admire those qualities in men. and now the long and happy road home. for dwight eisenhower that road was paved with the cheers of the people of the allied countries. in his own homeland the hero s welcome awaited him. america s greeting for a favorite son. here the story of dwight d. eisenhower might well have ended on this note of triumphant acclaim for a job so splendidly done. but america had other tasks waiting for its favorite soldier. eisenhower succeeded general marshall as the army s first post war chief of staff. he expressed the belief that one of the greatest pillars of world peace is a strong, united states. he visited troops stationed in various parts of the world to show america s growing sense of global responsibility. we must remain, he said, the first champions of those who seek to lead their own lives in peace with their neighbors. finally, on february 7th, 1948, the general from abilene after 36 years of service to his country left active military assignm
join in the conversation on social media sites. coming up a special presentation of american history tv focusing on our nation s 34th president, dwight david eisenhower. we take a look at the proposed memorial designed by architect frank gehry. after that president eisenhower s granddaughter, susan eisenhower, talks about her opposition to the frank gehry memorial design. that s followed later by an archival film about his military career produced by the u.s. army. this past october frank gehry, the architect behind the proposed eisenhower national memorial, spoke at the national archives about the ideas behind his design. he was joined by wilson. this is about an hour. thank you for the introduction. i know how much you re looking forward to this great program we have this evening. my remarks will be brief. but as a representative of the eisenhower memorial commission, i m happy and pleased that tonight we have with us three commissioners, chairman r
from the outset have expressed concern about the scope and scale of this memorial. the original idea was actually to put a simple statue at the eisenhower executive office building. this was our family preference in the beginning. and so this has evolved a great deal. to say that the eisenhower family had gone along with every aspect of this process would not be correct. and we found it important to correct the record. i think you ll hear from others who have their own views on this. so i will leave the rest of that question to be answered by others. mr. garamendi, do you have questions? i have a couple, if i could. could you just briefly summarize why the family believes president eisenhower would have rejected this design? well, first of all, he was a very modest man. he would have expected something of far less dramatic, far less he would have wanted something on a smaller scale, i believe. this is an enormous thing. i did mention the metal scrims, which i think ar
as we do for their heritage. i end with a paraphrase of the general s letter written in case operation overlord was unsuccessful. our landings have failed. the troops, the air and the navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. if any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone. this is the character of the man we are attempting to honor. we must get this right. the current design is magnificent antiheroism. please call for a new and open competition. thank you, mr. cook. our final testimony will be given by mr. cole, the past chairman of the neh. mr. cole, if you can pull the microphone right to you, that will make it easier to hear you. thank you very much chairman bishop and members of the committee. thank you for asking me to testify today. i m a senior fellow at the hudson institute and on the board of advisors of the national civic arts society. but this morning i speak only as a concerned citizen. my comments are based on my long experienc
gehry s plan for the proposed memorial to dwight d. eisenhower. for me, ike is still a living memory. his role is supreme commander of the allied forces which freed europe from a great evil and two terms as president of the united states are events through which i lived. i hate to say this, mr. chairman. but i was actually walking and not crawling at that time. but what about our rising generations who lacked this firsthand historical memory? what will they know if anything about this great american? to teach them not only about ike and his deeds, but to give them a sense of his greatness and the debt we owe him is the task of any monument worthy of bearing his name. this mission is admirably summarized in the 1999 law passed by congress ordering that, quote, an appropriate memorial to dwight d. eisenhower should be created to perpetuate his memory and his contributions to the united states, unquote. such a monument should, therefore, memorialize and educate. in the execution