Twilights last gleaming . Brightraod stripes and thro the perilous fight, ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming . And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Starspangledat banner yet wave, oer the land of the free and the home of the brave . [applause] tonight continues a wonderful weekend and yearlong of programming and activities as the Eisenhower Institute celebrates the 125th birth date of dwight d. Eisenhower. We have had film makers, members ofterans, the shape organization, and members of the eisenhower administration. We still like ike. Programlike to turn the over to steve scully, who will be moderating our town hall forum. Recognize someo of the brave men who served under general Dwight Eisenhower. We are pleased and honored and thrilled to have you here tonight. I think you all deserve a round of applause. [applause] thank you very very much. Thank all of you for being with us tonight. A rare and unique opportunity to the living grandchildren of dwight d. Eisenhower. Many briefly introduce the three grand children. Born in westr was point, new york. She is a worldclass interior designer. Her work has been featured in leading books and magazines on display in new york city. She is written about in many of the leading newspapers around the world. She is on the board of the New York School for interior design, and also her involvement with the Breast Cancer research foundation. The greatntributed to work at the center for arts and education in new york city. Thank you for being with us. Mary jean eisenhower spent most of her life being devoted to the humanitarian and education work. She is the president and ceo of the peoples foundation. On september 11, 1956. Dwight eisenhower created the Exchange Program because he had seen enough war and his feeling was it was time to end the bloodshed and and begin some diplomacy. Survivors of rwanda and the families of the victims of september 11, she has made her mark around the world. She has received count as honors and awards, including the Harry S Truman award. Thank you for being with us. [applause] eisenhower is the chairman and ceo of the eisenhower group, a Consulting Company here in the united states. She has served our government in a number of capacities. Blueribbonthree commissions. Her work with the National Academy of sciences and the nasa. Dvisory council nasa began during the eisenhower administration. She authored and coauthored a number of books on security issues. Seen frequently in the washington post, l. A. Times, and other leading publications around the country. Thank you for being with us. Let me begin with you, because clearly the great accomplishment under president s roosevelt and truman, and the great promise of john f. Kennedy, but now historians are looking at the great achievements of your rant fathers presidency. Eight years, a remarkable eight years. Wet should we know now that didnt know when he left office . Is a wonderful expression, the future is bright but the past is unpredictable. Feel that this is the way it is in this country. We are beginning to discover more and more about our history and dwight is an interesting figure. My sister will certainly confirm wishhis chief deathbed would be to archive as quickly as possible. This is one of the reasons for and an intensers interest developed over this. Of time. During the force of our conversation we are going to weave and more of the famous quotes by Dwight Eisenhower. You remember him as the oldest grandchild. What are your thoughts . But what do you remember about him . Do you start, he is very much part of our lives . We often live near him. Things come to mind as sitting president. David got in a. He is very much a grandfather to us. It is a very unusual upbringing in that sense. And yet you see him in the crowds and you wonder what is going on. Of the coats from your grandfather, you dont leave by hitting people over the head, that is assault, not leadership. What do you think about this quotes . I think we need to stop hitting each other on the head. Differentmpletely dynamic than when he was around. Both houses where democrats and he got along famously with everybody. People became americans as opposed to democrat or republican. Tell a will divert and story. When i was in school here in heard two rumors about him in school that i were sure were absolutely wrong. The intensity was terrible. I went straight from school to his house. I went straight up to his room and he was reading a book. I heard two things about you today that we just cant believe. Put his book down, took his glasses off and looked at me. And he said, is a true your name is david dwight and not dwight david . He never officially changed it. I hearde was you were raised the a democrat. , i do claim a party when i was in the army because i did not claim a party when i was in the army. Decide toat made you become it become a republican. I was already beginning to regret the conversation. He said he was concerned about the front runner being an isolationist. And said this is a twoparty country. I said what if you had lost . He said, how is your weight coming along . Steve both parties in 1952 wanted him to be their nominee. Susan it is hard to imagine that now, isnt it . It is impossible to imagine. They came out of military circles, they had a bipartisan way of thinking about themselves but a nonpartisan way. As a matter of fact our grandmother made it a rule. She would tell her staff, i dont want to know anything about what party people are coming from when they come to the white house. It is often perceived she didnt know about politics. She just didnt want any part of it at the white house. It goes to show how much time has gone by. Steve i had read that he would have easily gone to the u. S. Naval academy but he was accepted because of the age limit. He graduated 61st in a class of 164. What made him such a unique the firstn he will be to admit that during his high school and College Years he was a pretty average student. This is what made getting an a minus very difficult. He attended the staff in leavenworth and graduated first in his class there. He said it was this paradigm shift to make the army and leadership his career. We all know he applied to annapolis first. Old because you were to put his brother through school. Gotpplied to west point and that. He wasnt sure about what direction he wanted his career to take until he went to leavenworth. I would add a rather intriguing factoid. If you look at americas great generals, very few of them graduated at the top of their class. I have done a little study of this. , most of them come out of the middle of the class. There are some extraordinary exceptions. Is reason i mentioned that it said something perhaps about actually some of them have lackluster disciplinary records. Strangely the army tries to follow orders. Its kind of ironic. Certainly he was expecting of himself a lot more than what he produced at various points. He was known from his pranks from time to time. There was a famous moment where he turns of that she turns up where he turns up and was apparently only wearing the jacket. That got him around the guard duty there for a long time. When you went around to see your grandfather, you cant talk about Dwight Eisenhower without talking about what was she like . What did you call her . We called her mimi. She was quite wonderful. She was very opinionated. You didnt like having a big difference of opinion. Andwas a loving person always on your side. She was absolutely amazing and was a character. She was just wonderful. I have to tell you, first of all she had these extraordinary china blue eyes. She had the most magnificent eyes and this glorious skin. I remember for the first time in my life i had the courage to counter her on something. Without missing a beat she calmly said, mad means you lost your mind. If i may tell a story, mary may have been too little to remember, she was going in that going to school in pennsylvania. She was going to school in pennsylvania. Somehow this teacher wanted to meet mimi. He was toast by the time she finished with him. She had this man eating out of her hand. I dont think mary had a problem ever again after. Mary i was on a play, fiddler on the roof. It was my night and she was and heto support me goes, we are going to give her a dozen roses and we are going to do this and do that. She saw the look on my face and said, im not going. She had him over to my parents house for iced tea and and is right. She verily that she very diplomatically and school she varies diplomatically and sweetly pulverized the man. The extraordinary ability to serve this role diplomatically and other ways. She could charm the socks off anybody. Many of you know about eisenhowers occasionally strained relations with bernard law montgomery during world war ii. I think they are still talking about that. She thought he was adorable. And he made it business to think he was adorable. She told me of all of her houseguests he was her favorite. To tease outanaged of this man some bit of humor. Apparently field marshal to visit theme white house. He said, well it is not buckingham palace. He batted the spectacular blue eyes and said, thank goodness for that. Steve does anybody want to talk about his leadership in the military and his presidency . We are here in gettysburg pennsylvania. Why did he decide to come here after he left the white house . I think he was stationed here early on. They wanted the farm really because of his roots in kansas. This is a great story i read from your brother. The book is called going home to glory. On january 20, 1961, a bitter cold day in which john f. Dnnedy was sworn in, Dwight Eisenhower hopped into a 1955 chrysler, drove up route 15, 1 secret Service Agent in front of them, he literally came to the farm, secret Service Agent honked the horn, they pulled into the house and it began. It is my father who did the driving. He was expected to go get his drivers license, which he did, having driven since the beginning of the war. This, that ike was really a country boy and he loved the outdoors. Our grandmother came from denver, colorado, a bit of a debutante. She didnt like the outdoors very much, so she thought there was this romance to this farm house they bought. Would say she had one massage a week and i was on the exercise she needed. They had some great friends named george and mary allen. Ike come back to gettysburg, but mimi had heard had her palad down the road. It was still accessible to washington, that was a big thing. Story, barbarae walters interviewed my grandparents. I believe it was the 50th anniversary. Barbara walters turned to my grandfather and asked if mimi enjoys the outdoors. He chuckled and said, she certainly does. Sits on the airconditioned glass port and looks out and enjoys every bit of it. Steve did he ever talk to you about dday . Occasionally i would walk to the Gettysburg College campus, where he had an office where he was writing his memoirs. Occasionally he would give me a ride home. On one occasion i went into the office and in a room in the back he had a huge amount of one of the most famous of the dday , with all the shifts and barrage balloons. It is a famous iconic picture. I asked him about it. If you opened it up there were these maps you could pull down. I got a bit of a primer on this. My sisters will absolutely agree we saw the europe,ary crusade in based on his memoir. How many times did we see that . Five times . Came y by the time we we became adults we were familiarized with the story. What does this leadership tell you about that period in American History . In 1990, when he would have been 100, we had a series of events. There is a famous picture of him with the troops the night before. Number 23 is how i knew him. I always wondered who number 23 was. I met a number 23 aboard the uss eisenhower. I said all my life i have seen this picture, because it looks a very intense. Anyway, i said what in the world are we saying to you . That was the night he was trying to make everybody comfortable without going to deploy the next day. Well, he might have been asking me about that is what this intense look is. Flyfishing. To answer your earlier time i sawnce upon a my brother giving an interview. Was didhe questions your grandfather pickup world war ii in front of you . He said never. Wealled my father and said need a reality check. My memory was he talked about all the time. He laughed and said david didnt get enough. We talked about it once in a while and because david really loved the subject he wanted to hear more. Hearidnt want to anything, so the one time you heard it it was probably too much. Steve my own father was part of the second wave of the dday invasion. He didnt talk about it. As Richard Norton smith has studied so often, Dwight Eisenhower had a Political Base has 12 million men whom he had led, most of them were going to support Dwight Eisenhower in 1952. I had the enormous privilege of taking my salt group to normandy this last year. We study the grand strategy of world war ii and the operational strategy, and we studied leadership and followership. The thing thats really striking of kids. Metery trip kids there and this was so moving for me and how thrilled i was with our group but there i was and really for the first time in my whole life, i realized what my grandfathers burden had been. , theard all about it operations of it. Thats when i first understood the burden. He had lost a child at the age of three. Thats how tough war is. Are we honored to have people who work . Steve motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it. Did you want to respond to that . I think he was right and i think that was the part of the all people to people movement. Steve do you find it ironic that it was created on september 11, 1956 . I guess that was forgotten within the organization. Ofwas the 50th anniversary people to people and we look at the record and there is a great footage of the speech when he was launching and it was a temporary 11 and the and it was september 11 and people to cam about to buy way to peaceably combat the cold war. Dont you think thats exactly what we need today . Peopleoically interview in washington and we were talking about the political situation earlier. Would that be extraordinary if someone thought their job and leadership was to make the other side feel like they wanted to do this for the country . This is where you see a very different leadership style between then and now. [applause] steve a very different Republican Party in the 1950s. Did he enjoy the presidency . His years in washington . I think you enjoy being president more nowadays than you did back then. Steve why . Their perks like the rock stars stop by and things like as itut i think he saw it. As his duty he was elected president and his job was to achieve certain goals and he worked at it, concentrated on it. I dont think you was not the type of and to say do i like what im doing today . Just wasnt the type. But we go through the let me go through the highlights of her grandfathers presidency. He placed the Arkansas National guard under federal control, long the price of Martin Luther king for being resolute precivil rights. He made five appointments to the west supreme court. From 48 to 50 states in the union. And he ended the korean war. Susan he modernized our infrastructure and balanced the budget three times in eight years, which is an Extraordinary Part of that record. And left office with a Budget Surplus for his successor. Mary that same trip when he would have been 100, about fiber six people who 546 people who were in the government when he long anddent were a one of them was the assistant secretary of the treasury. Dad went to bed early one night and the rest of us hung out and they were really telling stories. Steve do tell. Was one of them great. The assistant secretary got this phone call at 2 00 in the morning and granddad had been up pacing. 5 lastnflation was month, what are you going to do about it . He said we will talk about this in the morning. To me, that was in a zynga he got all worked up. The question of civil rights comes up a lot and my grandfather was very active in the area. Not the way maybe it was later on but he desegregated washington and the military. That hasnt i find been talked about is he was the only president who has had an africanamerican pallbearer who was with him during the war till his death. Steve your grandfather spent 16 years as a major in the army and he change the policy in the military. You are a poor out. Out. D up ore direct it from going to these, im going to shake hands with each of them. Susan that would be absolutely typical of the style he brought to his leadership during the war. Many of these men can tell you he spent an enormous amount of time meeting with as many troops as he could before they were deployed. I wish i had the figure in front of me. This is british and american allies. Nd other i think he saw it as a way to motivate people to remind people that they were all part of the same cause, the same team. Steve he said of preparing for battle, ive always found plans are useless but planning is indispensable. Susan seems logical to me. The reason he goes through these plants is so you know exactly what the elements of the strategy are. If you go to the National DefenseIndustry Companies in the plans for operation neptune are about everything down to what kind of inoculation should be given to the local population. And yes some idea of what has to be thought and you have some idea of what needs to be thought through and you actually engage in battle, much changes. And it changes very quickly. At least you know what the general plan is. , this capacityy of every fighting men to understand what were trying to accomplish is a reason we want reason we won the war. That kind of planning has been indispensable but you have to be flexible to get beyond that. Steve please the first president to live on three continents. How did that shape his worldview . Mary it certainly shaved mine. When i was s