The Eisenhower years; 1; Prologue

The following program is made possible by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Thanks Dan. Thank you Falla. We did not have to try and solve the day of the appointment of General Dwight Eisenhower the supreme commander. I want my Expeditionary Force and he didn't expect to have promotion less rather surprised when he got so James. Same as an airman Expeditionary Force. You're not about to embark upon the great crusade toward which we would like us to work together. And there's one thing that's a big thing. He was kind of the G.I. General Eisenhower informs me that the forces of Germany have surrendered to the United Nations and can do have nothing whatsoever to do with partisan politics. I will never seek political office.

I. Believe they have a certain kind of politics he was an absolute genius. They knew the politics of popularity but it hurt too much. Tonight we greet with prayers of thanksgiving. The official news that Anonymous was signed almost an hour ago in Korea. The single foremost quality of President Eisenhower's public life. Is this element of trust that people had in him. I do solemnly swear. Swept all these things under the rug we postpone decisions and we missed opportunity after opportunity

for greatness. You can never say I never meet decision. I've been ready and willing to listen to our side of an issue and read a book or do something in accordance with that responsibility I have today. Should an executive order directing the use of troops under federal authority to aid in the execution of federal law at Little Rock Arkansas give us the ballot. And we will have to worry the federal government about our basic rights. About. Not wanting to do something about. My Saturn I believe there is real

military significance to the launching of the planet's name. That's Francis Gary Powers and aircraft. It is administration with a period of relative tranquility in our country. President Eisenhower guided our country through a very perilous period but he did it not so much by dynamic leadership as he did by comforting us. I think the most powerful. In the. Eisenhower years a chronicle in sound of the life line Eisenhower by extension Radio-TV at Kansas State University. This is the first of 13 programs dealing with the life of the thirty fourth president

of the United States. As a soldier Dwight Eisenhower commanded the mightiest Armada in history as a president. He guided the nation through eight years of increasingly complex times. And as both soldier and statesman. He was one of the sculptors of the 20th century. And if history has yet to place Eisenhower there is little doubt where the people have already placed him. I think it was a kind of in which the common man can see himself reflected in the colors and shapes of greatness and everybody identifies with a hero and thinks of himself in terms that he was himself in a sense but he was a special kind of hero. He was right. He was one of the. Most important commanders in history the biggest force operation.

And he won with can't say much more friendly warm. He was the best. He sort of generated a feeling of integrity. He also was dedicated to his job. To put it in the simplest terms he was a good man whose goodness was evident to all. Went when Eisenhower was a boy. He was convinced that life was a flat plateau of assigned tasks unchanging he thought in monopoly and in justice. He said he supposed at that time the only peak on his horizon was that of entering the eighth grade or maybe becoming a full fledged member of the high school baseball team. His boyhood dream was not unlike that of most boys growing up in the first part of the century. He described it in his book at ease.

I daydream now and then about the highest and most remote peaks of all to be an engineer. Racing across. The last time I didn't have a. Steam Engine hissing bells ringing once again breaking the record from St. Louis or some other distant mythical place. Certainly I never thought of myself or those about me as makers or participants and any other kind of history what the future was to hold for Dwight Eisenhower was to surpass any of the childhood visions he dared contemplate his destiny would in fact be the classic American dream come true. The small town boy from the heart of America would become one of the world's most widely known renowned and respected leaders. Ike Eisenhower seemed a monument to robust help his well-formed athletic frame spoke of strength and sturdiness the rigors of Westpoint training and his many years as an Army officer had given him an erect and dignified bearing and the appearance of being a large man. No he was only

five feet ten. That picture of health was accented by a ruddy complexion and alert sparkling blue eyes. The resulting impression was of a man of authority a man whose very presence would command attention and respect. Words on a page were never more eloquent than the expressions on Ike's face. He had a remarkable facility for mobilizing all his features jaw mouth eyes eyebrows foreign into a statement of anger surprise boredom perplexity or mirth. Whatever is moot it was clear to read but his most outstanding feature was his grin as broad as the Kansas wheat fields. And it became his trademark to millions around the world. It represented his warmth and regard for humanity. Lots of the so-called unsophisticated people in America they call him on sophisticated they're really that in many ways the strength of this nation. Just

like they don't know anything about his politics. Those are the words of former Vice President Hubert Humphrey who said Twite Eisenhower was every father's idea of a son. Every son's idea of a father and everyone's brother. Those who knew Ike were around him both as a general and as a president said he was privately as he seemed publicly likable affable easy going charming gracious. One of those who knew him well during the war was his personal late now retired Navy Captain Harry butcher who could always be at home at ease when he was just a nice companion who had human thoughts pleasant to be live. And I think this is what I don't think there was a mean bone in his body really I think this is the impression the American public have of it. Please just my author and Eisenhower biographer s Davis Rumsfeld when

you're with Ike that he wished that he meant it you know he wasn't he wasn't funny. He wasn't on the phone you know. Now as far as his personal human relations were concerned I think he was absolutely first rate. Former Vice President Hubert Humphrey he had that with that friendly smile that kind of informal manner about him which endured him to a lot of people and gained him a great deal of respect and affection. I think there was trust affection and respect even beyond admiration I mean I admire you admire sometimes some people but don't particularly like him and I think people respected him and they held him and warm affection and basically in trust I kept a sense of humor that was sometimes whimsical when he was in a clownish mood in his younger years he would entertain friends with a favorite part a trick. Harry butcher recalls. He would stand erect with his head. And body Stepha Gasso wall and he would slowly

fall forward without moving a muscle. But at the last instant just before it seemed he would break his nose on the floor. His strong hands and muscular arms quickly broke the fall. This was in the nature of a crowd pleaser. Ike's preferred entertainment was storytelling and many of his stories he told on himself. This is a real story. You know I say surprise. The ruling came down and he talks about his experience in the ring. These farmer boys around here with a half a dozen of you had taken him take him by his neck and carried him off like that but you know by just talking you know age the way he did he. And well he just had a bump and they just stayed away from mean like they had to play. I came back for my furlough mid year midterm for I was only got one U.S. And I think 13

and they were all waiting I learned off the train when I say enough. We're you been boxing up in West Point you got to take this fellow. Well I didn't want to start Alabang right to my knee. Really wasn't fit to be in a boxing ring. But finally I just had to save face. Agree to do this and this I was I certainly was I was bigger than a boy and I must have outweighed Even at least 20 pounds something that can and then I had a better reach. And the stars turtles clothing store down in the basement. I got down here with this terrible noise and these others and first thing I could no doubt is heavily muscled sticking my shoulders down. I went around and making my muscles as I could I want to impress is

amateur and that's I was came out walking toward me in such a place. He didn't know the first thing about and I reached over and jabbed him in the face of my left and a choice flew up and through in there. I couldn't. He was out. Justice Ike's moods were clearly marked on his countenance so it was Eisenhower's nature stamped with easily discernible characteristics and almost all inspiring

honesty genuine humility and sincerity a complete lack of pretension and self-interest a deep rooted sense of dignity a strong Protestant influence of his upbringing it instilled in Ike the ethic of working hard and getting ahead by one's own efforts. He attributed that to two things first being brought up on the fringes of the front here. We were still only in that place in our development where there was a little bit of the old pioneer you yourselves everybody not only realized that that's a necessity for work but there was an old the resistance to you know you just accepted it as a way of life. This sneer today when they said we were in underprivileged or anything like that we didn't know those words in those days in a way if say you know the town the county or the federal government tried to give us a dollar lie think everybody in the town a bit outrageous or terrible

find it changed but we were still just in the last. Did you hear my say of that era where people were expected to work to take care of themselves. And the second prime influence. Well I think again my parents were successful in instilling you know you might say decent ambition. I'm all about my both my mother and father both are saying well if you want to go to college go there's nothing stopping you. And they refused to do. Even the hint that a lack of money can keep you from going to college if you really want to do it. She said it was over. My mother had numbers saying to sink or swim or survive or perish and things of that kind. And she said it just how how strongly you view as strongly as your desire to do these things and I think and therefore they were constantly trying to show us that if you got anywhere by your own efforts and

how well you do your work whatever you chose always energetic. I tackled everything you did with enthusiasm and dedication. Success in life was his goal. But he didn't seem ambitious for the pinnacle of success he eventually attained. KEN DAVIS I think he was going to play for the French fries he could get everything as true as he used to always say. He said to me did everybody that he made colonel. That was his ambition to make. Permanent right. Even as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe Eisenhower failed to see or perhaps ignored his place in history. His public relations officer at that time Thor Smith recalls. I think we had more of a sense of what place he was going to have in history than he had himself. And I say he had almost a schoolboy's naive about about the whole thing I mean that he he would not accept how important he was

and he would not accept that he was a he was a worldwide figure. Maybe it's maybe it's the army training that did this I mean you know you come up through the ranks and whatnot. But I'm sure that he didn't at that point sense how terribly important he was and how every single thing that he did and said was historical. Outwardly Ike appeared a simple man but like most men he had his quirks of character his paradoxes complexities and weaknesses despite his resoluteness at times he seemed indecisive. During his presidency his critics and occasionally his supporters accused him of inconsistency and vacillation. He was gregarious but sometimes bashful. He was relaxed and easygoing. But now and then displayed a temper that became a legend. Few people saw it but those who did say it was awesome.

And I came self tried very hard to control it and Matter fact I learned to control it from my mother and and the little talk King gave to me. Well I guess when I wasn't over 10 and I didn't of course appreciated until I was probably 35 or 40 it on that Halloween thing. My two older brothers had gotten permission to go up enjoying a little group and I wanted to go along. And my folks decided I was too young and I couldn't do it. So I course I bellowed and did everything I could to get them change your mind. Finally off when my two brothers. This is about the last thing I remember of that instant kill. My dad had me by the collar and I was really getting a tan and I don't mean maybe. And then what he had done he found me his old apple tree

stump an apple tree and personally and I guess I thought the apple tree was to blame and I was there crying that I did as I could and be eating is the apple tree of my fish and they were all bleeding and messy. While questions get through it is to punish Wendy's as in man to man. So I had to bet I went on a half hour later. My mother came in the rooms and she began to talk to me and she used IMS as some Bible verses and then you see but she talked a while and and kind of showed me how when you really get so angry at someone that you couldn't help yourself that you were not hurting them at all they didn't even know it. How could they know it so you're hurting yourself. Well then in the meantime she began to wash my hands and get a little savage on them and wrap them in knots and I think that was around the most important moments of my

life. And because. Sense I want to tell you this many many times but I certainly have tried to keep you on often tolerant and tireless in his efforts to persuade and conciliate. I could be very short tempered when brought problems or decisions he expect others to settle for themselves. Always searching for the simple and straightforward he losed need less detail and what he considered trivial and unnecessary matters. The great respecter of truth. He would scrupulously weed from his speeches those words and phrases that sounded in the least bit contrived. Those promises that were made for effect only. And like most people Ike sometimes got up on the wrong side of the bed on such occasions. So the story goes the White House staff would be alerted by his attire a brown suit signaling foul weather a blue suit fair blue suits were more prevalent than Brown. Eisenhower secretary of Health Education and Welfare Arthur Fleming comments on the Eisenhower

temper things about I've heard people discuss it but I've never had any experience with it and I've never observed it. There was a saying around the White House. When after you pursued a point to the place where the color began to move up in the back of his neck you probably should assume that he had made a decision. Oh I don't know how accurate that observation that was Eisenhower was not a member of any particular church until he became president. Then he joined the Presbyterian Church. Nonetheless he was a religious man. Many of his speeches made reference to the spiritual values and needs of America of her sacred foundations and her moral influence in the world. He was the first president to begin his inaugural address with a prayer and throughout his administration the weekly

cabinet meetings also began with a prayer. Arthur Fleming I always felt that one thing that has to be kept in mind here with his spiritual roots were very deep that you would see reflections of that in the way in which he approach particular kinds of issues. So to have her is major surgery or something for the recovery period. He attended one night a meeting you know leaders from all over the country. That have been brought together to listen to a briefing from General grunter who was then in charge of neato that after General Grant there talked there was a question and answer period and down near the end of the question and answer period. One member of the group said to General Grant or when you think of. A position taken by the Indian government today you

and I forget what the mission was. Don't you feel a little bit frustrated when you consider all of the money that we put into India. In other words the position taken by the Indian government in opposition of some position that we have taken with General Grant responded to the question very well as he always does. But then the chairman turned to the president and said Is there anything you'd like to say and he said Well when I left the White House I promised Mrs. Eisenhower that I wouldn't get involved in any discussion. But he said I would like to comment on that last question. He said that last question. Rest back on two assumptions the first assumption is that a neutral nation is a liability in a world like ours. And he proceeded to explain why a determination was not necessarily a liability and some of the burdens that he would take on the nation

like India were a part of one of our military or political alliances. But then he said also I question Reza back on the assumption that we are giving aid to India in the hope that by so doing we can persuade her to become a part of a military or a political alliance of which we are a part. They said I don't believe that the American people are making resources available for that reason he said. I think that the American people are making these resources available because they feel that they have a obligation a spiritual obligation to share their resources with other peoples in order to help them achieve their highest potential. He said it is possible that countries like India and other countries will begin to realize that this is why we're doing it he said. It is possible that as they realize it they may embrace the values that lead

us to make a contribution of this kind he said if they do then maybe we will start down a pathway that will lead to peace and peace and I don't know of any other way of starting out that kind of way. Well I felt that that expression question really came out of his rather deep seated spiritual background. Much as for any other reason do you honor country. The motto of West Point. It could well have been Ike's personal creed. He was first and foremost an American. His faith lay in the standards and principles of democracy the rights of the individual human dignity self-government peace and prosperity liberty with justice. He dedicated his life to preserving and strengthening those principles. The experience of war taught Eisenhower the necessity of peace. He had been known as the peace

general and would become the peace president. He recognized that the owe pressed people of the world look to America to help free them of the fear and tyranny of war upon assuming the office of president. He pledged his unceasing efforts to the cause of peace with justice for all mankind. In his first inaugural address President Eisenhower outlined the precepts by which he hoped Americans would live. They were the principles that were to guide him the rest of his life. And such a time in history we who are free. A new army this mate is the abiding creed of our fathers it is our faith in the deathless dignity of man are governed by eternal moral. And natural laws. This faith defines our whole view of life. It establishes beyond debate those depths of the create dark that are man's inalienable right and that make

all men equal in His sight in the light of that equality. We know that the big Jew's most cherished by pretty people love of truth pride of work devotion to country all are treasures equally prices in the lives of the most humble and of the most exalted and so each others played an indispensable role in the productivity of our hands our hands in our light is the source of all the strength we can command for both the enrichment of our lives and the winning of the peace. This is the hope that back in this onward in this century of time this is the work that awaits us all to be done with bravery with charity and with prayer to Almighty God. The Eisenhower years is produced by extension Radio-TV at Kansas State

University under a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The producer narrator is Ralph Titus research by Anne Frank original music for the Eisenhower years was composed by Gail Kubik reform by the Kansas State University Chamber Symphony conducted by Luther leavened. Our thanks to the following organizations for materials used in this broadcast. CBS News WCAU radio Philadelphia Metro Media Incorporated and the Eisenhower Presidential Library. Next week. Abilene the formative years. This is Paul the. Good thing. This is the national educational radio network.