019 Name this President

Bob Smith 0:00
Who was this president? He was athletic, smart, attended one of the greatest military academies, masterminded and led the greatest military invasion in history, became president of his country by a landslide, sent troops into the south to desegregate schools, signed the first civil rights legislation since the Civil War, launched NASA on his mission to put man in space, and started America’s largest public works project in history. Who was this president, we’ll explore that today on the off ramp with Bob Smith.

Bob Smith, welcome to the off ramp, a place to slow down to steer clear of crazy and take a side road to sanity. So who was that President of the United States we mentioned, the first US president to send troops into the south to desegregate schools, the first to sign civil rights legislation since the Civil War, the man who launched NASA on its mission to put man in space, and started America’s largest public works project in history. If you said John F. Kennedy, you were wrong. In fact, you’ll be surprised by the answer. The man who did all those things was Dwight Eisenhower. And today, he’s almost a forgotten man in American history. We’ll explore his legacy today on the off ramp, to think suggested this topic for me. First, Marsha and I recently returned from a trip to Central Europe and something very interesting struck me. Everywhere we went tour guide spoke of the great history of their towns and cities history spanning more than 2000 years in most cases, one thing they had in common, all had been conquered and subjugated by the Nazis during the Second World War. And when the subject turned to World War Two, there was a common event they all referenced D Day, the invasion of Europe by the allies, the event that liberated Western civilization from Adolf Hitler. In every city, we visited Nuremberg, Vienna, Salzburg, Budapest, modern history was divided BEFORE and AFTER D DAY, it was the defining event. Now to most of us Americans in the 21st century D Day is something that happened a long, long time ago, something our fathers or grandfathers or great grandfather’s did on distant shores. In Europe, D Day happened, they’re on their soil, and it’s still remembered. That surprised me. Because D Day was 75 years ago, long before many of our tour guides were even born. But to a person, they all knew its significance, because it affected their fathers and mothers, grandparents and great grandparents. BEFORE D DAY there was fear, starvation, and holocaust. AFTER D DAY, there was freedom. The second thing that suggested today’s topic was that Dwight D. Eisenhower not only led but helped plan that D Day. He died 50 years ago this spring. And as he approached death word of his medical condition spread with lightning speed around the world. You can trust me on that, because as a teenager, I captured all of the recordings you’re going to hear on today’s show from radio and TV broadcasts over President

Speaker 1 3:50
Dwight D. Eisenhower will undergo surgery later tonight.

Speaker 2 3:54
To relieve what doctors call an acute intestinal obstruction,

Speaker 3 3:58
obstruction which has not responded satisfactorily to non surgical methods. Doctors say the general and the former first lady accepted the decision to operate with equanimity. Another medical bulletin will be issued after the surgery is completed. Mr. Eisenhower is 78 direct from our newsroom in New York. In color. This is the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.

Speaker 1 4:22
Good evening, because the whole world must know by now. White David Eisenhower 78/34 President of the United States and the Allied commander in World War Two died today. CBS News correspondent Nelson Fenton reports from Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington.

Speaker 4 4:40
The last ray of hope for generalized in our survival started to disappear when doctors at Walter Reed Army Hospital gave a pessimistic early morning bulletin on his condition. It was followed a couple of hours later by a still gloomier report. Then, shortly before 1pm Eastern Time, the hospital notified reporters that had had an announcement to make. By that time, there was little doubt as to what its content would be.

Speaker 5 5:06
Generally the army Dwight David Eisenhower, 34th, President of the United States, died quietly at 1225. This afternoon, after a long and heroic struggle against overwhelming illness.

Bob Smith 5:23
That’s one of my own personal recordings from my teenage years. Whenever some event of great magnitude occurred, one of the things I like to do is capture how right now, the world was talking about it. So I captured a lot of talk surrounding the death of Dwight Eisenhower on March 28 1969. Recently, listening to those recordings, I was touched by how the nation mourn this man, a former president, we tend to forget today that Dwight Eisenhower was an incredibly popular person when he was alive. History often overlooks that when measuring the greatness of leaders, but people in a leaders time, don’t overlook that. Today, people tend to think of the 50s as a time of quiet prosperity. Jobs were plentiful, crises were few, the world was at peace. Not much happened. That’s not true. But even if it were, I’d call that success to presidential terms without chaos or scandal. I’d vote for that in a minute, wouldn’t you listening to these recordings today, a half century later, I’m struck by how the media spoke of Eisenhower in kind, almost reverential tones. It helped that many of the men and women in broadcasting in 1969 were reporters in World War Two. They first met Eisenhower in the flesh during the war, when he was a general, and it had a lasting effect on them. Here’s Eric Severide of CBS, the Dean of network commentators talking with Walter Cronkite,

Speaker 6 6:57
I do remember because he was a memorable man and you always somehow remember the first moments when you make such a person even if he’s not really well known than with me, it was the the army maneuvers in the fall of 1941, before Pearl Harbor. We were first down in Louisiana, it was pretty hot, dusty. And one day a colleague of mine from a news magazine, I think I was bunking with said, you really ought to go up the pike to headquarters and talk to a man named Colonel Eisenhower’s. And he makes more sense about this than anybody this man had found. A month or so later, in North Carolina, we had the second stage in maneuvers. And I remember meeting him. He’d been briefing us, I think, walking out of a tent or barracks. And you never forgot that face. The there was a naturalness about demand. I remember the springy stride, he was maybe 50, then but he was terribly young, and then body and spirit expression. And I remember asking him as we walked along, why don’t we train these tanks out in the western desert or somewhere? Because what good are they going to do in this kind of country? The fighting then was in North Africa, you know, pretty sure to go there. And he seemed delighted with this question, I suppose because he already had the answer. And he said, That’s exactly what we’re doing. It’s such and such a date, they’d already laid on the plans to learn tank strategy, somewhere up in the American desert. And then, of course, it was North Africa. And I must say, what the first thing this gentleman we heard from the streets, saying about his coordinating capacity, was the thing he knew that quality had that made other men want to please in even a Churchill that had held things together. I think that was his great role in the war.

Speaker 1 8:45
Yes, you know, this is the this is the use of charisma in the administrative area, really. And I remember hearing of Eisenhower Well, first in those maneuvers, which I was writing for the United Press, but I never met him there. And I didn’t meet him indeed, until London till after the North African operation. I was down there but gone, never met him there and went back to London, but I started hearing of him, of course, in North Africa. And right away it was this devotion that you found among the men who had been working around him and there was a team spirit that really rocked me yes sort of thing when it for Ike kind of idea.

Speaker 6 9:23
Like in the campaign, if you have to do that simple slogan, I like I know, you know, just likeability and the president we will always underrate in our history books, or our political science textbooks. But whoever devised that knew instinctively what it is it would win for this man. And there never was a credibility gap really, the people at large in this country and that President while he was president, that likability business, that’s what led to the trust. So that that gap never opened. That’s part of the thing that holds the country together. I think, however, a brilliant political scientist he may have not been, he wasn’t a brilliant politician was a great politician by not being a politician, that extraordinary quality that comes along very rarely in public life, I think had a lot to do with the relative common order that period, the

Bob Smith 10:15
greed, Walter Cronkite felt the same way calling Eisenhower an honest man in a dishonest world.

Speaker 1 10:22
Part of his effect, i think on all of us newsman, and must have been on the other generals, was this fact that, that he was different that somehow he towered above the crowd with this simplicity of the man really. And this translated into honesty, truth integrity, you know, yourself from those Minister information briefings wherever we were in the field or whatnot in England and France afterwards that, that the men around Eisenhower, who were really doing the briefing dealing with the press, tough, hard, not very cooperative. And they bring him in for an occasion every once in a while, and suddenly the things they’d been taught on you, and you didn’t believe you certainly believed it. When it came from Mike. There was that quality, you know, when he was president, and he had news conferences every week or more often.

Speaker 6 11:13
And you’d read it, if you read the text of what he said in the press, I can remember one former statesman was on consequence saying this ought not be published. Syntax often didn’t scan, and sometimes you couldn’t figure out what he meant from a given paragraph when it was published verbatim. And yet, if you sat in that meeting, you knew what he meant just by the facial expressions and something in it. That it didn’t translate. When he spoke adlib, that was a definite subject that he thought about is very different than when he tried to give a prepared speech or read a speech. He wasn’t very good at that. But there was a kind of an eloquence where you, you know more than I water the scene with you in general in that cemetery in France. Now, he said, speaking at hockey said exactly the right thing in the right words,

Speaker 1 12:02
to say this was part of the quality of it. He was a man who spoke from his heart reacted with his heart. And it may have been confusing to some who are used to more calculated moves on the part of politicians and leaders, but he had this other quality never confused

Unknown Speaker 12:19
ordinary people.

Bob Smith 12:22
You’re listening to the off ramp with Bob Smith. We’ll be back in just a moment. We return now to the off ramp with Bob Smith. Eisenhower was by most accounts a mild mannered affable man, he could be prone to great anger if things didn’t go well, he masterfully manage the egos of the greatest generals of England, France, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. He carried off the largest invasion in the history of warfare, and he won the war. But he never seemed to preen or pump himself up. And he knew the significant difference between D Day and all the other great invasions in military history. It was not about gaining territory. And then came

Speaker 2 13:11
here, British and our other allies, Americans, to storm these beaches, for one purpose only, not to gain anything for ourselves, not to fulfill any ambitions that America had for conquest. But just to preserve freedom systems of self government. Many 1000s have died for ideals such as these. And here again, in the 20th century, for the second time, Americans tend to come across the ocean to defend those same values. They were cut off in their prime. So every time I come back to these beaches, or when in any day, when I think about that day, I say once more, we must find some way to work to peace to gain an eternal peace for this.

Bob Smith 14:15
D Day was absolutely huge. 5000 ships, 13,000 planes, 160,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen. And that was just the first day. The allies also dug pipelines under the English Channel. So the trucks, tanks, jeeps, and other landing craft would have oil and gas and D Day was more than June 6. Operation Overlord lasted from June to August 1944. In the first 27 days alone, 1.2 million men crossed the English Channel from Great Britain pushing east to defeat Nazi Germany. That’s how big the operation was. And Eisenhower not only headed up planning for it, he led it as well. Even his voice was a weapon of leadership projecting confidence in a special radio announcement broadcast in the pre Dawn darkness to the 1000s of troops waiting in ships and aircraft.

Speaker 7 15:16
Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the eye expeditionary force, you are about to embark upon the Great Crusade toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world on upon you, The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers in arms on other fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world. Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and hardened, he will fight savage. I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory. Good luck. And let us all be seeks the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

Unknown Speaker 16:18
What did you do during all those hours of waiting?

Speaker 2 16:21
That’s the most terrible time for this senior commander. He’s done all that he can do all the planning. And matter of fact, there’s very little more than any commander of an above division command can do anything after once you get started. So the first thing I did, I went over and fortified myself with a lot of coffee and breakfast. Then I began to go up and down the wards. Some of the ships are still starting out. I saw people that had sent them off, and so on. And then finally along about six in the evening, I went over to a field from Witzy airborne, the American airborne, the 100 and first division, and they were getting ready and all camouflaged in their faces blackened and all this and ever they saw me and of course they’d recognize music and I quit worrying generally wouldn’t take care of this thing playing that kind of things was a good feeling.

Speaker 1 17:18
One of the most famous pictures of the day was W talking to the paratroopers in their kind of life. And one of the versions of that visit I think said that as you turned away, this reporter saw a tear in your eye.

Speaker 2 17:37
Well, I don’t know about that it could have been possible because, look, here’s the kind of an operation you start, you know, there are going to be losses along the line. It’s a man didn’t show a bit of emotion that would show that he probably was a little bit inhuman. And goodness knows those fellas meant a lot to me. For

Bob Smith 18:01
many people, a little known fact of World War Two is that Eisenhower personally visited as many of the liberated Nazi concentration camps as he could. So in his words, he could testify firsthand about what he saw, quote, in case they’re ever grew up at home a belief or the assumption that the stories of Nazi brutality were just propaganda. Unquote. Eisenhower ordered the filming and photographing of camps as they were liberated. The US Army Signal Corps recorded approximately 80,000 feet of film, along with still photographs, and famous film director George Stevens, then a colonel in the service assembled 6000 feet of that footage creating a one hour documentary called Nazi concentration camp. Prosecutors used that gruesome film at Nuremberg, to prove Nazi leaders on trial perpetuated crimes against humanity. To this day, Jewish groups credit Eisenhower with ensuring that the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust are well known. Like George Washington leaving the Army after he won the revolution, Dwight Eisenhower left the military to return to civilian life. For a time he was president of Columbia University. Next, the leaders of the nine allied nations of World War Two asked him to be the first leader of NATO, the North American Treaty Organization. Then he answered the call to become President of the United States. If presidents were judged by how popular they were during their tenure in office, Eisenhower would be at the top. He won the presidency two times both in landslide elections 1952 and 1957. But because he wasn’t as charismatic as his successor, John F. Kennedy, he wasn’t a media darling. The press didn’t fall in love with him. Yet his accomplishments dwarf Kennedy’s then many others who followed. Think how poorly Things could have been handled. 50 million men have to come back to the United States and find jobs. Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower his administration’s skillfully got millions out of uniform and back into the workforce. Unemployment was 2% or less during most of Eisenhower’s years in office, Eisenhower negotiated an end to the Korean War, stopping that conflict after just three years. When the Russians sent Sputnik into space and people went crazy. Rather than resorting to some kind of military action. Eisenhower launched NASA has civilian Space Administration and got us started on our way to the moon. Eisenhower formed the Department of Health and Human Services, and named a woman to the post, the second woman in US cabinet history. He also appointed several of America’s greatest Supreme Court justices, William Brennan and Earl Warren. He launched DARPA, the Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency, which eventually gave birth to the internet. Eisenhower’s State Department came up with a communist containment strategy that continued for the next 40 years, and eventually led to the bankruptcy and dismantling of the Soviet Union. He supported and signed the Civil Rights Bill of 1957, the first piece of civil rights legislation since the Civil War, and he sent troops into the south to protect the rights of African Americans the first time since Reconstruction. He also ordered the complete desegregation of the armed forces. There must be no second class citizens in this country, he said, though, he leans conservative Eisenhower continued most of FDR is New Deal and fair deal programs. He even expanded Social Security to 10 million additional Americans by providing unemployment and disability benefits, something today called supplemental security income, and although a man of war he focused on maintaining peace, before the presidency, he was the first man to head up NATO. And during the presidency, he launched an atom’s for Peace program, loaning American uranium to have not nations for peaceful purposes. Finally, Dwight Eisenhower launched the most massive public works project the country has ever undertaken. A project I can guarantee you’ve benefited from, no matter who you are, or where you live in this nation, the Interstate Highway System. Eisenhower got the idea for it when he was a young army officer in the early 1900s and had to cross the country plagued by a miserable hodgepodge of dirt, gravel and poorly paved roads. He foresaw an interconnected highway system, something that could be used in both peace and war. And when he became president, he made sure it happened. That’s a pretty significant record. Despite the fact he isn’t on the tip of the tongue when most people think of great presidents. But Dwight Eisenhower, his imprint is still on the office of president to this day, it was Eisenhower’s idea to use helicopters to get the president to and from the White House. He recommended that new aerospace technology to the Secret Service, and he was the very first president to ride in a helicopter. Eisenhower gave the first televised press conference by a president. He was the first to launch rockets into space from Cape Kennedy and put weather satellites into orbit. And it was Eisenhower who gave the name to the presidential retreat in Maryland, where presidents still go to recharge, to meet foreign leaders, or negotiate peace treaties, Camp David. In true everyman fashion, Dwight Eisenhower named it for his little grandson, David Eisenhower. And when he retired, like the great George Washington, one of the only other generals to become a president, it was to a farm, a farm Eisenhower bought in Pennsylvania. Before he left office in early 1961. He gave a farewell address. Today most Americans know that in that address, he warned of the dangers of the military industrial complex. Until

Speaker 2 24:15
the latest of our world conflicts. The United States had no armaments industry. We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. But

Bob Smith 24:58
it may surprise many Airbus in the 21st century in the era of Google, Facebook, Microsoft and the National Security Agency that Eisenhower also warned of the dangers in the rise of high technology.

Speaker 2 25:12
Akin to and largely responsible for this sweeping changes in our industrial military posture has been the technological revolution during recent decades. Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers, the prospect of domination of the nation scholars by federal employment, Project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded. We must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger, that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific, technological elite.

Bob Smith 26:03
Finally, Eisenhower touched on another subject of 21st century concern our use of the environment.

Speaker 2 26:11
As we peer into societies future, we must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mourn the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage.

Bob Smith 26:36
So in fact, Eisenhower was far more far sighted than many Americans are prone to give him credit for. He died after a long illness on March 28 1969. You may have known very little of what I just told you about Dwight Eisenhower. But 50 years ago, when he died, Americans did. And they mourned what they knew had been a great leader. Perhaps no one could do a better eulogy for Dwight Eisenhower than the late great Walter Cronkite. And in 1969, at the end of a three hour TV special on the former general and former president, he gave this one

Speaker 1 27:14
there was the contradiction of Dwight Eisenhower that made him great. He held the most complex jobs his times could provide. And yet it wasn’t almost incredibly simple man. Simple in the best sense of the word, not given to duplicity, and designing straightforward, devoid of ostentatious, unaffected, natural. Those qualities are rare. They are rare still among those in positions of power, who have had to scheme and fight to get there. But Eisenhower came to leadership and Warren and peace almost despite himself, and was never forced to divest himself of his simple qualities, he probably could not if he had tried. It was those qualities so evident, which inspired men to trust him, which permitted a feud using the former under his command achieved a great military victory. The ladder under his lash, felt the sting of monumental rage. In the love of nation held for Eisenhower might be found the hankerings for a simpler time, a return to virtues lost in the maelstrom of modern life. And this may be the greatest lesson of his historic life. That theories and ideologies and cosmic schemes and grandiose plans are no match for an honest man.

Bob Smith 28:37
I hope you enjoyed this little history lesson. And our look back at a man Many seem to have lost track of Dwight Eisenhower, a man who died 50 years ago this spring. This is Bob Smith. I hope you’ll join us next time when we return with more on the off ramp.

The off ramp with Bob Smith is produced in association with CPL radio and the Cedarburg Public Library Cedarburg, Wisconsin.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai