Eisenhower in War and Peace
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57. Dwight D. Eisenhower, In Review: Pictures I’ve Kept; A Concise Pictorial “Autobiography” 14 (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1969).
58. DDE, At Ease 16. Omar Bradley, a classmate of Ike’s and a member of both the varsity baseball and football teams, said much the same. “No extracurricular endeavor I know of could better prepare a soldier for the battlefield.” Omar N. Bradley and Clay Blair, A General’s Life: An Autobiography 34 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983).
59. Alexander M. “Babe” Weyand, “The Athletic Cadet Eisenhower,” Assembly 11, Spring 1968.
60. Brigadier General Carl C. Bank to Edgar F. Puryear, Jr., January 13, 1963, in Puryear, 19 Stars 19.
61. Francis T. Miller, Eisenhower: Man and Soldier 149–50 (Philadelphia: John C. Winston, 1944).
62. Lieutenant Colonel Morton F. Smith, Commandant of Cadets, 1915 USMA Efficiency Report, DDE Personnel File, Eisenhower Library (EL), Abilene, Kansas.
63. In 1915 the Army totaled 106,764 men, of whom 4,948 were officers. Expenditures totaled $115,410,000. Those figures did not increase significantly until 1917. United States Department of the Army, The Army Almanac 692 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950); United States Bureau of the Census, The Statistical History of the United States from Colonial Times to the Present 736 (Stamford, Conn.: Fairfield Publishers, 1965).
64. DDE, At Ease 24.
65. Ibid. 25.
66. Quoted in Merle Miller, Ike the Soldier 43.
67. Colonel Herman Beukema to DDE, April 1946, EL.
68. Ibid.
CHAPTER TWO: THE GREAT WAR
The epigraph is a comment made by Lieutenant Colonel Eisenhower to his classmate Major Norman Randolph upon learning of the armistice on the western front, November 11, 1918. Randolph to DDE, June 20, 1945, EL.
1. On September 19–20, 1863, the 19th Infantry held the center of George Thomas’s line at Chickamauga, earning for itself and General Thomas the epithet “Rock of Chickamauga.” When the fighting ended, the regiment, still holding its position, had but forty men and four officers remaining, and was commanded by a second lieutenant.
2. R. S. Baker, 4 Woodrow Wilson: Life and Letters 289 (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1931). The best recent survey of Wilson’s intervention in Mexico is John S. D. Eisenhower’s Intervention! The United States Involvement in the Mexican Revolution, 1913–1917 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1993). His earlier So Far from God: The United States War with Mexico, 1846–1848 (New York: Random House, 1989) is an equally good assessment of the Mexican War under Polk.
3. Eisenhower was joined in the 19th Infantry by his classmate Thomas F. Taylor, who was soon posted to the 16th Infantry at Del Rio, along the Mexican border.
4. Lieutenant General Walker was killed in a vehicle accident in Korea and did not attain the rank of full general.
5. DDE, At Ease 121.
6. Ibid. 122.
7. Vivian Cadden, “Mamie and Ike Talk About Fifty Years of Marriage,” McCall’s, September 1966; Steve Neal, The Eisenhowers: Reluctant Dynasty 35 (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1978).
8. DDE, At Ease 113.
9. Mabel Frances [Doud] Moore, interview by Merle Miller, quoted in Miller, Ike the Soldier 141.
10. Mamie Doud Eisenhower Oral History, EL. Quoted in Marilyn Irvin Holt, Mamie Doud Eisenhower: The General’s First Lady 6 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2007).
11. Funston was the area commander, but the War Department took the unusual step of prescribing to him who should command the expedition. It did so because General Hugh Scott, Army chief of staff, believed Pershing less volatile than Funston, and more capable of handling a situation that required diplomacy. American forces were violating Mexican sovereignty, and the Wilson administration wanted to avoid a war if possible. John S. D. Eisenhower, Intervention 235.
12. DDE, At Ease 121.
13. Ibid. 122.
14. Merle Miller, Ike the Soldier 149. Fifty years later, celebrating his wedding anniversary with Mamie, Eisenhower was asked the secret of their marital success. He attributed it to a sense of humor, “and not insist[ing] on being right. Being right all the time is perhaps the most tiresome quality anyone can have.” Cadden, “Mamie and Ike Talk About 50 Years of Marriage.”
15. Years later Mamie said, “I got out of [Abilene] in a hurry, I’ll tell you, every time I got the chance.” MDE Oral History, EL.
16. Ambrose, 1 Eisenhower 59.
17. Maureen Clark, Captain’s Bride, General’s Lady 24 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1956).
18. For the text of Wilson’s speech, see The New York Times, April 3, 1917.
19. DDE, At Ease 131.
20. DDE efficiency report, December 2, 1917, EL. Ironically, the 57th Infantry never made it overseas and spent the war on garrison duty at Fort Sam Houston.
21. Susan Eisenhower, Mrs. Ike: Memories and Reflections on the Life of Mamie Eisenhower 43 (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996).
22. DDE to MDE, September 25, 1917, in DDE, Eisenhower: Prewar Diaries 13–14. (Eisenhower’s emphasis.) Ike’s reference to “Sheltering Palms” is to the hit song “Down Among the Sheltering Palms,” published in 1914. Music by Abe Olman; lyrics by James Brockman.
23. DDE to MDE, September 26, 1917, in DDE, Eisenhower: Prewar Diaries 15.
24. DDE efficiency report, February 22, 1917, to November 26, 1917, EL.
25. Lieutenant Edward C. Thayer to his mother, January 1918, Presidential Papers, EL.
26. Fitzgerald twice submitted “The Romantic Egotist” to Scribner’s and both times it was rejected. Major portions later appeared in This Side of Paradise. Arthur Mizener, The Far Side of Paradise: A Biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald 75–77 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965). Also see Fitzgerald to Edmund Wilson, January 10, 1918, in The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald 321–24, Andrew Turnbull, ed. (New York: Scribner, 1963).
27. DDE efficiency report, December 15, 1917, to January 3, 1918, EL.
28. British artillery was classified by the weight of the projectile, in this case six pounds, or 2.7 kilograms, and the gun had a muzzle velocity of 720 meters per second. In World War II, twin six pounders were a standard British coast artillery weapon.
29. Quoted in Michael Korda, Ike: An American Hero 137 (New York: HarperCollins, 2007).
30. DDE, At Ease 136.
31. Ibid. 137.
32. Ibid.
33. A separate tank corps was established in France under the command of Brigadier General Samuel D. Rockenbach with an authorized strength of 14,827 officers and men. Merle Miller, Ike the Soldier 168.
34. DDE, At Ease 137, 135.
35. Ibid. 138.
36. Ibid.
37. Neal, Eisenhowers 45.
38. DDE, At Ease 140.
39. Francis T. Miller, Eisenhower 172.
40. Gettysburg Times, June 7, 1918.
41. DDE to Lieutenant Colonel F. Summers, August 26, 1943, EL. Eisenhower’s foreword, also written on August 26, stated:
More than a quarter of a century ago, the tank made its debut upon the battlefield as a clumsy, belly-crawling monster whose weakness in locomotion and whose structural frailties were so glaring as to drive from the ranks of its adherents all except men of vision, of faith, and of fortitude. To those that were able to see in early failures only challenge to greater effort, we are indebted for the hastening of the German defeat in 1918.
But more than this, imbued with a conviction that modern science stood ready to offer to armies speed of movement in battle with protection against the inevitable hail of small arms fire, they urged that there was thus presented an opportunity through which the wise would prosper and the ignorant would meet disaster. Their number was all too few, but, fortunately, they persisted. Among them, none was more eloquent nor more farseeing than those distinguished soldiers that have contributed to this book. In a very marked sense, we owe to them the overwhelming nature of the Allied Tunisian victory—to say nothing of the triumphal odyssey of the British Eighth Army that began at El
Alamein and has already reached Catania.
42. The estimates are from Gina Kolata, Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It 6–21 (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999). The term “Spanish flu” derives from the fact that it was first detected in San Sebastián, Spain, in the winter of 1918.
43. DDE, At Ease 149.
44. Ibid. 150.
45. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Statistical History of the United States 735.
46. Ernest F. Miller (Corps of Engineers), who graduated fourth in the Class of 1915, was promoted to lieutenant colonel on September 28, 1918—two weeks before Eisenhower.
47. DDE efficiency report, March 15, 1918, to November 15, 1918, EL.
48. Quoted in Alden Hatch, Red Carpet for Mamie 116 (New York: Henry Holt, 1954).
49. DDE, At Ease 151.
50. Ibid.
51. Ibid.
52. Randolph to DDE, June 20, 1945, EL.
53. Citation, DSM, EL. Although Welborn recommended Eisenhower for the Distinguished Service Medal immediately after the war, he did not receive it until 1924. James B. Ord, Class of 1915, received the DSM for service with Pershing in Mexico, and four of Ike’s classmates were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for valor in France: Charles W. Ryder, Sidney C. Graves, John W. Leonard, and Harry Harvey (posthumously).
CHAPTER THREE: THE PEACETIME ARMY
The epigraph is an observation made by Eisenhower discussing demobilization after World War I. DDE, At Ease 152.
1. DDE, At Ease 151–52.
2. Ibid. 155.
3. MDE Oral History, EL.
4. DDE, At Ease 156. Also see John E. Wickman, “Ike and the Great Truck Train—1919,” Kansas History 139–47, Autumn 1990.
5. Vaughn Smartt, “1919: The Interstate Expedition,” 55 Constructor 18–25 (August 1973).
6. DDE, At Ease 157.
7. Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Report on Transcontinental Trip,” November 3, 1919, EL.
8. DDE, At Ease 163–65.
9. Susan Eisenhower, Mrs. Ike 59.
10. Dorothy Barrett Brandon, Mamie Doud Eisenhower: A Portrait of a First Lady 106–8 (New York: Scribner, 1954).
11. DDE, At Ease 166–67.
12. Martin Blumenson, 1 The Patton Papers 24 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1972).
13. Ambrose, 1 Eisenhower 70.
14. As Mark Clark put it, “Ike was not an envious man.” Mark Clark, interview by Merle Miller, quoted in Miller, Ike the Soldier 184.
15. DDE, At Ease 169–70.
16. Dwight D. Eisenhower, unpublished assessments of World War II personalities, Post-Presidential Papers, EL.
17. George S. Patton, “Tanks in Future Wars,” 16 Infantry Journal (May 1920).
18. Dwight D. Eisenhower, “A Tank Discussion,” 17 Infantry Journal 453–58 (November 1920).
19. DDE, At Ease 173.
20. John Eisenhower, interview by Merle Miller, quoted in Miller, Ike the Soldier 186.
21. Beatrice Patton’s books included Légendes Hawaiiennes, a compilation of Hawaiian lore that she wrote in French; Blood of a Shark, a historic novel set in Hawaii, and Reminiscences of Frederick Ayer, about her father. She also translated French Army manuals into English for the War Department and wrote the stirring “Second Armored Division March.” George commanded the 2nd Armored in North Africa in 1943.
22. Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Special People 199–200 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1977).
23. MDE Oral History, EL.
24. DDE to Elivera Doud, November 16, 1919, in Susan Eisenhower, Mrs. Ike 61.
25. DDE, At Ease 176.
26. Kevin McCann, quoted in Merle Miller, Ike the Soldier 191.
27. DDE, At Ease 180.
28. Ibid. 180–81.
29. Susan Eisenhower, Mrs. Ike 67.
30. DDE, At Ease 181.
31. Ibid.
32. Neal, Eisenhowers 64–65.
33. D’Este, Eisenhower 156.
34. Ambrose, 1 Eisenhower 75.
35. Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Special People 198–99.
36. Blumenson, 1 Patton Papers 738. U.S. Statutes at Large, ch. 227, 66th Cong., 2d sess., 1920.
37. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Statistical History of the United States 736.
38. Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay 49.
39. George F. Hofmann, “The Demise of the U.S. Tank Corps,” Military Affairs, February 1973.
40. Pershing’s date of rank as General of the Armies (a six-star rank) was September 2, 1919. Marshall, MacArthur, Eisenhower, Arnold, and Bradley were five-star Generals of the Army.
41. “No commander had an abler Chief of Operations,” Pershing later said of Conner. “I could have spared any other man in the A.E.F. better than you.” Quoted in Michael E. Bigelow, “Brigadier General Fox Conner and the American Military Forces” (master’s thesis, Temple University, 1984).
42. DDE, interview by Stephen Ambrose, quoted in Ambrose, 1 Eisenhower 75.
43. Merle Miller, Ike the Soldier 187. Eisenhower would later note that perhaps the greatest reward of his friendship with George Patton was meeting Conner that Sunday afternoon in the autumn of 1920. Carlo D’Este, Patton: A Genius for War 294 (New York: HarperCollins, 1995).
44. Blumenson, 1 Patton Papers 474.
45. DDE, At Ease 178.
46. The documents pertaining to the misappropriated $250.76 are in Eisenhower’s Army 201 file. Lengthy excerpts are reprinted in Merle Miller, Ike the Soldier 196–206.
47. Ibid. 202.
48. DDE, At Ease 182.
49. Conner to Pershing, n.d., reproduced in Merle Miller, Ike the Soldier 202.
50. General McRae’s reprimand stated:
The Secretary of War directs:
1st. That a letter, substantially as follows be sent to Major Dwight D. Eisenhower, Infantry, through the Chief of Infantry.
With respect to the charges preferred against you for violation of the 94th and 98th Articles of War, in that you did draw commutation of quarters, heat and light for a dependent son while your lawful wife was resident with you at Camp Meade, Md. and did, with you, during the period for which commutation was drawn for your son, actually occupy public quarters, heated and lighted from public funds, the decision of the Secretary of War is that you not be brought to trial on those charges but be reprimanded instead. In arriving at this decision, due weight has been given to your disclaimer of any intent to defraud the Government and to the fact that you voluntarily subjected yourself to investigation nearly a year after the commutation was drawn by you. Your admitted ignorance of the law, however, is to your discredit, and your failure to take ordinary precautions to obtain from proper authority a decision as to the validity of your claims, is in an officer of your grade, likewise to your discredit. Opinions of the Judge Advocate General and decisions of the Comptroller General are appropriately published for the guidance of all officers. A failure to conform to these opinions and decisions has, in the present case, led to these grave charges being properly preferred against you.
A copy of this letter will be filed with your record.
2nd. That all accompanying papers then be returned to the Office of the Inspector General for file.
51. DDE efficiency reports, March 31, 1921, and January 6, 1922, EL.
52. Quoted in Merle Miller, Ike the Soldier 208.
53. Lester David and Irene David, Ike and Mamie: The Story of a General and His Lady 90 (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1981).
54. DDE, At Ease 185; DDE, diary entry (1933) quoted in Merle Miller, Ike the Soldier 208.
55. DDE, interview by Charles H. Brown, quoted in Brown, “Fox Conner: A General’s General,” John Ray Skates, ed., Journal of Mississippi History 205, August 1987.
56. Ibid. 209.
57. DDE, At Ease 187.
58. Ibid. 194.
59. Virginia Conner, What Father Forbad 120–21 (Philadelphia: Dorrance, 1951).
60. Quoted in Susan Eisenhower, Mrs.
Ike 83.
61. Ibid.
62. Ibid. 85.
63. DDE efficiency reports, June 30, 1922, June 30, 1923, June 30, 1924, and August 31, 1924, EL.
64. Conner, What Father Forbad 120.
65. Eisenhower was not normally caustic in his memoirs, yet he was unforgiving when describing his assignment to Meade in 1924:
The whole thing may have started in a heavy think session of staff officers as an attempt to (what is now called) “improve the image” of the Army. On the other hand, it may all have come about because some bright young junior officer, relaxing with his seniors after a golf game, remarked for lack of anything more constructive to say, “Wouldn’t it be dandy to get an Army team together that could play an undefeated, untied season and smear the Marines?”
Such a casual question, if dimly comprehended by a senior officer who nods his head in silent acquiescence as the easiest way of being good company, can result in an amazing amount of activity. A younger man, loaded with energy, interprets the nod as official approval to start things moving. In no time at all, a Big Project is under way. The initiator simply announces that the General wants it. The same thing, I am sure, happens in other human organizations. But I suspect that it happened most easily in the Army of forty years ago when hot lines of communications were unknown and a hint that the old man wanted something done was a peremptory summons to action.
DDE, At Ease 196.
66. Ibid. 198.
67. Ibid. 199.
68. Ibid.
69. Ibid. 200.
70. Quoted in ibid. 201.
71. Hatch, Red Carpet for Mamie 141.
72. Ambrose, 1 Eisenhower 79.
73. Susan Eisenhower, Mrs. Ike 89.
74. Dwight D. Eisenhower, “On the Command and General Staff School,” August 1926, in DDE, Eisenhower: Prewar Diaries 43–58.
75. DDE, At Ease 202.
76. GSP to DDE, July 6, 1926, reproduced in Blumenson, 1 Patton Papers 801. Patton was then G-1 of the Pacific Division at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii.
77. A Young Graduate, “The Leavenworth Course,” Infantry Journal 60, June 1922.
CHAPTER FOUR: WITH PERSHING IN PARIS