Dwight D. Eisenhower: Mr. Supreme Allied Commander Goes to Washington

Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:

—

This video is brought to you by Manscaped. Keep yourself well-groomed with the Performance Kit from Manscaped. More on them in just a bit.

When scholars rank U.S. presidents, there are four 20th-century names that always break the top 10: FDR, Truman, Teddy Roosevelt, and Dwight Eisenhower. One of the most popular men of this era, Eisenhower had the fortune to lead America through a prolonged economic boom. During his tenure, the middle class drastically expanded, poverty was reduced, and peace and stability reigned. This was the era of television’s first golden age, filled with consumer choice and exciting new technology. When films and shows like “Happy Days” and “Back to the Future” wanted to portray American innocence, they often returned to Eisenhower’s era.

Yet, who really was the man at the center of it all? Who was the president who steered the nation through one of its most iconic decades? Born in modest circumstances in North Texas, Eisenhower grew up fascinated with the military. Joining the army as a young man, he rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces during D-Day. Swept to the presidency on the back of his wartime popularity, he promised an era of optimism. His successes and failures would define an entire generation.

You know how some kids know from a young age exactly what they want to do with their lives? Well, that was Dwight Eisenhower all over. From almost the moment he could read, the future president wanted to be in the military. Born on October 14, 1890, in a modest house in Denison, North Texas, there was nothing in Eisenhower’s background that indicated army material. His father was a blue-collar worker, while his mother was a pacifist who considered war almost as immoral as laziness. For young Eisenhower, this meant a boyhood of prayer and hard work, as well as a strict attitude toward society.

Even when he was president, Eisenhower would blush if he ever accidentally used a curse word in front of a woman. Yet behind this strict religious upbringing and facade of a blue-collar, football-loving boy lurked an ambition that would shape the nation. Whenever he had a moment to spare, Eisenhower devoured books about military history, although he kept it quiet from his mother. It’s not too hard to imagine he already had his heart set on an army career.

The first step in realizing this dream came in 1911. By now living with his family in Kansas, Eisenhower had grown into an athletic, competitive man whose stern discipline masked a volcanic temper. He was also a supremely hard worker. After graduating high school, he made a pact with his brother Edgar to work for two years to pay Edgar’s tuition fees. True to his word, Eisenhower took two jobs to keep Edgar in education, barely giving himself enough time to sleep. But before Edgar could fulfill his side of the bargain, good news came Eisenhower’s way: West Point Military Academy was going to accept him free of charge. For most of the family, this was the first they learned of the young man’s military ambitions. It’s said that his pacifist mother burst into tears, but there was no talking the boy out of it. He enrolled at the academy and promptly settled into being utterly average. That burning ambition of Eisenhower’s hadn’t extended to being a great officer or a great general; he was content to coast by and do the bare minimum required to fulfill his dream of seeing action.

We can see this from his ranking at graduation: 61st out of 164. Solid, but certainly not spectacular. Still, this was nearly enough. In spring of 1917, the USA declared war on Germany. By now married to Mamie Geneva Dowd, whom he had met while stationed in San Antonio, Eisenhower had every reason to hope America’s entry into World War I would prove to be his shot at glory. Even though he was forced to spend the year in charge of a tank training center in Pennsylvania, the army was soon shipping people out by the thousands. In late 1918, Eisenhower finally got the call, but well before he could set out for Europe, history intervened: World War I ended in November 1918. Eisenhower must have been one of the few people upset to see the carnage end just as he was about to get his big opportunity.

Instead, he turned to working with an army buddy named George S. Patton on a series of articles advising the military to invest in tanks for future conflicts. However, rather than being welcomed, the army brass was less receptive to his ideas. They threatened him with court-martial and shunted him off to the Panama Canal Zone, telling him to keep his opinions to himself. Eisenhower could have faded into obscurity then and there had it not been for one man down in Panama: his commanding officer, General Fox Connor, who valued creative thinking. When he heard the younger man’s ideas for the future of warfare, Connor didn’t threaten him with punishment; instead, he pulled some strings and got him into the prestigious Command and General Staff College, where the future of the military was made.

Now, before we go any further with Dwight’s story, let’s have a quick word from today’s video sponsor, Manscaped. If you aren’t familiar, Manscaped is a company aimed specifically at men who understand the value of being well-groomed. Think of them as a hardware store but for your body. Manscaped has this great Performance Package Kit that they’ve sent me. It includes the Lawn Mower 3.0 with skin-safe technology, which is designed to shave sensitive areas safely. It also comes with a variety of other grooming products, including ball deodorant and a nose and ear hair trimmer. Plus, you get a nail kit and two complimentary gifts for a limited time: a travel bag and a pair of anti-chafing boxer briefs. If you want to start looking good from head to toe, you can head to Manscaped.com to get 20% off plus free international shipping and those two free gifts by using the promo code BIO20.

Now, let’s get back to Eisenhower. Once he got into Command and General Staff College, he never looked back. When he graduated in 1926, he was first in his class of 245. From there, it was the Army War College, then traveling with high-ranking generals to gain experience. The biggest challenge was still to come. In 1933, Eisenhower became an aide for Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur. It was a prime posting for a rising star like Eisenhower, a chance to see the most formidable general up close and personal. However, it would be a bumpy ride. Like Eisenhower, MacArthur had a foul temper and an unwillingness to back down. During the six years they worked together, mostly in the Philippines, Eisenhower found himself tearing out what little hair remained as he tried to get MacArthur to listen. Still, the experience taught him a lot and sent him climbing ever further up the ranks.

That meant that Eisenhower was in the perfect place career-wise when war broke out again in Europe. Sent back to the USA in 1940, Eisenhower was promoted to Chief of Staff for the Third Army just in time for the legendary Louisiana Maneuvers. By 1940, the American military was modernizing rapidly in case war came, and everyone needed practice to figure out how to wield these high-powered new fighting machines. General George C. Marshall had his men pick out an empty patch of Louisiana and sent nearly half a million troops down there to war game. Did Eisenhower shine during the maneuvers? Of course he did. Eisenhower’s strategic planning in Louisiana was so impressive that he was promoted straight to Brigadier General just in time, because that December, World War II finally caught up with America. The bombing of Pearl Harbor marked the beginning of Eisenhower’s stratospheric rise through the ranks. Sent to D.C. to work on war plans, he caught the eye of General Marshall, who promoted him to Commander of U.S. Troops in Europe. This was partly due to Eisenhower’s ability, but it was also because he was the sort of person that people trusted.

Remember that political slogan “I Like Ike”? It worked because liking Eisenhower was exactly what people did. Despite his discipline and strict religious background, Dwight Eisenhower was one of those guys you just can’t help but want to be around. He was clever, funny, plain-spoken, but also sharply intelligent and persuasive. As the great British World War II officer Bernard Montgomery put it, he had the power to draw the hearts of men toward him as a magnet attracts metal. He merely had to smile at you, and you would trust him at once. In other words, Eisenhower was basically the military equivalent of the brainy, beautiful prom queen everyone wants to be around. Only instead of a homecoming parade, he got to invade North Africa.

Launched in November 1942, Operation Torch saw the Allies overrun Vichy France’s colonies, triggering a revolution in Algeria and helping to bring the North African campaign to a close. Although Eisenhower’s planning wasn’t perfect and mistakes were made, including the assumption that French colonial forces would welcome them as liberators, he did the job. With North Africa secured, Eisenhower was able to pivot to overseeing the invasion of Sicily, which led to Mussolini being removed from power as Italy collapsed into two warring states—one aligned with the Allies and the other with the Axis. It became clear that the wind was changing direction, and the much-promised invasion of France might now even be possible.

In later life, when he was president, Dwight Eisenhower was asked by his brother Milton to read the commencement address at Penn State. The morning of the big speech, big storms threatened the ceremony. Panicked, Milton asked his brother for advice if the weather turned. In response, Ike merely smiled and said, “Milton, I haven’t worried about the weather since June 6, 1944.” That’s because June 6 was the day Eisenhower oversaw the greatest seaborne invasion in history: D-Day. Promoted to Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force on Christmas Eve 1943, Eisenhower had spent the previous six months liaising in London with Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle to ensure everything went right. There were many ways things could have gone wrong. Because of tidal requirements and the need for a full moon, there were only a few days of any given month when the landings could be pulled off. That meant bad weather could throw not just Eisenhower’s plans but the fate of the whole of Europe into disarray. Originally, Eisenhower had scheduled D-Day for June 5, only to abort when bad weather was predicted. So it was with incredible tension that Eisenhower listened to the forecast for June 6. This was it—the last day that month when conditions would be perfect. Quietly, Eisenhower heard the meteorologist’s predictions for the morning: probably fine with an outside chance of storms. He said the three words that changed the course of the war: “Okay, let’s go.”

That morning of June 6, Eisenhower spoke to the assembled men: “You are about to embark upon the great crusade toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you.” With those words, D-Day began. The landings at Normandy are the stuff of legend and could easily occupy an entire 30-minute or more video of their own. Some 156,000 troops stormed the beaches, backed up by an invasion force numbering 1 million. On June 6 alone, nearly 4,500 Allied soldiers were killed, with another 6,000 plus wounded or missing in the coming weeks. Thousands upon thousands more would die, but it was also the beginning of the end for the Third Reich. That December, with Paris liberated, Eisenhower was made a five-star general. Just months later, Nazi Germany surrendered, ending the war in Europe, and Ike returned home a hero. Yet his reputation wasn’t entirely spotless. In the last days of the European conflict, Eisenhower pulled his men back, allowing the Soviets to capture Berlin. This was what had been agreed at Yalta. Regardless, people back home accused the general of handing the communists a propaganda victory. But while the criticism may have stung, it didn’t derail Ike’s career in the slightest.

That November, with the war in the Pacific also over, Harry Truman promoted Eisenhower to Chief of Staff. Ike had his disagreements with the president; he thought Truman had been a fool to authorize the use of atomic bombs against Japan, arguing it made America look bad. But the two still got on well enough—so well that after Eisenhower stepped back from duty in early 1948, Truman suggested they should run on a joint ticket in that year’s election. It wasn’t just Truman; despite never having voted himself, Eisenhower was now being courted by factions in both parties to run for president. It was clear the public thought he was a shoo-in to win, and he would be—just not yet. Ike turned all election offers down, saying he needed to focus on serving his country. That November, Truman won a shock second term. In the aftermath, the president promoted Eisenhower to Supreme Commander of NATO forces, but 1948’s brief brush with politics wouldn’t be Ike’s last. In just four short years, the general would return to Washington, and this time it would be as Commander-in-Chief.

Harry Truman’s presidency officially ended on January 20, 1953, but really it had come crashing to an end over two years earlier in the summer of 1950. That was the summer the Korean War broke out. The Korean War was as much a kick to Truman’s presidency as Vietnam was to Lyndon Johnson’s or the Iraq War was to George W. Bush’s. The nadir came when Truman relieved Douglas MacArthur of his command, tanking his own popularity back home. Although Truman had now served two terms, the 22nd Amendment had made an exception for him as the sitting president when it came into force in 1951. Legally, he could have run again, but career considerations put paid to that, with no possibility of winning his party’s nomination. Harry Truman agreed to step aside, hoping to create some space for a new generation of Democrats to take the White House. Instead, he threw the door wide open for an Eisenhower landslide.

All through Truman’s second term, Ike had been saying that he wouldn’t run, with all the sincerity of someone who was just desperate to be president. When a group of internationalist Republicans approached him, worried that their party might nominate an isolationist, the NATO commander sensed an opening. In January 1952, Eisenhower announced that he would seek the presidency as a Republican. Despite his massive popularity with the public, getting on a ticket was far from a sure thing. Primaries were different beasts in the mid-20th century, with many delegates chosen by the party. As a result, Eisenhower went into the 1952 convention unsure if the nomination would go to him or the isolationist Robert A. Taft. It’s at this point that a certain Californian senator enters our story. At the convention, Richard Nixon was Eisenhower’s greatest asset, swinging enough delegates behind Ike to take him over the top. In fact, Ike was so certain that Dick Nixon had secured him the nomination that he made the senator his running mate. So, you could totally blame one of America’s best 20th-century presidents for paving the way for one of its absolute worst.

The campaign that fall was a watershed for U.S. politics. 1952 is considered the first time television played a significant role in an election, with the “I Like Ike” jingle becoming a national catchphrase. Although a frustrated Harry Truman tried to sink Eisenhower’s campaign by telling people, “There was a time when I thought he would make a good president; that was my mistake,” there was no doubt he was going to win—especially after Eisenhower made “I will go to Korea” one of his campaign pledges. That November, Ike and Dick won an electoral college landslide, which netted the GOP both chambers of Congress for only the second time since Herbert Hoover’s presidency.

On January 20, 1953, Dwight D. Eisenhower became the 34th president. One of his first acts was to follow through on his campaign promise. By now, the Korean War had been raging for nearly three years, with tens of thousands of American deaths and millions of dead civilians. Eisenhower struck the posture of a peacemaker, but behind the scenes, he tried to drop hints that the U.S. would consider a nuclear attack on North Korea and back at China if peace wasn’t forged. It’s thought unlikely that the threat of nuclear war was the primary factor in the eventual armistice, but it likely played a role.

For the rest of his tenure, Eisenhower’s official policy would be nuclear attacks on any communist nation that threatened America’s allies, a policy that became known as “massive retaliation.” However, the reality of the Cold War would be far more complex than Ike’s policy allowed.

Despite the constant threat of nuclear annihilation, the culture at large remembers the 50s as a great time to be an American, mainly thanks to a shared economic boom. Although a fiscal conservative by nature, Eisenhower was smart enough to know how popular FDR’s New Deal policies remained with the public. While his administration would cut some, like ending price and rent controls, others he left intact or even expanded. Under Eisenhower, social security was increased, the minimum wage went up, low-cost housing was built, and massive public works were undertaken. The biggest of these was undoubtedly the interstate highway program, which provided employment for many people. At the same time, the president refused to lower taxes, saying it would be a waste of time. As a result, his bitterest opposition in Congress wasn’t from Democrats, who retook the House in 1954, but from the right wing of his own party.

Still, Eisenhower’s modern Republicanism worked. Across his two terms, unemployment mostly stayed low, inflation hovered at 2 percent, and families found themselves able to buy things like second cars or newfangled TV sets. While around a fifth of Americans still lived in poverty, that number fell across Ike’s eight years. In short, it was a great time to be alive—with one important caveat: to get the most out of the Eisenhower years, you had to be white.

Although we remember the 1960s as the civil rights era, it was very much a live issue in Eisenhower’s time. The military was desegregating, the Montgomery Bus Boycott was about to kick off, and a charismatic preacher named Martin Luther King Jr. was making waves. Attitudes were changing, including those of Eisenhower himself. Rather than pretend like everything was fine, Ike was aware that his America was an unequal one, and he was deeply conflicted about it. On one hand, he seemed to feel that his administration could and should improve the lives of non-white Americans. On the other hand, he also had huge sympathy for racist whites afraid of equality