Eisenhower in War and Peace

by Jean Edward Smith

  The epigraph is a comment by Mamie Eisenhower to Dr. John Wickman, MDE Oral History, EL.

  1. MDE, interview by John Wickman, EL.

  2. Ibid. The comment is by Marjorie Clay, wife of General Lucius D. Clay, who was subsequently CEO of Continental Can Corporation and then the managing partner of Lehman Brothers—scarcely a stranger to an affluent lifestyle. Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay 72.

  3. American Battle Monuments Commission, A Guide to the American Battle Fields in Europe (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1927). The Guide was sold by the Superintendent of Documents for 75 cents.

  4. United States Army, Center of Military History, American Armies and the Battlefields of Europe (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1992).

  5. MDE, interview by John Wickman, EL.

  6. Ibid.

  7. Ibid.

  8. D’Este, Eisenhower 192.

  9. Perret, Eisenhower 99.

  10. Pershing to Major General Robert H. Allen, August 15, 1927, DDE 201 File, EL.

  11. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Memorandum for the Assistant Commandant, Army War College, Subject: An Enlisted Reserve for the Regular Army, March 15, 1928. Reprinted in DDE, Eisenhower: Prewar Diaries 62–79. Also see Benjamin Franklin Conkling, “Dwight D. Eisenhower at the Army War College, 1927–1928,” 1 Parameters 26–31 (1975).

  12. DDE efficiency report, June 30, 1928, EL.

  13. War Department Special Orders 284, November 30, 1927, EL.

  14. DDE, At Ease 205.

  15. War Department Special Orders 298, December 16, 1927, EL. The styling of Eisenhower’s orders, “By order of the President,” was not customary and suggests Pershing applied his influence outside the chain of command to have Ike join him.

  16. Ernest Hemingway, “Living on $1,000 a Year in Paris,” Dateline, Toronto: The Complete Toronto Star Dispatches, 1920–1924 88, William White, ed. (New York: Scribner’s, 1985).

  17. Premier étage should not be translated as “first floor.” The ground (first) floor of most European apartment buildings is occupied by the portier and his or her family, plus various tradespeople. The next floor up, the premier étage (or piano nobile in Italian), is the preferred floor in the building, usually with higher ceilings, larger windows, and greater ornamentation.

  18. Quoted in Hatch, Red Carpet for Mamie 150.

  19. Quoted in Merle Miller, Ike the Soldier 241.

  20. DDE, At Ease 206.

  21. Susan Eisenhower, Mrs. Ike 94.

  22. Colin Jones, Paris: The Biography of a City 385 (New York: Viking, 2005).

  23. T. Gerald Kennedy, Imagining Paris: Exile, Writing, and American Identity 12 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1993).

  24. Jones, Paris 388.

  25. Hart Crane, postcard to Samuel Loveman, in Americans in Paris: A Literary Anthology 335, Adam Gopnik, ed. (New York: Library of America, 2004). Americans in Paris includes a delightful collection of Paris articles by noted American authors ranging from Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson to Art Buchwald, James Baldwin, A. J. Liebling, and Jack Kerouac.

  26. Rosalind Massow, “Ike and Mamie Talk About 50 Years of Marriage,” Parade, June 26, 1966.

  27. DDE, At Ease 206.

  28. On May 11, 1929, the Paris Tribune noted that “Major and Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower entertained a few friends [sixteen couples] yesterday evening, commencing with a cocktail party at their home in the Quai d’Auteuil taking their party later to the dinner dance at the Union Interalliée.” The Paris Herald carried a similar report. Susan Eisenhower, Mrs. Ike 98.

  29. George A. Horkan, Jr., interview, EL.

  30. DDE, At Ease 205.

  31. John S. D. Eisenhower, Strictly Personal 304 (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1974).

  32. John S. D. Eisenhower, General Ike: A Personal Reminiscence 143–75 (New York: Free Press, 2003).

  33. Vernon A. Walters, Silent Missions 489–91 (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1978).

  34. Janet Flanner, Paris Was Yesterday 52–54 (New York: Viking Press, 1972).

  35. John J. Pershing, My Experiences in the World War, 2 vols. (New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1931).

  36. DDE, At Ease 208.

  37. Ibid.

  38. Ibid. 208–9.

  39. Ibid. 205.

  CHAPTER FIVE: WITH MACARTHUR IN WASHINGTON

  The epigraph is General MacArthur’s comment on Eisenhower’s efficiency report, June 30, 1933, EL. MacArthur always wrote Ike’s efficiency reports in longhand.

  1. On February 18, 1933, Major General George Van Horn Moseley wrote Ike: “Over three years ago when I arrived here and found myself in need of expert assistance you, a stranger to me, were recommended and I had you brought to the Office of The Assistant Secretary of War. What a great blessing you have been!” EL. Also see Moseley to DDE, September 26, 1935, and D’ Este, Eisenhower 203.

  2. National Defense Act, June 4, 1920, 41 Stat. 759.

  3. According to Eisenhower, Payne “attends every tea-dance and reception to which he is invited. Likes also to appear at conventions, dinners, etc., where he is invited to speak but cares very little what material appears in the speech. His thrill comes from the invitation itself.” DDE diary, labeled as “Chief of Staff Diary,” EL.

  4. Ibid., November 9, 1929.

  5. DDE to Assistant Secretary of War, “Report of Inspection of Guayule Rubber Industry,” June 6, 1930, in DDE, Eisenhower: Prewar Diaries 126–38.

  6. The original of the 1930 Plan for Mobilization is at the Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa. A copy is at the EL. For a useful analysis of Ike’s role, see Kerry E. Irish, “Apt Pupil: Dwight Eisenhower and the 1930 Industrial Mobilization Plan,” 70 Journal of Military History 31–61 (January 2006). By 1940 the plan was dreadfully outdated. “I don’t recall ever looking at it,” said General Lucius D. Clay, who was in charge of all military procurement in World War II. Clay, interview, Columbia Oral History Project, Columbia University (COHP).

  7. Moseley to DDE, February 18, 1933, EL. On Ike’s efficiency report dated December 30, 1930, Moseley described him as “a powerfully built fellow—a strong body supporting an unusually fine mind. An outstanding personality in any group, and one of the coming men in the Army.” EL.

  8. DDE diary, June 14–August 10, 1932, in DDE, Eisenhower: Prewar Diaries 225–26.

  9. When Moseley retired in 1938, Marshall wrote, “I know you will leave behind a host of younger men who have a loyal devotion to you and for what you have stood for. I am one of that company, and it makes me very sad to think that I cannot serve with you and under you again.” Marshall to Moseley, September 9, 1938, in 3 The Papers of George Catlett Marshall 626, Larry I. Bland, ed. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986). Also see Forrest C. Pogue, 2 George C. Marshall 12–13 (New York: Viking, 1986); Ed Cray, General of the Army: George C. Marshall, Soldier and Statesman 6–7, 118, 479 (New York: Norton, 1990).

  10. D. Clayton James, 1 The Years of MacArthur 383–84 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970).

  11. DDE, At Ease 213.

  12. Moseley to Payne, October 9, 1930, Moseley Papers, Library of Congress.

  13. Moseley to General Malin Craig, May 18, 1938, ibid. Also see New York Herald Tribune, May 14, 1938; Atlanta Constitution, May 24, 1938.

  14. Moseley’s rancid views are captured in unexpurgated form in his unpublished four-volume memoir, “One Soldier’s Journey,” among the Moseley papers at the Library of Congress. The quotation is from volume four, pages 215–19. Also see Moseley’s speech to the National Defense Meeting in Philadelphia, March 28, 1939, published by the Pelley Publishers of Asheville, N.C.

  15. DDE to Moseley, January 24, 1934, in DDE, Eisenhower: Prewar Papers 261–62.

  16. DDE to Moseley, August 27, 1942, EL. For a remarkable survey of anti-Semitism in the Army, see Joseph W. Bendersky’s The “Jewish Threat”: Anti-Semitism of the U.S. Army (New York: Basic Books, 2000). I am indebted to Professor Bendersky for his analysis of Ike’s relati
ons with General Moseley.

  17. DDE, At Ease 213. Moseley, for his part, later recognized that he was a liability for Ike. As he wrote on September 29, 1943:

  You must always keep me far in the background and unknown as far as our friendship is concerned. As you know, I spoke over the country in ’38 and ’39, attacking the subversive and un-American elements and attempting to show how peace could be maintained. I made many enemies. Thus, I am a liability and must not be mentioned in any way in connection with your brilliant career.

  On October 7, Eisenhower generously replied, “Never doubt my pride in our friendship that has endured so many years.” EL.

  18. Kate Hughes, interview by Barbara Thompson Eisenhower, quoted in Susan Eisenhower, Mrs. Ike 110.

  19. Neal, Eisenhowers 78.

  20. Blumenson, 1 Patton Papers 857.

  21. John S. D. Eisenhower, Strictly Personal 8.

  22. Susan Eisenhower, Mrs. Ike 111.

  23. John S. D. Eisenhower, Strictly Personal 6.

  24. Department of the Army, Army Almanac 52–62.

  25. James, 1 Years of MacArthur 366.

  26. Moseley wrote: “When the undersigned was selected for Deputy Chief of Staff, The Assistant Secretary of War, Mr. Payne, after going over the situation carefully, stated that Major Eisenhower was his first choice for my place. Only the fact that Major Eisenhower was a major and could not be jumped to a grade appropriate to the position, prevented him from having the place.” DDE efficiency report, December 20, 1930, EL. Also see Eisenhower’s diary entry of November 24, 1930, in DDE, Eisenhower: Prewar Diaries 146.

  27. Public Resolution Number 98, 71st Cong., 2d sess., H.J. Res. 251.

  28. In addition to the secretary of war, the commission included Secretary of the Navy Charles Francis Adams, Secretary of Agriculture Arthur M. Hyde, Attorney General William D. Mitchell, Secretary of Commerce Robert P. Lamont, and Secretary of Labor William N. Doak; Senators David A. Reed (R., Pa.), Arthur Vandenberg (R., Mich.), Joseph Robinson (D., Ark.), and Claude A. Swanson (D., Va.); Representatives John J. McSwain (D., S.C.), Ross Collins (D., Miss.), William P. Holaday (R., Ill.), and Lindley H. Hadley (R., Wash.).

  29. DDE diary, March 13, 1931, in DDE, Eisenhower: Prewar Diaries 168.

  30. Ibid., May 18, 1931, page 171. Said MacArthur:

  The [War] Department holds to the belief that a reasonable preparation for defense is one of the best guarantees of peace. In our attempts to equalize the burdens of, and remove the profits from, war, we must guard against the tendency to over-emphasize administrative efficiency and underemphasize national effectiveness.… It is conceivable that war might be conducted with such regard for individual justice and administrative efficiency as to make impossible those evils whose existence in past wars inspired the drafting of Public Resolution 98…. It is also conceivable that the outcome of such a war would be defeat.

  May 13, 1931, Records of the Secretary of War, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

  31. MacArthur to DDE, November 4, 1931, EL.

  32. Eisenhower provided Senator Arthur Vandenberg with the text of a proposed amendment to the “taking clause” of the Fifth Amendment (which prevents the government from taking private property for public use without just compensation).

  Change the period to a semi-colon and add the following:

  Provided, however, that in time of war Congress may regulate or provide for the regulation of prices, rent, or compensation to be exacted or paid by any person in respect of the sale, rent or use of any real or personal property, tangible or otherwise, without regard to any limitation contained in this Article or any other Article of the Constitution.

  Memorandum for Senator Arthur Vandenberg, March 7, 1932, in DDE, Eisenhower: Prewar Diaries 220–21.

  33. DDE, interview by Raymond Henle, July 13, 1967, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library.

  34. Dwight D. Eisenhower, “War Policies,” 40 Cavalry Journal 25–29 (1931).

  35. DDE diary, March 28, 1931, EL.

  36. Ibid. April 27, 1931.

  37. Report of Lieutenant Colonel M. A. Dailey, Assistant Chief of Medical Service, Walter Reed General Hospital, August 25, 1934, EL.

  38. DDE diary, December 20, 1931 (Eisenhower’s emphasis).

  39. Ibid. February 15, 1932.

  40. DDE to John Doud, undated, in DDE, Eisenhower: Prewar Diaries 212–13. (Eisenhower’s emphasis.)

  41. 1 Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant 138 (New York: Charles L. Webster, 1885).

  42. Ibid. 139.

  43. Manchester, American Caesar 129–30; cf. James, 1 Years of MacArthur 291–92. Professor James cites journalist Robert Considine, who quotes Louise after her wedding night that MacArthur “may be a general in the Army, but he’s a buck private in the boudoir,” 669n38. Biographer Geoffrey Perret believed Louise’s comment was a compliment, suggesting that MacArthur made love with reckless abandon. Old Soldiers Never Die: The Life of Douglas MacArthur 127 (New York: Random House, 1996). Professor Carol Morris Petillo, in Douglas MacArthur: The Philippine Years, states that although MacArthur was already past forty when he married, “there is little evidence to suggest that he had ever known a woman intimately, and considerable reason to believe that he had not.” At page 140 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1981). Douglas and Louise were divorced in 1929.

  44. DDE diary, June 15, 1932, in DDE, Eisenhower: Prewar Diaries 230.

  45. Ibid.

  46. Quoted in Merle Miller, Ike the Soldier 258–59.

  47. DDE, At Ease 213–15.

  48. Herbert Hoover, 3 Memoirs 55–56 (New York: Macmillan, 1952).

  49. 113 Literary Digest 6 (November 12, 1932).

  50. Ernest Lindley, The Roosevelt Revolution: First Phase 87–89 (New York: Viking Press, 1933).

  51. World War Adjusted Compensation Act, May 19, 1924, 43 Stat. 121.

  52. The most complete coverage of the Bonus Army affair is provided by Paul Dickson and Thomas B. Allen in their superb book The Bonus Army: An American Epic (New York: Walker, 2004), to which I am deeply indebted.

  53. Time, April 11, 1932. The Patman papers are at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Tex. For Patman’s role in the bonus fight, see Nancy Beck Young, “Wright Patman’s Entrepreneurial Leadership in Congress,” in Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress: The New Deal and Its Aftermath 79–97, Thomas P. Wolf, William D. Pederson, and Byron W. Daynes, eds. (Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 2001).

  54. 72nd Cong., 2d sess., H.J.R. 1, 1932.

  55. Dickson and Allen, Bonus Army 317.

  56. Fleta Campbell Springer, “Glassford and the Siege of Washington,” 145 Harper’s 641–55 (1932). Also see John Dos Passos, “The Veterans Come Home to Roost,” 71 The New Republic 177 (1932); Donald J. Lisio, The President and Protest: Hoover, MacArthur, and the Bonus Riot (New York: Fordham University Press, 1994).

  57. Reflecting on the episode in his Reminiscences, MacArthur wrote, “The [bonus] movement was actually far deeper and more dangerous than an effort to secure funds from a nearly depleted federal treasury. The American Communist Party planned a riot of such proportions that it was hoped the United States Army, in its effort to maintain peace, would have to fire on the marchers. Red organizers infiltrated the veteran groups and presently took command of their unwitting leaders.” Douglas MacArthur, Reminiscences 93 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964). The record does not support General MacArthur’s contention. The quotation is reprinted to illustrate MacArthur’s mind-set.

  58. Moseley, 2 “One Soldier’s Journey” 557–64, unpublished memoir, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress. Later that day Moseley wrote his bleak estimate of the situation to his friend Herbert Corey.

  Intensive investigations of the past months have disclosed that we are harboring a very large group of drifters, dope fiends, unfortunates and degenerates of all kinds, that had become “a distinct menace” to the nation. For years we have been breeding and accumulating a mass of inferior people, still a minority it is true, but
tools ready at hand for those seeking to strike at the very vitals of our institutions. Liberty is a sacred thing, but it ceases to be liberty when under its banner minorities force their will on the majority.

  59. Moseley to MacArthur, November 3, 1942, quoted in James, 1 Years of Mac-Arthur 679. Also see Moseley 2 “One Soldier’s Journey” 138–39.

  60. Blumenson, 1 Patton Papers 895.

  61. James F. and Jean H. Vivian, “The Bonus March of 1932: The Role of General George Van Horn Moseley,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 31, Autumn 1967.

  62. Secretary of War to All Corps Area Commanders (in code), June 10, 1932. Adjutant general’s files, 1926–1939, Bonus Marchers, RRG 94, NARA.

  63. Joan M. Jensen, Army Surveillance in America, 1775–1980 203 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1991). Also see Colonel James Totten to AG, June 27, 1932, in Adjutant General’s files, supra.

  64. J. Edgar Hoover to Colonel William H. Wilson, Military Intelligence Division, General Staff, July 11, 1932.

  65. Harry C. Lar to Moseley, June 4, 1932, quoted in U.S. Military Intelligence Reports: Surveillance of Radicals in the U.S., 1917–1941, Randolph Boehm, ed. (Frederick, Md.: University Publications of America, 1984).

  66. Lisio, President and Protest 90–111, 194–225, 310–11. Also see Dickson and Allen, Bonus Army 124ff.

  67. James, 1 Years of MacArthur 394. Illustrative of the Army’s paranoia, Major General Courtney Whitney wrote that the BEF ranks were swollen with “a heavy percentage of criminals, men with prison records for such crimes as murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, burglary, blackmail and assault. A secret document which was captured later disclosed that the Communist plan covered even such details as the public trial and hanging in front of the Capitol of high government officials. At the very top of the list was the name of Army Chief of Staff MacArthur.” There was no such document, except in Army lore handed down to Whitney. Courtney Whitney, MacArthur: His Rendezvous with History 513 (New York: Knopf, 1955).

  68. Report to the Secretary of War, August 15, 1932, in DDE, Eisenhower: Prewar Diaries 234–35. The report was written by Ike for MacArthur’s signature. “A lot of furor has been stirred up,” wrote Eisenhower, “but mostly to make political capital. I wrote the General’s report, which is as accurate as I could make it.”