the frequency with which one finds the older officer of today [January 31, 1944] to be merely a more mature edition of the kid [we] knew as a Cadet. This is not always so and sometimes the exceptions are so glaring as to prove the rule.… Frequently, I get a lot of fun checking up my present impressions of people with the impressions I had of them when they were very young and I am amazed to find how often these impressions are identical.” Quoted in Merle Miller, Ike the Soldier 45.

  51. DDE, interview by Edgar F. Puryear, Jr., May 2, 1963, quoted in Puryear, 19 Stars: A Study in Military Character and Leadership 13 (Orange, Va.: Green Publishers, 1971).

  52. DDE, At Ease 10, 12. During World War II, Eisenhower expressed incredulity when he learned one of his classmates had been promoted to brigadier general. “Christ,” he said, “he’s always been afraid to break a regulation.” Ambrose, 1 Eisenhower 48.

  53. Quoted in Merle Miller, Ike the Soldier 29.

  54. DDE, At Ease 16–17.

  55. Gunther, Eisenhower 29.

  56. Marty Maher, Bringing Up the Brass 177 (New York: McKay, 1951).