Eisenhower's Six Great Decisions


Book Description




How Ike Led


Book Description

How Dwight D. Eisenhower led America through a transformational time—by a DC policy strategist, security expert and his granddaughter. Few people have made decisions as momentous as Eisenhower, nor has one person had to make such a varied range of them. From D-Day to Little Rock, from the Korean War to Cold War crises, from the Red Scare to the Missile Gap controversies, Ike was able to give our country eight years of peace and prosperity by relying on a core set of principles. These were informed by his heritage and upbringing, as well as his strong character and his personal discipline, but he also avoided making himself the center of things. He was a man of judgment, and steadying force. He sought national unity, by pursuing a course he called the "Middle Way" that tried to make winners on both sides of any issue. Ike was a strategic, not an operational leader, who relied on a rigorous pursuit of the facts for decision-making. His talent for envisioning a whole, especially in the context of the long game, and his ability to see causes and various consequences, explains his success as Allied Commander and as President. After making a decision, he made himself accountable for it, recognizing that personal responsibility is the bedrock of sound principles. Susan Eisenhower's How Ike Led shows us not just what a great American did, but why—and what we can learn from him today.




Eisenhower’s Six Great Decisions: Europe, 1944–1945


Book Description

Eisenhower’s Chief of Staff reviews the six turning points of the European war that took the Allies from Normandy to the heart of Germany in only 11 months. War, as in life, turns on decisions taken and opportunities taken; the decisions of General Eisenhower as supreme commander of the Allied effort in Europe shaped the lives of millions of soldiers and tens of millions of civilians. The strain of these decisions was shared with many of the top allied commanders, but few will have understood Eisenhower’s thought processes than his trusted friend, confidante and chief of staff General Walter Bedell “Beetle” Smith. A shrewd and intelligent man in his own right, the “Beetle” would be constantly by Eisenhower’s side as he directed the huge Allied armies against the Wehrmacht across France, Belgium, Holland and finally into Germany itself. He set out to describe the events through the eyes of his friend and superior as they appeared at the time; the six ‘Great Decisions’ that he decided on as the turning points of the conduct of the war were: 1 – The Decision Of The Timing Of Operation Overlord [The Normandy Landings] 2 – How To Break Out Of Normandy Bocage 3 – How To Deal With The Ardennes Counteroffensive [Battle Of The Bulge] 4 – How To Destroy Or Capture All German Forces Against The West Of The Rhine 5 – How To Encircle The Industrial Heartland Of Germany – The Ruhr. 6 – How To End The War. A must read for anyone interested in the Second World War.




Crusade in Europe


Book Description

A classic of World War II literature, an incredibly revealing work that provides a near comprehensive account of the war and brings to life the legendary general and eventual president of the United States. • "Gives the reader true insight into the most difficult part of a commander's life." —The New York Times Five-star General Dwight D. Eisenhower was arguably the single most important military figure of World War II. Crusade in Europe tells the complete story of the war as he planned and executed it. Through Eisenhower's eyes the enormous scope and drama of the war--strategy, battles, moments of great decision--become fully illuminated in all their fateful glory. Penned before his Presidency, this account is deeply human and helped propel him to the highest office. His personal record of the tense first hours after he had issued the order to attack leaves no doubt of his travails and reveals how this great leader handled the ultimate pressure. For historians, his memoir of this world historic period has become an indispensable record of the war and timeless classic.




Eisenhower


Book Description

In his magisterial bestseller "FDR," Smith provided a fresh, modern look at one of the most indelible figures in American history. Now this peerless biographer returns with a new life of Dwight D. Eisenhower that is as full, rich, and revealing as anything ever written about America's 34th president.




Eisenhower


Book Description

The acclaimed biographer presents an intimate and comprehensive portrait of the legendary president and WWII general: “An excellent book.” —The Washington Post Book World Born into hardscrabble poverty in rural Kansas, the son of stern pacifists, Dwight David Eisenhower graduated from high school more likely to teach history than to make it. Yet he went on to become one of America’s most important military leaders. Then, on the wings of victory, the career soldier ascended to the nation’s highest political office. Casting new light on this profound evolution, Carlo D’Este chronicles the unlikely, dramatic rise of the supreme Allied commander. With full access to private papers and letters, D’Este has exposed for the first time the countless myths that have surrounded Eisenhower and his family for over fifty years. In this revealing biography, he identifies the complex and contradictory character behind Ike’s famous grin and air of calm self-assurance.




Ike's Bluff


Book Description

Evan Thomas's startling account of how the underrated Dwight Eisenhower saved the world from nuclear holocaust. Upon assuming the presidency in 1953, Dwight Eisenhower set about to make good on his campaign promise to end the Korean War. Yet while Eisenhower was quickly viewed by many as a doddering lightweight, behind the bland smile and simple speech was a master tactician. To end the hostilities, Eisenhower would take a colossal risk by bluffing that he might use nuclear weapons against the Communist Chinese, while at the same time restraining his generals and advisors who favored the strikes. Ike's gamble was of such magnitude that there could be but two outcomes: thousands of lives saved, or millions of lives lost. A tense, vivid and revisionist account of a president who was then, and still is today, underestimated, Ike's Bluff is history at its most provocative and thrilling.




Decision at Strasbourg


Book Description

Decision at Strasbourg relates the remarkable and largely unknown story of Lt. General Jacob Devers' lost opportunity to launch a bold attack into the heart of Nazi Germany, which may have won the European war in late 1944, six months before Victory-over-Europe (V-E) Day in May 1945.




Eisenhower


Book Description

“A concise portrayal of the commander who served as the chief architect of D-Day.” —Col. Cole C. Kingseed, New York Times–bestselling coauthor of Beyond Band of Brothers American general and thirty-fourth US president Dwight D. Eisenhower was the principal architect of the successful Allied invasion of Europe during World War II, and the subsequent defeat of Nazi Germany. In this biography, military historian John Wukovits explores Eisenhower’s contributions to American warfare. Eisenhower led the assault on the French coast at Normandy and held together the Allied units through the European campaign that followed. The book reveals Eisenhower’s advocacy in the pre-war years of the tank, his friendships with George Patton and Fox Conner, his service in the Philippines with Douglas MacArthur, and his culminating role as supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe. With an introduction by General Wesley Clark, Eisenhower skillfully demonstrates how Dwight Eisenhower’s evolution as a commander, his military doctrine, and his diplomatic skills are of extreme importance in understanding modern warfare. “A portrait of a general who devised and sustained a broad-front strategy that led to Germany’s unconditional surrender, and a man who never took his eyes off the prize.” —The Star-Ledger




You Are the General


Book Description

Examines great military decisions of the twentieth century.