Eisenhower: Soldier and President

by Stephen E. Ambrose

Book Overview

Stephen E. Ambrose draws upon extensive sources, an unprecedented degree of scholarship, and numerous interviews with Eisenhower himself to offer the fullest, richest, most objective rendering yet of the soldier who became president.

He gives us a masterly account of the European war theater and Eisenhower's magnificent leadership as Allied Supreme Commander. Ambrose's recounting of Eisenhower's presidency, the first of the Cold War,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671747584
• ISBN13: 9780671747589
• Release Date: October 1991
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 640 Pages
• Weight: 1.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

drawn out

I thought the book was to drawn out. there was a lot of repetitive areas that could have been left out.

An Underrated Figure

Eisenhower is generally regarded as a do-nothing President, one whose only legacy to the country is his face on the discontinued silver dollar and who only left for the presidency a putting green on the White House grounds. Surrounded as he was by two younger and more idealistic men in the history books, Ambrose clearly sees something of value in his eight years in office, and after reading this book, I somewhat agree. However, just to do an Eisenhower biography focusing on the Presidency would be insufficient: as a general, he masterminded Operation Overlord and led the final assault on Germany, in the process defeating German genius Erwin Rommel. The first half or so of the book details his military successes and failures, his relationships with Generals Marshall and MacArthur, and how his remarkable victory came about. However, few deny that Ike was a great military leader. His presidency, on the other hand, is a quite contentious matter to this day, and Ambrose defends his record. He doesn't obfuscate facts, though: Eisenhower declined to take leadership on the single most important issue of his term in office: civil rights. The book makes it very clear that Ike's sympathies were with the southerners in the integration battles, and although his response to the Warren Court's decision to end segregation was far from Jackson's famous one ("John Marshall has made his ruling, now let him enforce it"), he didn't enforce Warren's sweeping proclamation with much vigor. In fact, for several years, he didn't enforce it at all. It took outright defiance for him to act, which he ultimately did. The book claims that Eisenhower's nomination of Earl Warren as Chief Justice was something that he always approved of, even if he had differences with the great Chief, which would be a real revelation if true, since he famously referred to Warren as "the biggest damned-fool mistake I ever made." In spite of Ike's reticence to rigorously enforce desegregation, he did appoint Warren and William Brennan to the Court, both of whom would at least help his legacy on this issue. Eisenhower's presidency was extremely secretive, perhaps just as much as Nixon's (and the current Bush's), but he took the constitutionally murky step of using executive privilege to try to shut down, indirectly, the McCarthyist fear machine. Ambrose also rightly admonishes Ike for failing to denounce the demagogue himself. Also, using the CIA to incite rebellion and assassinate foreign leaders was unprecedented, although, like executive privilege, he was not the chief abuser of these extra-legal powers (LBJ did more with the CIA, and for executive privilege, you know who). However, Ambrose points out many of his successes also: he was the only President of the 20th century (aside from Clinton) to preside over two full terms of peace and prosperity, and one of an even smaller group that left office with a popularity rating higher than when he entered (also, incidentally, like Clinton). It is i

Surprising objectivity by an Eisenhower admirer

As a young historian, Stephen Ambrose met with General Eisenhower, on numerous occasions, at Eisenhower's Gettysburg, PA home. If you ever heard the late Mr. Ambrose interviewed, you would detect his unbounded affection for the former President. Yet, in writing this biography, Ambrose was surprisingly objective about Eisenhower. He even went so far as to decry Eisenhower's silence on Civil Rights issues as almost "criminal." Unlike detracters of Eisenhower (see Tom Wicker's short biography, for example), Ambrose gives a balanced assesment of Eisenhower's presidency. Ambrose also covers Eisenhower's miliatary career and his career between WWII and his assuming the presidency, Ambrose sees Eisenhower's greatest success as having avoided nuclear war in the most dangerous decade of the twentieth century. In Indochina, the French who were trying to protect their empire were about to fall at Dien Bien Phu and there was tremendous pressure for the United States to get involved. Eisenhower correctly observed that Americans would not want to go back to southeast Asia a year after leaving Korea. There was a subtle pressure, however, to launch a nuclear strike. There had been the same pressure in Korea and there was more such pressure after the fall of Dien Bien Phu. In all, Ambrose cites at least five instances where nuclear strikes were a real possibility. Eisenhower steered clear of all such pressures. Eisenhower was concerned about the arms race and he resisted pressure from both Democrats and Republicans to engage in an unabated production of bombs and missles, despite Democratic allegations of a "missle gap." One of his great disappointmemts was his inability to enter into an arms control treaty with the Soviet Union. Such a treaty seemed possible but, when an American U2 spy plane was shot down over Russia, all hopes were dashed. Eisenhower often used jumbled syntax but, generally, this was a ruse so that he could confuse reporters and, therefore, straddle an issue. In fact, he was very precise in the way he spoke. He managed to keep his distance from McCarthy without formally denouncing him. However, in perhaps his most shameful moment, when Eisenhower made a campaign speech in McCarthy's home state of Wisconsin, he excised a defense of General Marshall who McCarthy had attacted as disloyal. Eisenhower regretted having done this but, earlier in the campaign, in a different venue, at least he did give a spirited defense of Marshall. Significantly, in Wicker's biogrophy, which I earlier mentioned, Wicker makes no mention of the earlier defense of Marshall. As I said before, Ambrose is fair; he exposes the warts but, he also raises points in Eisenhower's defense when there is such a negative issue raised. Eisenhower was far from a perfect President. He certainly enforced the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision, most notably in Little Rock when he sent in troops to force the integration of schools. However, he didn't really speak ou

A True Leader at America's Calling

Stephen Ambrose's portrayal of Eisenhower as both soldier and president is a grand tribute to one of America's greatest war and peacetime leaders.Though Ambrose views Ike in a very positive light he is willing to be critical of his choices not to engage the Civil Rights debates of the 1950s and not take a firm stand in regards to retaining or dumping Nixon as VP in 1956.Eisenhower aimed to please and find compromise. It is striking how his style remained the same throughout the war and into his presidency. Though Ike was often viewed as a compromiser, Ambrose illustrates that Ike kept his options open at all times and thought out each major decision. There has been no recent president more willing to think outside the box then Ike when it came to foreign policy affairs and the drive to limit the nuclear stockpiles of both the US and USSR as the Cold War began.Ambrose again adds to the rich American tradition of the time with this book. It is an easy read and logically put together. I highly recommend this book on Ike, I have a great respect for a leader I knew little about prior to reading this novel. An A+.

Ambrose's labor of love

Dwight Eisenhower helped make Stephen Ambrose's career as a historian after reading the author's biography of the obscure Henry Halleck. Ambrose repays the debt in spades with this well written authoritative account of Eisenhower's life. This is history writing at its most readable. Ambrose portrays Ike as a genuine American hero, but does not ignore the negative, such as his suspected affair during World War. Most importantly, this is a book for readers who do not want to get bogged down in the minutia surrounding every event in Eisenhower's life. What you get is a good overview, detailed enough to give a good portrait of the man behind the legend.