General Eisenhower's order of the day was distributed to every man on board the invading armada.

Soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force, you are about to embark upon the great crusade toward which we have striven these many months.

The eyes of the world are upon you.

The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.

In company with our brave allies and brothers in arms on other fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

[Music] Driving I-70 through Kansas, one passes the city of Abilene.

Famous for many things, Abilene is also where you'll find the Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home of Dwight D. Eisenhower.

In this season of Cottonwood Connections, we are devoting two episodes to the life and impact of Eisenhower.

In the first, we look at his rise to the rank of General and ultimate leadership of the Allied forces in Europe.

In episode two, we explore his election and service in the office of President.

Dwight David Eisenhower, also known as Ike, was born in Texas, but most of his formative years were spent in Abilene, Kansas.

They lived on the outskirts of Abilene.

Eisenhower, with his growing up in Kansas and kind of humble beginnings, he was kind of the model of the great American country boy that did well.

That humble beginnings, he got an education, got into the military, and went in and being the Allied commander in Europe during World War II was a big job.

And then he became president of the United States from 1953 to 1961.

But he hung on to his Kansas roots and his agricultural roots in a way because even during his presidency and after his presidency he had a farm in Pennsylvania.

The library for him today, the Eisenhower Library, is in Abilene, Kansas, which he always considered his hometown.

As we take these two episodes to delve into the life of Eisenhower, we will explore and talk with folks at the Library and Museum in Abilene, and talk with professors at the U.S.

Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth.

So the Eisenhower family ends up in Abilene, Kansas relatively early on in Ike's life.

They move to a farm which is now on Eisenhower Presidential Museum and archive grounds.

The house is still there.

And the Eisenhower brothers have kind of a blue collar kind of upbringing.

They go to school, they attend chickens, they raise vegetables, they sell their vegetables for for money, and they kind of go to high school and play football and kind of the all-American ideal.

One of the things that I think is fascinating about his Kansas upbringing is we associate him so much with the Army, and he really doesn't have that much of a connection with the Army in his in his younger years.

And in fact, when he applies to Annapolis and West Point, he does so because he urgently needs money for college.

It's kind of interesting that he didn't go there necessarily to pursue an Army career.

He wanted a he wanted a free education is what he had gone for.

He and his brother had an arrangement where they would help to put each other through college, but it was looking like his older brother was going to take a little bit too long at the University of Michigan.

And so he had a friend here in town who had applied to the Naval Academy who had encouraged Eisenhower to apply to the Naval Academy.

Unfortunately, he was too old at that point.

The Academy turned him down, but he was just under the age limit for West Point and was accepted.

So 1911, he gets his appointment to West Point going to spend four years there until 1915.

And by all accounts, he excels at West Point.

He plays football for the first year and a half, but he has a knee injury that happened in high school.

It's re-aggravated when he's doing calvary maneuvers and exercises at school, and he falls off a horse and it ends his football career at West Point.

He has to go before a medical review board because there are serious questions if the Army should commission this young man with a serious orthopedic injury because then he gets disability and then you don't want that.

So the doctor and Eisenhower kind of work out an agreement that he won't request cavalry.

That's right out.

And so infantry is the branch that provides a lot of opportunity and one that he's well qualified for, but also one that won't impose an impediment to him commissioning.

He went to the military academy, graduated in the class of 1915, which was one of the most significant classes that's often referred to as the class the stars fell on because so many general officers came out of that class, including two five-star generals, both General Eisenhower and General Omar Bradley, who served as the first Army commander under Eisenhower in Europe during World War II.

Both were part of that class in addition to a number of others.

He goes down to San Antonio, now Fort Sam Houston and he serves with an infantry unit down there and he's going to meet Mamie Dowd, who happens to be visiting some friends in the area.

And so that's one of the foundational things that happens very early in his military career is he meets his wife.

And throughout the early years, obviously World War I is the big concern because he gets commissioned in 1915, which is the class the stars fell on.

And it seems that that's going to be an important part.

And of course he misses out on deploying to Europe because he's stateside training with Patton and training this new tank unit and they keep getting changes at first.

It's going to be where you're going to deploy earlier in 1918 and I well know we're going to stand down and build of a different tank organization and we'll deploy you later in 1918.

And by the time that they're just about ready to deploy, the war is over.

He was very disappointed about that, but the experience served him well and giving him his first introduction into the use of armored vehicles and the use of mechanized thinking about the use of tanks in infantry maneuvers, which would serve him well.

At the end of the war, his war rank is Lieutenant Colonel, but he quickly reverts back to his regular army rank, which is Captain.

And he doesn't know what's going to happen obviously in the next couple of decades, but it seems like the thing that could have cemented his military career is now past.

And what do you do as an officer in an army where most of your peers have the ability to distinguish themselves in combat and leading troops in wartime and that opportunity is now gone.

He went on, he served with the American Battle Monuments Commission under General Pershing after the war, which gave him a chance to see a lot of the the terrain that he would later be exposed to in France as commander of the Allied armies in World War II.

I think it gives him some some insights into Europe and the sensitivities the Europeans have to warfare.

So it's good training ground again, yes, for a staff officer and the guy who's going to be in charge to have those key and developmental jobs, but not the traditional key and developmental officer.

I think that's a common theme is that he doesn't follow your traditional kind of infantry arc officer.

It's a very different and unique path, but yet every time he gets a new position, he excels in it, which gives him an expanded capability that comes up to him much later in his career.

He has the opportunity to really get some relationships with very influential folks.

And so General Pershing, he's able to work with the Battle Monuments Commission and develop a reputation with him.

And if Pershing can speak well of you, then who better do you need to vouch for you?

Right.

And then when Eisenhower meets Colonel, then later General Marshall, he doesn't realize how important Marshall is going to be.

But to have your name held in high esteem by George Marshall is going to be incredibly important.

He also spent some time serving with General Douglas MacArthur in the Philippines, where he was responsible for building up the Philippine military in preparation for their independence, which was supposed to come in 1946.

Eisenhower is working with the president of the Philippines.

And how does this work dealing with heads of state?

That's not something that is naturally to Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army and his ability to handle that and not let it go to his head that, okay, I'm dealing with presidents.

I'm really important.

Look at me.

No, he remembers, why am I here?

I'm serving the interest of the United States.

And I need to make sure that I'm maintaining my professionalism.

And as frustrating as MacArthur was as a boss, he gives Eisenhower very laudatory remarks for his proficiency as an officer.

And again, if the chief of staff of the army is the one saying, this guy's great.

In time of war he needs to be a general, that's pretty good.

You may not have like Dr.

Kalic said, you don't have the traditional path forward for infantry success, but you have all of the heavy names saying you are great.

And that is a testament that his proficiency as an officer.

He gets a strong name for himself as a solid officer who can train people well, whether it's officers or enlisted folks, he seems to have the confidence of commanding officers that he does a good job and can be relied upon to do the best and get the best out of them, which is why he keeps getting promoted to essentially train, train, train and not deploy.

He requests deployments, I think two or three times, like a machine gun unit, he's trying to get into the action.

But the reality is, he seems almost too valuable.

We can't let that guy go to action stuff.

He needs to be there to train.

So he's got that hand behind the scenes.

He builds this kind of relationship with not only higher ups, but also, contemporary peers who go on and make names for results as well.

So he's a known entity.

Just not the rock star of the infinity world.

He's a good general staff officer, period.

Yeah, you know, one of the things that's also impressive about him is his ability to establish those relationships and really build on them.

I mean, his superpower is not being a tactical or strategic genius.

It's his ability to get along with people and clearly communicate what it is that needs to be done and how we're going to do that.

And that's really the attribute that separates him from a lot of his peers and gets him recognized as somebody by George Marshall that's really an up and coming force to be reckoned with.

So now the next jump is, of course, the Second World War.

Well, Louisiana maneuvers.

He's going to come back from the Philippines as the United States is ramping, starting to mobilize.

And this is in 1940.

And he's going to be a division chief of staff.

And he's going to before he's a division chief of staff, he's going to have command of a battalion in an infantry regiment.

And it's not even six months.

It may be six months that he is this battalion commander of an infantry regiment.

But then he's going to be pulled upstairs to a division chief of staff and then a core chief of staff for the Louisiana maneuvers, which is one of the it's the largest pre-war maneuver that the United States Army is going to do.

He again is making a name for himself because these general officers that find themselves in commands of divisions and cores that didn't exist before, they know they want Eisenhower on their team.

And as the United States is continuing to to build its capacity, he's going to be moved and promoted again to the war plans division.

And this is really where he comes back and is working with now chief of staff of the Army, George Marshall.

And every time I prepare for something like this, I'm stunned on how much he does between again, 1925 and 1940.

I mean, industrial war plans, war plans, divisions, the maneuvers, he's, he's kind of everywhere you need somebody to be that wants to understand the army as an institution and the army as a complete enterprise.

And he is a perfect man to put in charge of the operations because he understands all the pieces from industrialization and building, you know, divisions and battalions all the way up to diplomatic relations and negotiations with partner countries.

And then came back and served in a number of staff roles, both on the staffs of army divisions, doing maneuvers in preparation for the operations in Europe, headed to World War II, and then also serving in the planning office under General Marshall developing war plans for the United States entry into World War II.

And it's from that position he is nominated to lead the invasion of North Africa in 1943.

It's supposed to be ideally more of an administrative landing because you're trying to have some discussions with the Vichy forces in North Africa.

But there is some initial fighting and then Eisenhower is going to make a controversial agreement with the Vichy head of the government in North Africa.

It's the Nazi occupied French government.

And here you have a US officer that is actually negotiating with a puppet state of the enemy.

The first part of the North African campaign is really to get forces on the continent so that you can meet up with British forces and get the German forces out of North Africa.

So it's really the Vichy aspect of this is one of the supporting efforts for hopefully the main effort of getting Rommel's Afrika Korps out.

And if you get bogged down in combat with the Vichy forces then you're kind of missing the force.

I think it demonstrates Eisenhower's mature understanding.

How do you marshal limited resources in a constrained environment at a time when you're still building combat power for that initial... for that main line or the main continent invasion.

You know this is kind of a run up or a stepping stone to that and you can't afford to lose all your resources.

So is there a way to kind of get your objective out of politically or some other way?

And the answer is yes but it's controversial.

So again I think it shows a maturity well beyond his years and stemming from those experiences he had in the interwar period.

So Marshall wants to go across the channel in 1942 but I mean the British pointedly discussed the fact that there are more German divisions just in France than we have in the entire United States Army.

So this is probably not a great idea.

And Marshall goes along with it but says all right but no matter what you say or what you do we're going across the channel in 43.

Of course that's unrealistic as well.

So what is on the table is Sicily and Italy which is a great campaign for it's bigger you know it's more involved and confronts the Germans on the European mainland.

Ultimately led to invasion of Sicily and then Italy with the same sort of objectives to try to draw German forces out of Europe and out of their operations against Russian forces while we had the time to build up military forces in England for a direct invasion of the continent.

Ultimately led to the defeat of Italy and their withdrawal from or their being essentially rendered or ineffective as an Axis ally for the war.

Yeah and Eisenhower now is commander of the allied effort and that's going to be kind of controversial for the British too because what is his tactical operational prowess and it's really as we've discussed there's just not that much.

But as the U.S.

material contribution of the war and the manpower contribution of the war starts to outweigh the British we get a thumb on the scale for who is the overall commander and again Eisenhower's picked because of his ability to work well with a lot of hot-headed personalities and that's only going to be more and more problematic.

I think that's a great point that the British which I don't think necessarily wrong value combat experience and battlefield leadership which Eisenhower is lacking but what he does have is political acumen and managerial skills which is what you need in you know this large-scale war and with multiple allies.

So yeah all over the south of England and all over in Northern Ireland American forces are being built up, naval forces are being gathered.

There were several problems that had to be solved.

We had to work out command relationships with our British and other allies.

One of the toughest jobs was exactly that.

Coalition warfare had not been successful in the past and in fact one of the main lessons from World War One as far as some American military officers were concerned was to stay away as far away from coalition warfare as you could possibly stay.

Eisenhower believed that that ultimately that that would fail.

That if the we didn't have sort of a unified command chain that would be a problem so part of that time was spent creating a staff that could just execute a operation against the continent.

He insisted that that the staff be joint American and British and involve our other allies where it made sense to do that that it would be an integrated staff that where there was a British officer serving as a senior a American deputy would serve under him and vice versa.

One of the things that had to be worked out was relationships with other governments.

The perception that we wanted to give was that we were not conquerors, we were liberators and we were going to be people who were going to turn invaded countries back over to their proper governments once the military operations were concluded so we had to have cooperation from foreign governments foreign military obviously the British government playing a primary role in that as well and then we had to solve the military problems of getting six divisions across the English Channel.

No easy feat.

The English Channel is known for its height is its notorious tides and also its bad weather so trying to not only assemble a force large enough to make an invasion that could could get onto the beach and then hold a lodgement on the beach and also to time it in such a way that everything was where it needed to be and the weather was good enough to be able to execute that operation.

The operation was delayed on account of weather three times that I'm aware of.

So and this is a 21st century context I can look at my my phone and I can get 10 day weather forecast right which I mean they're not bad actually.

That is not his reality.

His reality is I'm getting a brief today about hopefully what the conditions could be and this is an incredibly turbulent time in the English Channel and not not just you know 1944 but that time of year weather prediction is tough and the channel weather conditions yes they change a lot in Kansas but my yeah I think it's terrible.

The weather over the channel looks makes Kansas look stable.

Yeah no I mean just the wind the rain the tides the weather on the water and you're moving this naval force across and this airborne force across and the weather is the one thing you can't control.

And then you're trying to manage the largest invasion force ever assembled so it's not a simple task even from the point of view of command and control coordination and logistics all of that had to fall into place and it took many months to accomplish that.

And he shoulders that responsibility which again the two letters that which I think are always starting to reread.

So the first letter is the one that we all know about where he says you know the crusade and in Europe congratulating the the soldiers and the military for a successful campaign.

The other one is the one that he scratches you know kind of on a scrap piece of paper which says the D-Day landings didn't go well and the military got pushed back off of the the beaches and and D-Day was not successful.

Eisenhower's second letter read as follows our landings in the Cheruborn Havra area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops.

My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available.

The troops the air and the navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty do.

If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.

Talking to his professionalism the first letter I think we all know right the second one I think is even more important the fact that he's already thinking through I have contingencies for both because this is war after all and you can't predict it but yet I am professional I have to realize I'll take you know here's the credit if we win these are the guys yeah soldiers that did this if we lose it's all on me which is stunning.

That professionalism to know if this goes in a way that we hadn't planned for I'm going to be the one because everybody else will be feeling that they had some role in the failure but I'm going to be the leader that stands up and says you did all you could, all of my subordinates you did what you could.

I am the reason why, and that really is is a tough thing to do.

That's extraordinary leadership.

Yeah oh it definitely demonstrates his strength of character.

Yep.

I think the legacy there is something that that Ike said about about good citizenship being being a good being a good citizen here was a man who devoted his life to his country his people his ideas and showed that somebody from middle America who doesn't necessarily have a privileged background can can rise up and in the moment apply his talents and gifts to what ultimately for him turned out to be the the central crisis of the of the 20th century and successfully successfully do that.

The tide has turned the freemen of the world are marching together to victory.

I have full confidence in your courage devotion to duty and skill in battle.

We will accept nothing less than full victory.

Good luck and let us all beseech the blessing of almighty god upon this great and noble undertaking.

[Music]