Eisenhower: Soldier and President

I thought the book was to drawn out. there was a lot of repetitive areas that could have been left out.

As a young historian, Stephen Ambrose met with General Eisenhower, on numerous occasions, at Eisenhower's Gettysburg, PA home. If you ever heard the late Mr. Ambrose interviewed, you would detect his unbounded affection for the former President. Yet, in writing this biography, Ambrose was surprisingly objective about Eisenhower. He even went so far as to decry Eisenhower's silence on Civil Rights issues as almost "criminal." Unlike detracters of Eisenhower (see Tom Wicker's short biography, for example), Ambrose gives a balanced assesment of Eisenhower's presidency. Ambrose also covers Eisenhower's miliatary career and his career between WWII and his assuming the presidency, Ambrose sees Eisenhower's greatest success as having avoided nuclear war in the most dangerous decade of the twentieth century. In Indochina, the French who were trying to protect their empire were about to fall at Dien Bien Phu and there was tremendous pressure for the United States to get involved. Eisenhower correctly observed that Americans would not want to go back to southeast Asia a year after leaving Korea. There was a subtle pressure, however, to launch a nuclear strike. There had been the same pressure in Korea and there was more such pressure after the fall of Dien Bien Phu. In all, Ambrose cites at least five instances where nuclear strikes were a real possibility. Eisenhower steered clear of all such pressures. Eisenhower was concerned about the arms race and he resisted pressure from both Democrats and Republicans to engage in an unabated production of bombs and missles, despite Democratic allegations of a "missle gap." One of his great disappointmemts was his inability to enter into an arms control treaty with the Soviet Union. Such a treaty seemed possible but, when an American U2 spy plane was shot down over Russia, all hopes were dashed. Eisenhower often used jumbled syntax but, generally, this was a ruse so that he could confuse reporters and, therefore, straddle an issue. In fact, he was very precise in the way he spoke. He managed to keep his distance from McCarthy without formally denouncing him. However, in perhaps his most shameful moment, when Eisenhower made a campaign speech in McCarthy's home state of Wisconsin, he excised a defense of General Marshall who McCarthy had attacted as disloyal. Eisenhower regretted having done this but, earlier in the campaign, in a different venue, at least he did give a spirited defense of Marshall. Significantly, in Wicker's biogrophy, which I earlier mentioned, Wicker makes no mention of the earlier defense of Marshall. As I said before, Ambrose is fair; he exposes the warts but, he also raises points in Eisenhower's defense when there is such a negative issue raised. Eisenhower was far from a perfect President. He certainly enforced the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision, most notably in Little Rock when he sent in troops to force the integration of schools. However, he didn't really speak ou

Stephen Ambrose's portrayal of Eisenhower as both soldier and president is a grand tribute to one of America's greatest war and peacetime leaders.Though Ambrose views Ike in a very positive light he is willing to be critical of his choices not to engage the Civil Rights debates of the 1950s and not take a firm stand in regards to retaining or dumping Nixon as VP in 1956.Eisenhower aimed to please and find compromise. It is striking how his style remained the same throughout the war and into his presidency. Though Ike was often viewed as a compromiser, Ambrose illustrates that Ike kept his options open at all times and thought out each major decision. There has been no recent president more willing to think outside the box then Ike when it came to foreign policy affairs and the drive to limit the nuclear stockpiles of both the US and USSR as the Cold War began.Ambrose again adds to the rich American tradition of the time with this book. It is an easy read and logically put together. I highly recommend this book on Ike, I have a great respect for a leader I knew little about prior to reading this novel. An A+.

Dwight Eisenhower helped make Stephen Ambrose's career as a historian after reading the author's biography of the obscure Henry Halleck. Ambrose repays the debt in spades with this well written authoritative account of Eisenhower's life. This is history writing at its most readable. Ambrose portrays Ike as a genuine American hero, but does not ignore the negative, such as his suspected affair during World War. Most importantly, this is a book for readers who do not want to get bogged down in the minutia surrounding every event in Eisenhower's life. What you get is a good overview, detailed enough to give a good portrait of the man behind the legend.