The occasion for those unbroken. And a tradition which began with theodore roosevelt. The great and the near great addressed this audience. But tonight we welcome the man whom history will record as preeminent among World Leaders in our hour of greatest need. I have in mind the rapid recession of communist aggression as millions of people were enveloped behind a farreaching iron curtain. I have in mind the stalemate of futility inkorea , the land facing inflation in our homeland which was eating up the savings of the thrifty and troubling the mothers of our freeenterprise economy. Here then is the man framed in war who will be claimed by future generations as the man who laid the foundations of peace. [applause] and more, he is our president whom we love with 80 and abiding affection. [applause] welcome to the Commonwealth Club, im george hammond. Along with the staff at the Commonwealth Club, the tech staff is helping to put together these online programs and weve done dozens and dozens of them since the covid crisis began and its my pleasure to introduce susan eisenhower, granddaughter of president eisenhower and shes written a greatbook, how i lead. Its like a u2 spy plane overview ofhis whole , the principle that led his presidency but with the young girls point of view on the man himself and is quite a combination because its also the combination you live your life because youre a political analyst and you live your life thisway but you knew him personally for many years. That was interesting, he didnt pass away until you were already in college or around that age so welcome everybody and were going to get started to talk about president eisenhower, for those of you who arefamiliar with the dates he was president from 1953 until 1961. He was the supreme allied commander during worldwar ii. Though susan. First of all thank you very much for joining us from afar. In our online world weve all recognized can happen much more easily than we thought but tell us a little bit about what inspired you to writethe book. Youve been working in this field for a long time as a political consultant etc. And advisor and you decide to write about your own grandfathers work. It mustve been interesting to try to be objective and subjective at the same time. You did it successfully but its got to be a procedure. Thank you for the opportunity to be back at the Commonwealth Club. I had the opportunity of presenting two of my other books at the club in years past so its great to be back and talk about this and i think 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 he dealt with. And on the other side, my relationship with him as a grandparent so this book is really at the marriage of those two things and it was quite an experience for me to put it together in one place because i was continually struck i how we were doing certain things as a family and he was dealing with some of these crises so that was interesting. The impetus for why to do it now revolve around three events i guess. One is the 75th anniversary of the end of world war ii. Just certainly vj day is about to occur 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 in a much more scaledback version of its original self but it will nevertheless be open to the public after that date and finally going into an Election Year and theres always a lot of thinking about the presidency as the most important for your election occurs and so i thought that i had something to say to us today. And i guess thats the reason i put it together. He did and i found that, obviously we took it from that angle theres so many different elements that were so interestingtoday. One thats applicable, one of them i thought its a small tangent but that there were people who set in 1956 that were against him being reelected saying youre going to be electing attorneys in, youre not going to be electing eisenhower because eisenhower is sick. He just had a heart attack so pretty soon Richard Nixon is going to be the same president and the same thing is going on in the democratic party. People are saying biden will never be president for more than a month or two so youre really kamala harris. Force im not going to speculate on whether there is a difference in approach eisenhowers preconscious of what it would be to be a diminished president. We have to remember the president wilson there was really almost a scandal but people in the country didnt know how ill that president was so i was determined not to find himself in the situation. 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 and he always tell his advisers if i dont perform top level, you have to tell me becausethen ill resign. And in any case that never happened. He became actually rather adroit at managing his time, managing his stress and generally positioning himself to get through his second term. It was interesting, a small tangent but that doctors lied to him about the helium thing so that he didnt think itwas a serious. The kind of he made that might have made a different decision if they had warned him about it, i thought that wasinteresting. One of the biggest decisions about running for a second term as you point out his feet had a heart attack in 1955 and he had a doctor named general Howard Snyder and although they were devoted friends and they been together in one form or another since the war, Howard Snyder drove him up the wall because first of all he hovered. He came up with all sorts of things eisenhower wasnt allowed to do including watching the armynavy Football Game at the time because Howard Snyder decided it was going to raise the president sblood pressure. And i really didnt care about the outcome of that game. He might will the decided differently but i think he really, at the end of the day my grandmother intervened for the First Time Since the early part of their marriage and encouraged him to run again because she thought he would probably die of another heart attack watching everything from the sidelines. Thats a tough decision. I find it interesting the way your grandmothers decision was much more easy to understand. The doctors decision was this is the guy whos making these decisions about the war in korea and about this, all these big decisions, and you read about in watching a Football Game. Even if he takes it too seriously it seemed a little ludicrous. I told that story in the book in the context of how extraordinary amount of power how that often works the relationship you have with other people. It doesnt mean that 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 because he was a guy who was making big decision and was perfectly cable if they sing in a difficult news. As a matter fact in his last years of life, i saw this so often how grave he was and how ready he was to take whatever was coming. As a matter fact, he even volunteered for some rather exotic treatments for his condition because he thought it might help people after he was gone. This wasnt anybody you were straightforward with, just what to say that for the record. Its a good transition because before we get to the big issues he faced i think its good to talk about these personal relationships he had. The friendships he had, the people kept him, his family and her own relationship with them and have some pictures to show which include some pictures of yourself with them when you were younger so we will get those up on the screen. There is the picture we had been showing. This is him right around the end of world war ii, right . Yes. This picture was taken in 1945. By that time he had his fifth star and its a lovely picture. I think he looks tired. I dont know if you would agree but he looks content. If the picture were fulllength you would see hes wearing only a single bar of ribbons and five stars on his shoulder. He was not one to walk around like a soviet general with metals all the way down to their waist. Id like this picture because i think he looks approachable, though i would say tired. Thats got to be a fairly accurate assessment since its impossible to know how you can be working 100 hours a week or for 130 hours a week sometimes, upon might come up in the middle of the night and not come out of a threeyear stint like that really deeply tired. In 45 he was how old . He was born he was born in 1890. He would have been 55. If you look at pictures when he was president at Columbia University and look younger than he does in the picture even though it was another five years later. He gave a lot of energy. The next picture is a picture of you. Well as a tenured with him, anda horse, right . Yes. Is there a horse in that picture . I cant see from here. Perfect perfect. I became an amateur photographer ike became an amateur photographer and with a collection all sorts of these homemade things. What i like about the picture somebody else took a picture of a ike taking a picture of me. I dont know every time i see this picture it makes me smile because of this bald head of is that my grandmother always said she loved to roll over at night in bed and pat is little bald head. If theres a horse in the picture, from this standpoint i cant quite see it, but i was family horseback rider and so this was the bond we had because he loved horses. They were the only animals on this farm he indulged in any way, shape, or form. Cattle, and he didnt like barnyard cats but he loved his horses. I think its a rather sweet picture. You have a short story in your book about when youre on 11 and the horses had gotten away any just put in a putting green, a special putting green. It shows relationship actually. I think the story says a lot about his compassion in my lifetime guilt because he just put in a putting green and he put the putting green in because he wanted to have some privacy while they practiced his putting. Otherwise, he wouldve had to have gone to the Gettysburg Country club which he enjoyed doing and seeing people but the wasnt actually any privacy in those events. People came at watching golf and the rest of it. One evening i was cataloging a gate had a locking type of horses on the farm pushed against the cape sort of almost knocked me over and then what running all around the lawn in front of my grandparents sitting gary wendy always sat in the evening. All five of the sources or running around like crazy and circling here and going there, and then made issue a huge swep across his golf the green. I was more than in in a state f panic. Everybody came out of the field come field hanscom secret service come everybody and were trying to wrap around of these animals. He finally did and then had to go in and face the music. Thatll had the road my grandfathers golf green but i late for dinner. It was one of those moments in child that you dont forget. I walked in. He always sat in a swivel chair and he swiveled around and looked at me and he said you know what i said to grandmother . Wow wow privacy horses run liket since i was a kid in abilene, kansas. Of course i apologize 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 be careful never to make a mistake like that begin. He was very nice touch to bring it up or hold it against me or hold it over my head because i think he knew i was devastated and wouldnt do it again. Thats one of those classic experiences thats in a disney cartoon for children, that the child makes that mistake of irresponsibility. In the ones with the parents are good, they do what ike did, ad where they are bad they look like a witch. George, i would add one more thing. I had the great ike had the great good since to take full responsibility and i think that went down very 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 when already. Here eat is painting the picture. I assume you are in that picture . Actually you can see from the postcard hes painting from is the photograph that its my mother and three of my four siblings. My 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. He took up painting actually after the war. He sort of followed Winston Churchills example. He was intrigued by how much painting the Prime Minister did what he was trying to get his head together. Also his own portrait painter gave him some oil paints as the present, and ike took it up down and then became really very attached because he found it, 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 an exhibit at an art museum and he told somebody, theres only one reason they are being shown here and that is because i was president. They would never give a guy like me and exhibit for paintings that looked like this. Exactly. 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 her to give away as gifts. He gave his cabinet members paintings of them. He painted all its wartime colleagues. Actually he even painted Prince Charles and princess and for the queen of england and always was full apologies about the execution that actually had some talent i think. We have the picture here of what churchill, the picture of georgia. Thats the next picture. Thats quite talented. Its not amateur. Not bad. The other charming thing about this painting is 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 looking it over like churchill the painter would. Actually, ike also painted field Marshal Bernard law montgomery who is one of, one of the big personalities. He worked with during world war ii, and its a lovely, lovely painting that hangs today in the British Embassy in washington, d. C. You said is one of his interesting personalities, sort of a frenemy as they would call him now. Something like that. So in the next picture is one he gave to you, the next painting. Theres a a little story with s 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 in having the studio somewhere nearby. In the white house it was on the second floor overlooking lafayette park. It was around that time i were standing behind him admiring his work this is a landscape. I dont know what the scene is, but as i said before he painted usually from postcards. These landscapes he did were always serene. Its been noted that something ironic about it because probably every brush stroke is full of some kind of turbulence hes trying to make sense of. This painting at the bottom is dated 1957, and in 1957 many things happen but i was intrigued when a look at the back of it that it says to susan, 1958. So that means its likely a painting that was done first of altering the little rock crisis when eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne Division to desegregate Little Rock High School and to escort nonafricanamericans to start school in that september. Right after that of course was sputnik, soviet union launched its first artificial satellite, or i should say the world first artificial satellite into space. I look at this painting and i think those brush strokes must have provided some relief during those times of great controversy and crisis. Were going to go back to that. That. People talk about october surprises, and in 1956 your grandfather got to make huge ones. Lets finish the pictures and then well go by the way, for the audience if you have any questions send them into the chat room and will ask them. We got yours, gary, and will t to the korean conflict later. Next picture is yes, that is you, right . Thats me. I look like im terribly thoughtful and you looks very kind. I like the picture because ive always wanted people to know 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. As both a Family Member and 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, well get to the day later, to know at the best so many people will die and that their worst you dont even succeed at what youre trying to accomplish an and even more pee will die. People who made those decisions for us i think is why it is admired for decades and even centuries to come because it is so crucial and your grandfather is certainly one of those. Next picture, where the couple of pictures of him. Heres a picture of him as a young man on a Baseball Team just so that you can see before he is bald, right . Thats right. I was looking, its always the deceit ike with a full head of hair. George, maybe you could describe which when he is because im not sure i think this is him right here. Thats exactly right. This is the Abilene High School and use on the Baseball Team. He was a very good baseball player but i think his real passion was football. He lost his wife for a little while when he you broke his kne and was unable to continue playing football at west point because he had 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 disco