Transcripts For CSPAN2 Susan Eisenhower How Ike Led 20240712

Tradition which began with president theodore roosevelt. The great and the near great have addressed this audience. But tonight we welcome the man who history will record as preeminent among world lead evers in the hour of greatest need. [applause] the rapid success of communist aggression are millions of people were envelope behind the far reaching iron current. Have in mind the stalemate in north korea, the rampaging inflation in our homeland which was eating up the savings of the thrifty and traveling Free Enterprise economy. Here then is the man, trained in war, who will be acclaimed by future generations as the man who laid the foundations of peace. [applause] and more, he is our president , whom we love with a deep and abiding affection. [applause] welcome to the Commonwealth Club. Along with the staff at the Commonwealth Club, putting together all these online programs. We have done really dozens of them since the covid crisis began and its my great pleasure to introduce susan eisenhower, the granddaughter of president eisenhower and written a great back, how ike lead its like a u2 supply plane overview of the principles that led his presidency and a young girls point of view on the man himself and its quite a combination and a nice combination because it is the combination you lived your life at because youre a political analyst. You have lived your life this way and you knew him personally for many years. I thought that was interesting help didnt pass away until you were already in college or around that age, right . Yes. So, welcome, everybody, and well get started to talk about president eisenhower for those who arent familiar with the dates he was president from 1953 until 1961, jfk was the president right afterwards and he was the supreme allied commander during world war ii. So, susan, what thank you very much for joining us from afar. Our online world we have all recognized can happen much more easily than we thought. But tell us a little bit about what inspired you to write the book because now this is you have been working in this field for a long time as political consultant and adviser and you decide to write about your own grandfathers work. Must have been very interesting to be objective and subjective at the same time. Youve did it successfully but couldnt have been easy. Well, george, let me thank you so much for the opportunity to be back the Commonwealth Club. Had the wonderful opportunity of presenting two of my other books in years past so its great to be here. The question is a very interesting one. Maybe as part of the disclaimer for our discussion this evening i should say that as a kid i was really raised to compartmentalize what i knew about his politics, about the period in which he governed, about the issues that he dealt with, and on the other side my relationship with him as a grandparent. So this book is a marriage of those two things as you said, and really quite on experiencer for me to put it together in one place because i was continually struck by how we were doing certain things as a family, as some he was dealing with some of these crises so it was interesting. The. He tuesday for doing it now revolve around the events. One is that the 75th 75th anniversary of the end of world war ii, just well, certainly vj day is about to occur, but we had of course the 75th anniversary of the end of the war in europe back in may of this year. Secondly, the eisenhower memorial in washington, dc will be dedicated on september 17th e scaled back version of the original self, but it will nevertheless be open to the public after that date. Then finally, we are going into an election year, and theres always a lot of thinking about the presidency as the most important fouryear election occurs, and so i thought that ike had something to say to us today, and i guess thats the reason i put it together. He really did and i found that obviously you took it from that angle but so many different elements that were so interesting today. One of them i thought this is a small side, tangent, but there were people who said in 1956 that were against him being reelected, saying youll actually be the electing Richard Nixon, not eisenhower because eisenhower is six and just had heart attacks and so on. So, pretty soon Richard Nixon will be the president. Same thing is going on today in the democratic party. People are saying biden will never be president for more than a month or two so youre electing kamala harris. Found it interesting that keeps being thrown out at people. Of course im not going to speculate on whether theres a difference in approach, but eisenhower is very conscious of what it would be to be a diminished president. We have to remember the president wilson there was really almost a scandal that people in the country didnt know how ill that president was. So ike was determined not to find himself in that situation for the good of the country, and after he had three illnesses during his presidency, and after each one of them he would get himself a very arduous test, like a round the world trip or a trip to europe that required lots of meetings and lots of stress, and he always tells advisers if i dont perform at a top level, you have to the me bus then ill resign. In any case, that never happened. He became actually rather adroit at managing his time, managing histories, and generally positioning himself to get through his second term. It was interesting also, a small tangent, but that he the doctors lied to him about the helium thing so he didnt think it was as serious and he kind of thought he might have made a different decision in 56 if they warned him. Thought that was interesting. One of the biggest decisions about running for second term is is that he had had a heart attack in 1955 and he had a doctor named Howard Snyder and although they were devote friends and had been together in one form or another since the war, Howard Snyder actually drove grandad up the wall. First of all he hovered. He came up with all sorts of things eisenhower wasnt allowed to do including watching the armynavy Football Game in realtime because howard snided decided it would raise the president s blood pressure. Ike really did care about the outcome hoff the game if think Howard Snyder was part of the team that wasnt actually really very direct with the president about his illitis situation, and back to your earlier question. , ike was not going to be a diminished president , and so he might well have decided differently, but i think he really at the end of the day my grandmother intervened for the first time i think since the early part of their marriage, and encouraged him to run again because she thought that he would probably die of another heart attack watching everything from the sidelines. Watch out for that high blood pressure. Its i find it interesting the way your grandmothers decision was much more easy to understand. The doctors decision, this the guy making all these decision about the war in korea and this, and all these Big Decisions, and youre worried but him watching a Football Game . Even if he takes so it seriously, it seemed a little ludicrous. Ty told the story in the book in the context how an extraordinary amount of power, how that warps the relationship width other people. Doesnt mean that it makes them terrible but it does change things, and the doctors for some reason i love this expression actually tried to handle this man, which would only make him more wound up, im sure, because he was a guy who was used to making Big Decisions and was perfectly capable of facing any difficult news. As a matter of fact in this last years of life, i saw this so often how brave he was and how ready he was to take whatever was coming. Matter of fact he even volunteered for some rather exotic treatments for his condition because he thought it might help people after he was gone. But this wasnt anybody you werent straightforward with, i want to say that for the record. Its a good transition because before we get to the big issues he faced i think good to talk about these personal relationships that he had. The friendships, people who kept him ground, his family and your own relationship with him and you have picture to show which include pictures of yourself with him when you were younger. This is him at the end of world war ii, right . Yes. This picture was taken 1945. By that time he had his five star, and i think its a lovely picture. Think he looks tire, though. I dont now if you would agree but hi looks content. If the picture were full length, you would see that he is wearing only a single bar of ribbons and five stars on his shoulder. Not one to talk around like a soviet general with medals that went to their waist and i like this picture because i think he looks approachable. I would say tired. And that is get to be a fairly accurate assessment since its possible to know how you could be working 100 hours a week or 130 hours a week sometimes, up all night, up in the middle of the night and not couple out of a threeyear stint like that really deeply tired. And in 45 how old was he. Born in 1890. 55 areas old. If you look at pictures when he was president of Columbia University he looks younger than in that picture even though it was another five years later. Well, he gave a lot of energy. So the next picture is a picture of you. Yes. A teenager with him. And a horse, right . Oh, yes. There is a horse in that picture . I cant see it from here. The back of the horse. Perfect. Well, ike became an amateur photographer and we have in our family collections all sorts of these homemade things. What i like is somebody else took a picture of ike taking a picture of me and i dont know. Every time i see this picture it makes me smile because of this bald head of his that my grandmother always said she loved to roll over at night in bed and pat his little bald head, but if theres a horse in the picture, from this stand standpoint i cant see it but i was the family horseback rider and this is the bond we had because he loved horses. The only animals on his farm he indulged in away, shape or form. He was cattle cattle and he depressed like banyard cats but he loved the horses and so i think its a really sweet picture. You have a short story in your book about when you were around 11 and the horses got away and he had just put in a putting green. Hit special putting green. Might tell that story. Show yours relationship nicely. I pandemic the story sews that his compassion in my lifetime guilt help put a putting green in because he wanted to have some privacy while he practiced his putting. Otherwise he would have had to have gone to the Gettysburg Country club which he enjoyed but there wasnt any privacy. People came out to watch him golf. One evening i was padlocking a get gate and five of the horses on the farm pushed against the gate, sort of almost knocked me over, and then went running all around the lawn in front of my parents grandparents sitting area where they always sat in the evening, and all five of the horses are running around like crazy and circling here and going there, and then made a huge sweep across his golf green, and i was more than in a state of panic. Everybody came out of the fields. Field hands, secret service, everybody, and we were trying to round up these animals. Finally did and then i had to go in and face the music and not only that hey ruin his golf green but i was late for dinner. So this was one of those moments in childhood you dont forget. So i walked in, he always sat in the swivel chair and swivelled around and he looked at me and he said, you know what i said to your grandmother . I havent seen he horses run like that since i was a kid in abilene, kansas. And of course i apologized after that, but i never heard of it again, and it was a very smart move on his part because the guilt would be lingering. I would try to never make a mistake like that again gut he was very is no not to bring it up or hold is against me or over my head because i think he knew i was devastated and wouldnt do it again. One of those classic experiences in a disney cartoon for children. This child makes the mistake of irresponsibility and then in the ones where the parents are good, they do what ike did and when theyre bad they look like george, i one more thing. I had the good sense to apologize profusely and take responsibility. That went down will. I would have hand a significant ongoing lecture but personal accountability had i not done so. You already learned that lesson, ill bit. Id learned that one already. So here he is, painting a picture. I assume that youre in that picture. Ow can see the post card hes painting from, at my mother and three of measure four siblings mitchell youngest sister was born in 1955 after that portrait was painted, but it was taken at camp david, and i guess one of the helpers at camp david came in and took a picture of him doing that, but he took up painting actually after the war. He sort of followed Winston Churchills example. He was intrigued by how much paint thing Prime Minister did while he was trying to get his head together, and then also, his own portrait painter gave him some oil paints as a present, and ike took it up then and then became really vary attached to his pastime because he found it centered him and while he was concentrate on the painting he was able to work through difficult problem. You have a short story he had an exhibit at an art museum and told somebody there is only one reason theyre being shown here and thats because i was president. Yeah. Theyd never give a guy like me an exhibit for paintings that look like this. Exactly him was very mod test. Modest, unlike churchill who took his parenting seriously and wanted to be regarded as a professional. Ike did it to give away as gifts and he gave cabinet members paintings of them. Painted all his war jim colleagues. Wartime kole legs and painted Prince Charles and Princess Anne for the queen of england and always full of apologies four their discussion but i think he had some talent. We have a picture of the picture of churchill. Thats in the next picture. Quite talented. Not bad. The other charming thing he was able to present the painting to Prime Minister churchill when churchill just stepped down but he was visiting in the United States, and theres a wonderful picture of churchill sort of looking it over, like churchill the painter would. Actually, ike also painted field Marshall Bernard montgomery who was one of his one of the big personalities he worked with during world war ii and its a lovely painting that hangs today in the British Embassy in washington, dc. You said one of his interesting personalities. A frenemy as they call him now. Something like that. Got along but hemmed took. The picks tour the next picture is one he gave to you. I often stood behind him when he was to at the easel. He had a in addition to his retirement years, he always insisted on having a studio somewhere nearby so in the white house it was on the second floor overlooking lafayette park, and it was around that time that i was standing behind him, admiring his work, and this is a landscape. Dont know what the scene is but he painted usually from post cards, and they were these landscapes he did were always serene, and its been noted that theres something ironic because probably every brush stroke is full of some kind of turbulence he is trying to make sense of. This painting at the bottom is dated dpe1956 1957 and in 1957 many things happened and i was intrigued when i looked at the back it says, to susan, 1958. That mean its its likely a painting done during the little rock crisis when he sent 101 are in Airborne Division to de segregate little rock and then after that is sputnik and soviet union launched the first artificial satellite the worlds first artificial satellite into space. So i look at this pointing and think, wow, those brush strokes must have provided some relief during those times of great controversy and crisis. Well go back to that, people talk about october surprises and in 1956, your grandfather certainly got two really huge ones. But lets finish the pictures and then good by the way, for the audience if you have any questions, send them in through the chat room, and well ask them. We got yours, gary, and get to the korean conflict later. The next picture is . Thats you, right . Thats me. I look like im tear my thoughtful and terribly thoughtful and he looks very kind. I like that picture because ive also wanted people to know that he had some very, very tough decisions and some very dark times during our history, when you think about what he saw and what he had to order during the war, but you know he never became hard or cynical, and i think as both a Family Member and an analyst, i think its remarkable. Says a lot about his character. One of the heardest things to do to make those decisions. Well get to dday later, to know at the best so many people will die and at the worst you dont even succeed. More people will die. People who made those decisions for us i think its why they get admired for decades and even centuries to come because its so crucial. Your grandfather is one of those. The next picture. A couple of pictures of him now. Heres a picture of him as a young man on a Baseball Team so you can see him before he is bald, right . Thats right. I was looking always fun to see ike with a full head of hair. So he is george maybe you can describe which one he is. And he had to learn how to snap he had to learn how to snap out of that downer, after taking cigarettes of course. One tangent, wasnt planning on going there. All leaders are not just people have obeyed several times, he was not a bad boy, but he certainly got himself in trouble at west point spirit and he didnt even go there to become a soldier, just another free education. Another interesting tangent. She ensured that with euless assessing grant. A lot of great leaders turned out to be civilians who had never imagined themselves as soldiers. I think george, one thing worth mentioning, especially in the context of west point, he grew up in a very religious household. And the eisenhowers were pacifists. They were godfearing pacifists. There is not an eisenhower who fought in the civil war so they made ikes uncle, Abraham Lincoln eisenhower because they wanted to express their views. But they were conscientious objectors. So you can imagine, the family feelings when ike goes off to west point. Because he cant wait any longer for his younger brothers to put him through college. Fascinating. And those who want more details it is in the book. The next picture is meeting with kruschof, your grandfather had a very interesting idea appeared we were talking about earlier. And i dont think very many people know about this. When he was talking about the distinctions of what was going on during the cold war, wasnt a matter of capitalism versus socialism. It was,. Guest he says actually in the speech of the commonwealth, its really about openness, democracy versus authoritarianism. And then he goes on to say it is about a free and open society as opposed to a closed and secretive society. And i just thought that was rather intriguing. A lot of times in order to fight the enemy that is perceived, you become like the enemy and often become secretive yourself sometimes. Guest i could add two things to that. I want to add something about this picture. This is a 1959. Even though they are smiling, the ignited states at this point has been thrown into what is called the berlin ultimatum. So the key to christophe is currently threatening the United States with punitive action. Over berlin. And if it is turned into war, there be no way that might have turned nuclear. Eisenhower invited christophe to come to United States. And he was here for ten days, ten days. During that time, the soviet premier was subjected to eisenhowers grandchildren as a way to soften him up. [laughter] and all i can say is the future of the world hung in the balance as to whether we were going to be well behaved that afternoon. [laughter] apparently managed to be in the world for the person left diaper it should not make jokes about this it was a very serious time. They did lift the ultimatum after the trip was some agreement to continue to talk about it in the summit in paris square pan sample talk about that since weve got were going to do it later but lets do it right now prayed so there is the u2 incident thats famous bread but would also is very famous is how much information, president eisenhower had what the russians actually had done. That he knew everybody was one method ever was lying there was driving the cold war. It was perfectly clear they did not have a force that we needed to worry about at that time when it was going on. Because they had the information. And so it maybe say little bit about what happened . Guest its all intriguing and sputnik was tied up in this. We just had the dawn of the space age during his administration there were no rules for outer space at all produce undecided legally whether or not sovereign airspace would extend all the way into outer space. Through an agreement with the soviet union, the United States and the soviet union agreed to launch our additional satellites in 1957 parts of the Eisenhower Administration was not surprised about that. The point of free access to space, which is what eisenhower strongly endorsed, and had to make it possible for the use of the free use of satellites in orbit. And the reason the satellites were so important to eisenhower is because it would help avert a surprise attack. And before the satellites could be launched, into free access to space a proposed overflights of the United States and the soviet union to fly their aircraft over each country territory to a short they would not be a Surprise Nuclear attack. Now i just have to say about the sputnik thing, the administration knew they were going to launch their satellites and done not even feel badly, as a matter fact sort of encourage the soviets to go first behind the scenes without telling them anything. They were sort of hoping the soviet union would go first, so the soviet union would accidentally establish a precedents for free use of outer space. So, not long after that, the satellites we have been working on, the corona project got launched. And we could tell from space and from the u2, quite precisely with the soviet military buildup look like. Including the number of rockets that they had. Nonetheless sputnik open the way for opposition to the Eisenhower Administration with preparation for the 1960 president ial campaign. I turned into a scandal which is known as the missile gap. The democrats were accusing the administration of failing to keep up with the huge leave the soviet union allegedly had an rockets and nuclear weapons. It turned out to be fiction. We were way ahead of the soviet union for the only way we could eventually tell that were by the two programs that eisenhower initiated and also the satellite program. Your version of the story, maybe think you must had some pretty good lawyers on his team advising, well if you do it this way, let the soviets go first this will set the precedents allowed to get what we what which is the free and open space thing. If we go first theyre going to say we are trying to dominate it and it wont work. We had a hint to because we had proposed the open skies treaty at the Geneva Summit and 55. In the soviet union absolutely rejected it. They would have had flights over the United States. They did not want this mutual overflight business. Because they thought we were going to use it for targeting purposes. So you can imagine that if we wouldve gone into space first, they would well have accused us of going into space for doing what the u2 was meant to do. Its sort of a complicated story. But is what i call playing the long game. Took a big political hit. But when sputnik went up before any of our successful satellites or our successful artificial satellites. But in the end, it was once again to establish a framework for space which allowed all of the tremendous amount of development to take place without conflict. Whos the right man in the right place because he certainly had the long game in his mind a lot. He had plenty of experience with it. The other thing it was very interesting about your book was because he had so much dealing with the russians during world war ii in soandso forth, he was in a very good position to have a realistic idea about what they were up to and what they would do and wouldnt do. And he did not consider them so fanatic they would destroy themselves. That they were somewhat rational player spread my father had a tremendous sense of humor, i must say. I asked him what he thought was one of the biggest intelligence conclusions of the 1950s in my late father said, soviets were not early christian martyrs. [laughter] in other words the assessment was the soviet leadership wanted to stay in power. And so, that is a very big difference between one thing to launch a preemptive strike. That is a big analytical difference. Host he just mentioned your father. Great story about the conversation he had with president eisenhowers father about korea. He wanted to go to korea pretty what its go back to with his troops to korea. This is pretty serious. You didnt find that out when youre young i assumed you found out when later, did you find out when your father was live . Guest oh yes. George, the story to summarize it is, when general eisenhower becomes a president eisenhower, now hes just a fivestar general. As a matter fact, he gave up his Army Commission to run for president. Because we dont have generals as president s of the United States. So he suddenly is the commanderinchief. And he is my father, who is a graduate of west point two. An army officer who was stationed in korea, comes back for his fathers inauguration and they have a very serious talk. And i said you have to decide whether youre going back to your unit in korea or i will command you to stay in the United States. But heres the deal. If you go back to korea, you need to carry a handgun with you at all times. And you have to promise me, this is an order, promise me that you will never be taken as a hostage. Or be in the situation where you could put the president of the United States in any jeopardy. And so with that really adds up to is my father agreed to commit suicide if he were in a situation where he was going to be taken hostage. And it sounds like a really not by that time my father and mother already had three kids. I was the third of that group. As a say my sister mary came along in 1955, this is several years before. Its kind of standing today. We think actually that art leaders ought to be sending their kids overseas. But the potential for blackmail and up at the president of the United States in a position that would undermine the security of the United States was unacceptable to those two officers. In my father agreed, thankfully part he lived to the age of 91. So he came home from korea without taking such a drastic inch tragic step. It is such a telling detail but theyd already gone through the father and son can make the steel and both understood that is the only thing you could do. And also, they were both military men is called doing your duty. Because the Mission Always supersedes any individual desires or however you would like to put it. I think it is moving. I think that story is important to. To understand the white eisenhower is to understand he was trained as a military and minds. He was a strategic leader. He was someone who is highly self disciplined. He did not like histrionics. He did not like over emotionalism. He believed in selfdiscipline and process. And process for him was extremely important. Because he did not once out freelancing party certainly did not want to make any impetuous uninformed decisions. It comes out of a life long experience in the military. Especially the highest levels. Host Great Stories about how he dealt with the weaponry issue and everything, making three different commissions. He did it in a very elaborate way. But lets move on to the next picture so here he is talking to the soldier. Several Great Stories, not only at the time during world war ii, but after its ten years after the second airborne he met with them. Hidden met with them i think this is the groupies meeting with now on their way off to fl fly. And i think it is interesting because i dont think people realize how personal he made this and how difficult that must have been to do that, to look them in the face. This pictures taken on jun june 5, just as the paratroopers were about to take off to the normandy coast. Two unknown fates. And part of the reason i think this particular picture is so wonderful, look at his face and how is smiling at those boys. I think it is particularly noteworthy. Because the airborne drop, his decision about the airborne drop was probably one of the toughest of that whole normandy enterprise. And the reason for it is rather simple. His technical expert, air marshall lee mallory, british air marshal who is responsible for the 24000 paratroopers who dropped warns ike about general eisenhower, about a week before the dday assault was to take place. He thought the paratroopers should be canceled. Because the germans had reinforce the position and he thought it was dangerous. And then between 50 and 70 of paratroopers and glider troops would be lost in this exercise. So ike went into a room for two hours. And decided against that recommendation. Because the paratroopers were central for opening a number of pathways off of omaha beach. And i think what is moving about this picture is that having made that decision a week earlier and having written a note for his pockets that said the landings fail, the responsibility is mine and mine alone. He comes out and looks at these paratroopers in the eyes. Thinking in his mind that his technical expert said between 50 and 70 of these boys are not coming home. Host yeah, there is another thing i think you detail is the fact that the original plans, when he got his hands on them, he changed them in increased, doubled the size of the invasion and added this plan about the paratroopers landing. And fortunately the advisor wasnt right that it was 4 that died in 10 were wounded or Something Like that. Still a high amounts. But not at all what he thought. And they succeeded where everyone assumed that without that the overall it couldve been an overall disaster. Host content. The paratroopers are the linchpin of the operation. I can tell you pretty much what eisenhower was saying at that point. Its because we know that is 10t airborne. We know it is because a number of them came back and told us what was being talked about. And he was asking them about home. He wasnt giving them a pep talk about getting on a plane and dropping behind lines in normative part he was talking to them about home. And i once asked my father why would he do that . In my father, military officer said they knew what theyre about to go do and theyre probably scared half to death. So imagine that smile and that man came out to come out and look them in the eye before they took off. And then say dont worry general we are going to whip hitler. And, the Great Exchange really. Host yes, very moving, a lot of moving tales in your story of your grandfather. So i think the next picture is , that is him at dday remembrance years later. You know about how old you are . I will tell you. Seventyfive, it was dday plus 20 years. That picture was taken. He gave it interview to Walter Cronkite and they drove all through the normandy coast line. And of course, this is the American Cemetery before it had been completely finished. It was a long process to put that cemetery together. But this was the first time i can come back. During the presidency, the tenth anniversary of dday occurred in 1955 when he was president. And he did not want to politicize what was really hallowed ground. We sent a gift to the people of normandy and spent the day in seclusion. But here he comes back for he is talking to Walter Cronkite. Look at the pain in his face. All of those kids who did not make it. And he was responsible for the decisions that may have cost some of those people their live lives. Walter cronkite says what you think when you sit here. I am very moved by this. He said they gave us another chance. And he said the question is what are we going to do it that chance . And i in no way think we are at a crossroads today. Or we have to ask ourselves what are we going to do with the chance we have by the time we move beyond this crisis . Are we going to be a more United Country . Or are we going to allow our divisions to separate us as a people . Scenic that is really a great segue. We have actually audio of president eisenhower. He spoke at the Commonwealth Club here 60 years ago. And as you know, and i have a little clip, maybe about three minutes long or everybody can hear his voice. I know a lot of people are not aware of it, its not as commonly heard as president kennedys voice for example with the clips. But the way he says what he says is almost as important. Its very relevant for today just as you were saying. This soon as that clip get started, we will listen to it. I find it fascinating, as we were saying a little bit earlier, this generation of men. My father was in the war. Dropped off in north africa. Went up to italy and sicily just going to run it. Im glad to be here this evening. To sustain your perfect score is having as a speaker, every president of the United States since this club was founded the beginning of the century. [applause] cemex rb dont have live audiences right now. [laughter] youve known needed to abandon the practice. [laughter] moved by a wisdom out of experience the organizer of the clubs revised for their new creation a noble and necessary purpose. This energizing spot was that i think from the words of the document of the time, california suffers weekly. Because defense elements of the population failed to cooperate for the common good as effectively as the bad elements cooperate for evil purposes. The dedication of that group and the un limiting efforts of its membership, to pursue the course of governments that remain un doomed for the almost six decades. The word commonwealth signifies a group united by common interests. But equally significant in the political realm a commonwealth as mr. Webster defines it, has come to mean generally but not always in association based upon free choice. Tonight i shall try to apply to some aspect of the world of international affairs, the founding principles of this organization. At this state suffered because of the failure of some elements to cooperate as effectively for good as others did for evil. No matter how wellintentioned can cooperate unless there is first established basis of common understanding. List the founders of your club recognized by noting that one of the great difficulties was that different groups in california did not know each other. They were separated at that time by wide areas. And they also distrusted each other. Just as california of 1903, the year your club was founded, was a far cry from the commonwealth of california today. So as we turned into 20th century, is scarcely recognizable as the one we know in 1960. In the same issues are here. And as you said, it can people cooperate . One of the big issues that you talked about in your books in several places, is that your grandfather was really a democrat or a republican. So he was a moderate. And you worked together quite often. In his cabinet he had democrats that used to be done. And it seems to me he was worried about the extremist at both ends. Those extremist at the time, on the right there is a john hurts society. There is mccarthy anticommunist part on the left there were the communists. And theyre trying help the soviet union to succeed. And other groups that were extreme. And he tried to run through the middle. When he was of course criticized for not moving fast enough by one group. And criticized by going too fast by the other group. But he definitely went right up the middle. And i have often thought today, it is interesting. Because its almost like that democrats and republicans without knowing it shot themselves in their own feet by gerrymandering all of the congressional districts. They did it, not to because what happened back in the 1980s, but they did in order to ensure they all got reelected. What that did it made the primary elections, the actual election. Because there group was always going to win. As a result that push towards the extreme. Because the primaries were extremist. We could undo that process and both parties it seems to me on to be interested in that. But if they dont get interested in it, we could have another president eisenhower that said what about getting the democrats that are moderate to Work Together and do that instead . Because people come i think about 60 of the voters i think from the polling aright in that situation. It is very interesting at think that is the framework for all the different issues he covered. We have a couple of questions here. There are plenty of things were going to cover. Gary landsman asks what he prevent a flare up of the korean conflict . There is a stalemate going on in korea. He came in as a general. A lot of people that he would win the war for us. But that is not how he went about doing it. He is very realistic about that, about the iron curtain, they didnt talk a little bit about how he dealt with that. Guest of course, it is a long story they always are. I think if you were to look at his let me start by saying that after he was elected president he went to korea as he promised during the campaign. And he actually took a helicopter ride over the terrain part he got pretty close to the front as a matter fact if he wasnt right on the front which i thought was very dangerous for a newly elected president. But he wanted to see, he wanted to see the terrain, he wanted to see the light of the land firsthand. I think the terrain already worried him a lot. Especially given the position of both sides. And he thought this is not a winnable war. Unless it becomes a big war and big weapons are used. He just did not think it was going to succeed. He was very much against war without an end that would bleed not just human lives but it would bleed the economy. And it would bleed energy and attention. He set about working out negotiations that led to the arm assist. But this later became a great point of contention as you know between those who were in favor of making the world safer or america to engage in small wars versus eisenhowers view that small wars start small but can get big. They can get big fast if your adversary is losing. In this particular case of course, later the big adversary was the soviet union that had weapons to match her own including the Hydrogen Bomb and have been developed just before i came to the presidency. So yes it turned out there was just the United States was more aware there is some flexibility that seemed to be present among our enemies and that fights. So an arm assist was achieved. It is still in place. I guess that is the last chapter of the korean situation, what are we going to do and are we going to stay in korea . Are we ever going to be able to negotiate some kind of proper end to that work . One of the things, another big issue he dealt with after the war was how to deal with germany. And we wont go into a lot of detail about that, because there are so many things to cover. But he did Say Something interesting that you recorded in your book. Said i would consider a policy towards germany successful if 50 years later it is a thriving democracy. In 1995, which was 50 years after he said that at the end of the war, with only a couple of years after germany had reunited is all one country. And certainly as a thriving democracy. So whatever the longrange strategies work, that one works. That one was right on point. It was amazing the chinese were told the chinese lookahead 100 years paid we are told the russians look ahead. But we have had president s that have done that. And they cant escape the policies in place of someone takes them away. But they can set the policies in a way that it makes sense for people to continue them. A lot of those were done. I just want to say that i think, for course he was a strategic during the war as president. I think he was always looking for sustainable strategies. And i like the idea of a sustainable strategy. Because it is a good strategy if it stays in place and meets the needs of a longer period of tim time. So many of the things we call strategies today have like a one term halflife. And then it can go on for longer than that of course. But big course corrections have to be made. I think the accomplishments hold up pretty well over the decades. And it was playing the long game anyway. When he liberated that concentration camp and was horrified, horrified by what he saw. So shocked they said he still cant find words for how he felt. He was very articulate writer. You know, its first reaction was what are people going to say in 50 years . Are they going to say the holocaust never happened unless we chronicle it now. So he said everybody including my father into those camps to photograph it, congressman came from the United States, that was all on his orders. The other elements we were talking about, about trust. It seems to me that you have a problem and are trying to come to an agreement with each other today. Everybody has their own point of view, which has always been true. We are getting used to a democracy. That is everybody gets to have their points of view. Some people are very mad at the educated elite for trying to run things based on principles, so on and so forth. Against the way they would want to do it. You need to have a persuasive argument about it. In addition to that you say what is it that we have in common . One of the things we have learned over the years is that it is alright if we educate women. And is not going to be the end of society. In fact our society is now better. Its more productive. Its not bad if we educate all kinds of people should be educated. Although anybody of doesnt want to be educated thats another argument. They dont need to be educated they dont want to. You have a certain element of what it is to have in common and safe that is our goal, and we all agree but like 70 agree on those goals, then we can trust each other if we just stick to those goals. This is what were going to work on together. The promise to commish and no ones going to promise what theyre going to accomplish in politics. There are a whole bunch of people you get to agree with you. That is absolutely true. Eisenhower once said at the beginning of his ministration, when he was describing a problem. He said, he described it as the fear in the hearts of men. As the lack of trust is fear. And thats more to your point. Its a world responsible leader into perspective. The fears that we may have. Versus how dire things really are. Weve gotten to the point in this country now, or everything is a threat. Im sorry but not all threats are equal. Some are more important than others. And i think this is one thing a reader might get from this book. The true strategist thanks about these things is to understand what fundamental questions are. Because nobody is effective if they take on absolutely every issue. What are the ones whats hidden it be the long pole on the tenth it keeps the temp entered tent from collapsing. What people dont realize is that maine tentpole is coming down. They did about the fear, its absolutely right paid one of the reasons they were successful after world war ii was the level of competence in america. Look at what we had just accomplished. Yes, they were big scary things going on. There big scary things from her childhood we certainly remember paid but several other things. There were still the confidence that we can meet our problems and overcome them. Because we overcame bigger problems already in world war ii. So why cant we do these . The amount of fear that has been generated since 911 about this and the next thing and the next, you know there plenty of terrorism in the 70s and 80s in europe and america, it did not scare people as much. Switch to certain amount of political exploitation around fear. Some people in washington said if you want to get anything done on capitol hill or at the white house, you have to say it is a National Security threat. I have one very cynical friend calls it threat marketing. Whatever the cases coming to the early beginnings of that with the missile gap in the story that i have written. Certainly we should be vigilant an alert at all times. But we have to also understand the state of our economy and the moral of the story we have as a country both domestically and internationally, all of these things eisenhower thought were critical to our own National Security. And military capabilities, sure. But that was not the only thing that was part of our National Security. Host writes. Leases threat marketing to get ahead. But what i would hope for is at least he would john kennedy did. Once he won, he said will actually not as bad as we thought. To bring it back down again. Its like a game, trash talking in a basketball game. So they are not at the top of their game so that you win the game. In a way, shows a lack of confidence you could win the game without this. Thus we most games are played pretty be nice if the politicians would then say i was just kidding. Or not that i was kidding but now that im here and i found that the information its not as bad, i said. So we could all go beat back to been a little bit more comfortable. Because that level of fear is really the thing that dissolves society. There is another fear thereto. It is probably contributed the results of social media. Just a whole bunch of cultural factors. But people are very afraid of being seen as weak. Or as a winner or a loser. I dont think my grandfather would understand that at all. He really believed it Second Chances. And if you believe in Second Chances you dont believe in the whole winner, loser accusations that are hurled at people. These are attacks on peoples motives and their personalities. And i dont think it helps at all. It doesnt help because then people might make ill informed decisions just so they are seem to be doing something. When in fact spending more time studying the issue, looking at the background, thinking about the longterm consequences are being more productive. Your grandfather definitely embodied that. Everyone is a loser, winners are just losers with more patients. [laughter] guest that is good i like that. Host we have one last question here, there is time fo for. How did he find it different to be a leader in the military versus leading in policy and government. What was you address that in your book that so interesting. Guest im so happy for that question. There is no question that Dwight Eisenhower had a learning curve when it got into full blown retail politics. Percival, one of the big differences is when you are a fivestar general, you outrank everybody. Right . And the military is organized in a way that follows orders. I would say that its pretty evident in the books, a fivestar general he was remarkably flexible. He is not like his former boss general Douglas Macarthur who was tough on troops and addicted to the attention he received. I wanted to be the on macarthur i think. In any case, i think he described it as the chief of staff years the biggest job in the military with commanders supreme commander, is to think through how he really views things. And what his strategy is going to be. And then bring others along to lead people. But then he says ive noticed him being in washington that making up your own mind on something is only just the beginning of the problem. [laughter] and then he outlines all of the various problems there are. You dont know who is connected to who. Who has a grudge against two. It is actually a very, very funny passage. Think its particularly funny because he wrote it in his diary which he never thought would get published for all of us to read and enjoy it. [laughter] but you know, use awesome early hiccups in the campaign. And mostly in the campaign. He picked up the algorithm of it pretty quickly. And i can just say, that if we dont understand some of those hiccups like his staff releasing his speech during the mccarthy encounter, in minnesota, then we are missing the adjustment he had to make. I think probably any time, any leaks or any staff did not do what they were told to do, this was a big problem with him. Because it is not what you do in the military. And so he ran a tight ship in the white house. And, believe it or not his associates were tremendously respectful of it. I knew many of his associates. And they liked the fact they were given a lot of leeway. He was a very good person at delegating. But they understood that they had to be personally responsible for the decisions they were making two. I should add to that eisenhower had a pretty good sense of who needed the short rains and who needed more latitude. But its the question, thanks much for asking it. We tend to study eisenhower the president eisenhower the general. But we dont really put the two of them together as much as we should. Because this adjustment was a real one starting with his role as chief of staff of the army. [laughter] and going on from there. Host the people skills of dealing with somebody different kinds of generals. And the egos we had to deal with, that is one thing. But the politicians, he had to learn a whole new set of buttons to push or whatever to understand these people, what drives them, certainly not trying to win a war, win elections yes i can sort of translated. If i did a wonderful job of showing both sides of that. It is a great book for those of you, much more detail, get it . Enjoy it. Im sorry you all at home and have time to read it, is a great idea for anybody that wants to go back to that period of time. Thank you very much susan for explaining your book. In the great pictures of your grandfather and yourself from your childhood. And so ends another that the Commonwealth Club. Guest thank you george. Host my pleasure have a great day. You are watching book tv on cspan2, television for serious readers. Here are some programs to watch out for this weekend, under Author Interview program, after words, Sara Huckabee sanders reflects on her time as the White House Press secretary for the trump administration, cnn chief media correspondent Brian Stelter offers his thoughts on the relationship between President Trump and fox news. A former democratic congressman katie hill of california, chronicles the events that led to her resignation for it by Schedule Information about tb. Org or consult your program guide. Cnet hello welcome to todays virtual program. My name is Laura Rosenberger im the director of