Transcripts For CSPAN2 Susan Eisenhower How Ike Led 20240711

[applause] this occasion [inaudible] a tradition which began with president theodore roosevelt. The great and the new great have addressed this audience, but tonight we welcome a man whom history will record as renowned among World Leaders in the hour of greatest need. [applause] i had in mind the rapid secession communist aggression as millions of people were involved behind the farreaching iron curtain. Ivan mine the stalemate of korea, the rampaging inflation in our homeland which was eating up the savings, and traveling our Free Enterprise economy. Here then is the man trained in war, who will be unclaimed 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 t common with clifford on george hammond, chair of the communities from ich put together todays program, along with the staff at theommonwealth club, the staff is helping to putogether all these online programs. Didnt dozens and dozens of th since the covid crisis begin. Its my great pleasure to inoduce susan eisenhor whos you with us today. Shes the gnddaughter of president eisenhower and shes written a great book, how ike led. Like i used to spy overvw of his whole, the principles elevate his presidencyut with little young girls point ofiew on the man himself and actually que a combination. Its a nice commissionecause its also a combination that you lived your life, susan, because you are political analyst, you lived your life this week but in addition he can personally for many, many years. He didnt pass away until you were already in college around that age, right . Yes. Welcome everybody and we are going to get started to talk about president eisenhower. For those of you who were not through with the dates he was president from 1953 until 1961. Jfk was a. Jfk was a present right afterwards, and he was the supreme allied commander during world war ii. Susan, first of all thank you very much for joining us from afar in our online world we all recognize couldnt happen much were easily than w thought. But tell us a little bit about what insred you to write the book. You have been working in this field for a long time as a political consultant, et cetera, and advisor, and you decide to write about your own granathers worked. It mustve been interesting to to try to be objective and subjective at the se time. You did it successfully it couldnt have been easy. George kentirst of all let me thank you so much for the opportunity back at the commonweal club. I have a wonderful opportunity of presenting to make a bit of the books of the club i years past so its great to be back in to talk about this. Guess i think the question is aa very interesting one. Maybe as part of the disclaimer for our discussion i should say that as a kid i was really raise to compartmentalize what i knew about his politics, about the period in which he governed, about the issues that he dealt with. On the other side our relationship was as a grandparent. This book is a marriage of those two things as you said and it was quite an experience for me to put in one place. I was continually struck by h we were doing certain things as a family as he was dealing with some of these crises. That was interesting the impetus for why to do it now revolved around three event i guess. One is the 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 annersary of the end of the war in europeack in may of this year. Secondly, the eisenhower memorial in washington, d. C. Will be dedicated on September September 17 in a much more scaledback version of its original self, but it will nevertheless, the open to the public after thadate. And finally we are goingnto an electionear, and theres always a lot of thinking about the presidency ashe most important for your election occurs. Four years i thought i cant something t say to tuesdy and against thatuess that the reason i put it together. He really did and i found that, you tookt from that angle but the summary different elements that were so interesting today. As applible to one of them a thought, its a small aside, tangen but there were people who sit in 1956 that were against him being reelected ying you are going to be electing Richard Nixon. You will not be electing eisenhower because eisenhower is sick. He justad these heart attacks and so on. Pretty soon Richard Nixon be the president. Same thing gng on today in the democratic party. People are sayin biden will never be president for more than a month or two so yre really electing kamala harris. I found it interesting that keeps getting thrown out at people. Of course im not going to speculaten wheer theres a difference in approach but eisenhower was very conscious of what it would be to be a diminished president. Remember that president wilson was really almost a scandal that people in the country did know how ill that president was. Ike was determined not to find itself in the situation for the good of the country. After he had three illnesses during his presidency and after each one of them he would give himself a very arduous test, like around the world trip or a trip to europe that required lots of meetings and lots of stress. He always tells advisors, if i dont perform at top level, you have to tell me because then i will resign. In any case the never happened. He became actually rather adroit and managing his time, managing his stress and generally positioned himself take it through his second term. It was interesting also, a small tangent, but doctors lied to them about the heliu thing so we didnt think it was as serious, and the kind of thought he might have made a different decision and 56 if they had warned him about it. I thought that was interesting. One of the biggest decisions about running for second term is he had a heart attack in 1955. 1955. He had a doctor named general Howard Snyder, and although they were devoted friends and they had been together in one form or another since the war, Howard Snyder actually drove granddad up a wall. First of all he hovered. He came up with all sorts of things eisenhower wasnt about to do including watching the Army Navy Football game in real time because Howard Snyder decided it would raise the president s Blood Pressure. Ike really did care about the outcome of that game. Howard snyder was part of the team that come wasnt actually very direct with the president about his ileitis situation. Again back to your earlier question, ike was not going to be a diminished president , and so he might well have decided a different way but i think at the end of the day my grandmother intervene 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. Thats a top speed is watch out for thatigh Blood Pressure pressure. I find it interesting the way your grandmoths decision was much more easy to understand. The doctor decision was this as a guide making all these decisions about the war in korea and about this, all these big decisions, and you were worried about them watching a football game. Even if he tes it too seriously it seemed a littl bit ludicrous. I td the story in the book in the context of how an extraordinary amount of power, how that often warps the relationship you have with other ople. It doesnt mean it makes them terrible but it does change things. 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 but he was theuy used to making the decision was perfectly capable of facing any difficult news. As a matter fact in his last years of his life i saw this so often how brave he was and how great he was to take whatever was coming. As a matteract, even volunteered for some ratr exotic treatments for his conditio because he thought it might help peoe after he was gone. This was anybody you were straightforward with. I just want to say that for the record. Thats a good transition because before we get to the big issues he faced, i think its good to talk about his personal relationships that he had. The friendships he had come the pele who kept him around, his family and your own relationship with you. Your pictures to show which include some pictures of yourself with them when you were younger. We will get those u on the screen. Theres the picture we have been showing. This is him right around the end of world war ii, right . Yes. This picture was taken making 45. By that time he had his fifth star. A lovely picture. I think he looks tired. I dont know if you would agree but it looks content. The picture were fulllength you would see hes wearing only a single bar of ribbons and five stars on his shoulders. He was not one toalk around like a soviet general with metals all the w down to the waste. I like this picture because i think he looks approachable, though i was a tired. Thats got to be a fairly accurate assessment since its impossible to know how you could be working when hundredours a week or 130 hours a week sometimesome upon might come up in middle of the night and not come out every three year stint like that really deeply tired. In 45 come how old was he . He was born he was born in 1890. He was given 55. If youook at pictures when he was predent of Columbia University he looks younger than he does in that picture even though it was another five years later. He gave a lot of energy. Th next picture is a picture of you. Oh. As a team did with him and a horse, right . Yes. Is there a horse and that picture . Iant get fromere. The back of a horse may be. Perfect. Ike became an amateur photographer, and we have in our family collectn all sorts of these homemade thgs. What i like about t picture is somebody else took a picture of ike taking a picture of me. I dont know, every time i see this picture it makes me smile becae of this bal head o his that my grandmother always sd sh loved to roll over at night in bed a pat his little bald head. If there is a a horse in the picture, fm this standpoint i cant quite see it, but i was the family horseback rider. This is the bon we had because he loved horses. They were the only amals on his farm that he iulged in any way, shape, o form. He had cattle and he didnt like barnyard cats but he loved these horses. I think its a rather sweet picture. You have a short story in your book about when you were around 11 and a horses got and he just put in a putting green. His special fighting green. Do you want to tell that story . It shows relationship nicely. Well, i think the story says a lot about ikes passion in my lifetime till. He put the putting green him becae he wanted to haveome privacy while the practice is hiding. Otherwise he wouldve had to ha gone to the country club which which you enjoy doing and saying people but theasnt actually y privacy in those events. People came out to watch him golf and the rest of i when eating i was how blogging when evening was how blogging a date and five forces pushed against the gate sort of almo knocked me over and then went running all around the lawn inront of my parents, grandparents sitting area where the we s in the evening. All five ofhese horses are running around likerazy and circling here in going there and the made a huge sweep across his golf green. I was more tha in a statef panic. Everybody came out of the field field hands, secret service, everybody, and were trying to round u these animals. We finally did and then had t go in and face the music. I dont have a ruined his golf green but i was late for dinner. This was one of those moments in childhood you don forget. I walked in. He always that in this wiltshire any swiveled around and you loo at me he said, you know what i said to your grandmoth . I have seen horses would like that since i was a kid in abilene, kansas. Of course apologize after that but but i never heard of it again and it was a very smart move on his part. Beuse the guilt would be lingering. I would never missed it make a mistake with that again but he was very nice that do bring it up or hold it against me or hold of my head becau i think he knew ias devastated, and wodnt do it again. That the classic experience thats in a disney cartoon for children that if a child makes a mistake of irresponsibility, and then in the ones where the parents are good they do with ike did, and when theyre bad to look like a witch. George, i would add one more thing. I had the great good sense to apologize profusely to take full responsibility. I think that were done very well. Well. I fear i wouldve had a significant ongoing lecture about personal accountability had i not done so. But you already learned that lesson i bet. I learned that one already. Qt is taking a picture i assume you are in that picture. Yes. Actually you can see from the postcard he is painting from, its a photograph that it is my mother and three of my four siblings. My youngest sister was born in 1955 after that portrait was painted. It was taken at camp david and i guess one of the helpers at camp david came and took a picture of him doing that. He took up painting after the war. He followed Winston Churchills example. He was intrigued by how much painting the Prime Minister did while he was trying to get his head together. Also his own portrait painter taken some oil paints as a present and ike to get up then and then became really very attached to this pastime because he found it centered him. While he was concentrating on the painting he was allowing his mind to work through some very difficult problems. You have a short story in the book about how he had and exhibited art museum and he told somebody, theres only one reason they are being shown here and thats because i was president. They would never give a guy like me and exhibit for paintings that looked like this. Exactly come he was very modest. Unlike churchill who really took his painting so seriously that he wanted to be regarded almost as a professional. Ike did to give away as gifts. He gave his cabinet members paintings of them picky painted all this wartime colleagues. Actually it invaded Prince Charles and princess for the queen of england and was full apologies about the execution but actually he had some talent i think. We have picture here of what he did with churchill, the picture of churchill. Thats the next picture. Thats quite talented. Its not amateur. Not bad. The other charming thing about this painting is that he actually was able to present it to Prime Minister churchill when churchill, he 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. [laughing] actually ike also painted field Marshal Bernard law montgomery was one of his, one of the big personalities he worked with during world war ii, and it is a lovely, lovely painting that hangs today in the British Embassy in washington, d. C. You said its one of the interesting processes, sort of a frenemy as they would call them now. Something like that. They got along but they were enemies. The next picture when he gave to you, the next painting. Theres a story with this one. Theres a story about this one. I often stood behind him when he was at the easel. He had in addition to his retirement years he always insisted on having a studio somewhere nearby. 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. This is a landscape, i dont know what the scene is but as a said before he painted usually from postcards. These landscapes he did were always serene. Its been noted it something ironic about it 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 1957. In 1957 many things happened but i was intrigued when i look at the back of it that it says to susan 1958. That means its likely a painting that was done first of all during the little rock crisis when eisenhower sent 101st Airborne Division to desegregate Little Rock High School and to escort nine africanamericans to start school that september. Right after that of course was sputnik,oviet union launched its first aificial satellite or should say the worlds fst artificial satelli into space i look at this pain and i think wow, those brush strokes must have provided some relief during those times of great controversy and crisis. Were going to go back to that. People talk about october surprises. In 1956 your grandfather certainly get two really huge ones. Lets in the pictures and then we will go by the way, or the audience, if you have any questions just send them into the chat room and we will ask them. We got yours, and well get to the korean conflict a little later. Next picture is, yes, and that is you, right . Thats me. Well, i look like im terribly thoughtful turkey looks very kind and i like that picture because i have always 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. I think is both a Family Member is as an analyst i think its remarkable, says a lot about his character. It seems to be one of the hardest things to do to make those decisions, we would get to dday later, to know at the best so many people will die and at the worst you to succeed of what youre trying to accomplish and even more people will die. The people who have made those decisions for us i think is why they get admired for decades and even centuries to come because its so crucial. Your grandfather is one of those. Next picture. A couple pictures of him. Heres a picture of him as a young man on a Baseball Team am just so you can see him before he is bald, right . Thats right. I was looking its always fun to see ike with a full head of hair. He is maybe you can discard which when he is because im not sure that i think this is him right here. Thats exactly right. This is the Abilene High School and is on the Baseball Team. He was a very good baseball player but his real passion with football. He lost his life for for a lite while when he was broke his me and is unable to continue play football at west point because he played against jim thorpe, as a matter fact, in the army versus carlisle game and he was regarded as a very fast, effective football player. That was very discouraging for him, and he had to learn how to snap out of that downer after taking up cigarettes, of course. One tangent, wasnt planning on going there but it was interesting you mentioned that all leaders are not people who just have obeyed the whole time, he was kind of not a bad boy but he certainly got himself in trouble and he was at west point. He didnt go there to become a soldier. He went there for the free education. Another verynteresting tangent. H shared that with ulysses s. Grant. Lot of gre leaders turned out to be civilians would never imagine themselves as soldiers. Geor, one thing that is worth mentiong aspersion the context of west point is he grew upn every rigious household, and the eisenhowers were pacifists they were godfearing pacifists. There wasnt an eisenhower of foht in the civil war, though ey made ikes uncle Abraham Lincoln eisenhower because they wantedo express their views named but they were college each as objectors can imagine the family feelings when ike goes off to west point becse he cant wait any longer for his younger brothers to put them through college. Fascinating. If you want more details there in the book. The next picture is meeting with khrushchev which was a very grandfather had a very interesting idea. You mention and were talking about earlier. I dont think very many people know about this but when he was talking about the distinction between what what was going ong the cold war, it was a matter of capitalism versus socialism or communism. It was yes, jesus actually in the speech of the Commonwealth Club that its really he actually its about openness, democracy versus authoritarianism. And then he goes on to say its about a free and open society, as opposed to a close and secretive society. 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 become secretive yourself sometimes. George, if i could add two things come something about this picture. This is a 1959 and even though they are smiling, the United States at this point has been thrown into what is called the berlin ultimatum. Nikita khrushchev is currently threatening the United States with punitive actions over berlin, and if it turns into what the would be no way to defend berlin with conventional weapons so it might have turned nuclear. So today we have those kinds of standoffs but eisenhower actually invited khrushchev to come to the United States, and khrushchev 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. [laughing] and all he can say is the future of the world hung in the balance as whether were going to be well behaved that afternoon. [laughing] we apparently managed to save the world for the first and last time. No, i shouldnt make jokes about this. It was a very serious time. After the trip the soviets did lift the ultimatum with some agreement to continue to talk about it at a summit in paris. We will talk about that the2 right now as with khrushchev on the screen. We were going to do it later but let me do it never theres this u2 incident the same as what was also fascinating about this is how much information present eisenhower had about what the russians actually had that and what they had not and in everybody was lying about the missile gap and this other stuff that was driving the cold war. Is perfectly clear that they did not have a force that we need to worry about at tt time when that was going on. Because they had information. Maybe satan will bit abouthat happened. Its all intriguing and actually sputnik is tied u in is because we just had the dawn of the space age during his administration and t were no rules for outer spacet all. It was and decided legally whetr or not will lauh artificial satellites 97. The administration comehere was no surprise 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 those 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 of space, he proposed overflights for the United States and the soviet union to fly the aircraft over each countries territory to ensure that there would not be a Surprise Nuclear attack. I just had to say about the sputnik thing, the administration knew they would launch their satellites and didnt feel very badly, as a matter fact, sort of encourage the soviets to go first behind the scenes, without telling them anything. But they were sort of hoping the soviet union would go first so the soviet union would accidentally establish the precedence for free use of outer space. Not long after that the satellites we had been working on, the corona project, got launched and we could tell from space and from the u2 exactly what i should say quite precisely what the soviet military buildup looked like, including the number of rockets they had. Nevertheless, sputnik opened the way for opposition to the Eisenhower Administration in preparation for the 1960 residential campaign. It turned int scandal which is known as the missile gap, and the democrats we accusing the Eisenhower Administration of failing to keep up with the huge leap the soviet union allegedly had an rockets and Nuclear Weapons a i kind of thing. It turned outo be a fiction. We were w ahead of the soviet union, and on the way we could eventually tell that by the programs eisenhower initiative, the u2 and also the Satellite Program for reconnaissance purposes. Your version of the story may be think he mustve its a pretty good lawyer on his team advise him if you do it this way then, let the soviets go first, and this is going to set the president that will allow us to get what we want which is this free and open space thing. If we go first they will say were trying to dominate and it wont work. We had a cant because we had a cant we propose the open sky 3d i geneva and the soviet uon absolutely rejected it. Theyould affect overflights over the United States but they didnt want this mutual overflights business because they felt we were going use it for targeng purposes. You can imagi if we had gone into space first, they would will have accused us of going into space for doing wt the u2 is meant to do. Its sort of a complicated story but its what i call planning the long game. He took a big political hit, but went sputnik went up before any of our success of satellites, im sor, are successful artificial satellites, but in the end itas what begin to establish a frameworkor space which allows, allowed all of the tremendous amount of development to take place without conflict. He was the right man and a right place because he had the long game in his mind a lot and ge plenty of experience. The other thing that w interesting also tangential about your book was because he had so much dealing with the russians during world war ii, h was in a good position to have a realistic idea about what they werep to and what they would do and what they wouldnt d he did not consider them so fanati that they would destroy themselves that they were somewhat rational players. 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, and my late father said that the soviet, the soviets were not early christian martyrs. In other words, the assessment was that the soviet leadership wanted to stay in power, and so thats a very big difference between wanting to launch a preemptive strike. Thats a big analytical difference. You just mentioned your faer. Great story about a conversation had with president eisenhower, his father, about korea. He wanted to go to kor, go back with his troops to korea. You didnt findut about that when youre you were young. I assume you found thatut later. To define that when your father was still alive . Yes. George, the story come to summarize it is, when general eisenhower becomes president eisenhower, now he is not just a fivestar general as a matter of fact he gave up his Army Commission to run for president because we dont have generals as president of the United States. So he sadly is the commanderinchief and he is my father, who is a graduate of west point, an army officer who was stationed in korea, comes back for his fathers inauguration and they have a very serious talk. Ike suggest to decide whether youre going to go back to 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, promised me, this is an order, promise me youll never be taken as a hostage or be in a situation where you could put the president of the United States in any jeopardy. What that really adds up to is that my father agreed to commit suicide if you were in a situation where he was going to be taken hostage. It sounds like a really by that time my father and mother already had three kids. I was the third of that group. As a save my sister came along in 1955, so this is several years before. Its kind of stunning today. We think actually our leaders ought to be sending the kids overseas, that the potential for blackmail and to put the president of the United States in a position that would undermine the security of the United States was not an acceptable for those on officers my father agreed. Thankfully he lived to the age of 91, so he came home from korea without having to tak such a drastic a tragic step. Its such a telling detail about the difference in tim and place and wt they are already going thrgh with the depression and the war, that his father and son can make this deal and both understood thats the only thing you could do. Wl, and also they were both military men and its 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 because to understand dwight senhower is to understand that he wasrained as a military mind. He was a strategic lear. He was somebody who was highly selfdispline. He didnt like histrionics. He didnt like over emotionalism. He believed in selfdiscipline and process. And process for it was eremely important because he didnt want his subordinates out freelancing and he didnt want to makeny impetuous uninformed decision. That is all trained thatomes out of a lifelong experience in e military, especially at the highest levels. Great stories about how we dealt with the whole atomic weaponry issue and everything, making three different commissions. He did in this elaborate way. But lets move on to the next question, or the next picture. Here he is talking to the soldiers. You have several Great Stories not only at the time during world war ii but afterwards, ten years afterwards, 82nd airborne payment within and he met with them, i think this is a group hes meeting with now underway off to fly. I think its particularly noteworthy because the airborne drop, his decision about the airborne drop was probably the toughest of that whole normandy enterprise and the reasons for it are rather simple. The, his technical experts , air marshal lee mallory, a british air marshal who was responsible for the 24,000 paratroopers he dropped warned ike about general eisenhower about weeks before the dday assault was to take place that he thought that the paratroopers should be canceled because the germans had reinforced their positions and he thought it was dangerous and between 50 and 70 percent of average numbers 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 troopers were essential for opening a number of pathways of utah and omaha beach. And i think whats moving about this picture is that having made that decision a week earlier and having written a note for his pockets that says if the landings fail responsibility is mine and mine alone. He goes out and he looks is paratroopersin the eye. Thinking in his mind that his technical experts says between 80 and 70 percent of these boys are not coming home. Another thing i think you detail is the fact that the original dday plans when he got his hands on them, he creates double the size of the invasion and he added this line about the paratroopers landing and fortunately the advisor wasnt right that it was 12 percent died and 10 percent were wounded or Something Like that, still a high amount but they succeeded and everyoneassumed that without that , the overall, it could have bn anoverall disaster. The paratroopers were the linchpin of the eration. I can tell you pretty much at eisenhower is saying at thatoint. Because we know it, thats the 101st airborne. We know itsecause a number of them came back and told us what he talked abo. And he was asking them about home. He wasnt giving them talk about getting on a plane and dropping behind the lines in normandy. He was talking tthem about home. I once asked my father why would he do that . My father, a military officer said they knew what way they re about to go do and they were scared half to death so imagine at smile and a man came out and had the courage to look them in the eye for four days took off and said dont worry neral, were going with them and a Great Exchange for everyone. Very moving. A lot of moving tales in you story, of your grandfather so the next picture is, thats hiat a dday remembrance yes later. Ill te you, he was 75. It was the day across 20 years, that picture was taken. He gave an intervieto Walter Cronkite and 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 togetherthat this was the first time ike had come back. The 10th anniversary of dday occurred in 1955 when he was president and he d not want to politicize the, whats really hollow ground so he sent a gi to the people of normandy and spent the day in seclusion but here he comes back and hes taing to Walter Cronkite. But look at the pain in his face. All of those kids who didnt make it. And he was responsible for the decisions that may have caused some of those people their lives. So then Walter Cronkite says what do you think en you said here and im very moved by this, he said they ge us another chance. And he says the questiois what are we going to do with that chance . And ike in a way, i think were at a crossroads today where 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 . Thats really a great segue. We have actually audio of president eisenhower. He spoke of the Commonwealth Club here 60 years ago and as you know, and i have a little clip maybe about three minutes long where everybody can hear his voice and i know a lot of people are not aware but its not as commonly heard as president kennedys voice for example with these clips but the way he says what he says is almost as important as what he says and i think its very relevant for today as you were saying so as soon as that clip gets started weill listen to it. But i find it fascinating as we were saying a little bit earlier that generation men, my father was in the war. He was in north africa and went up through italy and sicily. Is ready and mark go ahead and run it. Im glad to be here this evening to sustain your perfect score as having as a speaker every president of the United States since this club was founded at the beginning of thecentury. [applause] sorry we dont have live audio. As you know. [inaudible] [laughter] would buy a wisdom developed out of experience the organizers valued their new creation a noble and necessary purpose. Better government in the United States. Its an energizing spark was really that and i think these words in the document of the time, california suffered greatly because the first element of the population failed to cooperate for the common good as effectively as the bad elements cooperating for evil purposes. The dedication of that good and the unlimited membership to pursue course of boundless government remain undimmed for the six decades of the clubs existence. The word commonwealth signifies a group united by a common interest. But equally significant is the fact that in the political realm, a commonwealth as Mister Webster defines it as come to mean generally but not always an association based upon free choice. Tonight i shall try to apply to some aspects of the world of International Affairs the founding principle of this organization. That each state suffered because of a failure of some elements to cooperate as effectively for good as others did for evil. And no group no matter how well intentioned and cooperate swiftly unless there is first established a firm basis of common understanding. This the founders of your club recognized by noting that one of the 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 the california of 1930, the year your club was founded was a far cry from the commonwealth of california today, so the world as we turned into the 20th century is scarcely recognizable as the one we know in 1900 and 60. The same issues hereand as you said , can people cooperate . One of the big issues that you talk about in the book in several places is that your grandfather was really not either a democrat or republican. He was a moderate. And you worked together quite often, in his cabinet he had democrats. And it seems to me he was worried about the extremists at both ends. And those extremists at the time on the right there was the john birch society, there wasmccarthy anticommunists. On the left there were the communist and people who tried to helpthe soviet union succeed. And other groups that were extreme. And he tried to run through the middle. And he was of course criticized for not moving fast enough by one group and criticized for going too fast by the other groups but he definitely went right up the middle and ive often thought its interesting because its almost like the democrats and republicans without knowing it shot themselves in their own feet by gerrymandering all of the congressional districts. They did it not to cause what happened back in the 80s but they did it in order to ensure that they all got reelected but what that did was it made the primary election, the actual election because one group is always going to win as a result of that itspushed towards the extreme because the primaries went for extremists. We could undo that process and both parties it seems to me to be interested in that but they dont get interested in it, we could use another president eisenhower. What about getting the democrats that are moderate and the republicans that are moderate to Work Together and do that instead . People and i think 60 percent of the voters it seems from the polling are right in that situation. So its very interesting and i think thats a nice framework for all the different issues you covered. We have a couple of questions here so we have plenty of things were going to cover but theres so many issues here. Lets ask the question that we are asked, like Gary Landsman asked, what would prevent flareup of the korean conflict . There was a stalemate here and he came in as the general and a whollot of people he will win the war for us but thats not how he wentabout doing it. It was very alistic about that, about the iron curtain and maybe talk a ltle bit about how he dealt witthat. Of course, a long story. They always are. But i think if you were to look at his, well, let me start by saying 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. He got very close to the front, it wasnt right on the front which i thought was rather dangerous. But he wanted to see the terrain. He wanted to see the way the lay of the land firsthand. I think the terrain already worried him a lot. Especially given the positions of both sides. And he thought that this was just not a winnable war unless it becomes a big war and big weapons are used, he didnt think it was going to succeed and he was very much against wars without an end. He believed it would lose not just human lives but it would bleed the economy and bleed energy and attention and he said about working at negotiations that led to the armistice but this later became a great point of contention as you know between those who were in favor of making the world safe for america to engage in small wars versus eisenhowers view that small wars start small but can get big. They can get big fast it if your adversary islosing. And then in this particular case of course , the big adversary was the soviet union and included the hydrogenbomb that had been developed before i came to the presidency so yes, they managed. It turned out there was , it wasnt just the United States that was more worried. There was likability that seemed to be present among our enemies in that site and so armistice was achieved and it still in place and i guess thats the last chapter of the corian situation is what are we going to do and are we going to stay in korea or are we ever going to be able to negotiate some kind of proper end to that war s and then 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 theres so many things to cover but you did Say Something interesting in part of your book, you said i will consider our policy towards germany successful if 50 years later its a thriving democracy. And in 1995 which was 50 years after he said that at the end of the war, it was a couple years after germany reunited as one country and certainly is a thriving democracy. So whatever his longrange strategy, that one work. That one was right on point and its amazing. The chinese were told the chinese look ahead hundred years area where told the russians look ahead with things but weve had president s that have done that. I cant keep the policies in place if somebody takes them away but they can set themselves in a way that they make enough sense that people continue them and i think a lot of those were that. I think that of course he was a strategic leader during the war as president and i think he was always looking for sustainable strategies. And i like the idea of a sustainable strategy because its a good strategy. If it stays in place and meets the needs of a motor period of time. Some of the things we call strategies today have like a one track halflife and then we have to or, can go on for longer than that of course but then course corrections have to be made and i think eventually his accomplishments hold up pretty well over the decades and he was playing along in many ways. When he liberated that concentration camp and was horrified by what he saw. So shocked he said he still cant find words for how he felt and he was very articulate. His first reaction, what are people going to say in 50 years . Theyre going to say the holocaust never happened unless we cry for it now so he said everybody including my father into those camps to photographic, congressman came from the unitedtates and that was on his orders. The other elements that we were talking about about trust, it seems to me that you have a problem in our trying to me to an agreement with eachther today. Everybody has their own point of view which is has always en true. We get used in a democracy, everybody gets to have their point of vw. Some people are very mad at the educated elite for trying toun things based on prinples and so on and so forth. Against the y they would want to do it so you need to have a persuasive argument about and in addition to that you take all the groups that you say what is it that we have in common . One of t things weve learned over the years is that its all right if we educe women. Its not going to be the en of society in fact our societyis now better. Its not bad if we educa, all kinds of people, everybody should be educed. Anybody who doesnt want to be educated thats another argumentbut if they dont want to thats fine area but you have a certain element of what it is that we can have in common and say if thats our goal and we a agree, noall but 70 percent agree on those goals, anwe can trust each other if we just stick to those goals are and this is what we workon together but people in politics want to promise what theyre going to accomplish. Nobody canromise what theyre going to accomplish in pitics. Theres a whole bunch of people you have to agree with. Thats absolutely true. Eisenhower once said, i think it was at the beginning of his administration when he was describing a problem he said he described it as a fear in the hearts of men. I think he understood that what underlies a lot of this elaborate trust is fear,just to your point. So its the role of responsible leader to put into perspective the fears we may have versus how dire things really are and weve got to the point in this country now where everything is a threat. Im really sorry but not all threats are equal. And some are more important than others. And i think this is one thing i really get from this book is the way that two strategists, a true strategist thinks about these things is to understand what the fundamental questions are because nobody is active if they take on every issue but one of one of theones , what is the long cold its goingto keep the tent from collapsing . Evil who missed that dont realize the main tentpole is coming down in this idea about the fear is right and a lot of the reasons we were successful after world war ii was the level of confidence in america. Look at what weaccomplished. Yes, there were big scary things going on. The Nuclear Weapons were a big scary thing from our childhood as you certainly remember and several other things that there was 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 . I think the amount of fear that has been generated since 9 11 about the next thing in the next thing, even those , there were plenty of terror in the 70s and 80s in europe and america it didnt scare people. Theres a certainamount of political exploitation around here. Me people in washington say that if you want to ge anything done on capitol hill at the white house you have to say its a nationa security threat. And i have one very nical friend who calls it stress marketing. But whatever the case is you see the early beginnings of that with litical gap in astoria. And its ctainly we should be vigilant and alert at all times. But we have to also understandhat the state of our economy, the moral authority we have is a countrboth domestically and internationally, all these things eisenhower thought were critical to our own National Security and military capability, sure thatasnt the only thing. That was part of our National Security. And because i dont think human nature will changeoo much except that politicians will use this maeting in order to g ahead but what i hope for is they would at least do like john kennedy did which is once you one he said its notas bad as we said. I derstand its just like game, its just liktrash talking in a basketbl game, youre trying to upset the otr person or not at the top of their game so you win the game. In a way it shows a lk of confidence that you can win the game without doing it but we will talk about that because thats the way all games are mostly played would be nice the politicians would en say, just getting but now that im here and i found out all the information its not as bad as i said and so we can all go back to feeling a little bit more comfortable because that level of fear is really the thing that dissolves society. Theres another fear thereto is probably contributing, its part of the result of social media and just a whole bunch of cultural factors. But you are very afraid of being seen as we or as a winner or a loser. And these are, i dont think my grandfather would understand that at all. He believed in Second Chances and if you believe in Second Chances and you dont believe in the whole winner or loser accusations that are hurled that people these are attacks on people motives and their personalities and i dont think it helps at all. It doesnt help because people might make ill informed decisions just as they seem to be doing something when in fact theyre spending more time studying the issue, looking at the background and thinking about the longterm consequences more productive. Your grandpa inviting that, one of my missives in my writing iseveryones a loser, wners are just losers with more patience. I like tha. E have one last question here in time for it from evan. How did he find it different to be a leader in th military first versus a leader in politics and government and which one was more different for him . You address that in your book and i found very interesting. Im so happy r that question because theres no estion that Dwight Eisenhower had a learning curve when it got into fullblown retail politics. First of all, one of the big differences is when youre a fivestar general everybody, you trank everybody. So the military is organized a way to follow orders. Ani would say that and i think its pretty evidenin the book that a fivestar genel, he was remarkably flexible and he was not like his former boss, general Douglas Macarthur who was tough on troops and was addicted to the attention he received. Ike wanted to be on macarthur i think. In any case. But in any case, i think he described ituring the chief of staffears where he said that thebiggest job in the milita as commander an Supreme Commander is to think through how he really views things and when his strategy is going to be and then to bring along people and then he says but ive noticed from beingin washington it may seem like your own mind on something is just the beginning of the cloud. And then he outlines all the various problems. You dont know who is connected to whom and who has a grudge against you. Its actually a very funny passage and i think its probably particularly funny because he wasnt in his diary which he never thought would get published for others to read and enjoy. But you know, you saw from early pickups in the campaign and later, mostly in the campaign but he picked up the algorithm of it very quickly. And i think 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 were missing you had to make. Any or asap did not do what they were told to do , this was a big problem with him. Because it isnt 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 know many of his associates and they liked the fact that 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 weremaking to. I should add to that of course eisenhower had a pretty good sense of who he could get more latitude to. But thank you so much for asking the question because we can to study eisenhower as president or eisenhower as a 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. And going on from ere. The people skillsf dealing with so many kinds of generals including the ones that hhad to deal with and patton and Douglas Macarthur. That one thing but with politicians,e had to learn a whole new set to understand these people. What drives them instantly not trying to win a war, or win an election but anyways, i thought you did a wonderful job ofhowing both sides of that and is a great book for those of y who like more detail, get iand enjoy it and im sorry that you all y not have time to read it but there it is. It would be a great idea for anyone so thank you very much susan for explaining your book and the great pictures of your grandfather and of yourself from your childhood. So ends another event at the, club, its 112 year of existence. Thank you george. ,were live with former president barack obama and his newly published memoir a Promised Land looks at his life and political career