Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life

Ike is a fascinating person to me. His life is a truly American story of rising from a hardscrabble Kansas upbringing to the heights of American military and political leadership. I've read 4-5 excellent books covering different facets of Ike's career, but this masterpiece is the best at focusing strictly on Ike's military career. It was certainly an extraordinary career, though the first 20 years of it included many setbacks and heartbreaks before Ike's rise to everlasting distinction beginning in late 1941 following Pearl Harbor.While I love Stephen Ambrose's books, he comes perilously close to hagiography, for he makes no bones of his belief in Ike as hero. D'Este, by contrast, is brutally honest and sometimes very critical in spots. I think he covers the full spectrum of this very extraordinary and veru complex man - charisma, charm, cunning, determination, times of decisive leadership as well as periods of indecisive dithering. Ike comes across as very human, but for all his inherently human shortcomings, he also emerges as a truly great man.This book handles the military campaigns of WWII - the setbacks and the glories - in a very readable format. Ike is shown as an uncertain leader in North Africa, but by the epic Ardennes Campaign (Battle of the Bulge) he has asserted himself as a decisive leader. The book also shows the complexity of Ike's job in managing a fractious Allied coalition - no easy task!

Dwight D. Eisenhower was President all during my years in grade school, and so he was the first political figure about whom I learned. My impression always was that he was an easy-going fellow who spent more time golfing than working, and who couldn't give a straight answer to a reporter's question if his life depended upon it. After reading this masterful biography, I am ready to concede that my impression of the man was completely wrong! The Eisenhower who emerges from these pages was a man of sharp intellect, with an intense interest in history, and a person who could, when pressed, speak and write concisely and intelligently on many subjects. He had a famous smile, but it hid a volatile temper that often mastered him, rather than the other way around. From this biography, we learn that Ike just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and he was helped in his career by powerful superiors, who recognized his merits as a soldier. The author takes us through the European theater of operations very well, and explains everything clearly, without falling into the habit of many military history writers, who give troop movements, etc., in mind-numbing detail. Here we know what happened, and why it happened, without the extraneous detail that bloats a book, without adding anything to its substance. This is a new Eisenhower to me, and one with whom I can readily say I would be proud to have known. Thank you very much to this author, who has done so much to enlighten all of his readers to the man within the public front.

Having already read D'Este's Patton: A Genius for War, I was eager to read this biography of Eisenhower and found it to be of comparable quality in terms of scope, depth, and eloquence of analysis. Moreover, D'Este offers a portrait of Eisenhower somewhat different from those I had previously found in other studies of one of our nation's greatest generals. For example, until reading this book I was unaware of the nature and extent of Eisenhower's stress-induced illnesses and am now curious about their impact on his judgment. (Do they help to explain his commitment to the Market Garden initiative?) Also, D'Este indicates that Eisenhower was by no means the great strategist which I had once assumed him to be, nor especially effective as a field commander. Prior to leading the Allied invasion of North Africa in 1942, he had never been in combat. His promotion less than two years later (from colonel to four-star general) removed him entirely from field operations. He had a volcanic temper and tended to play favorites (e.g. Bradley, Hodges, and Clark). If the buck stopped on his desk, he must assume primary responsibility for failures such as the Anzio and Salerno invasions as well as for the vulnerabilities which German strategists exploited during the Battle of the Bulge. His greatest strengths include being able to resolve or at least neutralize conflicts between and among prima donnas such as Patton and Montgomery; gaining the loyalty and devotion of his staff officers; being revered and trusted by the troops; and meanwhile, sustaining the support of Roosevelt, Churchill, and (most importantly) Marshall. It is important to keep in mind that D'Este limits his attention almost entirely to Eisenhower's military career, devoting almost no attention to Eisenhower's private life. Readers must seek elsewhere for a probing analysis of Eisenhower's personal relationships such as those with wife Mamie and his female driver, Kay Summersby. For me, the book's greatest value is derived from what I characterize as D'Este's "You Are There Strategy" as he enables his reader to accompany Eisenhower throughout his military career. Along the way, we learn about his childhood, his erratic years at the U.S. Military Academy, various peacetime assignments following his commission, and finally his tenure as Supreme Commander of Allied Forces during World War Two. According to D'Este and countless others, Eisenhower was probably the only person (with the possible exception of Marshall who was needed elsewhere) who could have assumed and discharged the duties and responsibilities entrusted to him in that position. His 'finest hour" occurred when he (and he alone) had to decide whether or not to launch the invasion of Europe on June 6, 1944. Perhaps at no other time (before or since) did Eisenhower feel greater pressure. He fully accepted that burden and, as specified in writing on the eve of the invasion, he accepted full responsibility if the invasion failed. British Ge

Eisenhower was never one of my favorite generals and this book didn't change my opinion, but it did give me a better understanding of the man and the tremendous problems he faced as the Allied Commander of the European Theater during World War II. I don't know why Roosevelt and Marshall picked Eisenhower for a job he wasn't qualified for. The British had little faith in him but accepted him because they figured they could manipulate him, and this proved to be true early in the war. But in the end, Eisenhower shouldered the responsibilities, made the tough decisions, dealt with the French, and got the job done. This book gives an honest insightful look at the men that ran the war, their strengths and weaknesses, and their triumphs and disasters. I found that D'Este's coverage of such luminaries as Montgomery, Patton, Bradley, and Alexander (to name but a few) a real education. This is a real eye-opener for those who thought the Allied Armies were the best trained, equipped, and led. This book led me to the conclusion that we won the war because we were better able to recover from our mistakes and replace our losses. This is a great read for World War II history buffs.

In his second foray into biographies, D'este does a brillant job of bringing Eisenhower the man to the fore front. D'Este gives a great deal of insight into the nature of Eisenhower's peronality by delving into the relationships he had with his brothers and the some-what unique relationship he had with Mamie his wife. D'Este, in addition, shows a much differnt side of chain-smoking Eisenhower, than the public usually sees, who has quite a temper and a vocabulary to make a sailor blush.One of the best sections of the book deals with Eisenhower's leadership during the North African campaign. D'Este characterizes this period of where Ike's leadership was lacking for incompetant. The author does a great job dealing with Operation Overlord (for the definitive account of the Normandy campaign read the author's Decision in Normandy) and the time period leading up to the German surrender.This is a fine biography and one that should be in every WW II student's library. What makes this biography great is D'Este demonstrates all sides of Eisenhower - both good and bad; and his analysis is first rate.