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First published by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, 2014

Copyright 2014 by Paul Johnson

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING- IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Johnson, Paul.

Eisenhower : a life / Paul Johnson.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

eBook ISBN 978-0-698-14469-9

1. Eisenhower, Dwight D. (Dwight David), 18901969. 2. PresidentsUnited StatesBiography. 3. GeneralsUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.

E836.J63 2014

973.921092dc23

[B] 2014005313

Version_1

D wight David Eisenhower was born on October 14, 1890, the third son, out of a total of seven sons, of David Jacob Eisenhower and Ida Elizabeth Stover. His place of birth was Denison, Texas, but when he was one, his family moved to Abilene, Kansas. This is the place where he grew up and went to school, where he is buried and where all his documents are stored in the splendid Eisenhower Presidential Library.

The Eisenhowers, who were of German origin (the name means iron hewer), had come to what is now the United States in 1741. They were Mennonites, an Anabaptist sect that fled European militarism and practiced the austere virtues of primitive Christianity. The father, David, received 160 acres and $2,000 from his family, but lost it all when his business failed, an event that had a powerful impact on all his boys. He was deeply religious and read the Bible in Greek, but he ruled with a stick. When Ike, as he was always known, was asked at a press conference in July 1954 about his pacifist background, he replied, laughing, There was nothing pacific about my father. His mother, on the other hand, who played the piano and taught the boys hymns, was a passionate pacifist who wept when Ike went away to West Point, though she accepted it as Gods will. His brother Milton recalled: I never saw my mother cry until Ike became a cadet.

Ikes father worked at an Abilene creamery on Mennonite land. The family read the Bible, morning and evening, on their knees. But Ike, as an adult, never belonged to a church until he became president, when he was baptized at the Washington, D.C., National Presbyterian Church, to set an example. But his life was always conducted within highly disciplined channels. As a boy he rose at five a.m. to lay and light the fires. Throughout his adult life his diaries record that he habitually rose at six, and on many days worked till eleven p.m. Seven hours sleep is plenty, he would say. Abilene was a community that encouraged personal industry. A former cow town with a colorful past, it prided itself on being self-policing, having no crime and all its males gainfully employed. Its four thousand inhabitants were Christians of European descent, most of whom voted Republican and conformed to Norman Rockwell patterns.

Ike had blue eyes, light brown hair, an infectious grin, which was his hallmark throughout his life, and a pugnacious and competitive character. He grew to nearly six feet with a weight of 170 pounds, which never varied much. He ate sensibly, drank moderately and got regular exercise. This took the form of football, at which he excelled until a knee injury forced him to switch to coaching. His coaching skills became a huge asset in his military career, and he kept fit by taking up golf, a passion that never left him, even after he achieved a hole in one (February 6, 1968). He always stressed teamwork, as coach, general and president. He was self-assured but never conceitedhumility was a much-prized Mennonite virtue. He loved hunting, fishing and camping, and he organized sporting trips. The Eisenhower boys helped one another to get through college by earning money in turn. Ikes original plan was to study law at the University of Michigan, which had one of the best football teams in the country, but his friend Everett Hazlett, with whom he exchanged letters for half a century (they are published), persuaded him to get a place at the United States Military Academy at West Point, which was free. Two applicants each year were recommended by the local U.S. senator, Joseph Bristow.

The senator held an annual competitive exam for which Ike crammed. It was exactly the kind of challenge he liked, a two-day contest involving eight bright local boys. He got 99 out of 100 in grammar, 94 in algebra, 96 in arithmetic, 90 in spelling, 79 in general history, 73 in U.S. history, 77 in geometry, and 90 in geography, and with an 87.3 average, he won a place. He always liked history and, as a boy, read a great deal of Greek, Roman and American historyand remembered it. One of his presidential speechwriters, the learned Arthur Larson, known as the Republican egghead, recalled Ike correcting him when he referred to Alcibiades the Just. No, Arthur, you mean Aristides the Just. Ike loved reading about Lincoln, and learned passages from his main speeches by heart. From military history he loved to quote Robert E. Lees obiter dicta, especially his key saying: Duty is the most beautiful word in the English language.

Ike worked through the full four-year course at West Point, during what he claimed was the toughest period in its history, just before the United States entered the First World War. The life was spartan, but this was nothing new. Rote learning was the rule. Ike excelled at English and was at the top in essay writing. His talent for coaching was fully exploited and he became more devoted to teamwork, which became a salient part of his philosophy of life. He found the school fascinating: Lees room, Grants room, the field where Custer learned to ride. His first year as a plebe, which involved much hazing by senior cadets, was redeemed by ceremony and bands, which Ike relished. As a senior himself he never hazed plebes. He hated regimentation for its own sake. His only black mark was for smoking, strictly forbidden, which meant he was 125 out of the total intake of 164 under discipline. His overall final position was 61 out of the 164 graduates, of whom 59 eventually became brigadier generals (one star) or higher, two of them generals of the army (five stars). Ike enjoyed West Point and greatly benefited from it. His knee injury ruled out the cavalry, so his first posting, as a second lieutenant, was to the infantry at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, in 1915.