Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Presidency David Eisenhower On Ikes Leadership 20221104

To us a little bit about general we are pleased to welcome David Eisenhower. He is going to talk to us a little bit about general eisenhowers military surveys and how it developed came into a leader. It eventually led to him being the president. I always allow our panelists and speakers to introduce themselves. They can tell us what they want us to know about them. I will turn it over to you, david. Take it away. Thank you very much. Samantha, on, meredith, i hope you are there. Mac, if he is around, mary jean, i think she is subscribed, that is my sister. Mary, it is good to talk with you. I am used to looking into a screen on zoom. But i am talking to you in my classroom. We just did a three hour class on president ial speech. It broke up several minutes ago. Thank you for accommodating me. There was a several minute overlap in this program. That meant that we were able to resolve it. Okay, myself, i am the grandson of Dwight Eisenhower. I have spent a fair amount of time in abilene. Mary is living there right now, for good reason. This is a town, more than any other place in america, it reminds me of a town a grew up. Gettysburg, pennsylvania. That is no accident. Gettysburg is on route 30. It turns into route 70. That runs about a mile and a half north of where you all are. The eisenhowers are in between the two. They lived in gettysburg when i was growing up because of its proximity to new york and washington. They decided to situate the library in abilene. That is my grandfathers true home. I have spent a fair amount of time in abilene over the years. Our research two books of written. One of them was published by random house in 90 1986. The second is going home to glory, published in 2011. These are books that book and the eisenhower presidency. I will explain how those books came about. I want to amherst. I am a graduate of George Washington law school. I spent a number of years in the navy. Over the last 35 years or so, i have been a fellow. Im not a ph. D. I am a fellow. Im tenured at the university of pennsylvania. I have taught political science, international relations, communications, political communications. That was the class tonight. I wanna program here called the institute for public service. We provide an alternative but you have probably heard of. Wharton is a Business School attached to the university of pennsylvania. We have people coming through this school. It is our job to try and inspire them. One of the things that we do, we have a unique feature in our program. With travel stipends, we sent students to the library of Congress National Archives Records Administration library. They go to president ial libraries around the country to do primary research on speeches. I had a policy over the years of not sending people to the eisenhower library. It is in the sense that i would be an impossible editor on any eisenhower project. I also dont want students to think they are pleasingly or displeasing me by a choice of topics i. Have made a couple of exceptions. Every exception that i have made has been a university or school wide prize winner. The eisenhower library, i know it is one of the great facilities in the world. I would say that they match each other, the fdr and the eisenhower library. Leadership, war, and peace. I think that abilene is the best possible place to do research on the presidency. I am glad that our foundation is active there. I am looking forward to working with them in the future. The topic tonight is at ease. It is the military eisenhower. It is about making of an officer, how he came to be an officer. Theres a lot of speculation on this topic. Not a lot is known about Dwight Eisenhowers early years. Looking at the subject in the abstract, is how he became a military officer. That is a blue teenager or nurture. This was the role that he was born into. I think that mary would back me up on this. When we lived in gettysburg, i would say this with my father, my president , and my grandfather. A grew up attending a seamless seminar on military history. I wouldve called my grandfather unnatural. This was dinnertime conversation around our table at the eisenhower for our hosts. The Gettysburg National park is a special place. That is certainly Dwight Eisenhower, he went there. He went to it. In a sense, he had served innkeeper earlier in his military career. I think the inspirational sitting, i would say the association between gettysburg in the 19th century and Dwight Howard eisenhowers great test, the normandy battle of the 20th century, they are, innocents, parallel events. Gettysburg as the 19th century normandy. Normandy is the 20th century gettysburg. At some level, associating the two drew Dwight Eisenhower to this convenient place. Gettysburg is located between york and washington. It was kind of a at any ratea nightly affair in our home. Interestingly, that was a kind of substitute for talking about world war ii. World war ii was not encouraging our house. I was not discouraged from learning about world war ii. One of the reason i took up eisenhowers war was to fill in the gaps. I was conscious that the second world war, the european theater, that was something that my grandfather and father had uncommon that i was not a part of. This was awesome object they declined to discuss casually. They discussed the americans of war with enthusiasm. This was also the area of the late 50s, the early 60s. We were approaching the Centennial Anniversary of the events of the civil war. Publishers were turning out book after book. There is always something to discuss every week. In the course of this, i get the sense from my father and grandfather, as military people, mary will back me up on this as well, we have no doubt about the importance of the war. My grandfather did not speak of it a great deal. We had no doubt about the importance of it. We were surrounded by war figures. There was a kind of family story that well tell. We all love it. The year was 1954. It was ten years after the normandy landings. Dwight eisenhower is the president. His brother, milton, is the president of penn state. Milton invites dwight to the commencement at penn state. This was a big event. The story has been retold many times. Penn state is a huge university. What occurs there is a major logistical undertaking. As it turned out, june, 1954, there is the outdoor event at penn state threatened by rainy weather. There is this scene that people described. My uncle milton was Walking Around the president s office ringing his hands. What are we going to do . What are we going to do . Dwight was standing off to the side. He was smiling. Milton, since june 6th, 1944, i have never worried about the rain. I think that is probably a pretty accurate description of what the war meant to him. He never had to worry about the rain. We have gone through a series of anniversaries on dday. 2019 was the 75th anniversary. One of my favorite bloggers, the 70th anniversary began a trend in 2014. At the normandy battlefield, head of state or head of government from every belligerent in the european theater decided to turn up for the dday 70th anniversary commemorations. This is beyond significant. We have putin, russians. We had the ukrainian president. We had people from belarus. The germans were there for the first time. Every belligerent decided the normandy was the point at which they would commemorate a victory in World War Two together. It could have been moscow, it couldve been volgograd, leningrad, it couldve been a lot of places on the eastern front. No, all of the parties came together to identify that cited the Pivotal Moment in world war ii. As a blogger, one of my favorites on the 75th anniversary, on june 6th, 1944, 75 years ago, did not see war machine was attacked from the beaches of normandy. Dday was and is the single greatest event for good ever brought by man. This was a critical moment. This was a Central Legacy of Dwight Eisenhower. The question, how did he arrive there . What kinds of things could have changed him over his contemporaries for this supreme moment in American History . There is all that followed it in the wake. To say that i grew up at a civil war battlefield, nixons civil war history, that is one thing. We spent sunday is going to various civil war about fields. I am a great believer my grandparents did expose us to normality in a fairly spectacular way. I dont mean to say that they didnt. In 1962, i was 14 year old. Mary stayed behind on this one. My grandparents decided to take my sister, and, and myself to europe on a 38day trip. As it turns out, thanks to records i have been sent from the kennedy library, Dwight Eisenhower was actually on a Diplomatic Mission for the president. That was just before the cuban missile crisis. The point of this was to take a tour for the last time. There were these areas that have been so faithful for the west and Dwight Eisenhowers life. We took a passenger ship. We took the Queen Elizabeth ii to cherbourg. We disembark there. That was a critical allied poured from september 1944 and onwards. We boarded a train. I think this was our grandparents way of introducing meaning into the war. We boarded a train and made our way down the invasion fund. It was very long. 70 or 80 miles. We stopped at every town. We can remember, and i both remember the people who turned out in cherbourg. We went to many other towns. There were these people who had living memories of this war. It had just ended 17 years before. We continued on from there. You get a sense of europe in the post war period. We went to paris several times. We went to bomb. That was a point very close to where allied forces enter germany. That was march of 1945. We took a cruise up and down the rind. There is the great german postwar figure. We went on to denmark. That was liberated by British Forces in 1945. We went to sweden as a side trip. Back to denmark. We went back to paris. We went back to england. We then toured war damage. My grandfather was able to call on churchill. He was still alive on that trip. We met many wartime colleagues. We went on to scotland and killeen castle. It was close to prestwick airbase. That is where eisenhower, as a military commander, he would fly from washington to england on several transatlantic flights. He pub probably landed impressed wick. The place had sentimental significance for him. This is a time when we observed the sadness of postwar europe. The tunnel of postwar europe. There was a hopefulness. There was the significance in the european mind. The crowds where beyond belief. Hundreds of thousands of people turning up. Paris, london, so forth. This was brought home to us by a trip. Not by elector, not by anything. I was raised, in fact, and mary probably the same, it was a non political environment. I knew my grandfather as a neighbor for a number of years. I actually room with him on several trips. Including the 62 european trip. My legal residence was in gettysburg until 1979. That was several years after he died. We grew up knowing them principally as grandparents. We were aware of the war heritage of course. I knew my grandfather as a painter, a golfer, a bridge player, a ski shooter. I knew hamas as a president. A very vivid pictures of him as the president of the United States. I knew him as a farm manager and boss. Dwight eisenhower was the first man gave me a job for 25 cents an hour working as a farmhand in gettysburg. He was also the first one to fire me. In the summer of 1963, five years into my duty on the farm, i overstate a lunch hour. I was fired and rehired. I was happy with the way things went. My grad not had a saying. He allowed all of his associates one mistake a year. I had mine. I wish we hired. By enlarge, this was an adult like period in my life. Gettysburg was a special place because of the battle. The presidency was over. This was politics. They were far away for a while. I went up to the academy. I became a target of one of the most famous practical jokes in history. It was my election by acclamation. It was the only partisan position i had been elected to our health in my life. I was the secretary treasury young democrat. That was supposed to be a sort of welcoming gesture. It was supposed to be a practical joke. It. Was receive that way. It became a news item. There was a little story on it. It appeared in the new york times. My parents found out about it. They thought it was funny. I wanted to think it was funny. My grandfather thought on up out about it. He did not think it was funny. The man i had known for years, i came to see generalize and how are in those moments. He was somebody who had a very important persona. He decided to exhibit. I would have remained that way indefinitely. I went to Amherst College in the fall of 1966. It turns out that my current wife, julie nixon, she was also enrolling at st. Paul. I got to know her very quickly. We were engaged very rapidly. He became an item. It almost didnt happen. You can imagine the awkwardness that i felt presenting myself at her door many yearly days. This one night in particular. I presented myself to a senior student on duty. I was david highs and how are. I would like to see julie nixon. She looked over her horn rimmed gases. My name is harry truman. Ive persisted. We got together. I experienced this great adventure of 1968. This was an election that really move the United States beyond the post dday era. This was an Election Year dominated by the vietnam war. The candidate that hours with throughout was richard nixon. He was campaigning. That was a promise to end the war in vietnam. He suggested that the natural ae to relate particulars to the general. And that is to concentrate on the main task at hand, to extract the United States from a losing effort in vietnam and doing so in a way that would ultimately win the peace. As Dwight Eisenhower put it, we succeed only in so far as we identify in war a single overriding objective. And experiencing the 1968 campaign, i did not realize it at the time but i was rehearsing the eisenhower book. The singular purpose is what stands out in the record of Dwight Eisenhower as a record in that conflict. That aspect of leadership is something that he came by how . Was it nature or nurture . Its a question that i consider gradually over time but never wrote anything formally. This is a question that i consider gradually overtime i. Never written anything formally of my grandfathers life. I have written about it. I may publish that someday. My original intent when going into the writing field was to become a rider that is to become a journalist. I had it in the back of my mind. I wanted to do this in a university setting. I really wanted to become a writer. One of the things that you do as a rider is right what you know about. I was also, in the late 70s, i was at a point in my life where i was nostalgic. I wanted to revisit the time in gettysburg. I entered a contract with brandon the house to do a book on Dwight Eisenhower. This is a book that i published second. This was a profile of him. It was probably late president presidency, the early retirement years. I came up with i couldnt get started. Random house, my editor, he had been very enthusiastic. We had to start. If you are going to base this on Dwight Eisenhower as a gentleman farmer at gettysburg, this is very poignant in the context of his dashed hopes in 1960. That will resolve the cold war. There was the narrow loss of the election in 1960. There was the presumption of a cold war in 1960. That greatly disappointed eisenhower. He became president. He was convinced with the idea of he is bringing about the kind of reconstruction in postwar america. I found of the affair in 1960, that crisis, it really required me to go back to 1958 and the intervention. There is the brinkmanship over that between the u. S. And soviets. That tracks back to the 1957 crisis over syria. There was the sputnik event of 1957. I couldnt tell that story without going back to the 1957 election. There was the suez affair and hungry. That was a great mellow drama. There were flashes across the board and in eastern europe. Thats when the high points of the cold war. I could not hold out at the geneva conference. They required me to look at the indochina war. That required me to look at mccarthy. That quiet me to look at the 1952 election. A keep falling back. I find myself committed to a much longer project than i anticipated. At one point, under the logical thing, i think. I try to approach it from the other side of eight. White hearts in our was born on october 14th, 1990. He goes back to abilene. So on. That raises the question of nature and nurture. What can a person was he early in life . Theres also the question of context. This is abilene as we know. In 1890, it was very close to the western frontier. This is something that Dwight Eisenhower, as a young boy, he would have been viewed like this. This was a part of his character. Being part of kansas in the late 19th century, i think that was probably very special. As is being unamerican anywhere. There was a historical little individual that Dwight Eisenhower compares with. We have ulysses grant. I do not recall my grandfather offering a lot of opinions about grant. In fat, he offered many opinions in the defense of his lieutenants. He is somebody whose career parallels grants in many way is. Ulysses grants presidency begins as close to Dwight Eisenhower birth as george w. Bush presidency is to us today. He is born in a post grant, post civil environment. Grant, by the way, the very interesting speaker. Hes a very interesting president. One of the things teaching president ial speech here that i have noticed, a kind of captures the spirit that Dwight Eisenhower was born into, grant says, the young man of this country, those who must be rulers, 25 years hence, they have an interest in maintaining the national honor. This is a moment reflection as to what will be the commanding influence of the nations of the earth in their day. If they are only true to themselves, to inspire them with national pride. Four years later, he speaks justly. He is forecasting Dwight Eisenhowers career. In the future, it will i hold my present office, a subject of acquiring territory must have the support of the people before i will be moved into any position looking towards the acquisition of new land. I must say that i do not share any apprehension tell by the man he ends to the dangers of our government becoming weekend by reason of the extension of american territory. Commerce, education, and the Rapid Transmission of thought and material by telegraph and steam have changed all of this. In fact, i do believe that our great nation is preparing the world in its own good time to become one nation speaking one language. Armies and navies will no longer be required. He had these kind of the teams in america. There was abilene with Dwight Eisenhower. He was a young boy. America is a city on a hill. We are preparing yourself a great responsibility. America is like all nations. We are leading others toward a World Without nation states. It is an international and global civilization. Dwight eisenhower will embody that. It is the apparent paradox. It is not a paradox. He is from the center of the United States. Yet, his greatest fame will be achieved serving in positions overseas. About as far from abilene as one can get. He is an american. He is also a citizen of the world. This is a very important theme in his life. It started back then. I encountered all kinds of ambiguity. Mac would back me up on this. Anybody at the library. There is the documentation of his boyhood. That covered a lot of sin. Dwight eisenhower was able to register at west point in june of 1911. Tyler, texas is his birthplace rather than denison. He called himself Dwight David Eisenhower rather than david Dwight Eisenhower. That is how he was baptized. He switched the first and second name. Nobody could call him on that. There is no explanation to why he did not. He neglected to tell west point that he had actually played professional baseball in the kansas state lead 1909 and 1910. That couldve cost him his amateur status. I reveal that my book, going home to glory. There was an episode where ed patterson asked general eisenhower at a 1947 giants game, but patterson was the director of Public Relations for the new york giants. He said, general, organized baseball is popular. There are all kinds of rumors ufc played pro baseball at one time. The story is that you played under the ailey of wilson in the kansas state began 1809 and 1910. A record show there are two wilsons italy, which one was you . Dwight eisenhower said, the one that could hit. Thats the story he told me. Go online and look at kansas state lead. You will see that there were two wilsons not lead 1909 to 1910. One was a pitcher, one was a first baseman for a ball club called abilene. There he is. Nobody knew the difference. Dwight eisenhower, as a young man, he studied military history. He was interviewed by the stories of general washington. He was inspired by alexander the great. Hannah bull was somebody that he admired. Whether he was a reader or not, we dont know. He went to west point. We know he was not standing athlete. He always associated athleticism and leadership training. The start of the class, it fell apart. It was loaded with football players. Bradley was his teammate. Dwight eisenhower gets injured. You probably know the story. He played a game of the century against carlisle. I believe that was in his second year. He injured his knee. That knee injury criminally took him out of football. As the story goes, he became sort of negative at west point. I am just back from a trip to west point. I had lunch with several instructors there. We were talking about west point war. There is not a lot. There is the pa hodgkin diary on a file. I recommend getting it out. This is Dwight Eisenhowers roommate. He kept a diary while eisenhower was a cadet. At least a year or two of it. You can get a bit of a picture of this fellow. It is somewhat indistinct. There are rumors. We do know that he accumulated a lot of demerits. He graduated about 68 in the class of 165. You would say that he was not particularly academically distinguished. However, according to one fitness report written of him as he graduated from west point, it was written of him that this cadet was born to command. Nature and nurture. He impressed west point. Although he was not their top student. He was somebody who had great aptitude for command and various personality traits, intellectual traits. He could command. His next stop out of west point was to Fort Sam Houston in texas. They go on to a particularly important stop. That is gettysburg. That was during the outbreak of world war i. Two and a half years out of west point, three, two and a half, eisenhower is promoted into the rank of colonel. This was a wartime promotion. This was extremely wrap it. He was in charge i was driving my granddad down down to the drugstore. We always drove right past the evergreen. That marks the spot of the Camp Headquarters on the road. He spent a number of months in the camp. He was training american soldiers. They were going to bring tanks into world war i. He was organizing unit that he was going to be in the campaign. This was a bill wouldve extraordinary responsibility. There are some snapshots of him as a young commander. I would have recognized this individual because i work for him on the form. He was really stickler for detail. He was a strict disciplinarian. He was all of those things. This is one of the things in a member i remember how well informed he was. I always felt that he had the time to take my job. I think that is something that was a trait of his. He had a great sense of intangibles. He was determined to learn everything. There is a leadership lesson in there. Leaders dont ask others to do that which they are on willing or unable to do themselves. That is what i took away from it. At any rate, he was a major success. He was preparing for distinguished service in world war i. The armistice was signed. They are actually in new york. They were loading equipment. The arm assist comes down. He is going to miss service in world war i. Like many, bradley and others, they had the command responsibilities of world war ii. He found himself in this situation of embraced cain. It then caused him to reconsider his career. But not very seriously. This is where, again, nature takes hold here. Dwight eisenhower reached a correct intellectual conclusion. Also an emotional one. He was an army man. He saw himself as an army man. He is not gonna be deterred by this happenstance. Secondly, in common with many of the stars of his era, those who served in world war i, people that he would serve with, there was the hard calculation that world war i had not resolved the european question. I am currently reading a book at my bedside table. It is called 11, 11, 11. November 11th at 11 00. It is the morning of 1918. This was the last day of the european war. It is a very interesting and well done history of the final days of world war one. It featured attacks up and down the line. Well after the moment that the allied commanders knew that the amateurs have been signed. Why are they pressing the battle to the end . They understood in world war i that germany had not been defeated in the sense that it had not been occupied. It had not experienced defeat in a way that would table this issue. I think that soldiers, fox connor, he would go on to write about it later. They came away from world war i with a sense of incompleteness. If you are professional, in 1918, 1919, you are thinking that we are getting ready. This is an arm assist, but it is a truce. This issue will reoccur. There was the idea that america would return to europe. That was implicit by a superficial reading of world war i. My father and i went to world war i battlefield in 1999. We walk the same field in 1899. My father was than 70 years old. His own father had walked with him in 1829. That was 70 years later. Dad and i took the same trip that he and his father had taken years before. At the time, my dad was writing a book that recommend to everybody. It was about world war i. I got a specially inscribed copy from him. It acknowledge that i made a contribution to the book. I took a lot of notes. I sent him extensive notes on what we had seen. We had a kind of epiphany on that trip. It must have impressed americans who served in the theater at some point. There is this happenstance. America intervenes in the spring of 1918. Germany has actually defeated and subdued russia. They have occupied all of ukraine. They occupied minsk. They had ended the eastern front. They were fighting the allies on the western front. This was supposedly unanswered to all their strategic problems. However, the america intervenes with under 2 million troops. There are two or three major battles. That includes the my father and i toured that. It was near the front. It was nearby this why . We had an epiphany one afternoon. We were at a place close to the this is in any area close to where the American Army had a major offensive in september of 1918. We were overlooking a town that is supposedly the scene of our great setback and world war ii. No, world war i. It is the town of this is a town where American Forces are being integrated with french and British Forces initially. That is when we arrived in the theater. American forces were introduced in march of 1918. As they assume positions, they launched attacks into the chairman line. The germans respond with extraordinary fury. They drove them back for miles. This becomes like the passive world war ii. It is a defeat that is studied and really studied. It is studied by the Army War College and other institutions. They wanted to know what went wrong for the American Forces and what lessons they could learn. They were looking at this town and this battlefield. I think it occurred to us that all of the army studies were asking the wrong questions. The question was not about what went wrong with the American Forces. The questions, why did the germans respond with that theory . We look out over the battlefield. We had a guidebook in hand. Apparently this was a quiet sector in march of 1918. From 9 to 10, and the friends of the germans. From 10 to 11, the germans would show the french. From 11 to 12, the french would sell the germans. From 12 to 1 on the, germans woods shell. They would break for lunch. The shelling would resume. It would knock off around six. They would file their reports. Everybody knew when the shelling was coming. Nobody got hurt. Everybody was happy. The war was over. What did the americans do . The minute they arrive, they went into battle. They did not know the rules. They did not know the limitations. Think about how the germans responded when they see americans launching all out attacks on positions throughout the front. It had been considered unassailable for three years. These are impregnable lines. These various lines gold way to town. What do they make of these americans . They simply dont know the rules. They dont know the limitations. The americans did not know that in this period. In fact, it was entirely foreseeable that the americans will travel 4000 miles from now on the United States to enter battle against the germans. That is a feat that no other nation in the world was capable of have. They simultaneously took on japan in germany, the preeminent military forces and their respected spheres. They would do so simultaneously. They would simultaneously reach these destinations through submarine infested waters. They have a solid barriers considered impossible like the normandy coastline. They would achieve the manufacturing miracles that we did. They would produce 150 aircraft carriers. 300,000 combat they would equip the red army. We would do all of these things. America was capable of such extraordinary feats. At some level, Dwight Eisenhower and his contemporaries, in 18 twenties, they understood this. Eisenhower went to the war college. He begi there was the war college where he finished first. He began to make a series of associations that will last throughout his army career. They are studying problems. All of which had to do with the european theater. By the way, he is networking in this period. My grandfather worked for george paton immediately after world war ii. Patton was a hero. My dad and i were tour in the area. We took a pilgrimage to the spot where george paton had, as legend goes, here that a cavalry charge. He mounted a tank chassis injuries saber. He led a tank charge into a fixed german position. That is a period of great lore. We saw these sites were Douglas Mcarthur mopped up german resistance around november 11th. Mcarthur won the medal of honor for his service in world war i. Dwight eisenhower would go on to work for Douglas Mcarthur. He had another faithful educational billet when he was in the army. He was assigned to paris. That is where my father went to preschool and grade school. He worked for john percy. He had command American Forces in world war i. At the time, he became the head of the American Battle monuments commission. Dwight eisenhower was his assistant. He identified, organized, and i suppose they were still creating memorial sites in europe. That is among his other duties. He wanted to put together a guidebook for american tourists to one of the visit world war battlefields. This was a project that took my father and grandfather on a trip that we went on a 1999. It caused Dwight Eisenhower to perform a reconnaissance of all of the battlefields at which american armies would pass through. My grandmother consider that to be very faithful. Maybe there is an element of faith in this as well. At this point, he is also beginning to understand command. Hes under the two lives of foxconn here, the chief of operations. He understood how commanders thought. He went on to serve with Douglas Mcarthur. He studies under Douglas Mcarthur. So forth and so on. His education begins. A would say it looked good. That is because of the wider world. The idea that they would do that seemed farfetched. I had dinner in the mid 80s. My book was about to come out. We are talking about this. For my young adulthood, i thought it would be impossible for them to return and fight another war there. We hope another war would never happen. We hope that people would never allow governments to get involved in a war again. This would never happen. Never again. Americans spent many years investigating setbacks. Including november 11th, 1918. They wanted to know why so many people died that day. There is a feeling that europe was a fire trap. There was the pact in 1928. There was international policy. The germans at the same thing. It was impossible to think that the country of germany would find a way to reopen all of the issues that we thought we have resolve that versailles. It was impossible to think that there is conflict could not be averted. There is a small group of military officers born to command. They were now being educated. They felt like they knew better. I think they were preparing for a war throughout the inter war period. Dwight eisenhower has written about his mentorship. He was mentored by fox connor. He worked with george paton. This comes up a fair amount. This is one of Dwight Eisenhower personal heroes. Someone who had been immersed in the subject over the years. They included that eisenhower had several personal heroes. One was mcarthur, the other was patton. These are people in the army. They were people with he would wind up commanding them himself. At any rate, he served under these people. He was separated from mcarthur. He had misunderstandings with many of them. Mcarthur was critical of eisenhowers command. I would say his he was critical of eisenhowers public personality. You look back on eisenhowers tenyear service. Eisenhower was the best clerk. He look like mcarthur. He was the finest instructor. They were united in the future. The fact is that he was learning command. And then the final line of resistance, there is the idea that forces in the last would we arm germany. The french front fails. We find ourselves in war. As churchill put it on september 3rd, 1939, this is not a question of fighting for poland, we are fighting to save the whole world for the petulance of not just here any. We are indefensible. This is most sacred to man. There is no war to shut any country out of its sunlight. It is a war viewed in its parent quality to establish an impregnable writes the, rights of the individual. They will establish and revive the stature of man. This is a great cause. We saw this for many years. My dad told the story. My dad was in manila. He asked his father, why dont you leave the army . Been a major for all of these years. This was the pearl of the Business Opportunities all around him. Eisenhower just replies a matter of fact, the wars coming in 24 to 36 months. When it does come, i will straighten this out. When mcarthur separates from eisenhower in 1939, Dwight Eisenhower, and this is a test to in the diaries that ron file, he was upset. He was the general there, for mcarthur was charging him with the report, where he says, this is the finest author in the United States army. When hostilities break out, we must be moved immediately, which is what happened. And in the course of this, he finds himself moving to various combat commands to check boxes so that he would not be ineligible for field command. He turns down, fatefully, in assignment to join his old liturgy zero on the staff which means that he was not present when pearl harbor happens. And so it is not like did, to go on and command this at omaha beach, but he was greatly compromised by the fact that he was in charge for the messages on september 7th, 1941, and spent six months before the commission explaining why that did not happen. Eisenhower was fortunate. But eventually, he finds himself coming to Franklin Roosevelt and he impress roosevelt with his steely qualities, with his toughness and also with his willingness to sacrifice, i would say, for the war effort. One of the things that my father felt was instrumental in my grandfathers career, it was the affair of late 1942 word white house eisenhower took responsibility for working out an armistice with the official, in charge of all of northern france. This was supposedly fascism. This was supposedly a deal that americans were above. This supposedly solely the american cause, and eisenhowers willingness to do this was controversial and almost cost him his command, but he took responsibility. Franklin roosevelt noted that, and knew that in eisenhower, he had somebody, in fact she allowed him to take credit or responsibility for it. If he had somebody he would make things easier on civilian leadership, which is one of the things that Dwight Eisenhower do to prove that he could do throughout the early phases of the european conflict, or north african italian conflict. He was somebody he was actually under qualified for the overlord command, and was overqualified because he was willing to sacrifice the reputation, and because he was lucky. Because he prove that he had diplomatic skills, and his ability as a strategist for him nonetheless his campaigns work, he was eligible for the command of overlord. The general marshall was overqualified. And he tried that and he failed. The americans would have found in reconstituting that effort. Its a Dwight Eisenhower finds himself moving towards the point in my studies where i think it is safe to say, that what happens to Dwight Eisenhower before 1943 is very important in understanding him as a person. But i think it is specifically prepared himself in this period, in this case for his military leadership as well, for the responsibilities he would assume in the european theater from december 43 through 45. By contrast, what happens to him in that period is as predictable inevitable that he becomes president of the United States. But the same token, i would say that the american people, as easygoing as they were, between 1900 1943, nothing preordained or prepares americans for the intensive campaigns they will fight in 1944 1945, it is a march in those campaigns, it becomes predictable inevitable that the United States will soon be the prominence that it did in the cold war. So who was he . He was a professional soldier. And he was ex stoled as a sort of regular guy, as a citizen. So we had those mental american qualities, and so far, hes been accused of being a politician. And i asked leonard, paul whos a former chairman of the Republican National committee when they were searching eisenhart many years ago, for things that ive published, and things that i will publish. And i asked him about this charge by politicians that ike was a politician. What did he, he will recall, chairman of the Republican Party had to say about him as a politician. And he said, the two greatest natural politicians, they were smith of new york, and Dwight Eisenhower. And they knew what to, do they knew how to do it, in every setting and headed up a extraordinary political aptitude and he was also a man in a hurry. And he was on a panel with a man who wrote an acclaimed book on the very dark experiments is and at one point he turned to me and said, you have something and i had to say to my fellow panelist, hear a very formidable guy, that you have something very right. About eisenhower in war, and that is that he was popular in the theater. One reason is popular in the theater is that he never and he was somebody he was in a hurry to get to the world and everybody else was doing a, job he was not pretending to be doing their job, he was doing his own and he was focused on getting it done. Says but he wrote centuries ago, the powerful motions and ambitions of a great military leader, mustard the emotions in the abilities of the great military leader, whether it be in the case of caesar, whether it be hatred of the enemy in the case available and it was characteristic of frederick. What was montgomery, montgomery was somebody with a passion protectionist, but he was characterized by many people of having something in common with eisenhower, and it was the iron will to prevail. Dwight eisenhower talked about these rights, of akin to descriptions of german generals, a man of relentless clarity in purpose, in the absolute will to win. He was dedicated to the cause, and this will get a catered to the mission, which was one of his extraordinary traits in september of 1939 war broke out, very prophetic diary entry, his iron determination as a parent, if the war hero with the use of the declaration, the war by britain and france, which now seems to be upon us, is as long and drawn out in those as disastrous as the socalled great war, the remnants of nations emerging from it will be scarcely recognizable. And it does not seem possible that the people who proudly referred to themselves as about how the situation comes, about hundreds of millions will suffer starvation, angel beetles and wounded because women was a power drunk egocentric, criminally insane, and yet unfortunately the absolute of 89 million people. By his personal magnetism, which much of, yes convert a large portion of those millions to his insane schemes and to blind acceptance of the leadership. Was he successful in overcoming the whole world by brute force . The final result will be that germany will be dismembered and destroyed. He never deviated from that. Nor did he ever deviate from his ability to get along with the british in a very profound way. The great test in world war ii, germany was posed to be evil, but there is a lot of evil in the world. The challenge is not so much recognizing, evil the challenge is doing something about. It i think is one thing, in approach that Dwight Eisenhower brought generals. The idea that the real task in world war ii is to mobilized moccasins, to fight the to tell therrien armies on terms into prevail over them in a moral test of strength. This was something that is inherit, and indeed a strategy, and something that permeated his relations with the british. The british face the very same challenge. One of my favorite movies, i like it because its based on the speeches of the darkest hour, based on my favorite from within churchill when he brings to the world into the british cause. Which is not a matter of survival, necessarily, it is not a matter of recognizing but it is a matter of mobilizing democracy to do what the circumstances require. And they said near the end of the conflict, that will pose with this, these were convictions. In orientation towards emissions, things that he came by, and through character, temperament, the experience, in a fair amount of nature, but also nurture. As he told the british parliament, i come from the heart of america, and the superficial aspects by which we ordinarily recognize family relationships, the town where i was born, in the town where i was reared are far separated from the city. Kansas in that isnt went together to form 500, and their standards, our towns are younger. To those people, i am proud to belong. Yet kinship among nations is not determined by measurement such as the proximity and, age but we shall turn to those other things which will be intangibles. They are the real treasures for us to possess. To preserve his freedom of worship, his equality before the law, his liberty to speak and act as he sees fit, only that he trespassed not on the rights of others. The londoners will fight, and so will the citizen. The most important line, i think in this entire career as a speaker. Kenneth davis, in the first book and Dwight Eisenhower, which i think is probably the best, First Impressions are always very lasting. He wrote a book entitled, soldier of democracy. I think thats what he was. He was born a soldier, that is nature, and he ended as a soldier of democracy, nurture, and he was somebody who was educated in the fine points of military strategy, but he also, in the 30s, typical of citizens throughout the world, concerned citizens, understood the mission that his forces were called upon to achieve, and he was able to do so with relentlessness of purpose, which is his claim to stewardship, and his claim to greatness and the key to his success and world war ii and his success as president. That is setting before himself a task that needs to be done in devoting mind, body, in spirit to doing that. That makes a success in any way. That would be my answer to the question of nature versus nurture. It is been a real pleasure to at least talk about this for a while, and i am by the way looking forward to getting out there, and i keep telling don, im coming, and actually had some things that i wanted to do in the library, but we will be sending some students from my cinema seminar out here next year probably. But i wanna get out there and won a figure at how things are going, in the new exhibits, and so forth and i want to pay my respects to old friends. I have a lot of old friends out there. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, david and we do have quite a number of questions and comments in the chat. It is past our time, but what i will say is that you are welcome to stay on, we will work with these questions as long as if you dont mind, i have a food bar here and it might take a bite or two, but i am game. Dont think anyone, minds and to the audience, we will keep going, but if you cannot stay with us, thank you for joining us, and if you can, hang out with us for a little while, we will try to get through all of these questions. Wonderful. Its the first question, says what did your father say about your grandfather, Dwight Eisenhower, outside of the war years as a father and what was dwight d. Eisenhowers philosophy . His internal philosophy. I would say dad sounded up in the first line of his autobiography, which reads as follows. The first line. Quote, i was born standing at attention. In other words, i think Dwight Eisenhower was probably as rewarding a parent or grandparent as you would ever encounter. And i think that his he was a tough disciplinarian. We respect that, and in many ways i was on by it. But i am positive that my father was probably in the same position. I never doubt that he cared greatly for us, and that he was teaching us important things. Into hindsight, he was teaching us things that were probably unattainable. And how many Dwight Eisenhowers are there in this world . How many of their ever been . His story, literally considering that his background, he is one in 10 million. This is a very farfetched thing,. But he did set standards in a way that made it impossible not to be better, want to be better, and impossible not to feel profound fondness for his energy. And i think what he dedicated to raising my father. And i got a fair portion of that, because we were on the boundary of the farm, i think at a certain point, he took me on as a project. He wanted to prevent me and other people my age, my sisters can attest to this as well, from falling for the temptations of postwar america, where everything is comfortable. He believed that that is one reason why he was on a farm. You dont get too far from nature. You want to be self sufficient, to the degree that you can, and you want to bring skills, that help survival in this world, and that helps the foundations of self confidence, its of confidence is the foundation of a good life and also a good political system. And so, my answer to a kind of fairness we . One of my dad say about my granddad . My dad told me very often, that he was protecting me, which is one reason i did not go to west point, and it was to address options of my father didnt feel like he had. But i didnt feel like my father was critical of his father. I think that he regarded Dwight Eisenhower, as i did, as the most extraordinary individual i have ever known. The energy, like you have never seen intelligence, thatization a impossible example of many ways but a very inspiring one. All, right thank you, then especially says that if you father was president of ussr in the warsaw pact, would your grandfather have withdrawn from the u. S. From nato . If he was president win, so i . When the ussr and warsaw pact dissolved, winter grandfather have withdrawn from nato . Yes. We have researchers out there in abilene who are fresher on the subject than i am. I think that the i dont know what he wouldve actually done. One of the points that Dwight Eisenhower was anxious to me in the late 50s, was that we should be open minded data about things when we have the ability to be open minded. His farewell address to me contains two pearls of wisdom, too. That are related. That relate to a lot of messages later in politics. One of them is the unwanted acquisition by military industrial complex, but the others the dangers that Public Policy could fall two of technological elite. Both of these suggestions are reflected in a lot of speeches by reagan, by others that a problem that we have, when we organize to do something to accomplish a task, we trade organizations. These organizations become provincial. In the operate independently of the purpose for which they were established, and independent of any real controls. Towards the end of his presidency, and im certain of this because i have the documentation my home, eisenhower was president eisenhower was very skeptical of nato appropriations and he was pressing advisers on the nato question. I dont think that he had the famous thought of pulling out of nato, but i think you want to get here. He wanted to hear that the organization that we entered in order to meet a threat, that is the threat of soviet aggression in western europe, that having met that threat, we are not in a position to reappraise. That is the ability to reappraise, to reassess, and to hold organizations to account. He regards in his farewell address, and i think philosophically, as the critical element and self government. And would he have dissolve nato in the wake of the warsaw pact, i dont think so at all. And i think that what you might not have done, was to be very careful about was pushing nato east of where it was when the soviet union dissolved. But i think that he is a he wouldve understood, it seems to me based on his wartime experience, the sensitivity of buffer zones and things like that that would americans really dont like to take into account and foreign policy, which are reality. How far you can push middle east, that is something im very skeptical about. However, he would have adhered to nato. I saw that on the 62 trip. Its one of my indelible impressions of him. During the nato round, so to speak, and he it was impossible for me to imagine that he would never have entertained the idea of dissolving the relationship in the bonds that we forge in world war ii. I think that emotionally, he felt as deeply for the areas where you served overseas, as he felt about his own country, and he loved his own country. And so i think that the idea of nato as a community wouldve been something that he would have continued. And i hope that is responsive. We have a very big issue out there right now. We are looking at that right now for ukraine, and we are all start by the spectacle of ukrainian resistance, in the demonstrating as it has in reality the ukrainian nation. And i dont think any of us are expecting that. Its a that raises the whole question of nato. So i think the one thing that is come out of this for better or for worse, a lot of places where we ought to be or what a future was, i think we have rekindled a sense of community in deep appreciation at least for the kinds of things that we have in common. This alliance does protect. I think it is very effectively protecting those values, in that territory right now. One of the things that has been impressive to me from the outset, the ukrainian crisis, we have served notice on the russians that nato territory cannot be touched. And im not reading a whole lot of speculation that theres any thought that the russians will do it. I think the threat of a confrontation over nato territory is vast by signaling a resolution. We are community and every trip we make in normandy, were about to make much more in a couple weeks, and we will be making five. Every trip we take to normandy cements that. We are part of our countries, we are americans, they are french, et cetera et cetera, but we have very deep things in common. And these are things that we will never give up. Thank you. Our next question is from jim gallon, i hope that is correct, it says that i really enjoyed eisenhower at war, do you plan to write another volume covering his later career . I have it and a form of a graph. Yes. And i think that the my plan, heres the problem. The problem is that it was all dictated dictated undrafted before i set my current appointment at the university of pennsylvania. Meaning, suddenly i ran out of time, number one and number two, but this is preword processor. Its a i have these massive graphs, and i suppose i could scan them, but even that is not very helpful, because they are so massively edited and things like that. But what i will do, god willing over the next year or two or three, is i will transcribed these graphs i have on the presidency, which have a great deal of promise. With the idea that the final and it will publish, and perhaps one of my children will go public with me. I have every intention of filling in, the story between victory in europe and going home to glory. And that story is winning the piece, which is what americans proceeded to do from 1942 onward. We won the war in 1945, and we won the peace. And so this is a ambition. Another thing that i have, which is in much better shape because it is actually electronic, is a volume on your 1968. Which i approached so much like the eisenhower at war. Eisenhower at war was inspired by but there was on nixons shelf in florida. And i dont know how many nights i stayed up reading the book. The name of the book was 1940. In the thesis of a book on 1940 is that something basic happens. This is like a hinge, this is a moment where the world emerges from it different from the world that entered it, and so on. And i approached 1944 that week. My idea was that it 43, we are one nation, we are one force in 1840, five it was different. And so what is this transition about . That is what 68 is. And so i have that in a fairly advanced state. But the eisenhower presidency is a great challenge. Sprawls over many subjects. But i think the central theme is, you would pretty much be familiar if you are looking at other past american wars, one of the things that ensues after major war is a period of reconstruction. If you better to clear that out then a Dwight Eisenhower who has the reputation in stature emerging from a war to be able to command some sort of bipartisan consensus. To put the country back together, in a way that it can resume its various political contests and its way of life, which it does in the 1960s. Its of the quick answer is yes, i intend to do this whether i personally can do that, is a question mark. One of the things we must do, if i am to follow up on this and i intend to, is to return to abilene, and i am looking forward to that. And i will look through a lot of research that was last over the years through bundling up packages, and i think things were thrown away and ive lost the thread on a lot of documentation, and i know where it is, its not out there and reresearch the manuscript that hopefully i will have on hand. Since students with president ial embraced that all the time. I should be able to do that myself. Okay. And because of time, im gonna skip some of these questions that arent directly related to our subject. I do apologize, but we are getting a little bit late. And we are going to go down to jim english, who says, given that he has his background of his parents, what personality traits do you suppose he had the created this opposition to the wishes of his elders, certainly, played a very important part of his desire for military service. Wonderful question. There is, as it seems to me, a theme of, if not opposition, at least identity. That is something to do with the military thing. I ida was tolerant by the way of his choice when he announced he was going to west point, he says, that is your choice. But this idea of identity and independents, number, one but number two, swede is a very interesting introduction, in swede, i had never met them, and had read the correspondence, which is a fantastic correspondence, and my sense of it is that ike was a kind of big guy, little guy friendship. I can sort of the athlete and is sort of the mind and that there is a sort of protectiveness about that. So the combination it seems to me of independents and responsibility is a theme that runs through all biographies of the presidency. And thats a long, ago i got a call in my office. From Bonnie Angelo who was an angel journalist writing a book about the first mothers. And she elicited something from me, which i thought no one would ever ask, and she said, i am just back from the eisenhower memorial, and ive been to the nixon home, and are you see both of them, are you are struck as i am by the similarities . And i said, bonnie, you are talking about, and i mention the word epiphany earlier, but this is one of the if any epiphanies of my life. That is going to the nixon birthplace. Which is now the nixon president ial library with a friend of nixons who is going to be one of the prime movers in the early days of the nixon foundation. To require that property, save it from condemnation, and develop it at the Historic Site that it is now. I can remember walking into that house, right there and being stunned by the similarity between the house and the one in abilene. Same rooms, same bunk beds upstairs, same mothers and fathers and roomful of boys, et cetera, same thing. And so i said to her, i was always someone who said that Eisenhower Nixon were completely different people. Hardly, but we associate the two, consciously, and it was in that moment right began to see similarities. I began to ask myself about, what is the crucible that formed leadership. If you look at president s, you would be amazed at how that pattern sort of repeats itself. The pattern of assuming a lot of responsibility at a young age in a very young strong sense of identity. And one reason that you assume responsibility at a young age is that the family dynamic requires it. Franklin roosevelt is somebody who had an absentee fathers mother lived in the white house until 1940. And they truman, he had a sort of what we would father as i understood it, he was a disciple of christ. And so you have the eye to tight figure in the inspiration, you have harry who must of been very important to his mother, certainly infused with a lot of idealism, it probably has seemed a very Important Role in the family of Dwight Eisenhower, somebody who was somebody who i think that family relied on, to a large extent. His father was disappointed in many ways, david was, and he is somebody who had gambled land in a Business Venture in the late 18 80s. And as a result, suffered the stigma of having been someone who lost a farm, which was a big deal for many nights. That makes him a manual labor in a community full of farmers and i would say that it made him a very tough guy. And i think that that, why hasnt eisenhower has probably butted cones with him fairly often. Beby the same token, he has been inspired by his very observant mother, who won by about quotation context all over the county, things like that, if you look at kennedy, he appears to be an exception to his father was a real task master and his mother was a beautiful rose. You look at london johnson, his father is now colic, his mother was a disciple of price, and his father was somebody like David Eisenhower, my namesake, from job to job to job, sort of frustrated, guy and his mother hen it was devout who raises her boys in a very idealistic way. Gerald ford had no father. His mother was sort of in the same vein as jimmy carter, and his father was sort of a bourbon politician in the south, and his mother is a peace corps volunteer. You have ronald reagan, his fathers no colic, his mother is a disciple of christ and you have george bush, an apparent exception, followed by bill clinton. Those father and mother, does somebody assume a lot of responsibility at an early age. And i think they are forced to do, that that can wear people out but it can also make a very strong characters. And i think strong characters have a sense of making their own way. What theyre going to, do they dont wait for others to make up their mind for them. The eisenhowers had a very practical problem in the early 18 90s and into the 1900, and it was how to survive the eisenhower brothers entering into a agreement. They would put each other through college, they knew that they would have to do that. The fact that they had lost their land, it really cast them out into a national system. They would have to make their way in the world in the way that most people do, which is by becoming professionals. In all together it was different from running a farm. And so, they embark on this program which has nothing to do with David Eisenhower as far as i can see, and that is establishing a air belt where one would finance the other thing, college, and so on and so, on and they would go to the four corners of america, and make a mark, and they did. It is an Extraordinary Group of achievers, the eisenhower boys in abilene, late 18 90s, Extraordinary Group. But by the same token, people who never lost a sense of where they are from, i am certain that my grandfather became a farmer after he left the presidency because of, in a manner of redeeming something that his father had lost. I had no doubt about that. And i think that that was his way of reminding himself, or affirming, or living something that he felt was the right way to live, and that was telling the land, and so, as professional as he became, as cosmopolitan as he became, he always had this idea that he would return to that. So, responsibility, very important influence on the part of the mother. And that has been characteristic for a president by the way. I would say pretty much on down the line, obama, in search of my father, his mothers social worker. And so this goes on. When the big looming question is, we what is going to be the pattern for our first female president . We are going to have a female president here pretty soon. And how is that dynamic going to change . I would say, the pattern of early responsibility and idealism is so pronounced that i would say that it is a pattern. Dwight eisenhower certainly part of that. But he was a great deal more, we dont know a lot about him. And so we are left to guess about much of the background. All i can say, what came out of abilene in the form of him and others was something very extraordinary. The monument in washington, the eisenhower monument in washington i think captures a portion of that. Theres actually a miniature statue, a smaller statue which resembles the one in abilene, but one of eisenhower as a young boy. I think that is testimony to how important his roots were. And by the way, i was told at the height of the controversies over this thing after the groundbreaking from the eisenhower memorial, former student of mine whos not very prominent pollster said, i get emotional every time i look at the plans for this thing, vegas is going to be the only place and all of washington where a young boy, can look into gaza statue and say, that is me. And so i am inspired to the kinds of achievements that Dwight Eisenhower accomplished in his life. I think that is the meaning of the eisenhower memorial, to be honest. It is where he came from, part of america. And with the heart of america meant to america in the late 20th century, hopefully still going through in america today. All, right we are going to ask one final question, i do apologize, the question i cant get to, but we are a little short on time. So our final question will be, with a great temptations which come from great powers, over many decades, how did dwight d. Eisenhower remain grounded without abusing his powers or abusing his discretion. Well that question right there goes to the heart of one of the key biographical insights about Dwight Eisenhower. In my quick answer is, consider this. I think that professionally, Dwight Eisenhower was somebody who was recognized throughout the army is a very capable officer. 90, 40 1941, theres a new story about the louisiana maneuvers. Fourtime magazine or Something Like that which says that the news that eisenhower proposed was greeted with ayman. And so we had a great deal of pure respect. But he was not known until 1942. So he is turning 52 that year. He spends 52 years of his life and development. It becomes wellknown at the age of 52. If in the age of 82 79, 78 and a half in this 26 years, he leads one of the greatest lives of the 20th century. Prior to that, he is somebody who might have before world war ii, retired to argentina, or someplace like that. He is somebody who, by the time most people are fulfilling and ambition, finds himself in turning into extraordinary responsibility. Having gotten over a lot of the ambition drives you towards at that age. Its so he is a person of extraordinary balance. And wisdom in his writings. That is one of the things that i would recommend to people in the abilene area. And he is a terrific facility there at the library, and these records the belong to the public. And i would recommend going in there and examining the collections, taking advantage of that resource with primary documents in the president ial library. And there is meaningful as but when you release the eisenhower correspondence, you see an extraordinary maturity and i would say that would have been different. I venture to say if that wouldve been different if he had been born. And herbert walker, bush was born, kennedy was born, somebody who was born into an environment where your, you have a very early sense of yourself as something very important. I think that eisenhower probably esteemed himself, this is not a psychology class, but you would have had a sense of himself, but he was not born important. And so he did not spin his maturity or his maturing years nourishing his reputation or defending his reputation, and he was not somebody who had so much to lose. By the way, that distinguishes him from, say paton and mccarthy. Paton and mcarthur both were and world war i people who had great reputations as valiant soldiers. I think to a degree, when you gain that kind of celebrity, and notoriety, i think that you are having curiosity and growth, to some degree is stunted, and it stops, in other words, when she succeeded, its hard to do something else. So i think that they become sort of in time. And mccarthy becomes character tour of themself, and patton becomes the soldier who is leading tanks in the battlefield. Its a fourth and all of which embody qualities that are absolutely essential to world war ii. But it causes them to be observed and known for better or for worse. As sort of a larger than life figure. And i think they there is a certain corruption in. That they come to see themselves as sort of untouchable. Doesnt, and i think they got both of them in trouble. So i would say, leaving aside all of the things that a behavioralist might say about it the white house on our, i do see a consistency of character, but that is the point. Is really the same guy in 1950 3 54, then he is in the 30s when hes bringing up a diary of work from mcarthur, or his jottings in the 1920s, in the diary, which is something that captures him. There are some snapshots of him earlier, and i think he is the same guy. And i think hes allowed to be the same guy. And, suddenly this great responsibility fell upon him. And it no doubt about, it youre somebody who felt equal, and he had been preparing for, it but had not been preparing for it in a way that hes going to abuse power. I think that he viewed both of his great responsibilities as general in this president as sort of trustee ships. And that is what my father said to me once. Reflecting on his fathers presidency. He says all, right hes a trustee, what is wrong with that . Another, words we ought to have somebody who approaches this time to time. We really should. One of the life lessons that i was raised with, raised with was the idea that everything that we enjoy as kids was transitory. We went from duty station to duty station in the army, which is what we are taught about the white House Building that we came to contact with, we saw fabulous things as a kid, and mary would back me up on this. And we were constantly brought back to earth by the grandparents and parents who understood that this was a transitory thing that this was a byproduct of the beauty and that this was what was important. And i think that was the only thing that i can say about that is that he was allowed to be himself for an extended period of time. So when it mattered he was himself. And the rest is history. All, right thank you so. Much wrap this up. Thank you so much, david, for your presentation. It was very informative. I also want you to say thank you to the other alzheimers who have joined us. Thank you for tuning in. American history, tv saturdays on cspan two. Exploring the people and events that tell the american story. Id 8 pm eastern on lectures of history, a look at when polls go bad. With American University professor joseph, campbell who talks about public, opinion election forecasting in some of the most significant polling misses in american politics. 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